1988 Toyota Custom Cab Build

loukoff

loukoff

Member
I've been using my 1979 Subaru Brat for a local expedition build for a while but I wanted a rig I can take 5 people out in, carry more gear and be more capable off-road with more comfort than the brat.

Here's some pictures of the Brat. Fully rebuilt all new bushings, suspension, brakes, custom lift with a 1.8l engine and dual range tranny swap with a cam forged high comp pistons ported and polished and a rare twin carb manifold setup. The brat has been great for local trips but just wasn't going to cut it for longer trips.

End of the trail by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Raised by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Winter Drive by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

I decided to start looking for a new rig and ended up really liking the old toyota custom cabs, partially because of the look but mostly because they could fit lots of gear and still be decently capable to get me to the backcountry while having decent long distance comfort. I looked for about a year all over the country to find one that fit my price point and seemed worth building until I found one out in Denver CO. There were two custom cabs for sale in Denver at the time so I booked a flight and went to check them out and ended up buying one and driving it 15 hours straight back home to make it back for meniscus repair surgery the next day, luckily the custom cab did great and got me home in time for my operation without a hitch.

The custom cab isn't perfect and has 200k miles but it should get me a pretty good budget overland build so I can spend my money to get out and explore rather than make payments on something newer. The truck is equipped with the 3vze which seems relatively healthy for its age, but it will be getting a full tune up once I'm recovered from my surgery and can walk and drive again. In the meantime I've been acquiring some parts to make it a bit more capable off road and hopefully make it ride like a dream. A previous owner had removed the factory rear bench seat so I found a Cadillac SRX 2nd row bench that I'll be putting in the back and I also ended up finding a deal on an old Downey Long Travel Kit which will be getting all new bushings and rebuilt cv's in the near future so I can get it installed along with a chevy 63" spring swap in the rear. Also on the list is resealing the front diff and probably an entire drivetrain fluids change along with greasing all the double-cardan joints.

Some pictures of the current state of the Custom Cab

CC Profile by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

CC Front by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

CC Rear Area by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

CC Cabin by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

The Long Travel kit

downey lt kit 4 by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

I have been recovering from my knee surgery and haven't been able to work on it much yet but I did get a fire extinguisher installed on the factory roll cage in the rear section using a scosche mount.

Fire ext by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr
 
loukoff

loukoff

Member
borison said:
Keeping the Brat? Of course you are, can’t let that little suby go.
Click to expand...
Yeah that one is here to stay, I love it too much. It's my daily driver in the dry months, I got it when I was in high school and spent 4 years restoring it and modifying it, going to lots of junkyards to find parts and lots of hours metalforming new panels to fix the rust. Got a build thread for it here if you care to check it out https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/152617-1979-brat-dual-carb-ea81-swap/
 
bkg

bkg

Explorer
I’ve always found these custom cabs fascinating...

Are you using the Rancho/Downey kit with the rancho upper arms and u-joint based front shafts? Brings back tons of memories!

Looking forward to this build.

EDIT: never mind. For some reason the pick of the LT didn’t pop up earlier.
 
loukoff

loukoff

Member
bkg said:
I’ve always found these custom cabs fascinating...

Are you using the Rancho/Downey kit with the rancho upper arms and u-joint based front shafts? Brings back tons of memories!

Looking forward to this build.

EDIT: never mind. For some reason the pick of the LT didn’t pop up earlier.
Click to expand...
Its the grand slam kit using porsche inner cv joints
 
B

borison

Adventurer
Old suby and weird old Toyota sound good to me. I checked out your brat build, very nice. Good balance of repair and restoration. I’ll look forward to seeing the Toyota relived.
 
loukoff

loukoff

Member
Finally recovered enough from knee surgery where I could start getting some stuff done on the custom cab. Was having some issues with bucking and stumbling and surging idle so I did a lot of diagnosis and it ended up being a combination of a few things. First the cooling system need some rehabing, the thermostat was stuck closed and I figured since the radiator 200k on it I'd put in a new aluminum radiator. This seemed to help quite a bit with stumbling, but only when it was warmed up. Next thing was the air flow meter and distributor testing out of spec which the combination of replacing with a junkyard afm and a new distributor solved my issues. For peace of mind I also did the fuel filter and put in a new fuel pump. Did mostly new vacuum lines and deleted the egr system to just simplify everything and have less things that could go wrong.

Unfortunately and fortunately I didn't finish replacing the fuel pump in one day. Because of this I had the truck parked in my alley which gets lots of unwanted traffic. When I went out the next morning at 7am to finish the job I was greeted by my truck at the end of the alley and two squad cars called in by my neighbors with the doors open and radio and speakers ripped out but luckily it wasn't running so they weren't able to make off with the truck. I could only imagine they were able to get it running long enough to drive it the 50 feet or so to the end of the alley were it died and they were forced to ditch it. Needless to say ive stepped up my security with the steering wheel club lock and never park in the alley unless the truck isn't running.

Aftermath of the theft
Theft by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

But on a happier note I've since taken it out on a few camping and exploration trips to some state forests and recreation areas and its been performing pretty good.

Foothills State Forest
State Forest by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Old Grade by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Cuyuna State Recreation Area
Cuyuna Camp by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Near the foot hills state forest there's an off road park that I've gone to play a few times as well. This last weekend about 30 minutes after going through the trails including a few deeper puddles (and right before it was going to roll over to 200k miles) the truck stalled out and decided to not want to turn back on. This left me scratching my head and cursing because there wasn't much traffic or cell service where I was so I did some poking around and found a blown fuse on the charging circuit, not having a spare I was able to jump the fuse with a paper clip and get back on the trail.

Blown Fuse by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Spider Lake by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

After driving around for a few thousand miles with the ebay knock off recaros or recarnos as I like to call them I decided to ditch the idea of putting the cadillac bench in the back and to use it for the front seat instead. Haven't got it totally mounted yet but here's how it should sit.

Bench Seat by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Next thing up on the list is to finish up the seat install, pull the cracked windshield and fix some small rust spots on the passenger side, have a new windshield installed, then it's time for 31s and long travel install.
 
F

flecker

Member
I know a lot of people complained about the 3.slow, but I really enjoyed the few I have had! Averaged about 18mpg in my 89 4runner and the thing consistently ran like a champ. Never let me down in all the years I owned them. Always like the custom cabs too! Subscribbled!
 
JasonRedwood

JasonRedwood

Explorer
Loving that you are building out a Custom Cab.
The V6 in my 89 4runner was great when I had it. Noticed a big difference when I installed a set of down headers on it just before I sold it.
 
loukoff

loukoff

Member
This week I installed new speakers and radio to replace the ones that were stolen a few months back. I had to remake some trim pieces to hold the tweeters in place using some thin aluminum stock that I found laying around the house. Used a large metal shear to cut them out and hole saw to drill out a spot for the tweeter.

Alum Stock by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Tweeter trim by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

P tw by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

D Speakers by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

One of my side windows was missing the latch and was only being held in by a small screw. Was able to find a new window latch because the custom cab used rv parts for the windows and rubber seals which are all still being made.

Latch prefix by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Latch fix by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

Also got some new Milestar Patagonia 31/10.5R15 tires mounted including a full size spare

31 side by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

31 front by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

I pulled the windshield today to get any rust holes fixed and primed before getting the new windshield which should be installed later this week. Luckily I didn't find any holes just one small spot of pitting.

Windshield pulled by Luke Hoffman, on Flickr

I'm getting ready to head out to Utah next week to do the Rimrocker Trail and some parts of the Utah Traverse as well as visit some National Parks, ancient dwellings and rock art sites in Southern Utah, Colorado and maybe Arizona. This week I'm planning to build a simple raised platform in the back so I can store rubbermaid bins with my gear underneath and still have a place to sleep as well as a few other things to make the truck a little more liveable for the two week trip.
 
O

Oldcarnut

Adventurer
Nice looking rides you have there. Love the Subie with the lift and the Custom Cab. Just picked up an 87 myself and plan to use it as a family runner n light wheeler.
 
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