Haha, right on man. Nice work so far. Keep it up.

 

Thanks man! i'm not gonna lie, i'm enjoying the body work portion of this project, but i'm ready to get the small block built and shoved in the engine bay. My original plans, from page 1, was a Small block chevy 350, well that has changed, to a 383 stroker.. couldn't help myself..

 

lookin good!

if you not using dropped spindles the upper balljoints will bind before laying out on the 19's.

it will cause the slight up down when jumping on it but won't let it drop.. you can pie cut the uppers and it will lay assuming that the tires clear the firewall

 

hey man! thanks for that bit of information, I thought about the ball joints binding and took a quick look after I was jumping on the bumper, but I didn't necessarily think about the ball joint at first, I just glanced for metal on metal contact but didn't see any, but i will definitely look at that next time i'm out there. Drop spindles has been something i have been thinking about lately, i have considered the pro's and con's of it, and due to the fact it will not raise back up to stock ride height has kinda put me on the fence about it. Although, it may be just what i need to accomplish this project. It should also alleviate some of the stress placed on the bags if i can drop the frame to the ground without having to completely collapse the control arm system.

 

to me the biggest pro of the drop spindle is it allows the lower control arm to sit a little closer to parallel to the ground laid out. that gives more room for the bag to be put closer to the pivot point, which will get more lift

also i've always had to trim the lower control arm near the big bolt. on the u-shaped end, inside of the u part will usually hit the engine x-member mount.

 

hmm. i guess from a leverage stand point it will allow it to sit closer. I just hate that this is my first bagged truck project, like most "first" projects, when it is all said and done i will probably be able to make a nice little list of things i wish i would not have done, or should have done for project efficiency and cost efficiency. Also, i'm used to building Honda's, so i have to get used to the idea that when i drop the vehicle i'm not gonna get this wicked negative camber like i will on a car that uses a MacPherson suspension as opposed to a torsion bar. It's a whole new ballgame to me, but i seem to like it more.

 

lol, switch to 79-83 control arms with no drop spindles and you'll have some wicked negative camber lol



79-83 clip with no spindles on 18's

 

no thank you, i prefer not to have the negative camber

 

Nothing too special this evening, but i went out, jacked the truck up, pulled the "triangulated stabilizer bars" from the front out. I'm not sure what to call these on the Toyota suspension setup. On Honda's with front wheel drive they are considered traction bars, but they look to serve the purpose as adjusting the toe in as far as i can tell.
For now they are out of the way, and tonight i took some extra crappy pictures.

Anyways, here is the beast, in its cave..





Got them out..


Lowered the truck back down, and yes Burnzya you were correct, the ball joint is getting into a bind, and this is indeed putting a damper on my endeavor to lay that frame... So some drop spindles are soon to be in my future.



Also noticing that my steering shaft is getting very close to the upper control arm.



Getting pretty close though, its a matter of going 1.5-2" more inches to lay cross members/bracing.

 

Nice job man, its coming along fast. Keep it up

 

i believe the proper name for the bars is "strut rod" on a toy.

and you'll need to keep them unless you go with tubular arms or triangulate the lowers

 

Thanks for the input guys, it's always appreciated!

 

Ok, so this was a pretty sweet week for the truck!
First of all.. Craigslist is the shat!
I posted some truck parts i don't need anymore on there (bed,fenders,engine,tranny) well just randomly this guy contacts me and ask if i by any chance have the rear end still from my truck and if i wanna sell it.. So i told him yes, because i been wanting to upgrade to a ford 8.8 but was not looking to at the moment, it was on the to do list for later on.. so i told the guy yes i will sell it to him for $120, so he came and picked it up.. so that took me 0% effort to sell it, which was awesome.

So here is the truck with no rear end.








Still not laid out, but hey we're getting there! Cross member needs modification and i need to finish hacking off a leaf spring bracket on the passenger side.. and notch it, but its fun to look out without a rear end on it.

Anyways, sold the rear end on Wednesday, went back on good ole craigylist and posted that i needed a 94-98 gt rear end.. by Friday night i picked up this beauty for $100, $20 less than i sold my 375k mile toyota rear end for! so i got a twenty left over after this deal, freakin sweet! If you haven't noticed i'm kinda excited about that deal. ha

It's a Mustang GT 8.8 rear end from a 96 model, posi, disc brakes, has the factory linkage brackets on it, and previous owner already installed 373 gears, all this for only a bill!







Sorry about the horribly blurry pics.. i will try to do a better job in the future. i was kinda in a rush.. no excuse though.

 

lookin good and a sweet deal on the rear!

will it need to be narrowed? and that round x member in front of the trans member can be taken off permanently.

 

Well, i did not personally do any measuring yet, but from what i have read, the stock toyota rear is 57" and some change, and the ford rear is 59" and some.. so we're looking at 1" wider on each side. With my 19's on the Toyota rear the wheels came very close to the frame, when the leafs were still installed i could stand on the frame and it would push down and touch the wheel, so the new rear end will help me out on wheel/frame clearance. I really hope it does not need to be narrowed, if it comes to that i will do it, or trade for my buddy's fox body rear end, which is "think" is 57", but i doubt i will trade for that.

I'm hoping that with my 19's on that rear end, and having the 4wd bed, that i will clear and not rub. I haven't measured the wheel offset yet, but they tucked in really hard on my friends 350z, so they have a high positive offset and hopefully that will benefit me in this situation. Also about the bolt on cross member, yes i noticed its just bolted on, and it will be removed soon, i just haven't taken the time to do so yet. Next I'm just going to clean the rear end up some, and place it under the rear of the truck.. i made a boo boo and didn't mark the position of the rear end in relation to the frame when the stock one was there, but the bolt in bump stops that we removed should get me pretty close. I will probably just get some straps and strap the rear end to the frame. This is so i can roll it around when needed just temporarily. I'm hoping that in December i can order my c-notches and bags, but we will see.

 

Ok, the pics are really bothering me, i'm going to have to go back and take some better quality pics. Also, my current adjusted costs for this project (adjusted with money made from parts) is only $487 invested.

 

Ok, went out and pulled the Rear Mustang GT brake calipers with brackets and rotors, as well as my factory Toyota Calipers and brackets from the front.



Yota on the left, mustang rears on the right



Gonna take the rotors (as well as my fronts once i pull them) and have them turned. Then going to disassemble the calipers, have my friend powder coat them, then rebuild them and back on they go. I'm thinking once the truck is done i want a high gloss deep gray paint job, with a dark cherry powder coated frame. But i think the calipers will be a 20% or high gloss, have not decided yet. Anyways these pics are mainly in reference to be a "before and after".
I figure since i have the wheels and brake hardware off the front, i may as well do the ball joint flip i saw in a write-up by SD YOTA. Pics from that coming soon.

 

Went out to work on the truck tonight. The goal was just to pull the front calipers and do the ball joint flip. Well i didn't realize you had to pull all of the hub to get the calipers off.. well not big deal, off they came! I took some step by step pictures just for anyone who may not know how to remove these. For hubs that have not been removed ever, they came off pretty easy. Here goes..

First i broke loose the 14mm head bolts that held the hub to the rotor. Since i did not have any brakes i used a screw driver to brace the rotor against the concrete.



Then, using a flat head screw driver and a hammer, i gently broke the seal of the center shield off. It just pry's off, mine had lots of gunky oil/dirt build up.



Behind it is a cotter pin, remove, then a washer/shield of some sort. It easily comes off.




Then i thought this nut would be tight like a cv axle nut. I put a 32 mm socked over it, but the nut is about a 30mm, but it still turn it by hand. It was very loose.




Then with one gentle tap using a hammer, an open face bearing will fall out of the assembly.




Then the rotor/hub comes right off.




Then i pried the two loose using a pry bar.



Then i went for the ball joint flip, It was very easy. Just had to use a little force to break the bolts loose from their home for the last 25 years or so.

 

whats wrong with neg camber? everyone wants to do away with it when building i like it.. lol

 

Not really sure what you are referring to, but i'm not a fan of it. My integra has about 3.5" of drop and about 3-4 degree's of negative camber. In a car like that where wheel hop is an issue you want as much tire on the ground for traction as possible. I guess i'm just tired of tires with the inside tread worn down the the belts every time i turn around.
I know the whole Hellaflush, dumped out and tire stretching is popular.. but not something i want.