Hello Toyota Minis! I am a new member here and I am newly the proud owner of a 1977 longbed SR5. I'm excited to get this truck to my liking! A couple questions if any of you can provide some insight: 1. I want to try to get the outside cleaned up the best I can while keeping as much of that patina look as possible. Any tips on getting this thing cleaned up? 2. Lowering: I'd like to lower it 3" or so. So far in my research, guys are doing mighty max coils in the front and a 3" block in the rear with the over load spring flipped. Any insight on best methods and parts used for lowering? 3. Wheels: What size wheel are you guys going with for a little bit of poke and stance. Thanks all in advance!
Welcome! Nice find! To keep as much of that 'look' just hand wash it. I e seen guys add clear coats so that it 'locks' the patina and prevents it from getting worse. For wheel fitment, mess around with sites like willtheyfit.com sure someone else will chime in in regards to suspension modss
Welcome, nice truck! for that patina maybe look into the boiled linseed oil coating. To me gloss clear coating over patina looks really bad. I looked it up for preserving original paint on my tailgate. Scrub it all down gently with a blue scotch pad or fine steel wool and CLR solution to get rid of the funk and expose the paint. You can even buff some stuff and do rust converter if you want in some spots. Then wipe it all down with BLO thinned about 50% with mineral spirits, so it’s thinner and not drying tacky. There are other things people use aside from BLO, such as even Fluid Film I believe. Lowering process is basically what you mentioned with the coils and spacers. I bought the parts but never did it. I still dunno if I want mine lower honestly, since I still drive mine off pavement on occasion Wheel offset stuff I can’t really help with sorry. good luck with your truck!