1994 Toyota Pickup 4x4 The ultimate mallcrawler build

First build thread for me, this truck was my father-in-laws work truck for 20 years and hasn't run well for a while.  For sentimental reasons he couldn't part with it but couldn't ever get around to fixing it.  Since I have a reputation in the family for tackling old sentimental projects probably better left abandoned my wife talked him into letting me fix it up for her.

I tend to forget to take pictures so I only have a couple of crummy snaps but maybe this'll remind me to document the build up better.

Day my FIL dropped it off, was soaking from unloading and towing it out of the way with my tractor so I just snapped a quick pic before heading inside.

Changed out the battery, drained some of the vintage fuel out and added some fresh fuel and it fired up after a little cranking.  Pulled it into my workshop in 4wd since it doesn't currently have a driveshaft to the rear.

Parked in my home for misguided nostalgia.

Probably a good 100HP of fury right here.

Plan is to rebuild the driveshaft and start on deferred maintenance.  Fluids, plugs and wires, check timing, check valve adjustment and see where I'm at, oh and seatbelts, the driver side seatbelt is locked extended and probably worthless.

Nice truck

The Corvette is delicious

I love these things and Bravo for a 4wd build thread.  Check compression if it's a form of 22re, head gaskets pop sooner or later on most of them

dclafleur said:

... my home for misguided nostalgia.

Nice!

Justjim75 said:

I love these things and Bravo for a 4wd build thread.  Check compression if it's a form of 22re, head gaskets pop sooner or later on most of them

It is a 22RE, I'll definitely check compression, the motor has somewhere around 250,000 miles on it so I wouldn't be surprised if it needs a little love.  The red corvette was my dad's car and my first project car I started on it about 13 years ago, it always needs something but I drive it regularly.  

Nice!  Ive had a stock one and a heavily modified one that I sold off to support the crapcar racing habit.  Get that thing running good and you will love it.  They may be slow but they are fun!

I've been sick all week and don't want to deal with this garbage. 

So today I'll fix the driveshaft for the pickup. Looking at the pieces obviously the old u-joint failed catastrophically.

A few seconds in the hydraulic press and the old one is out and a new one gets pressed in tomorrow I'll get the whole thing greased up and in the truck. 

I got the driveshaft in, figured I'd drive it around to the house and clean it off.   Always a satisfying task after a car has sat. 

Spent the last month putting my track car back together. I did a couple of little projects on the truck to break up the work though. I replaced the plugs and wires, plugs looked good but the insulation on the wires was brittle.  The plugs were gapped way to tight. I also checked timing which was set at 0 degrees. I suspect last time it was worked on the distributor was stabbed but timing was never set. 

Next on my list is adjust valves, and new valve cover gasket. I need to source some new seatbelts too but I'm not quite sure where to look for those. 

very cool little truck.  i really dug them when they were new, and i think the styling stands the test of time quite well.

So I'm still pecking away at this, I've got some parts coming in, a replacement hood latch support, a replacement driver side rear-view mirror and a replacement grill center section.  I took apart the grill and associated bits in order to clean it up.  I'm still leaking oil out of twenty different spots but I'll decide what I want to do about that at some point.  I also need to straighten that center support bar across the top but it is relatively weak metal so I can straighten it out without too much effort.

Good fun.  I had an 87 Extended Cab for a couple years.  Such tough little trucks.

In reply to TVR Scott :

It's funny because it reminds me of driving a tractor, there's something oddly fun about it despite being a blatantly non-modern vehicle.  My biggest issue is I need to fix all the oil leaks but there's also the voice in my head that says there's something wrong with pulling apart a motor that is running fine just because it leaves a bit of a puddle everywhere it sits.

Old Toyota trucks should never die, thanks for keeping this one on the road for another 20 years. 

Have you seen the cool factory turbo versions of this they built for a few years in the late 80’s?

Turbo toy goodness

dclafleur said:

In reply to TVR Scott :

It's funny because it reminds me of driving a tractor, there's something oddly fun about it despite being a blatantly non-modern vehicle.  My biggest issue is I need to fix all the oil leaks but there's also the voice in my head that says there's something wrong with pulling apart a motor that is running fine just because it leaves a bit of a puddle everywhere it sits.

More than once I discovered things I wish I didn't know when replacing gaskets just for an oil leak.  Ignorance is bliss!