It’s always nice to see people really beat their rigs. They were given four-wheel drive for a reason, right? Right. Well, half right. In today’s age of 4x4 grocery getters, they just don’t seem to have all the grunt and stoutness that vintage four-bys possess. That’s why rigs like Dean Jahnz’s ’83 Toyota short box make such great platforms to build an ultimate toy. “Vintage?” you ask. Yes, vintage!
Believe it or not, we’ve entered the 21st century (look outside your garage) and an 18-year-old rig is certainly vintage in our book. Dean has been building and off-roading his since before some of us were out of elementary school. In 1989, he bought his ’Yota, brought it home, and started modifying it the same day. A machinist by trade, Dean did all the work himself, keeping costs way down. In fact he estimates that to date he’s only dumped about $16,000, including the purchase of the truck!
Take one look at the Ford 9-inch/Toyota rear axle and you will know that Dean carefully planned his buildup from day one. “It’s absolutely bombproof,” Dean claims. After dumping the original rear axle, a 31-splined Ford 9-inch stuffed with an Auburn spool and 4.86:1 gears was cut and narrowed to fit the width of the truck. Dean machined his own spindles to fit stock Toyota bearings, hubs, rotors, calipers, and lockouts to the flanges. This way, it’s possible for him to carry only one spare hub assembly since the front axle remains stock with the exception of 4.88:1 gears and a Downey limited slip differential. The slight difference in gear size is due to his mix of 35x14.50 Boggers in the rear and 36x12.50 Swampers in the front.
To be able to stuff the meats without doing custom crunch work to his fenders, Dean slapped on a set of Skyjacker 5-inch lift springs all the way around. Just to be sure, a 2-inch body lift was thrown into the mix. Old-school Rugged Trail shocks take care of the ride up front, while Ranchos handle the rear.
The stock transfer case was deemed stout enough (at least for now) and hooks up to a TH350 via a Downey adapter kit. The trans was improved with a B&M shifter kit, an extra set of clutch plates, and a Hayden air-to-oil trans cooler. Powering the Toy is a mostly stock Chevy 4.3L V-6 with an Edelbrock Performer manifold sitting atop. The V-6 exhales out of custom tubing bent by Dean himself, just like almost everything else on his truck.
Any bodywork on the truck, with the exception of the shortened bed, was done by either Blaha’s Collision, or the closest tree or rock. Overall this Rudolph, Minnesota–based Toy is pretty clean-looking, and just like something that we’d want to build, except for the air horns on top of the rollbar—sorry, Dean.