Toy-Cra-Ze's 87' xtra cab build

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

We'll it's been about a year ago that I got this truck it had a bad motor that blew the head gasket so I bought a new motor to put in and been driving and upgrading things little by little as I go. Specs below.

87' Toyota xtra cab
Rebuilt 22re
Ball joint spacer
AAL in the back
Procomp 6000 shocks (want to get different)
Stock 4.10 gears
33x10.5 km2
Tuffy lock box console
Husky floor liners
20lb Co2 tank for OBA
Uniden pc68xl

Future mods:
Fix speedo cable (need help on here how to do it)
New tool box
E-locker rear
Lock rite front (wish for ARB)
Build another bumper or trail gear low pro
Maybe relentless DIY high clearance rear.
Regear to 4.88
New vinyl inside the cab
Dynamat
20" light bar on bumper and 40" on roof.
Possibly fab a headache rack
And whatever else comes along the way.


We'll here's where it's came since the last year. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks
Here's a picture when I first got it running and went and filled it up with gas.

Here's when I first got my new tires 31x10.5 GY duratracs and built my sliders out of square tuning.

Took it out on some adventures and got some sweet pics

Started building a bumper in school out of 3/16" plate. I've always liked plate bumpers better than tube. I ended up selling this bumper cause it was kinda trial and error cause it was my first time and it didn't have it mounted to the truck very good so I couldn't have ever put a winch on it without it ripping off the truck. I kinda designed it around a arb sorta.

Then I ended up selling the 31's to my dad with only about 10k on them and got a set of 4 33x10.5 from summit for $477 out the door I got a crazy good deal on them!!

Then got a BJ spacer for the front and AAL for the back to lift it about 3"

Then had to switch out my rims cause the others my upper a-arm was rubbing on the tire after the lift was on.

Then I've been driving it for close to a month now with the lift and I love it. I would like to get some smoother riding shocks cause it rides good I just would like it to ride a little better. Here's a few pictures when I've taken it out to the desert on some adventures and also some poser flex shots. I think it flexes pretty we'll for being ifs.

 

[Dwill817]

It's always nice when people represent the 80's pickups!

Keep it up brother! That's a good looking truck! Love the taller skinnys

 

[djtc]

Great truck!

 

[4Rescue]

Good lookin old truck... IMO those are the BEST looking body's Toyota ever made, and while I'm really excited to get my 95 build on the road, I'm gonna miss looking out over that angular, lovely looking hood...

Builds coming along nicely aye. Good call swapping to the 33x10.50 KM2's, but if you haven;t already, get ready for a re-gear... My BFG AT's (same size) sapped a LOT of power from my 22RE truck and worst of all the mileage went through the floor. Not sure where in the US/World you are, but here in the NW with our grades and hilly terrain I saw a BIG difference in performance with the 4:10's and the 33's. Your P/U is slightly lighter then my 89 4Runner, but as soon as you can do the re-gear do it (IMO it should be done as the next mod before anything else) cause you'll love your truck even more with the 33's and the 4.88's (although were I keeping.

On a suspension note: When time comes I can't stress enough how much of an improvement OME rear leafs are over an AAL in the stock packs. They hold loads brilliantly, improve handling and most of all, while they have WAY more load capacity, they don't ride like a buck-board (I have a 1st Gen 4Runner so I have the added weight of the rear shell and with the AAL my trucks rear suspension was... "jittery" to say the least) and will flex VERY well when called upon. I love my OME springs so much I swapped my 95 4Runner Project to OME leaves out back (from the coil'd sus) and am running matching OME leaves up front with the SAS as well. Unless I were to be building a linked/coil'd crawler chassis, I'm not sure I'll ever run anything BUT OME suspensions at this point in my life.

Again, lovely old truck mate, glad to see someone else keeping these legendary older rigs on the road. Nothing against all the new trucks everyone's building, but I'll personally always prefer the older, "still a Hilux" trucks we got over anything more modern. With the ease of engine swaps these days (and the fact that the 22RE is still such a great, legendary little engine), I just love seeing these older trucks out there still putting smiles on our faces. Plus, as I said before, I don't think Toyotas ever had a truck that looked as good as the older ones (esp. the ext. cab's like yours... only thing better would be an ROW quad cab of the same vintage but sadly we got the shaft on thoser trucks too here in N.America) so... I'm a committed "older iron" fan, be it old Cruisers or Hiluxes, I just prefer the "classics" to the new. After spending all my personal "Toyota Time" in either 70-series Cruisers (which feel very much like older Hiluxes inside, read: simple and "made for work not appearance"), an FJ45 P/U, any number of older (88 being the newest one we had) Hiluxes on the station in Australia or my own 1st gen here back in the US, my 95 4Runner feels like a downright "modern truck" inside by comparison... Cup-holders!!!! Man I feel like I stepped UP in the world aye hahahahaha

Keep up the good work mate, I can't wait to see what else you get into with her... I'm subscribing to this build.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

Thanks man!! I appreciate all the comments!! Yes I do love the older body styles and one day would like to swap a 3.4 in the truck.

I have noticed a huge difference in 33s vs. 31s as far as gears and power I do want to get 4.88s soon but I would like to find them out of an auto 4runner. I'm not sure what I'm getting as far as mileage because my speedo doesn't work (working on trying to fix it) but I do think it has dropped. Some parts of the 33s I do like better like out on the highway I can cruise easier at 70-75mph and not have as high of rpms. I definitely want to regear though cause I live in Nor Cal and there's a lot of hills on the highway.

Yes I eventually want to ditch the AAL and get one springs. I just want to make sure when I do it that it rides super smooth. Right now I have some procomp shocks and they seem to be a little rough riding. I would like to upgrade to maybe rancho 9000's as they are adjustable or maybe some bilsteins, I've also thought about OME shocks I just don't know which are the best out of the 3. I'm am too a big fan on OME.

I have grown up around toyotas so I have always liked them a lot! I always wanted a truck like this with the xtra-cab and a efi motor. Mine is the sr5 too so it has a/c and the sr5 cluster, it has all the nice features beside a sunroof.

Thanks for sub'ing I've been looking around on here for a while just haven't started a thread. I'll go check out your build for sure!

Thanks, Conner

 

[4Rescue]

No worries mate, sub. well deserved aye!!! Like I said I love seeing these older trucks getting the love they deserve, and I have always loved those Xtra Cabs that extra little bit as well. Your truck looks perfect on the 33x10.50's BTW... I think they're the perfect tire size for "non monster" Toyotas, they just look perfect with the big wheel wells and all that clearance they have stock let alone with a slight lift..

I know what you mean about power though (bummer about the speedo, I'll look for the link but there was a gerat write up somewhere... maybe 4Crawler.com???), it's not like the 22RE can;t do it, but it take a lot more "rowing" through the gears with the 4:10's... The RIDE got So much better with the 33's cause they just roll over everything, but I also kinda "lost" any real use of 5th gear in most places aye. Good luck finding those gears man, if I come across any I'll shoot you a PM or a link cause after going through the hunt myself, I'm back to re-gearing my 81 SFA to 4:10's for my Diesel build which is a much easier thing to find for a reasonable price. Seeing what you've done with the truck though, I'm sure you'll find them here soon enough aye.

Be warned, my "build" has gotten a bit stagnant... sourcing parts from Japan and various other changes combined with life and a busy work schedule have conspired to make it a slow going deal, BUT, hopefully now that I have my axle and it's all stripped/ready to get slung under the truck, it'll pick up speed exponentially as once I hack the front end out it's gonna need to get an axle and an engine before it moves anywhere...

Cheers

Dave

 

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

We'll haven't done much to the truck but I did paint the wheels black a little bit ago.

They don't look black in these pictures because here they are pretty dusty from driving. I also was at the local wrecking yard getting a fan shroud for my truck and a guy asked me about my if I was maybe looking for a bumper and I said yeah maybe what kind is it? And he said it's a aussie bull bar I think. Here it is on his 4runner

I went and looked at it last night the guy wants $300 for it and won't really come down on the price so I said I would sleep on it and think about it but I think I'm going to go and get it today. I couldn't really believe it when I went and looked at it I thought it was going to be a big steel type tjm or arb bumper but the whole bumper is aluminum and weighs like maybe 40lbs! It doesn't have a spot for a winch but I think a winch box like trail gear makes could easily be put inside it with some modifications. It has a spot for the fair lead to sit though. And the side pieces bolt on as you can see in this picture

That's the only part I'm not to sure about but they did seem pretty stout to me. Only other thing I really wondered about is how it would hold up to hitting a deer or something on the highway cause where I live there are a lot of deer and a lot get hit on the highway and that's what I want the bumper for mostly is just cheap insurance so I don't totally ruin the truck from hitting a deer. I'll post pictures up later today if I end up buying it.


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[Greenyota]

That's a good deal especially since it's an aluminium bumper! I love older Toyota trucks like this one.

 

[v_man]

Are those first picks up on Santiago Peak , down in Southern Ca?

 

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

Are those first picks up on Santiago Peak , down in Southern Ca?

No they are from Nor Cal in Lassen county.

We'll I ended up buying the bumper and here it is on the truck. I didn't like the aluminum silver look so I painted it black.

I'll get more pictures up later. Thanks for the replies!


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[ADVW/Liam]

Good looking truck! I like the graphics on those old trucks. I've got a 2010 Tacoma, and thought about adding some of those old school graphics. What size is that tubing for the sliders? It looks like 1.5 or 2 inch, but I was referring to the gage, or wall thickness.

Thanks.

 

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

Thanks man! I think old school graphics on a new tacoma would look good too! The sliders are 2x2" square tubing. They are .095" wall I wanted .120 but at the time all they had in stock was the .095" and I wanted to build them right away. I haven't had any problems with them but on a tacoma I would definitely run .120" wall for sure.


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[ADVW/Liam]

Yeah, I don't have a pipe bender, and I was leaning towards square anyway... Thanks for the tip on the .120 wall.

 

[Toy-Cra-Ze]

Yeah I was in the same situation with not having a tubing bender. And no problem man anytime.


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[4Rescue]

Trucks coming along nicely aye... I like the new Bumper you got for her too, and I like it painted black as well. Fits the truck nicely. Good work man!!!

Cheers

Dave