Another damn Toyota thread...

[Phantom 309]

It's a slow night around the house so I thought I'd start a thread on the 89 yota pickup I've been working on this summer. I'm a ways into this truck but I'll get it caught up to the current over the next couple of days.

First the back story..........

I've wheeled my old CJ5 for the last five years or so and it served me pretty well. It's pretty low tech by todays standards but actually has a pretty solid parts list and always did a little better than it looked like it should.

Anyway, early this spring I spun a bearing and scarred up the crank pretty good (apparantly you can't run it on its side for a long time). Rebuild time. I figured it would be a good time to address the things I still didn't like about the jeep. Mainly a longer wheelbase (from 98") and ditching the carb.
PartsBreaker kept pointing out the obvious to me...that a yota would solve all those problems and I wouldn't have to build rig (I like driving, I don't like building all that much.)
I've always been a Jeep guy but after some thought I agreed to consider it.

A couple month later I came across this little gem....:haha:

 

[Phantom 309]

It was pretty embarassing looking. The kid that had it had rolled it and got a DUI so I got it for a fair price. It's actually a decent start. It has alot of the standard yota gear....duals, 5.29's, Detroit rear, 63" Chevs and some other Trail Gear garb. There was some pretty.....ummm...let's say...."intersting" work done on it. My favorite was the Ubolt welded to the diff armor.

Not to mention all the great black pipe parts. Hey it's as good as tubing at a fraction of the cost, right?:looser:

The plan is (was) to just turn it into a light wheeler that I can use to take my 6 year old daughter on some camping trips. First order of business is to get it alot lower, get a cage, and swap my ARB and chromos over from the Jeep.

Huge thanks to Partsbreaker for always letting me use his tools and shop. I probably wouldn't even still be in this hobby.

First order of business was to strip of all the old pipe work and flatbed.

 

[Phantom 309]

:redneck:Next up was the cage. I need something that can withstand a pretty good roll because I crash alot.

The the problem was that I didn't want an exo. No offense to anyone, it's just not really my thing. PB kept telling me that theres's just not enough room inside a yota cab to get the cage I wanted.
After looking at some other in cab "kit" cages I realized that he was right. The only obvious thing we could do was to cut the top of the cab off.

I suck at fabwork so we hauled the rig out to PB's where he could do the bending.

 

[Phantom 309]

I picked up a few sticks of 1.75" .120 DOM. (I ended up mixing in a couple of pieces of HREW near the end when I was running low, but 95% and all of the main structure were done with the DOM)


I knew the look that I wanted, I just didn't know how to explain it or accomplish it. After a week of me changing my mind back and forth on things, PB got sick of listening me and bent up the main hoops while I was gone. It might be hard to picture now but the lines were exactley what I had in mind. I also told him that I wanted the dash bar to be tight. Not some big, goofy ass straight piece of tube.

Well he got it tight to the dash alright. It follows the dash curves perfect. Definetly one of my favorite parts of this cage.

 

[PUO-BANNED]

I sabotaged the bearings in the jeep knowin full and well you would buy this toilet :fawkdancesmiley:

I'm out before the troll police get me :redneck:

 

[dirtygoat]

I sabotaged the bearings in the jeep knowin full and well you would buy this toilet :fawkdancesmiley:

I'm out before the troll police get me :redneck:

You're the Sarg...

They can't get you...:hi:

 

[Phantom 309]

I sabotaged the bearings in the jeep

Don't worry. It's just an exhaust leak.:flipoff:

 

[Phantom 309]

The A and B pillars hit the cab floor over top of the body mounts so I used the body bolts to go through the footpads, tieing it to the frame. I'll beef up the frame mounts later. The bolts that don't go through the frame mount are tied together underneath with one large plate per pad. I build gussets to spread the load over the pads. I'll round the corners of the pad before I weld them in.

 

[THE PUNISHER1]

this rig is turning out to be way more then I expected ( in a good way )

 

[Phantom 309]

Windshield bars went in. I used some 1.5" .140 wall that we had laying around. We made a small plate across the top, under the windshield frame so I could still run a dome light. It should also help keep the middle of the frame in shape when it rolls.

Had to cut out all of the factory seat mounts to fit the seat cage in there low enough.

 

[Jokenring]

I'm diggin the convertible look. Are you going to run a soft or custom hard top?

 

[Phantom 309]

Finished up the seat cage. The sets were just wide enough that trying to bend around the rear tunnel wasn't going to work. I didn't have any 1.5" so we just notched the tunnel and tacked it back to the tube.

New seats I won these thing a couple of years ago at the swap meet on $4 worth of raffle tickets They didn't fit the seat cage in my jeep so I'm stoked to finally get to use them.

 

[Phantom 309]

I'm diggin the convertible look. Are you going to run a soft or custom hard top?

Thanks. It looks kind goofy right now but it gets better. I just gotta get of my ass and get the rest of the pics up.

Partsbreaker has a cousin that's an upholsterer and he's gonna stitch me up a soft top for the winter. I'm planning on putting 10G on part of top above the pass and driver so I may not end up running the top much anyway.

 

[Phantom 309]

I didn't really want to run the chev leaves in the back and PB had a set of new coilovers on the shelf so I traded him a BCI pack for them (I work at a lumberyard.) They're Ranchos. Not my first choice but I couldn't pass up the deal.

I really don't want a truggy type rig. For some reason I just like full bodied rigs with wrinkled sheet metal so I'm gonna try to keep the frame and run a bed.


Picked one up from a buddy that backhalved his truck. It's already bobbed and has a pretty nice bedcover on it. Should come in handy for strapping camping gear or (hopefully) dead animals on.

I don't know if I'll end up using it but it already has a mount under it for mounting my ViAir.

 

[PUO-BANNED]

when Pf Chang gets around to posting more pics of this beauty I think you guys will like the stance of the rig. Slung low on 37s

 

[Phantom 309]

Slapped 3rd gen rears on the front with the bottom two leaves from an XJ rear. Hard to tell from the pic but it knocked a lil' over 4" out of the height (with 37's vs the 35's it came with.) 19" to the belly, 24" to the frame with aired up tires. I'd like a little lower but probably shouldn't without a tummy tuck.

Set the bed on to see if we cut the cab off in the right spot....

...added the spreader bars across the top. Originally we were looking for an X brace but that would have raised the cage up farther than I wanted (I didn't want a bar directly above my head unless it was a ways above it.) The sections above the driver and pass will get sheeted with 10 guage. We'll get some triangulation up there with some tube gussets.

 

[NotSoPC]

I really like the way that looks with the top cut off:awesomework:

 

[boardbysled]

Looks good.:awesomework:

Are you going to put any bars on the B-pillar to keep it from collapsing sideways?

 

[hwcurtice]

Just curious, with all that tube, are you planning on helmets or padding or both?
Head dents suck...

Even with enough clearance, you can never be too careful, right?

 

[Phantom 309]

Are you going to put any bars on the B-pillar to keep it from collapsing sideways?

For sure!

Just curious, with all that tube, are you planning on helmets or padding or both?
Head dents suck...

So far everything is far enough away that my dome can't hit it if I'm wearing my shoulder straps. I am going (at least try) to start wearing a helmet on the rocks or real sketchy lines. I learned my lesson last year when I rolled PUO's truggy....with my old lady in it....without PUO knowing I had his rig. Anyway, I wasn't harnessed in (lap only) and knocked myself out on the tube.


PUO didn't find out until he logged on the next day and saw the pics:haha:
He was not happy..........