Slowly but Shirlee the '91 Toyota Single Cab

[genera_lee]

Wow it's been over a year since I posted here. Honestly can't believe all the commercialization of this forum. I paid for it already though so here I am...

Anyways.

Lots has happened. I'll post more in the coming weeks. Build wise, a quick recap:

1. Refreshed interior and crushed the install of a bunch of sound deadening and whatnot in the cab. Plus install of some high end Focal component speakers and a tune.
2. Built a modular truck bed platform with a drawer. Proven out now, but still needs some refinement, as does my topper.
3. Rear diff ate a pinion bearing so I replaced the whole diff with one from another truck
4. Rear axle bearings also needed replacement, so I just took care of that
5. Picked up a 3.0L inline 6 from a '91 supra that I have started to tear down to eventually swap into the pickup

Upcoming things to be done:
1. Front end refresh, looks like my Pitman arm is starting to wallow out, and it's only a matter of time before the other tie rod ends and whatnot start to go.
1.1. Front wheel bearing assessment and possible r&r
2. Rear lift helper springs install
3. Front ball joint spacer lift, diff drop.
4. Tires, upsize, maybe new wheels. (Obligatory clearancing also)
5. Alignment
6. Wheel

More updates with pics to come. Mostly jusy copy paste from my main forum page...‍♂

I did a 7MGE in my 85, coupled it with a w56 and still went through a transmission every other year. Night and day difference in power though.
Curious to find out how your sound deadening went. I did a bunch on my 4runner with negligible results.

I went ham on it. All three parts on the doors and back wall and as much of the floor as I could do. (CLD tiles, closed cell foam, and mass loaded vinyl) dropped in cab noise while driving around 12db based on a phone app

I may have to bug you in PM about your swap. I'm still a little foggy on the clutch situation. But it'll have to wait til after the rebuild cause it currently has a spun bearing

 

[Offroadnutz]

If you have any questions ask. Ill try to remember but its ben 10 yrs since I did the swap.

 

[genera_lee]

A lot has happened since the last update on Shirlee.
I will break it up into a few posts consisting of:

1. 2 camping/wheeling trips of note(Bishop/Mammoth and White Rock Lake)
2. Covering the full cab audio and power components install
3. A modular camper bed platform setup build with very few pictures and lots of pondering
4. An epic southwest camping trip to Sedona, the Grand canyon, and Zion, with a link to actual good pictures because I'm lazy, and this is a truck-centric forum
5. Current exploits into the realm of upgrades/maintenance, and engine swappery.

 

[genera_lee]

First post:
Caping trip to Bishop and Mammoth.
Got the truck all buttoned up from the sound system exploits/detours. then immediately (like I finished the autotune on the headunit as we were loading the truck up to leave 3 hours late) hauled ass to the promised land, AKA Bishop, CA. I have been in love with Bishop and the surrounding areas for years, and I don't see that changing any time soon. One day maybe I'll post some of the highlights of the areas, but plenty of others here have been in the Bishop/Lee Vining/Lone Pine/Mammoth area and know how incredible it is. no need to harp anymore on it. Found our way to our usual campsite areas and found a rad spot, then went to town to grab some supplies. Camped for the night, then headed up the hill to catch the last few mashed potato turns of the season in Mammoth. Stopped for a while for a dip in the river outside Bishop near some boulders, then made dinner at camp and chilled. Did the Valentine Lake hike in Mammoth the next day, With the last half mile of it being a near-vertical, snowy rock scramble. Lots of fun to go back down, sucky to go up.

A couple of other camping trips I'm sure happened, but maybe in the other car, or in Shirlee but without as much pictorial evidence. Then some time around the 4th of July i made my way out to a secluded lake to do some (what I thought would be) some low risk solo wheeling and a jaunt to a new Alpine Lake. I picked a terrible overall line because I was an idiot, and the wheeling was much more sketchy than anticipated. #Badlinesgoodtimes I guess getting out there, and I caught a couple of baby smallmouth bass, but nothing to write home about in terms of fishing. It was a delightful drive out there and back though; I will definitely be back to paddleboard and fish some more.

one anecdote: some time during this lapse of time, I picked up and refinished a trans/t-case crossmember from a local guy who swore up and down it was out of a single case, w56, first gen 4runner with a 22r or 22re. so I thought it would work in the truck no problem. well, none of the frame rail bolt holes come anywhere close t lining up, but look to be space appropriately. so I plan to chop the frame pads off, figure out where to weld them back on, and proceed to modify the thing to make it work. it should give me like 4 inches of belly clearance back, and help my breakover angle.

 

[genera_lee]

- Cab/audio build -
highlights:

• power windows installed
• power locks installed
• power mirrors installed
• Focal midrange woofers in the doors
• Focal Tweeters in A pillars
• JL TW-3 10 inch thin sub
• Kenwood 5 channel sub running all components active
• full 3 layer sounds deadening throughout cab (CLD, CCF, MLV)

Tweeter pods finished up and ready to be bolted in place. Check out that color/texture match!

ripped out interior:

power mirrors getting installed (old one is the tiny black one on the right):

door speakers and new mounting rings getting mocked up for placement to clear internal door structure, existing holes in door panels, window rails, wiring location for speakers, etc:

The wiring took me way longer than expected, but I can't half ass anything so I did it right and now need to take the time to record the extensions I made to the wiring harnesses, for future use. Bulkhead door plugs will be here on Tuesday to finish out the wiring.

This wiring project makes the car audio part of this seem trivial. After spending a full week figuring out and building a wiring harness for 3 separate electrical systems that all intertwine, from different vehicles, I feel confident that sound deadening and running a power and ground for and an amp will be in my wheel house...

my crazy dirty workbenches:

mocking up in the car for determining wiring lengths. i think i probably installed and removed the center console like 10 times through this.

full harness wrapped in Tesa tape and ready to go in while i wait for the door fittings. its temporarily installed so i can use the truck.

 

[genera_lee]

wrapped the harness in the door and got the clips on so i could figure out how i wanted to start sealing up the doors and adding deadening. wrapped up door-wise harness. i shouldn't need to take this out again to do the door plug, so i also went ahead and did some of the sealing of the GAPING holes in the doors. only one hole is left now so i can figure out what to do about it as that's where the speaker will go, but that means less work later.

in cab wiring is now done enough to lay down MLV. all wiring at amp left long to make room for routing to amp.

doors were removed to drill holes in the cab and doors for window, lock, mirror, woofer wiring to run thru and be removable.

as key and peele say, "Can't go back middle now". A-pillars almost ready for tweeter pods and tweets.

Cap'd at 47uF because the f3 on these tweeters is higher than i would like... i'll likely eventually get some other ones, but we'll see how these tune out first.

more install pics:
wiring into "a-pillars" to connect to doors

tweets in pods in a-pillars fully installed

when your hole saw isnt big enough, you sometimes have to use a "holed" saw, and some elbow grease

doors prior to MLV. ended up having to remove some of the foam on the high spots due to the thickness of everything.

door panels finished and installed!! speaker rings mounted, mlv in the door, all the stuff.

i'll have a full photoshoot of the finished product once i finish tying up loose ends.

got everything installed very hastily and set my gains on the amp using the DMM, at a 95% of max power rating for now until i can spend some real time on the tune itself. set some basic crossover points and slopes just based on the tech data and output curves from Focal. then i used the headunit's built-in mic to set an auto time alignment and auto eq curve, with the mic stuck to my forehead. came out with a tune i'm ok running until i get some time with it. time alignment could maybe be a bit better, but i just don't know enough about enough to know where to go with it by ear until i download REW and start playing around with everything. i also have a ground loop or power source clicking that cycles with engine rpm. potentially a poor amp ground, but my money is on the ground for the head unit currently.

long term i want some help with everything for sure, tune and gains and whatnot, but the install is pretty much done!!!

 

[Offroadnutz]

Now thats a serious audio install! Good job man.
Looks good with the camper on it too…

 

[genera_lee]

Third: Built a truck bed camper setup
It's certainly not perfect, but it fulfilled it's purpose more than adequately on the inaugural trip it was planned for.
Key criteria this design filled:

1. Easily removable
2. Modular
3. Collapsible
4. Robust
5. Stores appropriate gear

My family pitched in as a gift for my birthday to make the whole build happen, for which I'm very grateful.
This was designed to be 3 parts. Both side parts have legs that have the ability to fold in and collapse. They also provide support for a center cover board that is removable. The center is made of a drawer that rides on spherical bearings and spacers; this allows it to slide on the bed, but the legs from the sides and the corrugations in the bed+the spherical bearings keep the drawer from translating side to side more than about an inch. The drawer holds all the good stuff, and had removable dividers to allow for storage customization. the drawer is restrained vertically by using the tailgate as a support, and ar

mock-ups and install pics, + a couple of use pics.

Legs and center platform support:

Showing one end of the drawer folds down so the side panels can nest inside the drawer. maybe i'll call this idea the campernest - copyright forthcoming

Put some flush mount d-rings in to strap the cooler down. plus, coffee is essential. one day soon-ish i'll do an actual video walkthru of the camper setup

and from a further view you can see all the extra stuff that fits beside the drawers, the heater and a couple of storage totes fit perfectly.

i leave you with a fall Northern Arizona sunrise

 

[genera_lee]

Now thats a serious audio install! Good job man.
Looks good with the camper on it too…

Thanks! the audio install was easy compared to the other cab electrical stuff.

 

[AggieOE]

First off, Gig 'em! Second, that is an awesome truck!
When I saw the first pictures, I was thinking, please tell me he took off the black lights. lol You've done a great job giving it a new lease on life. I'm jealous you were able to get back up to the mountains. Although I work remotely now from home, I'm pretty stuck in Houston. So, enjoy being able to get out there for those of us who can't. lol Also, thanks for updating this thread.

 

[genera_lee]

First off, Gig 'em! Second, that is an awesome truck!
When I saw the first pictures, I was thinking, please tell me he took off the black lights. lol You've done a great job giving it a new lease on life. I'm jealous you were able to get back up to the mountains. Although I work remotely now from home, I'm pretty stuck in Houston. So, enjoy being able to get out there for those of us who can't. lol Also, thanks for updating this thread.

Howdy, and Gig 'Em!!
oh yeah, the blacked-out look was terrrrrrible. It had to go. took me 5 years to get back out to the mountains, and I still miss Texas a lot sometimes, but 10/10 would do again. I'll soak up as much of the mountains and alpine fun as I can for ya!
Yeah, I have made a ton of progress on it and all of my forums and social media are woefully behind. So in an effort of starting something new sometime down the road from now, I wanted to recount where I have been as a refresher.
More updates to come, and lots more progress this year!

 

[genera_lee]

progress updates loading......

Trip reports and build updates to come as soon as I update the other forum.

 

[genera_lee]

October 22, the next trip was a shakedown thru gold lakes highway:

My buddy's new truck

Then Went to Arizona for a late fall trip:
finished the camper drawer setup and used it for a bunch of camping trips.
We went to Phoenix, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Zion. All of that was pretty great. Then I drove back to Reno from Zion alone, and storms destroyed my trip plans. So I just drove home through central Nevada instead of through Great Basin and ended up getting a flat in a ghost town that was a PITA to deal with before I got it patched in a podunk town.

 

[genera_lee]

More zion:

And the road back:

After that, i found a guy in Sac that was selling a dressed longblock and goodies for CHEAP so I picked it up.

ThenIi found THIS during disassembly:

 

[Offroadnutz]

So are you goimg to do a full renuild on it?

Trucks looking nice man…

 

[genera_lee]

So are you goimg to do a full renuild on it?

Trucks looking nice man…

I sure am. Got a new crank and rods for it, and the stuff I was missing (harness and ecu). I still need a clutch and a ton of odds and ends.
The block, head, and rear timing cover are as the machine shop waiting to be fixed up. Full clean and inspect on everything, valve job as necessary, and deck the block and head.
The machine shops around here are all about a year out, so I’ll be doing the rebuild myself to save some time and money. I have a buddy to help me do the checking and reassembly who’s done some rebuilds as well. But it means I can slowly buy parts for it. I have a decent amount of stuff already, but I still have a lot to get before the motor comes home.

In case I didn’t mention it:
THIS IS A 7MGE MOTOR I’m swapping into the truck. Originally from a Toyota Cressida, this bolts to the truck transmission and drops in on older Supra motor mounts, so it’s actually a fairly plug and play swap, all things considered. Yes I’m taking care of the head gasket issue, yes I’m taking care of the oiling problems these motors have. I don’t half assume these sorts of things.

More pics tomorrow. More weekend trips, one long trip, and a bunch of other truck updates to come.

 

[genera_lee]

Cliff notes of the last 10 months or so:

got the motor stripped down and dropped it off at a local machine shop that I hope has his stuff together. Block, head, and rear timing cover are all there to be decked and checked.

swapped out the rear diff cause the pinion bearing was HOWLING. it was toast.

old diff:

new axle bearings too:

Went mudding:

first camping trip of the season, late April '23:

got nice and stuck, spent some time digging us out...

found a great spot for lunch:

Now more stuff:

Installed the Icon Add-a-Leaf kit for the 1996-2015 Tacoma, and works also for the 89-95 truck spring pack. Added an inch and a half of lift as advertised.

went out to Independence Lake in June:

 

[genera_lee]

Got an Auxbeam 8-gang switch panel to install:

Still not hooked up, but it sure looks good in place of the ashtray:

Also got a nice tool roll setup that I'll hopefully not need very often:

 

[genera_lee]

Took a trip through Boise, into Montana, and Yellowstone after July 4th. Long story but the rear diff in the Lexus went out. So we did the rest of the trip to the Yellowstone and the Tetons in a rental and flew home. I flew back a couple of weeks later and drove the Lexus back home. Not ideal, but I was fortuitously funemployed at the time so I took an extra couple days home to enjoy that part of the country by fly fishing my way back to Reno.
Boise nat'l forest camping:

a whole-ass full-size bison, also stopped appropriately at this stop sign, not sure who taught him to read...

The rainbow-colored hot spring. way more majestic in person. The drone shots do it justice, but mine don't.

Tetons:

Long weekend in the Ruby Mountains:

 

[genera_lee]

Got engaged in April (a bit out of order, but a cohesive post so idc if you think it's a bit disjointed timeline-wise).

then went searching for the right spot to get married:

Then Mammoth for a Trail running Ultra in August:

Mountainbiking on the first snow day of the season:

One last camping trip for the year that ended up with me being bearanoid about something I could hear continually circling my campsite, so I went home:

And lastly, Christmas tree hunting!