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| Race-Look 'yota #2 (or...Holy Crap! It used to look like THAT?!) |
| So the latest project to hit the Fourth Dimension Racing garage is a 1982 Toyota 4x4. My step-son Dustin (see 'Quads a Loco' page) will turn 16 in February of '03, so we started looking for a vehicle. My wife and I are not rich by any means...and what money we DO have goes to the quads...no, I'm kidding, really. We wanted to find something inexpensive, but cool, for the boy. He wanted a truck and I have an obvious penchant for Toyotas, so I kind of had that in mind already. My neighbor across the street has a little beater 'yota that he drives back and forth to work and hunting. And then one day I notice he has a newer model 'yota, too. I hear through the grapevine that he wants to sell the old 'yota. Upon close inspection and talking to him, I find that both frame rails have rusted through just in front of the rear axle (a common affliction on these trucks, I'm told and will come to find out is a fact) and he's afraid to drive it. After some discussion with my partner in crime/fellow shade tree mechanic down the street Brian, and my father in law, we decided that the frame could be boxed in with new steel with a minimum of effort and expense and be stronger than original. It needed some body work, and the timing chain cover leaked, but hey, for $500, I couldn't go wrong. |
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| I'm still searching for a pic of the truck before we started on it. It will be here eventually. Suffice to say that it needed some work.. It took a LOT of sandpaper (of the REALLY coarse variety) and a little filler, and a wire wheel brush, but we got it all smooth...eventually. |
| A couple of 'in-the-midst-of-painting' pics, and then the final result. Dustin found the design in a magazine and left it to me to duplicate it. Of course, HE wasn't the one doing all that taping and painting. Yes, I masked it with newspaper. Sue me...this is an extremely-budget project...you use what you have. Gotta LOVE those paint fumes, yeah!! I think it looks pretty good to be painted with spray cans. I'm gonna do the clearcoat the right way, just to protect it. The window trim and such is still taped, awaiting the clear. |
| tree engineering and it'll work. I even managed to weasel a couple of little 6-1/2 inch bass drivers in boxes behind the seats. |
| How's $20 for a roll bar and $20 for all those KC Daylighters, plus a couple that we didn't use? I thought it was pretty good. Really completes the look. I dunno if I'm gonna wire the lights or not. I'm afraid he'll get in more trouble with them than it's worth. The contingency stickers give it that 'desert-racer' look like my truck, and we may end up with 'TOYOTA' down the side in lime green. |
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| That's my partner-in-crime, neighbor down the street Brian in front of me and Dustin in his 'I wanna flattop' days in the foreground. |
| I've also cut the dash up in order to mount a DIN unit stereo in it (it came with a dual-pin radio). Consultation with a couple of stereo shops and some shade- |
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