Builds Box Rocket 1980 1st Gen Hilux (1 Viewer)

[Box Rocket]

Current Pic as of March 2024
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


I will say right up front that this will likely be a much slower build than any of my previous ones. Mainly because this truck is for my son and he's playing a major role in the work including the money side of the mods. All that said, I'm excited for it. I've always loved the 1st gen Hilux and I have a soft spot for them since my first car was a '79 2WD Hilux. We've got some good plans for this one but it needs a lot of work.
Plans include:
Suspension Overhaul (probably coming down an inch or two)
Steering Overhaul (powersteering with High steer)
Full rebuild of both axles
Replace hubs with Aisin units
New tires (315/75R16 on FZJ80 factory wheels)
Repaint body
Build bumpers
Build Bedrack
Build sliders
Crawler gears.
.

 

[msahr]

Nice. Got more pics?

 

[Box Rocket]

Nice. Got more pics?

Not many yet.

 

[Meatdawg]

Very cool, my son and I are kind of doing the same thing. He will start driving in about 4 months and we purchased a 1980 pickup about a year ago. They are fun and easy to work on. Enjoy the project! Here is a picture of our 1980. I am the 2nd owner, basically stock.

 

[msahr]

Nice! Wish I could find one around here (Phoenix) but they're all being bought up by people from Mexico and being sent down there. I seen caravans of the things... 1 being driven, towing another, usually in sets of 3. South of Tucson towards the border. 1st gens trucks and 4Runners, anything solid axle Toyota. No 40s or 80s. Yet.

 

[Meatdawg]

Nice! Wish I could find one around here (Phoenix) but they're all being bought up by people from Mexico and being sent down there. I seen caravans of the things... 1 being driven, towing another, usually in sets of 3. South of Tucson towards the border. 1st gens trucks and 4Runners, anything solid axle Toyota. No 40s or 80s. Yet.

Yep, I see it all the time in Southern New Mexico as well.

 

[Box Rocket]

Picked up a set of Chevy 63" rear springs yesterday. These are a more common swap for rockcrawlers because of the excellent flex, but they are also supposed to ride pretty well so I decided to give them a try. The nice thing is that they are cheap, and it's not that difficult to switch back to a new leaf pack later on if we don't like these. Now trying to decide what to do up front. Thinking some 3" spings to keep things lower but still run some 35-37" tires.

 

[ferg]

Common swap for the front is rears - hence RUF - rears up front. Drill down into pirate truck section. Don't get lost in the stupid though.

 

[Box Rocket]

Common swap for the front is rears - hence RUF - rears up front. Drill down into pirate truck section. Don't get lost in the stupid though.

Yeah I've waded back into Pirate. Read a lot about the RUF swap, which I could do but there is no elegant way to keep the springs clamped after you remove leaves. Lots of guys using hose clamps or bailing wire

 

[ferg]

Cheater way - strip of band iron or similar welded near the end of a leaf and bent around to 'clamp'. It does work as there is little stress if done correctly.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Such a nice truck. Subbed. I'm THIS close to selling my beloved Tacoma and buying a solid axle truck from the early 80's.

 

[forestderp]

Looking forward to this build, I'm over on portal also, what do you sell as a vendor?

 

[Box Rocket]

Looking forward to this build, I'm over on portal also, what do you sell as a vendor?

Cool.

I'm selling Tepui Tents

 

[Box Rocket]

Some small progress over the weekend. My boys are working on getting the body sanded in preparation for new paint. Gonna be a DIY paintjob but I'm feeling good about getting a good finish out of it. The truck is just not in condition worthy of a high quality paintjob so we'll handle it ourselves and it will look LOTS better than it currently does.
Currently just one front fender got sanded and hit with primer. This was the "instruction" for the boys. Now they'll handle the rest of the truck.


We also wanted to update the grill from the ugly 1979 2wd grill that was on it. I got a replacement grill from a 1983 SR5 that is gonna look awesome. It's worth noting that these grills are slightly narrower and were used with the square headlights rather than the round headlights like we have. There is a similar grill to this one that works with the round headlights be we didn't like it as much, so there was a little custom work that went into making this one fit well and look correct with the round headlights but we solved it yesterday and it looks great! I'll post pics of that later. We're leaving the grill off for now until we get paint on the truck.

"restored" the factory emblem


Lastly, we picked up a set of 63" Chevy springs for the rear. Looking forward to trying these out. I've always swapped in new suspension on all my trucks so this is the first time I'm trying something used and not specifically designed for the truck. But the reputation is a great ride and lots of flex from these so we're giving it a shot. Planning to pull a leaf out of the fronts to soften them up and hopefully get the truck an inch or two lower.
Gotta find a deal on some 315/75R16 tires. We're going to use the stock 80 series wheels from my Cruiser with the 315's. The combination of getting the ride height a bit lower and stepping up to 35's to replace the garbage 33's that are on it should improve how this thing drives but also look much better.

 

[KLF]

That grille is gorgeous...

Is that your kitchen? You must eat out a lot.

 

[cruiserdan]

Decades ago I put the later grille, headlamps and headlamp doors on my 1980 4WD. It was fairly easy as I recall. I remember having to drill new mounting holes in the baffles for the headlamps.

 

[Box Rocket]

That grille is gorgeous...

Is that your kitchen? You must eat out a lot.

haha. that's the one clean section of countertop.

 

[Box Rocket]

Decades ago I put the later grille, headlamps and headlamp doors on my 1980 4WD. It was fairly easy as I recall. I remember having to drill new mounting holes in the baffles for the headlamps.

yeah we considered doing the whole swap but we wanted to keep the round headlights but use the later grill. The later grill is slightly narrower and is used with the square headlights.

versus the slightly earlier version that went with the round lights. We didn't like the look of this one as much.

The grill we started with was like this one from the 2wd versions

We ended up with a combination of keeping the round lights, the later grill shape with the crosshatch pattern and a clever way of accounting for the width difference. When we get the grill back on the truck I'll post some photos. We have it off while we try to get paint on the body.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Definitely like the round headlights, and good choice of grille. I like that Toyota "T" logo immensely better than the sombrero thing they use now.

 

[Mac33]

sub'd this will be fun to watch

Thanks for posting