 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Here begins the tale of a poor little 95' Toyota Tacoma and the horrible things we do to it. It starts out with a good friend of mine by the name of Mark, who decides to buy a used 1995 Toyota Tacoma Extended Cab 4X4, 4 cyl, 5 speed. It was white originally, butit wasn't long until four wheeling expeditions took their toll and body work and a repaint were necessary, and so came the silver paint. A lift soon followed, and with that, more trouble. It was a good truck as it was, and was quite capable of handling most of the trails in our area. But nothing lasts forever, and so the total teardown and rebuild begins to make this Tacoma into a true trail rig. Before it's all said and done, the little Toy will have solid 8 lug axles, tubular bed, full external cage, leaf spring suspension front and rear, winch, onboard air, lockers, the works! Scroll on down, and check out what we have so far. There is a lot more work done to the truck, but I don't have the pics yet. As soon as Mark gets them to me, I'll update the page. Enjoy! |
| Here's our hero enjoying a drink of, er, uh, something, after rolling the Tacoma, which I'm sure was thirsty work. I won't go into the details of how he rolled it, other than he was going in reverse. Go figure... |
 |
 |
|
| With the Toyota now rolled, Mark decided that it was time for something more than just a re-body, but the cab still needed to be replaced. Wasting little time, our hero located a 2000 model cab from a two wheel drive truck. The only problem was that the donor cab had tan interior, while the Toy had grey, and Mark, of course, wanted to keep the grey interior. This required the stripping of BOTH cabs, since the new cab was complete except for the doors, front seat, and a few items off the instrument panel. There were also a few differences between the two cabs in wiring and mounting of accessories, so everything had to go. Here's a pic of the Toy in my driveway getting stripped. I'm the freak on the left, Mark on the right. |
| I stripped the new cab in my spare time, and then we went to work on the wrecked cab. What we ended up with was a very hollow looking truck, and a pile of interior parts. The bed was removed for ease of cab swapping, and was then tossed as the frame would be chopped, and a tube frame bed installed. |
|
| After a little thinking, it was decided that we should just ease the cab off the car trailer onto the frame, and then lift the front over the engine. The rear 33's were removed to level the frame with the trailer and keep the lifting to a minimum, since there were only three of us to lift the cab. I do own an engine hoist, but it was dismantled, and in storage, and this was a lot more fun. After the first try, we figured we needed to cut the front bed mounts off the frame, so the cab wouldn't get hung up on them. A little buzz wheel work and more "persuading" with the sledgehammer, the mounts were off. In this pic we have myself taking a break, my only friendly neighbor, and good friend Mikie, the sledgehammer and the new cab on the trailer. At this point the truck towing the trailer is probably still blocking the road, but we appearently don't care. |
| Here's Mark looking just a little too proud of himself. It might have something to do with the rather strange display that took place moments before this pic was taken. I seem to remember something about the old cab being beaten with a brush axe, but we were drunk, so it's hard to tell what the hell happened. |
| It was decided that the easiest way to get ready to swap cabs would be to just flip the old one off, and then worry about the new one. It wasn't going to hurt anything, since it had already been rolled. What else could we do to it? Here we see what's left of the Toy, now nicknamed simply "Coma" at this stage. Gas tank was removed to keep it from getting damaged in the flip, and who needs a gas tank when the guys doing the job are already "tanked" as it was? Also in this pic is myself, who in my somewhat drunken state, thought it was ok to stand under the old cab, but it did make a nice photo opportunity. |
| The only slight problem with flipping the cab off the back of the frame was the fact that it was too tall to clear the branches of the tree beside the driveway. About halfway over it got stuck, but Mark "persuaded" it to roll on off and land with one hell of a noise. We then flipped the cab back over so it was upright in the driveway so I could finish taking out the few bolts I had left in it. And yes, my neighbors think I'm crazy. I really need a garage... |
|
|
|
|
| Lastly we have the new cab on, and with a little cursing, over the engine, and bolted down. Hood is installed and most of the engine compartment is back in order. Dash is in, and the truck is test fired to make sure it will ever run again. Luckily, it fires right up, and as you can see, we were pretty damn happy about it. Interior was next, and boy was that fun. |
| Flared fiberglass fenders are on, and the tubular bed is complete except for the diamond plate flooring. Rear frame was shortened by 9", front frame extended to provide more room for the front axle to be moved forward a little to keep the tires off the cab, and to make room for a worm gear winch. The front suspension I took out completely, only to have to put it back in so that we could move the truck. Seems that here in the city limits you can't have a vehicle torn apart in your driveway for very long. The neighbors appearantly complained to the cops that it looked ugly. Oh well, screw'em. I bought the M-715, NOW THAT'S UGLY! The majority of this work was done in the late summer to early winter of 2004. Plans are to have it completely done sometime in the spring of 2005. We have a Dana 44 out of a Jeep Wagoneer that will get knuckles and hubs off a 3/4 Ton Ford, and an ARB with 5.13 gears. The rear is a Dana 60 we yanked out of Mark's old Extended Cab Ranger, that was originally in a 61' Ford, I think. It will get the Detroit Locker I have in my living room floor (Ha!) and 5.13s also. Front bumper will be custom, made by myself, rear bumper is simply a piece of 1/4" thick rectangular tubing I welded in between the ends of the frame. It will eventually get a fold down prerunner style spare tire carrier that I still have to make. The front suspension will be leaf spring, and the brackets and such are from a kit, but I forget who makes it. Springs will be custom, with Orbit Eye bushings from AOR. Rear springs will probably be moved forward a bit, but total lift is still up in the air until we get the front suspension done, and then we will calculate the rear. Check out PAGE 2 for more pics of the Toy and the bed fabrication. |
|
|
|
| Click HERE for Page 2 of The TOYOTA PROJECT. Click HERE to return to Elwenil's Auto Creations Home. Click HERE to EMAIL me. Click HERE for absolutely nothing... |
| Sorry for those of you on dial-up, as this page is not exactly dial-up friendly. There are a lot of pics, but just wait for them to load, as they are worth it. But look on the bright side, even the owner of the truck is on dail-up, so he has the same problem looking at his own truck, lol! |