2000 taco build

In the finishing stages of my 1.5 year old build on my truck. I got the truck with no motor, transmission or fuel tank. It had a sas with a fj40 front axle with a Detroit locker on 4"hd trail gear leafs and a trail gear rear 4 link kit on air shocks and a 2" body lift and a e locker in the rear.

This was the first pic I took of it when I first got it home

One of the first things I did was swap the 4"hd springs for 3" ones
Next I custom mounted a 22 gallon fuel tank from a 1985 ford e150 van behind the rear axle

Then came the fun bits. This is a vw 1.9l AAZ turbo diesel motor i had built for my old samurai. Its got a brand new head and fully rebuild bottom end with arp head and main studs. its also got a performance giles injection pump, a holset he220wg 5.5cm turbo and a modified g60 intake. It pushes 27psi and im guessing its around 175hp and 300ish ft-lbs.

I then made some hid headlights with motorimoto fxr 3.0 projectors
here they are installed with some smoked corner lights and a all black grill i found on rockauto i believe is for a 4runner? fitment isnt 100% but i think it looks better then the stock chrome. This also shows the 35" mud terrains and "new rims" I threw on

Heres a winch bumper i picked up off facebook a few months back. I'm planning on eventually patching the 5" light holes and adding some flush mount leds. I have a 8000lbs "super winch" ill be using until it fails then upgrading to probably a smitty or warn.

Heres a custom gauge pod I made over the stock heater vents. I cut out all the stock the ac and ill survive without forward blowing heat

I recently changed over to 5.29 gears. The rear end went fairly straight forward. the front however was a different story. I decided to rebuild the whole front end when it was apart and found one of my birfields was cracked in like 5 places. Picked up a used set off facebook that was "packed with grease and ready to install" and after installing them found the drivers side axle had a fj60 birfield on it and was slightly too long, and the passenger side axle didn't have the snap rings installed. I ended up doing each side like 4 or 5 times so im getting pretty good at it for next time.

The previous owner had a ls1 engine in the car and had hacked off all the stock transmission and engine mounts. I was able to modify his transmission crossmember to fit the r150f but the new driveshaft I had made was pretty tight and I had to clearance the crossmember for it to fit

Heres my new dual cv driveshaft from tattons driveline on ebay. He's very well priced and will make you basically anything you want, I highly recommend him

Heres a strock front shaft I had lengthened and beefed up locally. I ended up paying more to have this shaft modified with the old u joints then It cost to have a new one made from scratch with spicer joints.

The transmission and engine are like 3" or so farther forward then they would be from stock and I had to make a plate to cover the shifter hole. No specific reason I did this, it just seemed to be happy in the engine bay at this position.

This weekend was the last big thing I needed to take care of. The old 16" fox 2.0 air shocks rubbed on the tires and needed 2" wheel spacers to clear. Because they were on shock hoops outside the frame the tire would stuff into the stock on articulation and there was no hope In hell coilovers would fit without like 4" of tire spacers I decided to cut them all off. I ended up going with some 12" ORI struts. Heres the upper mount I made with 2x2x.25" tubing. There wasn't much meat around the bolt holes so I plated them for added strength

Here they are installed and mounted



All that's left now Is to mount my winch, modify my exhaust to clear the rear shocks and throw the box back on. After 1.5 years of casually working on this thing its finally ready for some insurance and dialing in the build! In the spring ill probably repaint the front bumper and fender flares and then paintmatch my canopy. I'm also planning on making a heavy duty rear bumper with a removeable swing-out tire carrier and some rock sliders eventually.

 

Got a break from the rain for a couple hours today and left work early. Modified my exhaust to clear the shocks

Was also able to get the winch on the bumper and the bumper mounted. Really hope I never have to do that again. it was beyond cunty. Its gotta be close to 160lbs and super awkward. We used an engine hoist to support it into place but it was still super hard to get it straight enough to get the bolts in. Partially mangled 1 of the 4 mounting nuts but was able to get it tight without them pulling out. I'm gonna fill in the 5" light holes and then put on some flush mount leds eventually


All that's left now is to wire the winch, install my elocker cable conversion in the rear and change out the rear axle seals. I should be able to tackle it this weekend if the weather cooperates.