'93 Toy Rock Crawler "Camo II"

it runs and drives finally. took it out for a ride and it needs a few adjustments here and there but not bad overall. i'll get to fine tuning the alignment and such over the next couple days

 

damn!! all that in a little over a week. great job

 

I vote this the best first thread by a newbie in 2008. Thanks for the pics and excellent documentation. Great work Eric, can't wait to see some action pictures!!

 

No shit!

Damn straight!

How far forward is your front axle from the stock location? Looks to be more forward...

 

i'm currently in the gap between finishing college and starting my new job so i gave myself a couple weeks to do nothing but focus on the truck because i know i wont have another chance to get this much work done in this amount of time for a while

the front axle is very far forward from stock location. at least 3 inches or so. the rear axle was also moved about an inch forward so i'm looking at a wheelbase of about 122"-123" which i really can't complain about considering my tacoma was the exact same height, tire size, axles, etc. and that had a wheelbase of 129". and with the turning radius of a school bus, it got a little tight between trees at times, especially on new england trails

 

can you bob that body style?

 

sure, you can bob just about anything, although i still have the bobbed bed from my tacoma which i dovetailed and will be putting onto this truck. i actually have a bed bobbing writeup under tech writeups on the website in my sig. havent quite decided yet what to do with this bed from the '93. the passenger side of it has a lot of rust. heres the taco bed from when i was working on it earlier in the fall

 

Great build...you wanna do my sas...

 

Sounds like your a guru man. Wish I had that time and talent. Good luck with the rest of it.

 

haha not at all. this build has been taking a toll on me physically. i've spent probably a little more than 60 hours over the past week and a half working on this thing... constantly leaning over, kneeling down, crawling around underneath the truck and it sucks after a while. when i sas'd my tacoma it took about 120 hours of work but i spread it out over a month and a half so it wasnt too bad, it just took a while

 

thanks

the way i see it, its just metal. i can manipulate it and deform it to look anyway i choose. the skills is just a matter of practice and patience. i started off just a few years ago barely knowing how to do anything to a truck and just picked things up as i went along such as how to weld and how to build an axle. im a self taught fabricator and take a lot of pride in my work so i really take the time to make sure everything i do comes out strong and high quality. i cant tell you how many trucks i have seen that have ghetto fabbed bumpers and bubble gum welds holding on suspension parts. that stuff is just dangerous especially if you drive on the street and theres no reason that somebody cant put in a couple extra minutes to make sure their welder is on the right setting and the metal is properly prepped. not only does your truck come out stronger in the end but it also looks a lot cleaner too

 

x2

 

Thanks for making me miss my two 1989 toy 4x's I had plans of doing this to them but never got around to it and ended up selling them to get my '08. not really sure if it was a good move yet, but am enjoying my '08. can't wait to see it finished.


both of my '89's

 

I have an 87 that currently isnt running(thats why I got my Tacoma) that maybe I will sas at some point.

 

I'm looking to get another toy pickup 4x4 to make into a trailer queen to pull behind my 08 4x

 

awesome build!

 

got the dovetailed bed on today. its off my old '98 tacoma, bobbed 13", dovetailed 16". tailgate works too. still need to bondo the tailgate, mount my rear bumper and make mud flaps/fender flares because my rear tires stick out almost completely.

 

Nice build!

 

Since my last update, i welded on my old bumper from my tacoma, still full width, and added mounts to bolt on factory mud flaps. i picked up material to make rear fenders which will cover my rear tires but have had no chance to make anything to mount them with

i moved into a new house on thursday directly abutting a local trail so i got to take it for a quick test drive on friday, however today was the real shakedown run on the same trail with the local toyota club. we ended up running a last minute time trails race similar to King Of Hammers, only a lot shorter and covered with snow. one truck bent a front axle housing, i ripped apart my exhaust, and another truck on IFS bent his lower A-arm... but it was totally worth it. things held up very well on my truck and i could not be more pleased. theres a video of my truck finishing the race here
http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/sneakyjoe9988/wheeling%20trips/gutter%201-10-09/?action=view&current=100_0130.flv

and my photo album here
http://www.atarmor.com/wheeling_trips/2009-01-10gutter/