Box Rocket 1980 Hilux

Making some progress. The deeper we get into this truck the more evidence there is that it's been "well used" and will never be a candidate for a show truck. But we weren't after that in the first place since it will be a first car for my 16 yr old and I'm sure will not only get used on trails but probably get tagged a time or two by careless drivers in the high school parking lot.

Hood and fenders and roof are sanded and primed, trimmed the front fenders since we removed the lower valence.
Cleaned up and did some fixing of the biggest dings etc on the passenger side and got it sanded and primed. Bed is getting wire wheeled in prep for some monstaliner. Hoping to get the driver side to this same point this week.

Windshield is getting replaced on Friday.

We're having unusually nice weather here this week and it would be awesome to be able to get paint on this thing this week, but I don't know if I can pull it off. I leave on Saturday for the Baja 1000 with Canguro Racing so we'll have to see how the week goes.

 

Nice! Any idea what color you're going paint it?

 

Thanks. Yes we have an idea.

 

Excited to see the progress of this thing.

 

This thing is getting the 315/75R16 Goodyear MTR Kevlars from my Cruiser, along with the factory LC80 wheels. Hope to have them ready to mount up next week. If someone is looking for some cheap 33's with some fancy shmancy wheels, the ones on the hilux will be up for sale. Make an offer.

 

You got a lucky son there

 

Not much time to work on this these days with the holidays and family stuff happening almost every day it seems. But I did get a few hours over the weekend to do a couple things.

Got the MTRs pulled off my 80 and mounted back on the factory 80 wheels. The 80 wheels are still a bit chewed up from their last trip, but we'll get them cleaned up and repainted soon. But we got them swapped out with the stupid wheels and 33's that were on the Hilux.
The 35's look so much better IMO. We still want to get the lift a couple inches shorter. The 63" chevies in the rear should work well and I'm looking at pulling one of the leaves out of the front Skyjackers to see if that drops the height a bit and also rides better. take a look at the thick 2nd leaf in those front packs. Anyone think the main leaf will have problems toward the eyes without a leaf adding support farther out?








Obviously we're still working on body work. I was able to get the tailgate cleaned up and prepped after these pics were taken so we're down to the driverside door and bedside and it will be ready for paint.

Here's a little better shot of how we modified the grill. We kept the outer edges of the old grill (gills) to fill the gap between the headlight buckets and the narrower '83 grill. Works ok IMO. This is a better view of that 2nd leaf in the front too.

 

How does the truck feel with the larger tires?
Your front leafs have a good arch to them. Do they flex well or are the leafs too thick for good flex?

 

Drives great with the big tires, other than it's still manual steering.
All of the springs are garbage. We'll be using some 63" Chevies in the rear (already have them), and either pulling a leaf out of the front or swapping them for something else. Trying to get it about 2" lower. I have some killer 12" travel shocks for it for when we get the springs dialed. Should ride and flex really well at that point.

 

subbed

 

I'm loving it, how's the motor in this thing?

 

So far it seems pretty good. Carb needs a bit of tuning but power feels good and it's fun to drive. I'm looking at option down the road. Might have a "performance" 22RE built by LCEngineering, or (my first choice) is to swap in a 5VZ and auto trans from a Tacoma. This thing would be a blast with the 5VZ in it and the power loss from the auto wouldn't even be an issue since it's so much lighter. The Auto trans doesn't necessarily have the "fun factor" of the manual but it sure makes crawling easy and I really liked the automatic in my Tacoma for going fast in the desert.

We'll see. These are changes down the road and only if I come across a good deal on a good motor/trans combo.

Getting the suspension, steering and axles all redone is the priority. It will feel like a whole new truck when that stuff is done.

 

Had to park my 80 outside in the cold so my son's truck could stay in the warm garage for paint to dry. Phase1 of paint is done with first base coat complete.

 

More progress last night. Letting the base coats dry a couple days then we'll spray the clearcoat.

 

Classy and well executed paint job, Adam! what sprayer and paint are you using? looking to repaint my daily driver. I have more than enough compressor to run any paint gun out there, but am trying to figure what system to go with for the gun itself.

 

Haha, you don't wanna know. Since this is my son's first car and I'm sure it's going to get banged up we didn't worry too much about having show quality paint. Don't tell anyone but this is a rattlecan job. All using Rustoleum. Gloss White and Oregano and will be hit with Clear in a few days. It's actually coming out pretty nice and the finish is good. Most people will have no clue its rattle canned.

That said, for other paint work I've done I've actually had really good luck with the gravity feed HVLP gun from HF. I was surprised how well it worked. For those jobs I've used PPG paints I have mixed at a local paint supply shop.

 

hmmmm. I was contemplating rattle can vs gun for a while, and thought I had decided on a gun, but your rattle job came out really well. now I'm back on the fence.

did you do any sanding between coats on the hilux? what clear do you plan to use? I've had some great results on smaller parts with rattle cans, but the clear coat never seems to come out with the quality that the base paint does.

 

Wow, not sure how I missed this build. Definitely one of my favorite truck body styles of all time. Subbed for sure!

 

Safety glasses when using wire wheels!!! Especially for teaching your kid good habits! I've met two people who've flung wires into their eyes, one of whom is blind from it, the other just wound up with a eye surgeon bill that probably cost more than this truck!

I dig the older boxy trucks and really like the simple kind of retro paint scheme you went with. Is it geared well to run the 35's or just light enough that it's not a big deal?

Clean build as I'd expect from you. Read a lot of your posts for your first gen when I was shopping around deciding on what to go with for my OME suspension.

Excited to see where it goes from here!

 

Looks Great! Lucky Kid!