I'm starting a new thread in the Build up/projects forum for my 1984 2wd regular cab 22r. This is my first project car - I'm also working on a 1978 Suzuki gs550.

Here's a link to that thread: (http://www.toyotaminis.com/forum/introduce-yourself-3/84-2wd-daily-driver-long-term-project-17267/)

I bought this car in June for $1100 from an artist in South Lake Union with 190,000 miles on it and 50,000 on the rebuilt engine. Starts up no problem, no smoke, no leaks, but ugly as hell. I've been driving it 40 miles a day for my summer internship and so far there have been no real problems. I meant to get rid of Little Turd after the summer but I've become too attached so I'll park it for the school year and spiff it up a bit.

What I hope to accomplish during the school year:
-Weber carb
-Street cams (maybe)
-15x8 rims w/ lopro tires
-Blocks for the leaf springs
-Ball joint flip & crank the torsion bars in the front
-Replace disc brake rotors and rebuild calipers
-Fix leaking rear pass. drum brake
-Rebuild damaged front end
-New tailgate
-New lights all around
-Bucket seats
-Fix rust damage in bed

In the long term, I hope to keep this truck running until I can afford a nice car (like... 10 years lol) at which point I might decide to get rid of it, or go nuts and put in a turbo'd 2jz and IRS and make it a drift truck. We'll have to see about that.

I got in a wreck in Eastern Washington last weekend which taco'd the radiator but luckily, there are a million junk yards with lifted Toyota trucks over there so I was able to get a tow from a friendly redneck and fix it enough to drive it back home.

So far I haven't done much work at all - besides the new radiator I have also replaced the thermostat, and clutch master and slave cylinders.



I was planning on throwing out the front drum brakes and switch them for disc's so I could stop better but when I took off the wheel I found a surprise! That's one thing I can check off my to do list. Unfortunately, both driver & passenger side rotors are scraping a little so I am going to replace them and rebuild the calipers.



I also took off the nasty black steel bumper that came with the truck, thing weighed like 50 pounds... Another nice surprise though, the license plate lights on the truck both work (both of the lights on the bumper were busted). I think I'll keep it around in case I want to tow something. When I took off the bed liner, I found two rust holes behind the wheel wells, the passenger side one is about the size of a half dollar and the driver's side one is smaller than a dime. Oh well, I guess that's the end of my good luck.




I really have to find new wheels. Both front tires were this bald and rotting, I put the spare on the drivers side because that one was a little worse but it's not very safe to drive with the current tire situation, there's one snow tire, one new Hankook, one newish toyo (the spare), and one ancient bald radial.

I want LT lowered a bit for a more aggressive stance and handling, but I don't care to scrape the ground or anything. A few inches should do it plus new shock absorbers.



Today I started to undo the rigged wiring that the PO had done for the stereo, which included taking the positive lead from the cig lighter for the stereo and (presumably) when that circuit blew, stealing the one for the dash clock. Now the clock doesn't work, the cig lighter doesn't work, and the lights behind the a/c controls don't work. The dome light is also busted, but upon inspection it looks like just the circuit breaker has blown, I'll get a new one and see if that fixes it.


I guess the priority for this truck is to make it safer, then faster, then pretty. The front end has been bashed around a few times so the radiator mounts are all bent up and the hood doesn't latch right and the battery is at a little bit of an angle.

One question for you guys out there, is there a circuit breaker that controls the backup lights - the white ones in the back that turn on when you put it in reverse? They have never worked for me, I thought a sensor might be busted so I took the shroud off the shifter but theres nothing down there. A continuity test on the brake light housing shows that there's no current going through that bulb.

 

I was able to get the dome light working after scraping off years of brown crud from the switch and replacing the fuse.



Between dodging the rain and waiting impatiently for my new bank cards to arrive I flipped the ball joints w/ help from SD Yota's tutorial. It's a real pain not being able to buy anything haha so for now I'm stuck doing free mods. This is how the Turd sits now, planning on dropping the back 4" with blocks also.



If I can't figure the reverse lights out, I'll just hardwire a switch in the cab to manually turn them on and off. Which wouldn't be the end of the world, just kindof a PITA.

 

There should be a harness on the transmission, passenger side by the starter area. If its all plugged in then look for broken wires or the reverse light switch is bad.

 

Thanks Beyondspexj, I'll check for that this afternoon. I also came across a set of Jeep rims that I'm trying to get a hold of



Eventually I want to get some 0 offset Alcoa style steel rims but for now these will do if I can get them and they fit.

 

Those wheels look quite familiar

 

That's the look I'm going for! what's your tire set up? I was thinking of using 185/45 since I assume the rims are 15x7

 

Here's some pics of the rust holes in the bed. I'm new to rust living in Seattle lol - is this too much to weld up?



I'm looking for a 4x4 bed for the thicker flare look, but I also like the look & utility of the outer rim hooks on mine. I looked it up for a bit on google, but it looks like the style of bed with the hooks is the earlier body style (70's-83), and the thicker 4x4 flares are only on beds with no rim or hooks (84-). I won't die if they never made the bed I'm looking for, I've seen some cool hella rolled old beds out like this one


Just wondering if they exist. Post pics of your beds if you've got em thanks!

 

Those tires are 205/65 and the rims are 15x7.. Don't know if they will rub on your truck but I don't have any problems and I'm lowered 3"

I can get more pics of them if you want..

 

Haha that would be awesome, I think I'll go with 205 too after reading more about stretched tires, I'm more about driving my truck than looking at it lol. The back isn't lowered at all right now, I was gonna wait and see how the rims fit and what they look like on the truck before I start tossing money at it

 

I think they look pretty good, I kind of have a gold and green theme going..



I like the look of this setup, not stretched but not super swamper balloon looking..


I my set for $40 with a set of sand tires.. eventually ill sell the tires to recoupe some money

 

Damn what a deal! I think I'm gonna go for a flat white/black look because I'm cheap and lazy. You're truck is sweet its too bad to read about the blue one

 

Thanks! and ya, basically we know who took it so were trying to make their life a living hell. besides I like my green one better!

 

I got the Jeep Grand Cherokee honeycomb style rims, came with Kumho 235/75's which were too big to fit on the front without rubbing all over the place so I'm gonna give Tire House LLC on Aurora a try.

Right now the truck is face down ass up with the big tires on the back. I demolished the fan belt on the freeway on the way back home from buying the rims, but a long walk and $5 later I was back on track.

I was able to get under the truck finally since I don't have a jack at school, and was able to get the reverse lights working. You can also see the Jeep rims flush with the fender wall.


For anyone else with this problem, the sensor is on the driver's side of the transmission right in the middle near the torsion bar cross member. The black wires come from the sensor and the red with blue stripe wire goes to the reverse lights.

 

I got those Jeep rims, but the front 235/75's rubbed all over the place so I'm riding face down ass up with the little steelies on the front until I can get smaller tires.


I don't know if anyone's heard my pee sprayer idea, but I got the prototype working in the cab also. Basically it will be a second wiper sprayer reservoir in the engine bay that aims straight up in the air and will spray all over whoever is tailgating me on the freeway right now it's inside the cab hooked up to the cigarette lighter and the hose is routed out the window and under the hood with a binder clip at the end for some pressure. It shoots like 6' over the roof and looks hilarious going down the road spraying water straight up. In the future I'm gonna get a sticker that says 'yeah... its pee' because little turd DGAF

 

have alot of work ahead

 

Did some work this weekend,

I replaced the shifter seat and bushing with ones from lcengineering, but when I was at the junkyard looking for a new shifter (the old shifter retainer washer would pop out and not allow me to shift from 1/2 to 3/4 or 5/r) I left the old one there with the new bushing on it

Shifting is still much improved with just a new shifter seat.

While I was at the junkyard I also picked up bucket seats from a 91 Integra for $35 each. They were an easy swap, the rails are about 3" shorter than the stock bench seat so you have to drill a hole in the floor of the cab. I decided the stock mounting location was too high so I mounted the front and back rail mounts to the floor so I sit about an inch lower - I just had to bend the tabs with pliers so they were flat. With the bolstered seats and cleaner shifting, it's like driving a whole new car.

I also got new tires put on the Jeep rims, 205/50r15. They make the wheel gap look really stupid now, so I'm gonna crank the torsions and pull the middle leaf springs this weekend.


There's about a 3" gap up front and 6" in back between the tire and the fenders. Looks a little hoopty

 

Im running the same seats. Love em!

 

"Lower meee...."

 

Update: loosened the torsion bars, took out the middle leaf, and flipped the overload leaf. The stance is way better now but its sitting on the front bump stops so it freaking sucks to drive on the bumpy roads around here

 

Where in seattle are you?