Dyna 150/Toyoace slow truck, slow build

[CarloniousFunk]

After having had this rad little truck for about a year now, tinkering and lurking on the forums trying to scavenge any info of people building these out, i figured I should share the journey of my build too!

The truck is a 1998 Dyna 150 / Toyoace LY161 with the 2.8l 3L N/A Diesel
Picked it up from a dealer/importer that put a lot of work into freshening it all up, lifting it 2" via torsion bar lift and blocks in the rear, and added new tires KO2 30x9.5

Photos from the port:

When I bought the truck I flew up to Portland with my skis and a small backpack to pick it up, with the intention of driving it back to northern California with a stop to visit some friends in Bend and spend a couple days skiing mt bachelor as it was late December and they had a killer start to the season. On the way down I stopped and passed on the lights and sirens to a fellow who was resorting a similar jdm firetruck back into working condition. As someone that would absolutely abuse having those things and cause a ruckus, I never intended on keeping them and was happy to remove the temptations. The truck made the 13hr drive home purring like a kitten. The fastest thing I've owned has been a KLR650 dual sport motorcycle so I felt right at home cruising at 55-65 on the two lane scenic route. Hills and headwinds definitely slow you down but it seems the little 3L will run forever if you're not in a hurry.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

One of the first things on my to-do list was cut all the racks off. I have no intentions of keeping this a firetruck and cutting the racks off and having the bed be more setup like a service body fit my needs much better. After that, added some roof racks, swapped the ski box over, and got a new set of steel wheels. Painted part of the front bezel black along with the bumper.

The new wheels have the tires running the front step pretty easily, so I removed the steps while I try to decide if I want to trim the body a little bit or try a small body lift and crank the torsion bars up a little more

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Part of de-firetrucking the Dyna was removing all the wiring for the lights, sirens, pa system, etc.

Dash came apart easily, and a day of tracing wires, re-looming, and cutting/replacing zip-ties, had it all cleaned up and returned back to "stock".

While I had it apart, I of course had to replace the head unit with something that could tune to US radio stations and have Bluetooth for some jams.
Little did I know the truck only has one 3" speaker in the driver's side of the dash. That'll be a project for another day though. I also made a clean panel out of some 1mm plastic to replace the panel with the switches, pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

To make the most of the single 3" speaker I added sound deadening to the floor of the cab, and the doors. The headliner seems to be glued on pretty well so I left the roof alone for the time being. It made a very noticeable difference, and really makes the cab much more hospitable on drives at higher speeds. I should have added speakers to the doors while I was doing this but ya can't win em all.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Quick break for a few fun photos from the first few months of having the truck. It handles the snow pretty well, but like most trucks greatly benefits having some weight in the back, super fun vehicle to cruise around town in and always a conversation starter.

The gf got her a dog a little fire hat to really ham it up when we go out for a drive.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Removed the rectangular yellow light from the roof and made a block-off plate with the same 1mm plastic and siliconed it on along with the original mounting bolts.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

I removed the yellow light to be able to add a roof basket and put the ski box back onto my daily driver. Had to take the truck out after for a little photo shoot of course. It's no rock crawler, but for a little work truck it's decently capable off-road.

Little baby flex

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Cannibalized a cheap bike roof carrier to make to trays in the bed for carrying bikes, with the seat on the chrome rack and the front wheel ski strapped to the try it makes for a super solid mount. Not a permanent solution but it works for the time being.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

As a very rough drawing, this is what I envision for this truck. A small basic camper, think small teardrop trailer style, that's mounted on a flatbed. Inside would essentially be a ridgid, warm, weather proof place to sleep and room for very basic cooking if the weather is bad. While these trucks have a 1.25T bed capacity id like to keep the weight low to not further slow down an already slow vehicle.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Nothing too exciting, but swapped in some new sway bar linkage bushings. Haven't driven it enough yet to notice if it made a difference, but I'm hoping it calms down a little bit of body roll.

 

[NixonK]

Great looking rig! I have nearly the identical truck (2002 Toyoace LY152) and I'm going to do the same sound insulation as you did here... Seems like a pretty reasonable upgrade as right now it sounds like a tin can! I jacked mine up about 1.75" at the front by cranking the bars, and installed a 2" lift block on the rear axle. No rubbing on 30.5" tires at the moment. 31" definitely rub though...

 

[NixonK]

Great looking rig! I have nearly the identical truck (2002 Toyoace LY152) and I'm going to do the same sound insulation as you did here... Seems like a pretty reasonable upgrade as right now it sounds like a tin can! I jacked mine up about 1.75" at the front by cranking the bars, and installed a 2" lift block on the rear axle. No rubbing on 30.5" tires at the moment. 31" definitely rub though...

Correction it's a 2000, not a 2002.

 

[65swb45]

Sub’d. I love your work. All tasteful.

 

[cruisermatt]

these are cool. I want one now !

 

[Ditcherman]

Hustle.

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[CarloniousFunk]

Still trying to decide how to setup the bed on the lil truck. Ultimately the goal is to flatbed and build a camper box, but in the meantime and as a good project to practice some welding in thinking some sort of bedrack over the "service body boxes" with a RTT mounted on top? Could use the RTT as a pop up roof on the camper box later down the road... Maybe repurpose the canvas cover that came with the truck to make a cover for the bed under the RTT to have some weather protection for the bikes and cargo on trips...

For now here's a couple shots from some random drives

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Finally moving forward with some projects, ordered some steel and a swing out tire carrier kit from 4xInnovations. Basically I'm going to fab up a panel to fit the corner that's missing the bedside, bring the corner in about a foot to match the other side, and use the tire carrier essentially as a tailgate.

I'm leaning towards removing the boxes from the bed. They're not weatherproof, lockable, and they're showing some signs of rusting. I think they look cool, and they're semi practical, but having a full size truck bed seems nicer? considering getting some sort of bedrack and mounting a RTT that would sit below the back window (makes getting a 70lb dog inside much easier) or building a frame out of Dom tubing that would put the RTT just slightly above the roofline and getting the canvas cover re-sewn to fit the new setup.

Would be going for a look similar to this, with a RTT mounted on top

 

[CarloniousFunk]

Had some steel and the swing out tire carrier get delivered, and finally started stripping down the boxes. Still on the fence if I was to fully remove them or rehab them, but I have a couple gallons of herculiner at the ready.

 

[CarloniousFunk]

A bit of rust and tons of seam sealer inside the boxes. Not sure if it's worth the hassle to try and sand, prime, and bedline all the nooks and crannies.

 

[FJRanger]

How are the boxes attached? I see a bunch of rivets. They probably be easier to rehab off the truck and you could, somewhat easily, put them back if you don’t like the look.