since I ain't as ashamed of it being a plain saggy truck anymore I figured I could make a 'build' thread finally. So here it is...

Beginning of the story is I drive wrecker/wrench for a living and shorty before the Blazer came to me Blew up my wife 4runner for the last time so we were down to 1 4x4 for a little bit, until I towed in the truck with a seized engine.


I knew the truck for the most part as the past 3 owners were normal-ish customers on the maintenance end and was able to get it cheap. It sat for a little bit before having a surprisingly difficult time finding a good correct 4.3 for it so while waiting/searching installed the safari basket we had on the Toyota

along with a spare pair of cross bars in the factory rack

and an overhead grab handle on the driver side

(which is a simple install as the threaded holes are already in the roof panel, just cut the holes in the headliner and save the bolts from the junkyard donor the handle comes from)

other non-noteworthy stupidness happened while waiting as well, until a smoker was located


While the important labor was going on with the engine swap my wife changed out the headlights, front markers and blacked out the top bar on the grill and after some shakedown and more trivial things (fuel pump, couple times... window motor, simple things) the spare tire got relocated from the stock location to the basket and the wheels were painted with spray on plasti-dip



got the grill shell I prefer from a friend


and somehow got lucky at the pick a part finding the only s-series with the style hitch I wanted was the only one that wasn't rotted in half

(yes the filler plug sais Toyota, you work with what you have sometimes)

Couldn't take the wimpy sounding horns and had a pair from a FWD Olds 88 or 98 so they went in


the reason I had to have a hitch...

that little basket gets used for all kinds of stuff!

flipped the rear axle to spring over, cranked the torsion bars to their current max, and mounted up the BFG 31's from the old Toyota


so as it sits as of todays date!


with his older brother (my Pathfinder)

 

Looks really nice man!! I'm so happy you took off that exhaust tip thing thay was on there. I was looking through the pics as i was reading and was totally going to tell you to ditch it and by the time I got to the bottom it was gone

 

Yea, it was a joke that lasted longer than expected. I think it would scrape off speed bumps! (I have no issues with critisim as well, wouldn't have felt bad if it was still there and you didn't like it)

 

Got 1 mirror switched over to the newer style, not a big accomplishment I know... (and yes I did it right and re-pinned the plug so they match. not just hack and tape stuff) just gotta find a right side one now.
got to find out if the 4wd works too, not wheelin but at least some loose ground to have an excuse to hit the button


other minute crap got done too, fresh oil/filter, bent the tabs under the rear bumper... dorky things

 

looks good nunya, have any trouble when doin the spring over lift?

 

Only problems were miscalculations on my own part, I didn't think ahead enough to realize just how much it would change the rear height. My mind took into consideration of the sag it had but didn't factor in the height of the axle into the difference and only thought of the leaf pack height. Other than that and the afterthought of making shock mount extensions I had about 2 hours invested (including prep time and coffee breaks, fortunately had my best helper/wife as an extra set of hands and have access to torches/welder/plasma cutter/lift/all the good toys) and very minimal bloodloss to the point I would call it rather successful

 

hey nunya can i get inffo and pics of the spring over axle swap i really wanna do this mod to mind to raise the rear of mine up more

 

would also like pics of that to, an hey atleast she helps instead of complaining cause your spending more time with your car an not her lol

 

I didn't get pictures during but I'll get some of it as it sits today. As long as you (or a friend) is a confident welder and has patience, it ain't that bad. My stuff all came apart nice so it went smoothly and all I have invested is time, some metal I had laying for the shock mount extensions (which ain't 100% complete) and brake line mount extension, and $20 for a new pair of leaf spring perches.

 

yeah mine girl aint patient if shes with me while im messin around with my toys shes mad cause im not paying attention to her while im working or if im not with her an im working shes constently texting me sometimes i wish whoever came up with text wouldnt have kinda lol. but i really like the look of the truck still wanna see pics of as sits today