550hp 2JZ 1978 Hilux Build

She's coming along!

 

I saw this the other day and thought of this thread. It wasn't nearly as cool as yours, but I will say the school bus yellow could be your new thing.

 

Serious skills... coming from someone with a hacksaw and soldering iron!

 

Has Tarzan taken a ride in it since your updated rear end shenanigans?

 

He hasn't ridden in it since it got turbocharged in general, thing is (was?) way too loud with a 3.5" straight pipe for his little brain to handle. Hopefully the muffler thing quiets it down enough for him, but I doubt it...

Even naturally aspirated it was really loud for the dogs, I had to be pretty ginger on the throttle to not worry about it blowing their ears out. I could put a "large" muffler under it, but not a lot of room to play under there plus mufflers are so ugly (even if you can't see them )

 

Hahahaha that makes sense! I can see a Super Dave helmet and goggles in his future!

 

I was having issue with the suspension reaching full compression. This was as close to the bump stop as it would get with the springs installed:



(This is the passenger side, you can also see the misalignment that now exists between the LCA and the bent subframe and bump stop area.)

I also measured the front end again just to get an exact number, I took the crane scale and engine hoist and looped it around a stud to get an exact force on the hub.



I came up with a range of numbers for coilover spring rate, and today ordered a 750 lbf/in spring from summit. Next was to figure out why the front was bottoming out. First thing I did as a hail mary was to machine out the upper coil seat as far as I was willing to go, but that didn't fix the issue. I then took everything apart and ratchet strapped the suspension up and realized the shock is nearly rubbing on the stock coil mount.



This isn't the simplest thing to solve. The coilover springs are about the same diameter as that lip that is near the shock body, and the upper spring perch centers the spring on that lip---ie the spring is such a small diameter that you can't remove enough material from the upper spring perch to make the spring perch clear the shock, you would just end up with nothing there. The spring perch has to fundamentally be changed and offset the spring in the stock coil bucket to clear the shock. Lots of ways to do this, but nothing particularly elegant and no nice way to keep it indexed in the coil bucket to prevent it from spinning over time and then jamming up the shock body again.

My solution I decided to try? Using the stock spring! And specifically cutting it down (to nearly half its length) so that it can rest on the coilover lower spring perch and allow the ride height to be adjusted. Then the factory upper coil interface can still be used and nothing gets near the shock body! I cut the spring down, literally in half, cut two 1/4" plates out (could do one, but the stock spring is so big it completely overhangs the coilover spring perch, so I was worried about the plates bending), and then welded a little section of 3" exhaust tubing I had laying around which keeps the spring centered.



It's kind of janky, but it works beautifully! At the lowest setting the bump stop sits about an inch off, and you can push on the truck and fully bottom it out for the first time! I think this is the move! It does give some issue if I ever want to swap springs, but the ride height at the lowest setting is right where I want it, with an inch or so of preload it should be perfect! Once the summit springs show up they'll get turned around and sent back---and then I ended up ordering MORE springs, but this time for the rear. The rear springs are 125 lbf/in, and right now the truck is sitting around ~2.75-3.0" of up travel in the back. I'd like to get that number about a half inch lower but the rear springs already have zero preload on them. I ordered some 80 lbf/in springs which if my math is right (this time....) then that should let me lower the truck 1.5" more than it is now, so with an inch of preload should be around the rear ride height I want, which is with the tire just below the fender to match the front.

The front end solution is working out great, whether it works on the passenger side with that bent coil bucket remains to be seen tomorrow.

 

Passenger side shock I was worried about alignment in the coil bucket, from being tweaked it actually ended up lining up better!



I then did the same setup as the driver's side and adjusted the shocks and settled on this spot as rode height:



And she's on all fours and looking pretty bad!



The adjuster knobs on the shocks make a huge difference, on the lowest setting it's really squishy and bounces around before settling down. On the highest compression you can barely move the front, and highest rebound it slowly returns to ride height and doesn't overshoot at all. Out of 20 adjustments I left it at 5 on compression and 10 on rebound. Excited to play with the suspension setup, and it's nice it gets so soft since the rear is gonna need it!

 

Holy crap!! It's time to play with the asphalt with the Hilux again!! I'm glad the suspension fun came out perfect! Sounded like happy accidental progress! She looks way better on the ground then on your lift! Congrats!!

 

Thing sits so proper love it

 

New rear springs came in today, got those installed then did some alignment on the front and rear. The rear axle had to be scooted over half an inch or so, and on the front end the passenger toe was way out. Then onto some fabricating of things for the rear. First was a new fuel cell filler, the stock Aeromotive one is an absolute pile of shit and I'd be shocked if it had ANY sealing capability. Bought a 2" ID threaded bung and cap and cut out a new plate.



But the real goal was to get the rear tires to clear now that ride height was so low. I wanted to flare out the bedsides, but the first requirement was to stiffen the tail gate area so it wouldn't rotate as the bedsides got pushed out. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, literally one derpy bolt at the bottom was all that held the bedsides on, really the tailgate latching is what held them in place more than anything. I just wanted it fixed, so I cut out a bracket and welded it to the frame.



I then made the bedside "flare brackets", which is a tab on the cage, a tab on the bedside, and a piece of sheet metal (with a stiffener on the back side). These I would like to eventually be a cool billet piece, but for now this boring flat bar will work.





This flared the bedside out about 1.5" so it just overhangs the rear tires. There is about an inch of up travel before the tires start to pass the bedside, so this was going to be needed very fast to save everything. And the completed product rolled off the lift, at the correct ride height and fenders flared out:









The truck is looking so good! Lots of little things I had been putting off coming together while I wait for other parts. At this point I'm not sure what else to work on that's needed to drive it. The driveshaft guy apparently has been sick, I told him I'd be down the hill this weekend so we'll see if he ends up getting it built by then.

 

That looks great! When you said flare the bedsides, I thought you meant rolling the wheel arch, but your solution came out very nice! Can't wait to see how it handles with all the suspension upgrades and bracing, should be planted now.

 

I might use a roller on the front if the front tires hit too much, but the rear was easy since the actual bed is gone so the bedside isnt much more than a flat piece of sheet metal!