Introducing: "The Mule"

[Combat Chuck]

Two years ago, I bought myself a 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser, a truck I dearly love, but realistically could only manage as a long term project, but the Toyota infection was only just beginning. It wasn't long before I realized I wanted something I could romp around in, something simple, unassuming, something slushbox-free.

The roots of this purchase go all the way back to my childhood, I grew up around trucks. My dad rolled in a 1987 Chevy S-10 with the 2.8-liter rebadged Isuzu V6, and my mom had a 1989 Chevy Silverado 350 TBI with a 4L60-E. I thought trucks were all there was in life, cars were there, but never really caught my eye, not even the sporty ones, they were all second-rate to a good truck.

When I was 14, my uncle accepted a 1965 Chevy C-10 in lieu of payment at his automotive shop in Willits, CA, and I bought it from him on the grounds that I:
-keep my grades up
- spend a summer in Willits with him helping around the shop, so I could work on the truck and make it roadworthy.
That all changed when my uncle was diagnosed with Leukemia, and had to close his shop in order to open up time to fight the VA over his paperwork. He trailered the truck to my house, where i tinkered with it a bit, but without his guidance, I had no idea what I was doing. I was soon to be driving, and needed anything to get me by, and my aunt and uncle (other side of the family) offered me their 1991 Oldsmobile 88 for 500 bucks. I jumped on the deal, and brought it home shortly thereafter.

I loved the Olds', but after a while driving a car just began to grate on me, and soon after, I bought my FJ, but it never plugged the hole, since I can't drive her regularly. My eyes began to wander, I looked enviously at the passers-by in their Toyota pickups, they seemed to have so much fun, in their zippy, rugged little pickups while I was hugging the tarmac in my one-time-luxury car. As time passed, the little issues with my car that grated on me just go too much, the brakes were underpowered, the body too massive. The transmission shifted rough, and dribbled ATF all over my parent's yard. The gas mileage sucked, and the 20-gallon tank made every price listing for gas stations say: "grab your ankles". Then the electrical gremlins took over. The wipers quit, the signals work on occasion, the thing began to eat fuses right and left. Bad grounds on the headlights, three of four window motors died, the fourth just rolls down randomly on its own, generally during rainstorms. The heater jammed on, and the blower motor died. I'd had enough, and I began to look for a 'Yota.
Enter the mule.

I first saw this thing while helping to clean up the PMC Christmas party at Yodaman's December 2009. It was only my second time hanging out with this crowd, and I just kind of hugged the back wall, and ogled the machinery. Anyway, this truck rolled in at the end of the night. Man, that motor just purred, it was like music. I looked, but not long, since I couldn't afford another project. I walked away.
I was back at the shop not long ago, getting a potential buy inspected, when I saw it again. 2 grand for Yodaman-built first-gen. How could I say no? I got a loan, I cut a check, and my dad and I brought it home.

I've written too much, now, so I'll leave off with the pics.

 

[Combat Chuck]

there is some work to be done, I need to replace the front bumper. It's held on with snubbers and bailing-wire. The front springs are inverted, and the nose is a might "dipped" while the rear stick straight up because of four add-a-leafs. If I ever met the booger-eating moron who did that, I'd probably get dragged away by cops...

 

[Combat Chuck]

I tried to get some flex in one of these pictures, but with saggy front springs, no front DS yet, and my mediocre stick skills, it didn't work out so well.

 

[Combat Chuck]

some Carnage

So anyway, I start tooling around my parent's yard since, without the DS, and the right "skillz", I really don't want to go too far into the 10 acres and get myself stuck up a certain aptly-named creek.

Anyway, as I'm pulling around by the fire pit, I hear this loud CRACK! and I knew something bad just happened. I park it, hop out, and yep, just as I feared:
















I'd run over one of my mom's lawn chairs. if I don't update this thread for a while, don't bother looking for me; my neighbor has a backhoe, and my parents have many many canyons for the authorities to never find a body in...

 

[ZPDFJ]

nice story

I can tell you are just as nuts about your Toyotas as I am about mine. Its a real passion thing. I loved the way you built the suspense and then threw in a lawn chair out of left field. You should think about Hollywood..

I hope to take my rig that I am so passionate about up to SR so we can chat and inspect rigs.

 

[liljlandon]

For reference, those springs (in my experience) are normally inverted. Its just the way they roll out of the factory i think. That bumper is eye wretching!

 

[Combat Chuck]

I can tell you are just as nuts about your Toyotas as I am about mine. Its a real passion thing. I loved the way you built the suspense and then threw in a lawn chair out of left field. You should think about Hollywood..

I hope to take my rig that I am so passionate about up to SR so we can chat and inspect rigs.

Well I do fancy myself as a bit of a novelist...

It would be totally cool to check out each other's rigs, I'm just so excited to be upgrading to older tech.

For reference, those springs (in my experience) are normally inverted. Its just the way they roll out of the factory i think. That bumper is eye wretching!

Good to know. I'm gonna get some quotes from Yodaman on monday for fixing the springs/ front DS. Jason, Yodaman's shop foreman recommends rough country springs, but I've heard they don't seem to last long. I'll see what I can acquire on the cheap (maybe 84-85 springs?) until I can afford some Marlins.

That bumper makes me want to punch babies, but I also hope that dimwitted drivers who cut me off and proceed to drive really slow find the prospect of that thing blotting out the sun from their back window to be intimidating. Nonetheless, I have a design I plan on getting fabbed up soon enough...

 

[Combat Chuck]

The plan is...

First things are:
- soften the aft springs and replace those inverted forward ones with something passable for now.
- Front DS
-New tires
- some paint. I really like Rust-oleum's "Dark Hunter Green" on black primer, there's nothing like a nice, dark green. I also hope to black out the chrome with some help from my sandblaster and more black primer.
- Replace the square headlights with round ones from the earlier trucks, and upgrade to Roudeyes while I'm there.
- Center console. I'm prototyping one out of cardboard for now, but will make the finished product out of MDF. It will have 3 power outlets.
- Sound. Tweeters on the sides of the console, 6" in the doors and 4" in kick panels under the dash would do nicely, all tied into the JVC head unit my late uncle gave me so's I can run my Zune (or my laptop) into the speakers. (I really like Iron Maiden when I drive...)
-LED replacement lights all-around (eventually)
- Bumpers
- new seats raised 6" on a square-stock tube frame to accommodate eventual power inverter, and emergency gear. Plus use as storage space for my rifle when I hunt.
- bedliner (someday)
- replace center-handle tailgate with older latched tailgate to simplify things.
- Can-back (someday)

None of these things are in any semblance of order...
Finally, after my loan is paid off, I'll borrow 6 grand, and get myself a 1KZ-TE/R151F combo that I'll have Yodaman install, and I'll never own another gasser or slushbox ever again.

 

[ZPDFJ]

lol

I have the same front bumper. I thought I would tear it off immediately, but it is quite stout, I will save for a Marlin though most likely.

 

[toy4xfun]

hey if she want to off you over that plastic chair, people are throwing them away around here i will grab one and send it to you.
nice truck though!

 

[Combat Chuck]

My cousin Larry does alot of fab/repair work for the local wineries (whineries?) and he's open to help me out with my bumper projects. I'll see if I can sketch up my ideas digitally for everyone.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Bumperage

I plan on basing these things on 1/8th-inch wall square tube, with LED hardware.

Front Bumper:
1. fairlead/ winch plate. I doubt I'll be able to buy the winch for a while, but I intend to be ready for the day I get it.

2. LED fog/Prius blinding lights... 'nuff said.

3. LED Turn signals.

4. Recovery points that tie directly into the frame rails

Rear bumper:

A. Spare tire mount. I don't want the spare under the bed, I want things to be as simple as possible.

B. Pintle. I'll probably source it from IPOR.

C. LED Brake lights. I want people to know I'm braking.

D. Offset backup light. Shamelessly stolen from DansHJ45's pickup bumper build. I really like the asymmetry angle, and I'll likely run the ultra-bright LED cluster, just for the sake of lighting up my entire end of the parking lot on reverse.

E. recovery points, same as the first bumper

F. anti-heep propaganda. Absolutely necessary.

 

[liljlandon]

Hmm... You mean like this?

https://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota-truck-tech/363525-throwing-around-ideas.html

Hijack/
I started this today... Its re-tard strong. Mounted but to dark to take pics.
I love my new mig welder

 

[Combat Chuck]

Hmm... You mean like this?

https://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota-truck-tech/363525-throwing-around-ideas.html

Hijack/
I started this today... Its re-tard strong. Mounted but to dark to take pics.
I love my new mig welder

Nice recovery points! Looks like you've got some neat ideas there in your concept thread, best of luck on the build.
Is that a Miller MIG?

 

[H8PVMNT]

Congrats on a fine pickup. Enjoy your 1st gen! I know I do... They're just a little more fun for some reason.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Thanks! I really do enjoy this thing, though I'm having trouble getting the stick down, it always seems I'm giving it too much gas, or not enough, clutching too slowly, or dropping it, and those few times everything seems just right, I reach for the next gear, it feels like something slides in, blocking the right position and I don't get it in all the way, ending up in neutral. I'll get it down, I just need to practice...

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

The "not going into gear' may be that you aren't pushing the clutch in far enough... Move your seat up shorty!!!

 

[Combat Chuck]

Hey, I'm not short, just altitudinally challenged!

Edit:
I drove 51 miles today, and came to realized that the not going into gear problem had 2 causes:
1. My left foot was slightly too left on the clutch pedal, which limited how far I was actually engaging it (thanks Jerod, you were spot-on)
2. The only other manual vehicles I drove had top-loading transmissions in them, while all the shift linkages on this transmission are to the passenger's side,
which means that where my muscle memory of third was on my mom's F-150 was, placed the divider between first and third. I needed to be slightly more to the right, and down, it's almost as if the standard H-pattern is curved
between the 1/2 and 3/4 rails.
the other problem I had was caused by not enough throttle, with my Olds', I barely have to crack the throttle to idle through in first, but here, it takes a little more pressure...

 

[Combat Chuck]

New Seats!

To date, I've driven 115 Miles in my pickup, the longest of which was a drive to Geyserville, and a drive to Rohnert park, both times, I could feel my body offset in the tired old buckets, slouched off to the left on weary springs. I decided to look at my options. I wanted something firm, but comfortable, sporty, but cloth, a seat that was easy to bolt in, and something that didn't look like a pull-apart special. Well, I found a pair of APC buckets for sale in Rohnert Park. These were the exact same seats I'd wanted for my 40 project, so it seemed like the thing to do if I really wanted to try them out, was get some on the cheap. I paid 100 bucks for the pair, which seemed like a good deal. They are a bit faded, and one has a hole, but they're really comfortable, have minute adjustment ability, and are idiotically easy to bolt in.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Step 1 was to figure out how to mount them on.

They came with their own seat rails, and they looked to be non-specific as to how they bolted on up, just a few generic on either end of the rails. After looking at my stock SR5 buckets, I saw my answer. The stock rails mounted flush to the seat itself, and were cantilevered off the floorboards by angled brackets at the front and back. The PO of the seats actually bought them from another guy who'd had them in a pickup, and threw in an extra set of Toyota seat rails as well, which helped me form my plan.
1. Drill the brackets off the spares
2. removed the passenger seats, and drill the brackets off those rails, too.
3. using stainless hardware and nylocks mount the brackets onto the rails, then just mount the rails back on.