Bill's Dream Truck - Toyota Pickup

If you know Bill, you know that he LOVES vintage trucks. So much so that years ago he left a note on a stranger's windshield saying "if you ever sell this truck, please please PLEASE call me."

The truck? A mint condition, garage kept, original Toyota Pickup, who in her life, only had one owner. 

Well, fast forward to the beginning of the summer of 2026 and Bill got the call that rivaled a AAA ball players call to the Bigs - the chance to buy his dream Truck. 

To be fair, Bill may or may not have consulted his Wife before the purchase. The details are hazy at this point. Regardless, Bill pressed forward with his commitment to the Chariot of his Choice.

Bill documented his build, which we highlight below, in his words:

"Upon inspection, there were some decent oil leaks, and a check engine light. Some dents to be pulled and one rust area on the driver’s fender. The only mark on the  interior was the driver’s side armrest. The rest of the truck was a little dirty but nearly perfectly intact." 

The main concern was to fix all mechanical things, before getting to the fun stuff. Once  brought home, I cleaned all the grease and oil from the bottom - the oil was coming from  both valve cover gaskets, front main seal, and oil cooler. Reading the codes from the OBD1  light, the check engine light was the O2 sensor. The O2 sensor was an easy replacement.

Searching through old records from the previous owner, the timing belt and water pump  were performed in 2004. So it was time to replace those.

After this, the oil cooler seals were slightly leaking and dripping down the trans bracket. All  three seals in the cooler were replaced. No more oil leaks! At this time, I did a full tune up with plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter, AFE dry air filter, PCV valve, and evacuated the freon  and adapted to R134 amongst other maintenance things.  

While under the truck, I noticed both side CV boots were ripped in half and the CV joints  looked pretty beat along with the drive shaft center bearing. Both front axles were then  replaced, and a new driveshaft center bearing was installed. 

While on the forums, I was reading about the 3VZE motor and the blown head gaskets from the exhaust crossover pipe. I decided it was a good time to remove it and change the exhaust.  The driver side connection for the crossover was blocked off and a new downpipe on the  passenger side was ran. The rest of the exhaust was built with stainless steel and a  Magnaflow muffler coming out in the factory location.

After the mechanical issues were sorted, the body was next. After a lot of paintless dent  repair, truck bed liner on the upper surface of the bed and bed lip, one rust spot fix, and  new OEM graphics, the truck is sitting pretty! 

Since the body turned out perfect, it was time for the suspension, wheels and tires. First I tried a full lift kit from Dobinsons, but it didn’t sit how I wanted it, so I mashed up some  parts. Currently the truck is running Dobinsons IMMR shocks front and rear, OME front  torsion bars, OME greaseable shackles and cobble off leaf springs from the OME kit and  the stock leaf’s. The sway bar end links were also replaced. The truck sits near perfect now  and rides really smooth! Notice the factory shocks!

Now for some wheels and tires! I was able to find OEM SR5 wheels in perfect condition,  which I sent to the powder coated to blast and color match the graphics. To get the offset I  wanted, I decided to make 1 inch Hub and lug centric wheel spacers from forged aluminum.

After the ride height and suspension was figured out, I went to the alignment shop. Found  out that the lower control arm bushings were seized in the arms, so I cleaned the arms and  pressed some new bushing in, along with Toyota OEM alignment bolts. 

I moved on to fix a few little things here and there. When I got the truck, the rear wing  window latch was broken. I was lucky enough to find 2 OEM brown latches on ebay! So  those were replaced. I also had a shakey driver side mirror (look up a powered mirror for  this truck – only ebay has them, 900 bucks!). I was able to pull the glass and saw a plastic  clip was broken, so I epoxied it back. Replaced some interior lights, adjusted the front  valance from a minor run-in, and fixed chrome that was peeling around the headlight bezels.

Since this truck is so solid, I wanted to keep going with the OEM+ build. Speakers! The  factory 4” dash speakers just weren’t cutting it when blasting some Hardy. I did a little  research and some guessing – 2001 Tacoma speaker gills fit in the factory pickups storage  location. I didn’t want to modify the truck and hack into anything, so this was perfect. I then  modeled speaker rings in SolidWorks, and cut these out on my CNC router. 

All that was needed was to color matching the grills. Finished project shown with no rattles.

Now it wouldn’t be a truck without some BillieBars, right!?

I figured it was time to bring it back to the previous owner since she loved the truck so  much. It was a heart-felt moment with tears in her eyes of excitement.

I couldn’t have done this without all the connections and friends that came together to help  build one of my favorite trucks ever made. I’m sure as heck not done with it, but thank you  to all that helped get it to this point.

Thanks for reading!