Toyota Truck of the Month - January 2000 - John Lange's 1981 Pickup - Toyota 4x4 @ Off-Road.com
Toyota Truck of the
Month
January 2000 Written By John Lange
Edited By Chris Geiger
January 2000 Written By John Lange
Edited By Chris Geiger
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In the
late 80's, I was one of a small group that started up a official
four wheel drive club in our high school. At that time I
didn’t even own a four by four but had numerous friends that
did. It was nothing fancy, just a group of us that liked to
go up (sometimes during school) and play in the hills. Today,
things are different.
After going to college for some
years and now employed full time as a police officer, I make time
to pertain to the things that are important in life, one of them
spending time modifying and perfecting the Toyota project truck,
1981 Toyota SR5.
In 1992, I started out with a 1980 Toyota truck
that sported a Buick 231 V6. I bought it from the originally
owner and sold it two years later after some willing body paid me
what I bought it for. Being so impressed with Toyota 4x4's, I
rushed to the dealer and bought a brand new 94 extra cab. In
1997, the ex-cab was traded in for a new 4Runner with the Toyota
electric locker. The new 4Runner was brought to Moab with
only 2K miles on. I then confirmed that Toyota’s
quality was simply put, outstanding, even right out of the
box. I had a concern though. Yes, many looked at me as
if I was out on a weekend pass from the local mental institution. A
brand new 4Runner, a $35,000 SUV in Moab? I was there.
And, knock on wood, I suffered no damage year after
year.
These days have changed. After attending
the Easter Jeep Safari for 10 years now, I told myself some years
ago that I really needed to start building something up for the
more challenging trails. Something that wasn’t $35,00,
and something that didn’t have a gold package and
spotless paint on it. Low and behold, the latest project
truck was bought.
I
started my search in late Aug. 1998. I search and search and
finally found a truck on the Internet in Nov. 98.. It was a
local truck, a 1981 SR5 with a.c., and the owner was asking $1500
for it. I went and drove it and made note of what it needed
and then bought the truck for $900. I took her home and
started the work.
I gathered numerous great idea’s from the
Toyota
mailing list. One thing that I knew I wanted to do was to
bob the bed. I went out and bought the Home Depot $100
special welder and a jigsaw. I then followed some hints from
people that had experienced this operation. After marking out
what I wanted to cut, I started. When was I done, I had cut
19.5 inches off. The hardest part about the job was having
the patience to weld it back together. 
This was my first experience as a welder.
The welds are ugly, I’ll be the to first admit, but so far so
good and there holding.
The next project was to give her
some color. I wanted something that was cost effective and
something that I wouldn’t stress about if a scratch was
made. One day as I was browsing the local army/navy surplus,
I discovered about 20 rattle cans of olive drab green. I made
the purchase, took care of some rust, sanded her down, and
gave her the new look. They also had some flat black that I
bought and that I used for trim. 
I designed the rack in the bed by myself.
There was many nights that I laid there in bed thinking and
planning it out. (Sound familiar?) I wanted something
that could hold some crucial trail items and yet wouldn’t
take up room in the bed that was already cut
short.
After the rack was made, I started getting into
this thing quite a bit. Thank God the Misses was inside knee deep
studying for her master’s degree. I used that to my
advantage so that I could “leave her alone to
study”. I thought at one time I should just move my
microwave and bed in the garage.
I bought a cheap pipe bender at
Harbor Freight. I then fabbed up some rock sliders, a front
bar of some type, and also used a piece of the same tube for a
little extra strength on the tie rod. 
Using ½ inch tubing and my pipe bender, made
some “ribs” for the rear canvas back cover.
Originally, I was going to go to the local fabric store and bribe
some crafty sewing machine guru to sew up a top. Then once
again, the army/navy surplus store was there for me. I found
a genuine surplus 6x8 treated canvas tarp. It was only $20
and it fit perfectly with no cutting. The ribs were welded on
to the existing rack and then bolted to the top rails of the
truck. I then bought a snap kit at Eagle hardware and put
snaps in along the bottoms of the canvas to the bed rails.
The canvas fits great and can be rolled up on the
sides.
In Moab, it has been my finding that a little more all-terrain
tread has become useful for the slickrock. That is why I
decided on going with 33x12.5 Big-O AT’s. They are a
nice compromise between a mud and a all-terrain tire. Another
plus was that there is now a Big-O located in Moab in case I needed
to utilize that road hazard warranty. With some dropped
pressure, the Big-O’s grab great in Moab.
I wanted to get more
articulation out of the springs. After installing the
Skyjacker 3 inch springs with 1.5 Rubicon shackles, I modified the
front shock mounts by removing the Toyota mounts and installing the
Ford tuck mounts that were a lovely $13 a piece. I cut off
the Toyota mounts with a grinder and then welded in the new
mounts. After welding, I drove three grade 8 bolts through
them for some extra strength. This cost effective and fairly easy
job gave me an extra 4.5 inch’s of shock travel. And in
rockcrawling, that’s what it’s all about eh?. I
purchased Doestch Tech shocks all around using Pre-Runner’s
up front and MV-12's in the rear. Extended brake lines and
poly bushings were used in the lift process as well.
After literally making myself
sick deciding on which way to lower the gear ratios for
rockcrawling, I decided upon a Marlin Crawler extra transfer
case. After meeting Marlin some time ago at the Easter Jeep
Safari, I was truly impressed by his product. Apparently, I
am not the only one that feels this way too. The installation
was not too bad considering I did it all by myself. Ok, I
admit, I was inpatient and wanted to put it in to see how it
worked. It took me about 5 hours, 2 cans of spinach and a
bowl of Wheaties to put it in. Next time, I’ll rent a
tranny jack or rent-a-buddy. After the final mods were done,
shortening and lengthening the drive lines (Six states), the
install was done and at that time I know my neighbors really think
im a nut job now as I drove the truck up and down the street at 3
mph. Im sure they also wondered the heck I was doing when I
got out of the truck and let it drive it self at idle. Thanks
Marlin.
Some interior items I have installed include a
Smittybuilt cage that I purchased from Downey. Yes, I know,
the cage says that its not really meant for protection, but
consider this. When Rockcrawling, the speeds are kept
low. Usually when you roll, it’s more of a tip. In this
case, the cage will be better then nothing. The install is
clean and looks good too. 
I
bought some cheap lights and placed under the truck for seeing when
light conditions are low. I wired and placed switch on my
stick shift for easy finger operation. There are also some
back up lights that are wired in to the same switch for backing up.
The switch on the stick shift comes in handy when backing up really
quick.
The 81' Toyota does not have much room interior wise. When I
looked into replacing the seats I wanted to find some seats that
had a thinner back. Being 6'05', I already had a problem
squeezing into the truck. I found some seats at the local
pick-n-pull from a 89 Acura Integra. They are comfy, sporty,
and really easy to put in.
In the next month, I will be
installing some lockers and more than likely changing over the
gears front and rear. As a avid four-wheeler, im sure many of
you are like me and have a never-ending list of want items and mods
to do on your rig. Time and money is what it’s all
about. 
I have started a
Toyota only 4wd club here in Utah called the “Wild
Yoat’s Toyota 4x4 Association”. The membership is
that of nothing, just a good will to have fun and share Toyota
ideas. There is a web page dedicated to Wild Yoat’s and
one can access that at www.geocities.com/johnnylange/. In the meantime,
keep it fun and look for me on the trails. It’s nice to
know that there is such a devoted group of four-wheelers out there
that share so many different interests. |
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