Heather's 92 Pickup Build

I figured that I should officially document where all of my time and money now goes. Bought the truck off of a friend who no longer drove it, with about 215,000 miles on it.

Current Pic:



Truck info:
1992 Xtra Cab SR5 Pickup
3.0 V6, Manual 4x4
35x12.5x15 BFG KM2s
15x10 Mickey Thompson Classic II's
Addicted Offroad front bumper
Superwinch
Rough Country dual steering stabilizer shocks (removed)
rear lift shackles
Rough Country 4 in lift (removed)
Trail Gear rear bumper
Marlin Crawler sliders
Rear: 5.29 gears / grizzly locker / trail gear lift springs
Front: 5.29 gears / trail gear ifs eliminator w/ 4 in hd springs

Here is what it looked like when I bought it:



First thing I did was remove the canopy. Then I washed it inside and out. Took out all the plastic inside and the seats in order to shampoo the carpets and get the 20 year old dirt out of it.



I wrecked the 2008 Taco, so the pickup became my daily driver. Had to get new tires on it. Needed new lift shackles to fit my new tires. And, had to perform a ton of maintenance that I had been putting off.



Replaced almost all the fluids (front diff, rear diff, transmission, tcase, oil) with Amsoil.

Of course the diff breather was clogged which blew a rear axel seal and destroyed my wheel bearing. Got a new diff breather and replaced the seal and bearing.

Someone had filled the radiator with green antifreeze. I flushed the radiator and added in new red Toyota coolant.

The power steering had been filled with power steering fluid and the seals were destroyed. Replaced the pump and refilled it with ATF.

Now that most of the unfun maintenance stuff is done, I get to start throwing fun parts at the truck!

Got dual steering stabilizer shocks:



Bought an Addicted Offroad stinger bumper and got it powdercoated. Finally got it on the truck:



Today, at the insistence of a coworker, I used Meguiars Ultimate Compound and a coat of wax to get the paint shiny again:



That is all for now. Planning on ordering up a lift soon.

 

Ordered a Rough Country 4 inch drop bracket lift today! Here are some Before lift pictures I took earlier. Hopefully I will have some After pictures in the next couple weeks!

 

Looks great. That bumper made a huge difference!

 

Thanks! Yeah, the bumper changed the whole look of the truck.

 

Nice truck. It seems to be in good shape for the age.

 

It is in great shape! After I bought it, I found receipts in the glove box-- it had been into the dealership every 3000 miles since it was new. The bumper was dented, but I fixed that...

 

Got the truck lifted a few weeks ago, but finally got some pictures of it.

 

Took the truck out in the mud last weekend!

 

Nice!!!

 

Way to breathe life back into a great old truck!

looking forward to seeing what you do with this truck.

 

Yesterday I installed my new cb radio! The install was pretty simple and it works well.





And, a rear trail gear bumper should be here in the next couple days.

 

Looking good! Damn, I miss my 94 pickup. Check out LC Engineering. They make performance parts for the 3.slow

 

Thanks! I will for sure check out LC Engineering. I'd like to put performance parts on it, but keep going back and forth on whether it is worth putting money into the 3.slow. But, I'm not interested in an engine swap...yet...

 

Truck looks great, I'm getting the same trail gear Bumper hopefully next month

 

Your truck looks good too! I'm excited to finally get a rear bumper. Marlin crawler just came out with a new one, but I was too impatient to wait for it and ordered the trail gear!

 

Nice build! I love the 92 pickups, I had one myself; it was my second vehicle and first toyota!!!!! keep up the good work

 

I already managed to break my CB antenna in half... The good news is--The company I ordered my CB kit from, Right Channel Radios, sent me a new one out absolutely free! I'm extremely happy with their customer service.

Here it is:



Now I just need a good trucker name for my CB handle...

 

That's good to know, I think i'll look into them for getting my self a CB.

I really like what you've done with your truck. So does my girlfriend, she has been wanting an older pickup pretty badly when money allows.

How do you like the rough country lift? I was thinking of getting that for her when she does get a pick up. Did you notice a major change with the dual steering stabilizers?

 

Yeah, Right Channel Radios has good prices and awesome customer service. I'm pretty big on requiring good customer service from companies I order from these days.

Thanks! It is a great project and I just order up parts when I have extra money. To get a good deal on one of the older pickups, I suggest checking craigslist regularly or asking any friends or neighbors that have an old one sitting around if they want to sell.

The Rough Country lift works great. There are very few lifts for these trucks on the market. BDS makes a lift too. It is more expensive, but might be a better way to go. We had to do a bit of extra fab work to make the Rough Country work. The sway bar brackets weren't even close--so I just removed the sway bar for good. (I can't tell the difference anyway.) Some of the bolts were only grade 5 and I wanted grade 8, so we had to make a few trips to the hardware store. Also, the kit was missing some of the bolts. Some of the directions were out of order, but it worked out OK because I was easy to catch where the problems would have arose. In short, the lift looks good and seems high quality, but the fit and finish of the install wasn't the best.

As for the dual steering shocks--I love them. They make it so that the steering wheel is much less jerky when taking the truck off road. On road, it makes turning a little more difficult. Overall I would recommend them though!

 

Wow, what a fantastic transformation of a rather average starting truck. It makes me want to try it myself. Did you do all that work yourself? If so, where and how did you gain those skills?