I realize I have never introduced myself.

My name is Will and I am a Toyota-aholic *Hi Will* I am currently 22 years old. I have lived in Alaska all my life, except for a year in Florida when I was 9-10yrs old. My first vehicle when I was 15 was the '93 single cab Toyota in my signature. I didnt like it at first, but it grew on me. Now I swear by Toyotas.

My '95 4Runner died so I needed a nother rig. $800 got me a rolled, running, driving 2000 Tundra access cab, SR5 TRD V8 auto (3.90 gears with rear LSD). 2" front leveling kit. 265/75/R16 RuggedTrails. 24" glass pack muffler.
This truck is loaded, too. Power everything. Leather seats. 8-way power adjustable driver's seat. 6-disc CD player. Temp and compass on the rear-view mirror (but dont work )

Besides the body being... destroyed... it needs a new front differential for the 4x4 to work, exhaust rewelded some, ball-joints, front brakes, ABS fixed and a power steering leak fixed.

Plans:
Current DD. I'm going to wheel it eventually. Front and rear bumpers, sliders, full skids, bed bob or at least skirt chop. A little more lift in the rear (probably of the ZUK Coil persuasion) then some 33-35" tires and fenders chopped as needed.

It looks like hell, but its a damn good truck. Even has synthetic motor oil!

Day I brought it home. 11/20/2011





New taillights. Old ones were cracked, duct-taped in and the driver's side was another passenger's side:






Had a terrible brake shimmy so new pads and rotors from NAPA!



"Beauty" shots

 

Hard to beat for $800.

:wabbit2:

 

The POS duct-taped plexi rear window really started to get to me. So I put a new one in with some tint.

There was also some rust and duct-tape adhesive residue left over around the outer edge, so I did some scraping and painting


Before



Taped off.









Still kind of looks like crap, but its better, in my opinion. Haha.

 

First order of business- sliders. They're easy to design and make so I started there. I work in a steel shop, so I get steel for really cheap- 10% above what they pay to buy it from the mills

After talking with Roger Brown (4Crawler) I decided to just bolt them on, especially since the frame is open from just after the beginning of the cab, back

23 ft of 2x2x3/16 sq tube- $65
5ft of 1/4x5 flat bar- $12 (I think. Cant remember)
A few pieces of scrap from around the shop- free
3/4" bolts- Free. From cantilever arms at Home Depot.
flat black spray paint.

Each side is about 7' 2.5" each leg was cut to 11".

Starting. That piece of plate in the back is going to be one of the skid plates.





Not my best welds, but definitely not my worst












Mocking up.



On and painted flat black.

 

Thats about it for now. I need to address a few things that have come up.
-Brake light switch being a turd.
-ABS is starting to become a problem.
-Tires suck. 2 have pretty nasty gashes in the side-wall.
-And I need to put more effort into getting a front diff. The roads are starting to get more slick with the warm days and cold nights.

But, paint rendition of the front bumper.



4Runner

 

Brake light switch-
Brake lights didnt illuminate until the pedal was at about 1/3 down.
One wire going to the switch was slightly broken. put a new piece of wire in. and adjusted the switch so the lights come on sooner. Found 5 or 6 stray wires under the lower dash...

 

That is such a screamin deal!
what happened to the runner?
sliders look good. what kinda welder are you using?

 

Bottom end knock. Motor is ready to get pulled minus like 4 bolts on the bell-housing. My garage was too short to get an engine puller in

Welder is a little 110v Lincoln flux-core

 

Looks pretty good Couldnt even tell it was fluxcore!
Nice. Both your rigs are pretty bitchin man.

 

I was kind of bored tonight; no projects lined up for this weekend because of my buddies birthday party Saturday night. So I got my CB mounted into the Tundy. Its not hooked up yet, though.

 

Bumper mock-up version 1. I think the vertical section is a little too tall, but I havent tested it out on the Tundra yet; My roommate's girlfriend needed to let her Subaru thaw in the garage. Will probably use the shape burner at work to get the triangles I need. Maybe next week when our 3rd man is back from vacation.

I couldnt get the right side to stop sagging :\

 

Used front diff ordered today. Coming up from Washington state. $500. Supposed to be here in 10 days.

 

Skirt chop and rear bumper in progress. Should get it done this weekend.

 

Heres another picture of it. Working on the bumper right now. Took the mud-flaps from my 4Runner

 

Really didnt get much done. Some friends came over shortly after I got the brackets attached and the main section on the truck...

 

The differential came in today. I started to work on it in the shop at work, but ended up needing a few tools I couldnt find. So I put back together what I had taken apart and came home. Guess I will be doing it in the cramped garage at home


---- Today, I had a terrible experience that turned okay. As I was backing up to leave for lunch, I slammed on the brakes to swing the front of the truck around. As I stopped, I hear a "POP" and the front driver's corner of my truck hit the ground. I get out "WTF? Crap!!! THE LOWER BALL JOINT BROKE!!" I grab the fork lift and pull it out of the way and start to inspect what happened. Well, the cotter pin sheered off sometime (probably in the last few days) and the castle nut came loose and popped off. Luckily, I had all my tools and the forklift, so a co-worker and I were able to get the ball-joint back together. We also had a box of various size cotter pins lying around. One was perfect size. Its all good. I had been hearing a clunking noise all week while going around corners, but figured I would look into it this weekend when I was getting the diff in. Also, it doesnt pull to the left while braking now :\

Also, in a few weeks, another club member is going to sell me his 285/75/R16 GY Wrangler M/Ts off a Jeep he just bought with like 80% tread. $700, but its a set of 5!

 

A few pics








We got like 8-10 inches of snow this week, with more coming

 

I'm kind of getting bored of this truck. Its a good runner, but I seriously miss my 4Runner. Especially this time of year. I saw a running, pulled 22r from an '80s truck on Craigslist, but I was a day late

 

I'll trade ya a running 22re for hahahaha

 

I so would! Well maybe. I have probably $1000 in the tundra already. In a few weeks, $700 more for tires.
Theres an '89 single cab 4x4 22re with a blown head gasket I'm seriously contemplating buying. They say 1500 OBO. I have a brand new TOYOTA HG and head bolts already.
The Tundra is comfortable, the v8 is fun, but I really miss the small, awesome looking '90s Yota. And I miss a MANUAL TRANSMISSION!! Every time I see another '80s or '90s Yota drive by I *sigh*. haha.