1977 Hilux on Tons (Old Build)

Sup guys and gals, recently just got a 3rd gen Tacoma so I have been hanging out in that thread section and slowly (or fastly?) building it. Wheeling (broverlanding) it so far is fun and all, but definitely miss my wheeler days back in high school and the couple years after graduating. Figure I'd post one of my old builds, because it has been hands down one of my favorite vehicles. This was the 3rd Toyota that I had built, and definitely the raddest.


To start: Always wanted something different. Was wheeling a 1st gen 4runner that had tons, 2rz motor (turbo at one point), bald 39.5 iroks, cage, yadayadayada. Smashed it all up over the course of a year, and building a late year Hilux came to mind so I got started on it right away. A buddy actually had a non-runming one, so snatched it up for cheap and went to work in my parents back yard.

From trailering it home as a blown up 2wd truck, disassembling/parting out my 4runner, and to driving it on my birthday, it took me 2 weeks to build working on it every night after work (with my parents yelling at me to be quiet most nights).
Heres one of the starting photos.

 

Continued:
The nice thing about these older 2wd Hilux's, is the whole entire IFS subframe unbolts. No need to chop nearly anything in the front like a normal IFS rig
Day 2: Had the IFS, motor and tranny, and rear axle out. Got the rear Chevy 63 leafs in aswell as the pre‐built 14 bolt in. Bobbed the bed some 14 or 16" at the same time.

To the front: Unbolted everything, and ended up cutting the front half of the frame off. Knew I was going to be abusing this thing, and the toyota frames have always cracked in the past. Made a new frame out of 2x3 1/4 wall square tube, which also gave me more axle/steering clearence.

 

Continued:

Swapped in the 2rz I had been running for a couple years, w56 tranny, and a single 4.7 tcase. Cut out the entire tranny tunnel, flat bellied it, and made a nice T Case skid. Can't find any pictures sadly. Used leaf spring bushings for mounting, as stock toyota mounts are garbage.

For leaf springs, I ran the typical rears up front and Chevy 63" leafs in the rear. I ran this leaf setup for 4 years (albeit breaking a handful of leafs during that time) and loved it. In the front I did something a little different, and ran the shackle under the frame. This worked well in giving me gobs of droop, but added a ton of caster which didnt matter too much as it wasnt (at the moment) my daily driver. Ran a Scout steering box with hydro assist. Pictured below is the front end setup, and wow, looking back that was a ton of caster Drove pretty well though!


Ended up maxing out 14" travel shocks in the front, and maxing out 12" triangulated shocks in the rear, thus giving me iirc 45" of flex, with more aired down.

 

Continued:

Ended up driving it for the first time on my 19th birthday, which I didn't think was possible. 14 days, mainly at night, in my parents backyard. Boy do I miss not having any bills

Pictured below is its first start up, and first time it moved. Picked up some 42" Tsls on Military Beadlocks, made a 3" 1/4 wall driveline for the rear, and square tubed one for the front. Having made several rear drivelines, I've been able to get them pretty straight and balanced up to highway speeds.


First drive/first real flex test. Got a thumbs up on the highway from a stater, and easily got on a 44" bogger.

 

Continued:

Got it registered, and got straight to cage building. The goal was to go wheeling the next weekend. Below is the only one I can find of the cage build, but basically made it pretty low pro. Went behind the fenders in the front, with some simple bars down into the bed.
Mid build:


Ended up finishing the cage and wheeling it on schedule. Truck did amazing the first time, drove it 60 miles to Elbe Hills, Wa, wheeled it for 3 days, and drove it back. Funny to see people in Tacomas complain about power, when I thought the little 2rz pushed the 42s just fine

Fast forward a couple months later, and prettu much wheeled it every weekend after. Heres some photos from wheeling at Naches, Wa on the moon rocks.


Obviously used and abused it, and it was pretty much point, go, and hang on. Fun times

 

Continued:

Months go by, and managed to break some things along the way. Broke some leafs, broke a couple 30 spline stock outers, and started blowing up the toyota tcases which has happened in the past a handful of times. Was running the 42" tsls on military locks, and decided to switch it up to something lighter. Went with the 40" (new back in the day) Procomp Mt, and some stock dodge aluminum wheels. Ended up lowering it aswell.

 

For comparison, here's some photos to show how low it was. Dont remember the frame height, but I want to say it was around 21/22".

Here's it next to another 77 Hilux that I lowered:


And next to a buddys truck that had the same leaf setup but on 35s, and damn near the same height:

 

Continued:

Time went by fast, and was still living with my parents. Decided to move out finally, and ended up settling for an apartment. Thus, no more tools or backyard to build in, so ended up parting it out


Had a handful of other Toyotas over the last couple of years. A 1st gen Tacoma, 3rd gen 4runner, couple Camrys, and a couple others that I managed to buy and flip for some dollars. Fun times with them all, and obviously trust Toyota

To present day:

Picked up a 2019 Tacoma 2 months ago. Already have done Fox coilovers/fox shocks, dakar rear leafs, 33s and some nice looking wheels, skids, sliders, and basically getting ready for MOAB at the end of next month. So stoked for that, as I have always dreamed of going. Should be fun, and definitely enjoy the new truck. Look forward to the future with it, and will probably end up Long Traveling it and keeping it nice Figured I'd share this build, as you don't see many of them.

End of story

 

Cool story. I enjoyed reading your adventures in building and enjoying your creation.

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing!!!!

 

I'm a noob to 4wd and Toyota trucks, but I've been wanting to do the same thing for a while now. I could get a '77 2wd fairly cheap. Your post made it look super easy to accomplish.

In reality, how hard was it? I'm like 90% convinced I want to do it.

 

That was badass man!! Love that build