I have had this truck for a couple months now. Just adding this thread to Yotatech now, so the first part will appear new, although it is not.

I went yesterday to look at a local 4x4 truck I found on Craig's List. Turns out it is a 1 family, 2nd owner truck. It needs some mechanical, mainly radiator flush, thermostat. The body has been rattle canned a metallic blue and is rough in a few places. The interior needs a little TLC, but not bad overall. The bumpers are hammered too.

The good news is that everything is still stock. No holes cut in the dash or doors. Everything is still original, which of course, is what I like. I should be able to get any parts fairly easily locally.

I am going to pick it up sometime today. I will post some pictures later. ;D

I am not really sure what the plans for this one are going to be. It needs some bumpers, dash pad, a few interior pieces, hood, fender and a few other things. I found a couple of holes in the bed, so i may use a different two handled bed I have off of my 2WD to replace it. The original bed looks really nice under the plywood, but was used to load wood and is pretty beat up otherwise. I'm not sure how hard it would be to take apart both beds and weld one perfect bed with the single handle tailgate back together.

I have most of what I need to get it fixed up as far as parts go. The radiator, thermostat and most likely the water pump are going to be first on the list to get replaced.

I do sort of like the retro canopy that came on it. Most likely been on it since the truck was new.

The rims that are on the truck are pretty badly rusted. They are stock Toyota, but from post 84: the center cap for the rear has the Toyota name instaed of the "T" logo. I got underneath it and the original rims were base model white, without spokes. I will the rims on it for now as the tires are like new. Maybe later back to stock or even better, nice alloy rims.

The truck is amazingly stock. It even has the original hoses and part numbers on the radiator. I am surprised it has made it this long.

Original miles at about 173K

Here are a couple of starter pictures.













It even has the original jack and a full set of tools in it





This was very interesting to me too. The middle seat belt shows the name of what I think is one of the companies that did some of the conversion Toyota trucks. I will have to check on this later.



I found this in the jack tool bag. any one have any idea what it is or what it is used for? It is stamped with Toyota motors, but no part number. It has two "C" clips, one inside and one outside, with a threaded shaft. The middle shaft is hollow.

 

A few weeks ago I removed the seat cover and found that the sea was in good repair on the passenger side, but not so much on the drivers side. i have a freind that is going to send me a center console to replace the missing one and I found an intact bench seat at the junk yard for original fabric. More on this later, but here is the seat as it is now.



Here is the bench seat i found at the junk yard for replacement fabric. The color and stitching pattern is exactly the same. The passenger side will work great for fixing my original drivers side.



I removed the wheels and tires that were on the truck and installed this stock set that I got off CL.




This part is from this last weekend. I finally got something done on it.


So after finally finding a single latch SB bed, I decided to get to work on removing the old one. 9 out of 10 bolts sheared off in the process. That isnt too big of an issue since the blue bed is going to scrap after I get everything I want off of it.

I gave the canopy away and sold the tailgate, so this is what I started with yesterday.



I got the flares removed, wiring pulled down, which will need to be replaced or repaired as the harness has been soldered back together on one side.





Once the bed was off, it was time to get to grinding out the rest of the braces that were added to the original bumper.








Lots of grinding, cutting and two hours later..................





The passenger side is really bent. If I can't straighten it, I will have to get a piece to weld in from another frame. Bummer I scrapped the 2WD frame I had. It would have had the spare tire brace and a nice replacement piece.

 

See all of the picturs to date here:

http://s356.photobucket.com/albums/o...0Toyota%204x4/

 

I believe that is an adapter for greasing the U-joints. I could be wrong though. Very cool though to find all the original dealer supplied tools and jack.

 

Nice find! Reminds me of my first 83' I had several years back, only not quite as stock as yours...look forward to see what you've got instore for this one!

 

Yes, Stokesdead is correct. It is for greasing the u-joints. Your old bed is better than the one on my truck.

 

you guys need to see this bed in person..it is pretty well gone

 

I believe that is an adapter for greasing the U-joints. I could be wrong though. Very cool though to find all the original dealer supplied tools and jack.

I think someone called it a Zurk or Zirk? I was happy to find it still in the tools for sure.

Yes the bed only appears to be good looking from the outside. Go to the photo bucket link...I think I took a couple of the holes in it. I am certainly looking forward to getting it cleaned up and on the road. Has to be on a budget with the way things are these days, better to do it right than not at all.

 

I had a little time yesterday, so I decided to see what I was up against in the floor board damage. Although there are some holes for sure, the damage doesn't appear to be as bad as i had feared. At least not on the driver's side. I haven't gotten to the passenger side yet. Here is what I started with once the rubber mat was removed. The previous woner had used galvanized metal and roofing tar to do a repair, which as fate would have it, most likely saved the floor from additional rust damage.









I removed about half of the peel and stick floor covering and found that some of the damage was from water getting under the floor bracing from the sides where the tar backing didn't reach. A lot of it came from the windsheild leaking and some from the water catching the spot welded seam where the flors go from flat to angled. It would have been a good idea to add some body caulking on the outside when they built these trucks. This area is the most common floor board damaged I see and it sits right behind the wheel well.

Here is the last one with it cleaned up. I didn't remove the outside reair panel, but that is only because I didn't feel like getting underneath it again for the 10th time.

 

I am going to put the stock style rims back on this truck. I know they aren't all shiny, but stock will do for me in the end. I had a set of the stock rims that I took into the local powder coat shop and had them done in a stock white.

Here is what the stock rims looked like before I took them in. Mind that I have two sets, so one is still on the truck, one is finished.



Here is a finished rim. Looks almost like new.



I also had a bunch of stock lug nuts I have been collecting. The stock lug nuts came in several different styles: Cadmium plated 2WD, painted solid acorn in silver and black, acorn with an insertable plastic cap and the solid chrome version. This truck being a deluxe 1983 had the solid acorn painted black. My trekker came with the acorn with the plastic cap. I had 30 of the solid acorn and 100 of the plastic cap style done. I am very pleased with the end result.





The two look identical at a glance. The solid version is on the left and the plastic cap version is on the right.



The plastic caps are going to need to be polished.....70+ of them, but that is another day when I have nothing else to do. I have been using a T-shirt rag with Brasso, followed by a either Armoral or maybe Carnuba wax. I haven't tried the wax yet, but I think it will give a better, longer lasting protective cover to the plastic caps.

 

Wow Paul the floor condition surprises me, much better than I was expecting.
I know you have plans to pick up that other cab sometime for the floor but looks like you might not need it. If you want that floor section I have you can pick it up when you drop off that rear end.

 

If you want to sell me some of those acorn lug nuts I could use a set (24)
Just hit me up.


Build up is looking great so far. Looking forward to see what you have planned with this thing.

 

I still have to clean up the passenger side of the floor to see where I am at there, but I am pleased that the truck floors are in the shape they are instead of having to look at more extensive fixes or even a cab swap.

 

Pm me with your email and or phone number. We can talk about details on the acorn lug nuts. I am open to selling some of them.

 

that is some definite attention to detail!

 

I had the tires mounted on the rims a few weeks ago and let them sit outside. I found them with rust wicking out of the seams where there had been some powder coat bubbling had occured. I took them back to LS and they sent them out again. Now at this point, I thought they would take some extra time and remove the old PC and recoat. Nope- they just shot another coat on them, some of which caused an orange peel effect, and still had visible areas in the seams where they were not sealed.

Yes I am finally getting irritated

So, they are sending them out yet again, going to burn off the original 2 coats and start over with a primer, paint and then powder coat. Hope this gets it. I have been waiting for 3 weeks so far. Thats not counting the original 2 weeks.

I did some other fixes to the truck today, but found that my camera battery was dead, so no "in progress" shots, but I will get some later and post the end result at least.

 

another great find for the west coast guys. seems like when our founding fathers moved that way, decades later, so did the old yotas.

looking good! i really like the factory steelies, cant wait til mine look that nice.

p.s. i'll give you a ring tomorrow in reference to the oil gauge and stickers. thanks again! tony

 

Here are some photos of the truck from the work I did yesterday and today. Here is the new fender and valance pieces replaced. I had to replace the valance mounting brace below the hood latch too.


The truck sat for 7-8 months before I got it with less than the proper mix of anti freeze, so I had to have the radiator rodded out. Luckily that was all it needed. And of course found a good deal on a new one after I had the work done. I decided to replace the water pump and thermostat just a a precaution. Here is where I started. (pic of the finish when I have some light tomorrow)

Not sure why these were capped or why the lower left valve had nothing attached to it. I know they three capped lines went to a HAC valve, if my truck even had one. More on that if and when I know more. The diagram said C&C only for the HAC valve, which had 4 lines from it and one went to a 3rd port on the distributor, which I do not have.

Take a close look at my fan belt for the alternator. I am really surprised it was in one piece with all the missing teeth.

Winshield gasket was picked up today form the local glass company. Can you tell why water got to the floor boards?

Here is a picture of one of the rims I had done with the first coat of PC. Take a close look at the inner to outer rim joint. You can sort of see the bubbled area that was causing the issues.

Here are a few shots of the new to me bed I got for a replacement. It took me forever to find a single latch short bed in any condition and I paid too much, but at least I have one. I still need to cut the wheel area for the fender flares, move the bracket for the rear mud flap and add the mounts that hold the rubber block out panels. Another day for all this, but here is how it sits now. I did do some hammer work to it when I put it on. It had a bunch of bad Bondo work that I removed and then primered to seal it to the weather. I do hav ethe tailgate, but took it off to remove the surface rust under the hinges.

 

It was good to see the progress on the truck this morning.
It is coming along. It'll probably be on the road before mine, sorry to hear you might sell the Trekker but don't blame you, the '83 will be more practical.

Let me know if you need that carb, it is yours. Also if that guy wants my extra trekker back half, I am willing to sell it, send me his email.

 

I got a bit more done over the weekend with the help of a paid friend. He brought over his oxy torch and we straightened out the passenger frame. Not perfect, but can now accept a rear bumper frame. I put a little marine primer on the frame ends to seal them up for now. It looks a lot better than what I started with. The truck was missing the tailpipe from the muffler back when I bought it, so I saved one fromone of the many trucks I have parted out and we got that welded up.








I installed and adjusted the tailgate. It will be coming off again a few time I am sure, but for now it is out of the garage walkway.