1981 toyota 1 ton truck
 

Oldest brother bought this new, 36 years ago. I put the military surplus bed on the truck when his camper basically fell apart from sitting under a Magnolia tree, probably 20 years ago. He got an engine and transmission from my youngest brothers truck when it was drowned during TS Isabell.

Now oldest bro wants to give me the truck. Left frame rail has some rust through, but the right is still very nice. I have some pieces from a trailer hitch that fit perfectly over the existing frame rails. Otherwise it has just been inspected and is driveable as is.

The "bed" is an old military surplus trailer they got form a surplus auction many decades ago, of the type they haul behind a Deuce @ a quarter truck.

Found a photo of the original configuration. We welded the top rear half of a cab from the rear floor to the windshield pillars.

Added photo of original camper configuration.

RIDE

One of these days we should all post the various list of cars we have driven and I am sure I may have driven almost every brand but you have the most eclectic.:lol:

LOL, I can't remember many of the cars I bought. Used to do salvage auctions, over a period of 5 years I fixed 12 93-97 Nissan Altimas. Rebuilt over 150 since 1973 and that's just repaired wrecks. I fixed a 1987 300ZX, just because I had all the parts (water in the floor). One of my customers bought it and was still driving it 10 years later. First car I ever owned that had onboard factory MPG gauge.

Some of them:
1939 Ford woody station wagon
1967 383 Formula S Barracuda coupe
1972 BMW 2002
1959 Corvette
1976 280Z
1991 Nissan NX2000
1982 280ZX turbo
1972 Datsun 510 2dr with hopped up L20B truck engine

Plus a dozen or so motorcycles beginning with a 1973 Kawasaki 900.

My brother's Harley is sitting in my garage, just take care of it and ride it enough to keep it running nice. He pays tags and insurance, just insists I run only Amoco white premium gas in it.

I'm assuming the Woody was bought new LOL

My first was a 1954 Pontiac 6 cyl with a 6 volt battery. Car started one morning at -49F and mild wind while parked outside.

It was given to me, probably 40 came to me that way. Fixed a customers 240Z that had serious rust in the passengers floor and strut rod mount, $400 later it was good for another 5 years, when he drove it in, gave it to me and bought my NX2000 (wrecked rebuilt). He drove that at least another 10 years, might still be driving it today for all I know.

Customers regularly got astounding (for the time) mileage out of their Nissan-Datsuns especially those who took decent care of their cars.

Hmmm. With the rust, that 1 ton is probably down to a 0.99 ton.

After bonding with the oxygen to form the rust should the truck not be heavier??? Unless parts have fallen off LOL

Those Toyota frames are rust factories. I checked it with an Estwig hammer, the claw portion works nice. You can tell by the sound when the metal is solid. The passengers side is fine, seems like the shape of the fuel tank directs rain water into the frame flushing it out good enough so I only have to fix the drivers side.

Drivers seat not torn, dash not cracked, even the original rubber floor covering is fine. It does need a thorough cleaning Oldest bro is not one to keep vehicles really clean like I keep mine. One good pressure washing and it will look much better. I'll keep an eye out for some cheap paint in case I get really inspired.

We did an emergency repair to get the structural integrity from about 35% to around 75%, using a section of an old trailer hitch. Enough to make it safe to drive the 25 miles from his house to mine.

I pulled out the interior, seats, floor covering, down to the metal floor. There are 4 spots that will require attention to make the cab waterproof in rainy weather.

I plan on cutting away the remains until I get to clean metal, then fabricating up the repair panels, larger than the hole and mount the panels 10mm (6x1.0) screws and speed nuts, then apply sealer and bolt the panels in. The repair panels will have the edges doubled over for additional strength.

Normally on unibody cars I would weld the panels in for structural integrity, but right now I just want to get the cab water tight, then finish the frame repair and do some other things like a valve adjustment, oil change and finish removing the radio and AC systems as I have no need for either. I pulled the evaporator out of the heater box along with a pile of magnolia leaves and other debris.

I'll try to get some pictures when the weather allows. The truck runs and drives fine, brakes, clutch, gears and engine all work properly. If they had not then I probably would not have messed with fixing this truck. I love the military bed conversion and it's awfully hard to ignore when you see it on the road. I just hope no returning GI with PTSD thinks I am here from Afghanistan and decides to take me out!!!!!

Ben working steadily on the truck. Tomorrow at 9AM brother number 3 is going to weld in the rest of the frame repair sections. I stripped the doors, fenders and hood, primed them with some garage sale spray primer, then used a paint roller for a house to roll on a base coat of white paint. Wimbledon white is a FOMOCO color that has been around for decades.

I've fixed so many squeak and rattle sources, I lost count. The tailpipe he had was held on with wire ties. I just cut it off completely, leaving the muffler and 6 inches of pipe to just behind the cab. It legally only needs to be behind the passenger compartment.

Pulled the rear wheels, scotch brited all the wheels and painted them black. Marked where the inner valve stem is located and put 40 psi air in all 4 rear tires. Brother had not checked the inside tire pressure since 2007. Had to got to a truck repair shop to get the lugs off. I was twisting an X wrench up like a pretzel with a 3 foot pipe extension, probably 400 pounds feet and no go. Left side is left handed threads, but they would not budge in either direction.

It actually rides decent as long as you don't hit a big bump. The rear axle is rated for 4400 pounds so with no weight it will shake your fillings out LOL.

The bed is 8 feet X 5 foot 3 inches, sadly the wheel arches are not 4 feet between each other and they can't be changed without contacting. the tires

So that's almost two weeks of about 6 hours a day working on that "free" truck.

It's worth resurrecting now that more than half (and the nastiest) of the work is done. I'm out about $200 so far for materials, not to bad.

Reason for tackling this mess.
New windshield
Seat upholstery new
All tires at least 50%
Jasper engine and transmission replaced in 2005, less than 20k miles on both.
Clutch was replaced when the engine and tranny were replaced.
5 years ago Bro spend $1221 to get the complete brake system overhauled.
The rear axle is a real truck unit, 6 lug with removeable axles like all heavy duty units.
He even installed air shocks
I ripped out the complete AC system, the cruise control and the radio. No need for those for the purpose of a truck.
The radiator is original, I can't believe it still works perfectly and doesn't leak. You can bet that no replacement will ever last that long, since May 1981.

Finished the frame repair. 1@ 2"x2"x2" U channel. 2@ 2x14" and 3 smaller pieces and it's stronger than new since the patches are 3/16" thick. Finished up at 11:30AM, went to lunch and 25 miles back home.
I thought the baffles in the muffler were falling apart, but it was the upper shield on the catalyst, popped that off and eliminated rattle that sounded like the timing chain.
Adjusted the valves, with new gasket, the half moon plugs at the end and 4 grommets for the valve cover bolts. Spent some time cleaning the valve cover up and stripped the rust off the upper air cleaner and resprayed it with some aerosol gloss black.
One more sealing the repair panels session then I will reinstall the heater intake housing (used to house the ac evaporator removed earlier).
At 65 psi the rear axle is rated to 4400 pounds, it's bad enough at 40 psi. I remember one time he hauled a 55 gallon drum of used wheel weights, but they did not put it in front of the axle and when he took off the front wheels became airborne!
Got a base coat of activated acrylic enamel rolled on like house paint, saving me a ton on a respray job with no overspray.
A couple more days and I'll be down to the paint job. I think black and white will be fine.
Got some JB weld for the nipple on the air injection gulp valve and I need a radiator, the 36 year old original just can't get rid of enough heat when it's close to 80 degrees and 60+ MPH. Not overheating but right on the max safe range of the gage. When I got home I checked the top and bottom hoses and they were practically the same temperature, sure sign of a partially clogged radiator. At that point I will be into it for $500. LOL maybe I'll try to blow it out some with the leaf blower. :lol::eek::rolleyes: Or the pressure washer Ha,Ha.

New radiator ($114 rockauto) will be here Wednesday. Think I'll try to see if I can get this one working better. Drain the coolant and try a pressure washer with a rag sealing the rad cap orfice, blow the crud out the bottom. I'll know if it works since it's close to 80 degrees here today, versus frost on the 4th of July 1815 after Tambora blew many cubic miles of micro ash over 50k feet altitude.

I had to take the key off my group of keys on the key chain to stop the last major rattle inside the cab. Now the predominate rattles are the pin locks for the tailgate and the right inside door lock knob.

Only mechanical repairs were the valve adjustment and radiator replacement. The whole powertrain basically has about 20k miles. Engine and transmission are Jasper remanufactured. Rear axle is a real truck unit with separately accessible axles, 6 lug with a two ton rating.

I'll get some pictures later.

Right at 180k miles right now, 5k a year average since new.