1981 Toyota Pickup

I spend most my time on this site so figured I would put a build page here. Recently bought this pickup after searching craigslist for months. It will definitely be a project and I'm looking forward to learning as I go. Making this tread to keep track of everything that I do with the truck.

 

Got the front axle off for a knuckle rebuild and an overall clean up. Also changed the oil, spark plugs, and drained the front diff.

 

Thats going to be fun project and you'll be learning alot along the way. Whats your plan on the truck?

 

Short term is all new fluids, new head gasket, and get the brakes working. After that is convert it over to propane so I do not have to deal with the carb.

 

I was gonna recommend propane and keep the truck as a toy. Might as well clean up the axle and truss it now that it is out.

 

The truck will be an offroad and ranch truck its whole life but I would like to get it street legal at some point. I see you have an 85. Do you have a preference between allpro, low range, and trail gear when you are buying parts?

 

Nice! Interested to see where this goes. I used to have an 81 myself up until a few years ago.

 

That’s awesome man. Good luck with it.

 

FYI Trail Gear now owns AllPro so they're one and the same. Nice project looking forward to seeing it come along!

 

Depends on the parts. For leafs, just go the typical RUF and Chevy 63's. I like Ruff Stuff for a lot of parts. Marlin Crawler is top notch, if they have what you need in stock. Low Range will probably be better than the others you mentioned. Trail Gear is only used for non-critical parts that will not matter if they fail on the trail. Lurk in the pirate4x4 classifieds for used parts.

A welder and an angle grinder will go long way with these builds.

 

Here is a picture of the 1981 Toyota 4x4 that my dad used to drive.

 

Got the axle fully taken apart, trussed and painted. Starting the reassembly and knuckle rebuild when I have time after work during the week.

 

Looks good. Knuckle and hub rebuild is fairly simple. It is either Ruff Stuff or Low Range who has a really good Youtube series of step-by-step videos, in case you need visual assistance.

Might as well go with RCV shafts while it is apart. An expensive investment, but one that might save your ass like it did for me.

 

Went to a salvage yard this weekend and picked up a new bench seat, tailgate, doors and a few other small things. The doors are off of a 85 2wd extra cab so not positive they are gonna fit. They look exactly the same but wont have a chance to put them on till this weekend

 

Put on new head, exhaust, and intake manifold gaskets. Started cleaning up the engine bay and installing the propane conversion kit

 

This is going to be epic! Good luck and well done!

 

Subbed! Love those trucks!

I want those decals for my 1st gen!

 

Over the course of 15 years, my dad would trim the edges with a box cutter to remove the edges that were starting to peel off.

 

Rear end was stripped down and is back together with new suspension, diff is welded, and propane swap is just about complete. Since taking the photos I have also taken the two overload leaves out to get a better shackle angle.