BI Rig- Lizard Toy I

[Lizard Lips]

Well since I'm not going to be in town tomorrow I thought I would just go ahead and post all this junk up. I bought a stock 85 standard cab toy back in 03. I was building it up my freshmen year of college while playing volleyball for college. After my fullsize chevy was recovered after it was stolen I had took the axles off and got $13 for the rest of it.

The specs on the rig are
350 w/ about 400hp and 385 ft/lbs of torque-TH350-NP205 fullwidth dana 44 front hysteer 4.56 detroit. tie rod 1.5" chromoly w/ 3/4" heims. same as the tierod. fullwidth 14 bolt rear 4.56 detroit. Toy rears front 63's rears with double shackle. 22 gallon tank from a ford van between the frame rails. and the rest is as follows. 39" swampers siped and grooved and also some 38" boggers and a 2" body lift

this is the only pic I have during the buildup.

and some right after I had the rear driveshaft done. Some ramp thing at 4wp on my way home so I decided to stop. I know RTI ramps are gay

Here's what the buildup entailed

FRONT SUSPENSION-
The front springs are Toy rears 47" or 48" springs I can't remember what the
length is. They are from a 85 toyota standard cab. I believe they are 21" and 27" eye to center pin. The packs consist of top 2 leafs from stock 85 rear spring, 1 leaf from a chevy 6" spring, and 3 leafs from a 4" yj spring. But you can use what ever you have to give it lift. My front spring hanger is moved about 1.5" forward than stock and my shackles are 5.5" eye to eye. Here's a pic of the front spring hanger. The specs on the front hanger are- 1.5" suare tube. 3 bars welded together and caped at the end. The spring tabs were welded on in the middle with gave it an additional 1.5" drop. totaling a 3" drop for the springs

REAR SUSPENSION-
I built this setup super cheap before I had my welder to fab anything. It sucked
I used the stock leaf mounts in the rear and also the stock shackle hangers.
The springs I used were 52" springs from a mid 70's chevy 2 wheel drive. I
believe it's a 3 leaf with an overload leaf. The springs measure 26" from
pin to eye both sides.
The shackles I used were shackles from offroad design. I think they are like
¼ plate 4.5" eye to eye. I also used stock rear gm shackles from a 96 chevy truck 7.5" eye to eye.

here's the rear shackles

Of course there are draw backs to my setup. If I were to do it again. I would either use a shorter first shacle to make the second shackle lean back more. Also as you can see from the stock gm rear shackles. where they have inverted and removed some of the steel from the shackles. This is from the shackles inverting. Also this setup does have it's toll on the rear portion on the frame as you can see here. Also the stock front mount for the rear springs. isn't very think. I have bent it pretty bad on both sides.I have only broke one 52" main leaf while running this setup in the 4 years I ran it.

Here's some flex pics of this set up
here's some pics of the flex

I finally got tired of the shackles unloading and folding back over. I swapped in some 63's by myself. It wasn't so easy to line everything up. walk over here and then to the other side and then back over. and tack this and that on. Whatever. i finally got it done. everythings mounted. I made some temporary shackles that I never ended up replacing before I sold it.

 

[Lizard Lips]

Dovetail-
I cut the front clip off and started from scratch. I got most of it done in 2 days. I put it together enough to go wheeling. Went out and screwed around for a bit today. We went up one obsticle after there was a traffic jam for like 2 hours when someone's pinion nut came off broke off. not sure i was keeping warm in the truck. i ended up just going up some dunes and that was about it. although I blew up a front drive shaft joint when i crested on the top of one dune and jumped and boom. but put it back together and kept going. Didn't get any pics but it was a super lame trip. Here's a closer pic of the front. I think it ended up being about 20"+ I took out of the front and I lowered the front end by about 2 inches.

here's a mock up of the lights and everything. This was the first idea that was tossed out.

I then realized the taurus fan could not be ran as a pusher and moved the radiator to the rear in the bed. here's some pics of the radiator and tube.

Here's how the front end came out after the lights were on

one of the grill

battery mount

Here's some completed shots of the front after I finished the fenders.

 

[Lizard Lips]

 

[Lizard Lips]

Here's some pics of the half doors. Here's what i did before my welder sucked and i ended up replacing the liner and it finally worked. Then my angle cutter/ grinder thing blew up. Too many tools blew up

here's one more pic

here's the finished pics of the driver door.

here's a better picture of the truck

here's some engine bay pics. here's a gm master cylinder with a custom flanges made to adapt to the toy booster

 

[Lizard Lips]

Here's some wheeling pics

I put the truck up for sale and my old man bought it off me. now I'm building this.

do you guys want the start up for the build on this too?

 

[Lizard Lips]

how about a pic of the tow rigs with my old rig in the driveway. and another I'm building with my bro.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude!!! That's sweet, hey, you know whe like pics, keep them coming.

 

[Lizard Lips]

It's 117" wheel base. And sitting on 38" boggers at 8psi its 26.5" the bottom of the frame and the lowerest part of the crossmember sits at 21.5"

The interior mods aren't much. There's a push button starter, a couple toggle switches for rock lights. A cb, the stock bench seat and a horrible radio with horrible speakers.

 

[Lizard Lips]

here's a couple more pics in sequence for some obsticle. This thing used to be like a 5 foot face and then after a weeks of rain everything collected

 

[Lizard Lips]

This will be the rig replacing it. It's a 91 Xtra cab. So fab it's got a fullwidth dana 44 front & 14 bolt rear 4.10's detroit rear and limited slip front until I lock the front. I'll be going with a 4.3-TH350- and probably dual toy cases, it's sitting on 38" sx right now. It will be on 42's or 44's and a d60 front when it's done

here's the front spring hanger. I will be cutting it off and moving the front axle anothe couple inches forward. The front springs are toy rears with other springs mixed in. It's a 6 leaf pack.

Rear suspension. It'll be a dual triangulated 4 link with 1/4 ellips unless I have the money for coilovers. The rear axle is a fullwidth 14 bolt and I'll be using Blue Torch Fabs truss with pinion guard. The 1/4 ellips are 57" fords cut in half using the long end with small flex joints in the shackles.

So far the only thing I've done lately is weld up some link mounts

and pick up some others from poly performance and also a box of flex joints

The wheelbase will be about the same as my last truck at 117"

 

[WristPin]

badass. i like your description and opinion of the flexy shackles

 

[Lizard Lips]

Thanks. It's an easy setup and can be built for cheap.

 

[Lizard Lips]

some measurements for you guys too

Height to front spring hanger - 29.5"
Height to very rear of frame - 38.5"
Height to bottom of frame under door - 28.5
Height of transfer case skid plate (or just case if no skid) - 22.5"
Height of tires at "X"PSI - 38x15 boggers 36" high @ 8psi
Height to bottom of front diff - 12.5 Dana 44
Height to bottom rear diff. 11.5" 14 bolt kind shaved
Width 85.5" front 83.5" rear
Wheelbase -117"