The First Gen Pickup/Hilux (79-83) Thread

Dwill817

Toyota Fanatic!
I may bob mine and just rock a black strip where it's welded back together. Even though I like it to be cleaner than that.

Carolina82 (Max-4 Yota, hard to call you anything else after seeing your name so much on TW): could you tell a noticeable difference going from 33s to 35s? Can't decide which ones I wanna go with.
 
I may bob mine and just rock a black strip where it's welded back together. Even though I like it to be cleaner than that.

Carolina82 (Max-4 Yota, hard to call you anything else after seeing your name so much on TW): could you tell a noticeable difference going from 33s to 35s? Can't decide which ones I wanna go with.


My original plan was to stick with stock gears and 33's but I trashed the pinion bearing after dragging the flange on a few rocks. Only reason I upgraded to 35's was I found a good deal on the complete set and a spooled 5.29 3rd, so I went ahead and did it.

As far as how the truck does off-road the only difference I can tell is not dragging the diff's on rocks. It performs about the same. On the street it rides better than it did on 33's, but that could be because the 33's were about 8yrs old and were a bit hard. If I were to do it again I probably would've stuck with 33's. It made trails around here a little more challenging. Although I have went over much more difficult stuff since I have 35's.

The bob job is a little rougher in person. The bed was trashed and is very rusty so it was hard to make it clean. I eventually would like to either find a rust free bed or make a tube bed to maximize space with the propane tank. But that'll be down the road. Next plan is build a winch bumper.
 

Dwill817

Toyota Fanatic!
Got my lift on:

Before:
imagejpg1.jpg


After:
imagejpg2.jpg
 
Here is my '83 Toy. The first pic is a "before" pic, the second is a shot of the custom metal work I am doing to it, the last pic is of the body just before it was sent off to the blasters. I should get it back next week then it's off to paint.

I am building the truck to be a rock crawler but with major street manners. I fit a 3RZ in it with a Tacoma trans and dual cases, it's going to get a 3 link and Diamond axle up front, and I am doing all the little things one has wanted over the years, but has never been able to pull off. Like the removable trans tunnel. I am also considering lengthening the wheelbase to fit a long bed, but then I'll have the short bed overhang so it looks nice.





 

Dwill817

Toyota Fanatic!
12" and believe me you need them. I'm very unhappy with the front shackle angle though; so I'm about to remove the top two leafs and replace them with the top two from my rear pack, add a drop hanger, and redrill the shackle 1" shorter. That should also help with the really steep front driveshaft angle. Using a drop drag link for steering as of now. I will upgrade to highsteer as money allows. I also suggest redrilling your spring perch to move your axle 1" forward. You'll need all the firewall clearance you can get at full stuff.

For the rear I used 89-95 rear springs and a 6" shackle (bought a long one so I can redrill if I need to). I had to move the rear hanger (no biggie) back 2.5". I can tell these springs are for a little heavier truck, but I also dont have a rear bumper, tailgate, or spare. They flex pretty well when the weight shifts back there. I triangulated 12" shocks in the rear. Like this: /\. And installed a u-bolt flip kit.

Oh, and I built a square front D-shaft yesterday. The 1" forward axle and extra travel popped the stock one right out.

That's about all I got. Good luck and don't be afraid to attack that front axle with a cut off wheel or torch. I cut off the sway bar tabs and that panhard bracket thingy. While you've got the axle out, go ahead and fab up some knuckle ball gussets and gusset your steering stops. I forgot to and now I'm having to grind off new paint and weld under the truck upside down. No bueno.

Gonna be getting 5.29s and 35s as soon as I can afford them.
 

shmabs

Explorer
My 1980 Pickup the day after I bought it. Changing life circumstances mandated it's sale, but good lord do i miss that truck. I still see it around town every once in a while...




Mike
 

4runnerteq

Explorer
Man i love those little truck. They are so cool. If i had a place and the funds id buy up every one i cld find. Early 90s trucks too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dwill817

Toyota Fanatic!
Well, the post I made day before yesterday got me feeling pretty motivated so I decided I was gonna try and fix the bad front shackle angle.

I pulled the entire front suspension and steering. Removed the top two leafs from the front OME pack and replaced them with the top two leafs from my old rear springs. Put it all back together and under the truck in just over 2 hours! (I was impressed how fast I did it).

The new angle is much better now, and could angle stand to be a little more straight up and down. I'll fix that and the 3/4" loss of height with a drop front hanger. I'd like to bring my axle another 1/2" forward for the 35s I wanna put on.

Next things for me are high steer, drop front hanger, 5.29s, and 35s. $$$$$

Also want to gusset my axle and put some diff armor on. Saw a guy crack his this weekend.
 

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