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Vinje / Hansen class 7s Toyota

TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
I have been wanting to do NORRA for quite sometime, but just haven't found a car or truck that I was interested in, or something that was meaningful to me or something with history. There has been a few single seat buggies, but for this event I rather have someone ride along with me. More than a few months back this post appeared here.
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/threads/is-this-one-of-thetoyota-ppi-trucks.123978/
Is this one of theToyota PPI trucks?

It immediately caught my attention. As soon as I saw the truck I knew what it was. I posted a few things about the history and inquired if it was for sale. In the meantime I got busy with work and life and such, but kept the truck in the back of my mind. That was until a couple of weeks back on whim I sent out a private message to see if they still had the truck and if it was for sale. By the end of the day Ken Lock had responded and we started talking about the truck. He still had it and it was just sitting along side his house. I went out to look at the truck to check its condition, and liked what I saw. A deal was made and last week picked her up and hauled her home.

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This truck was built by Randy Fortune for Malcolm Vinje and Mark Hansen. This would be the second Toyota truck they campaigned in 7s. Malcolm and Mark had raced class 5 for years and switched to 7s roughly around the 85 season. Around this time my dad had started to co-drive for them in class 5 and onto 7s. As a nose picking young kid I would be tagging along with my dad to work on the truck, pre-run, and chase it around the deserts of the Southwest and Baja.
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Now that I have the truck home, I started test fitting all the engine components (the engine was out) just to make sure I had all the important items that go under the hood. Other than missing a bit of the hardware everything was there and good to go.

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This week I have started to disassemble the rear of the truck. Taking pictures, bagging and tagging all the items. My goal is to get it get the truck completely apart and get it media blasted to crack check and a fresh coat of paint.

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I will be repainting it back to the red and white color scheme of the Toyota, Yokohama, Bosch team colors that it was originally painted for.
 
LantanaTX

LantanaTX

Well-Known Member
 
Nice Job! Next year's NORRA might be the year of the Toyota Trucks! Do you have both front fenders?
 
TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
LantanaTX said:
Nice Job! Next year's NORRA might be the year of the Toyota Trucks! Do you have both front fenders?
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Yes, I have all the fiberglass. However I won't be using it. The truck originally had steel bedsides which I will be trying to locate. The front ones have a giant bulge and I will be looking for a smaller bulge ones. So, I have a fiberglass kit for sale! Lol


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LantanaTX

LantanaTX

Well-Known Member
 
TRAVISD said:
Yes, I have all the fiberglass. However I won't be using it. The truck originally had steel bedsides which I will be trying to locate. The front ones have a giant bulge and I will be looking for a smaller bulge ones. So, I have a fiberglass kit for sale! Lol


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RORY! Here you go!
 
B

Bro_Gill

Well-Known Member
 
Cool find. Lots of firsts on that truck. I think it was the first to integrate the front stabilizer rod with the A-arm instead of using the rubber biscuits. Also lots of firewall massaging to make bigger tires work. I think Yokohama was the big sponsor in that deal.
 
Rory

Rory

Crayola Killer
 
I remember watching that truck race and always loved the body style of the 84-88 Toyota SR5's. The truck looks to be in very good condition, hopefully your restoration goes smoothly. I would have been interested in the Fiberglass but it's not the same as the PPI glass made for the #001 and #002 trucks. The rear glass looks identical to the ones I have and I also have molds. Good luck on the build, i'll be following closely.
 
TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
Yes, for the most part its all there just needs some love. When it was painted black they didn't remove anything and just sprayed it. There is paint on everything. I have already found some cracks on the frame that will have to be taken care of and i am sure there will be more once it gets blasted and all the paint removed.
 
TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
I have basically the back of the truck apart. Welded up a few cracks that I could see thru all the paint. Found the fuel cell leaking when I removed it, so that will have to be fixed. Otherwise everything is straight forward so far in just tearing it down for media blast.
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TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
harleys dad said:
Looks great with supper diggers on it, will it be going back that way?
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Not sure what tire I will be running at this time. The truck ran both Yoks and BFG's, I guess it will come down to whom I get the best deal with.
 
N

NIKAL

Well-Known Member
 
That truck worked the best when running the 35" Yokohama Super Digger 3. It was a tough light (er) tire. I thought when they ran BFG they went back to the 33"? The BFG was heavier then the 35" Yoko Super Digger. I have a good friend who worked for Malcolm and MV Engineering. He Prepped the truck and did the maintenance on the company vehicles. I remember some stories about the front suspension, in regards to shocks and a-arms, but I would have to check with him to see if I'm remembering right. It was something to do with shock geometry due to the carbs being in the way, and it took two pairs of stock a-arms to make one race pair?

A good replacement tire might be the new class 10 BFG 35" KR2 tire. It's design is similar to the 35 Yoko and would be around the same weight I would guess, being both are nylon belted and not steel belted?
 
TRAVISD

TRAVISD

Well-Known Member
 
NIKAL said:
That truck worked the best when running the 35" Yokohama Super Digger 3. It was a tough light (er) tire. I thought when they ran BFG they went back to the 33"? The BFG was heavier then the 35" Yoko Super Digger. I have a good friend who worked for Malcolm and MV Engineering. He Prepped the truck and did the maintenance on the company vehicles. I remember some stories about the front suspension, in regards to shocks and a-arms, but I would have to check with him to see if I'm remembering right. It was something to do with shock geometry due to the carbs being in the way, and it took two pairs of stock a-arms to make one race pair?

A good replacement tire might be the new class 10 BFG 35" KR2 tire. It's design is similar to the 35 Yoko and would be around the same weight I would guess, being both are nylon belted and not steel belted?
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Yes, I was thinking about the class 10 BFG as well. My only concern is the side wall for the heavier weight of the truck.
 
H

harleys dad

Well-Known Member
 
TRAVISD said:
Yes, for the most part its all there just needs some love. When it was painted black they didn't remove anything and just sprayed it. There is paint on everything. I have already found some cracks on the frame that will have to be taken care of and i am sure there will be more once it gets blasted and all the paint removed.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain on everything being painted over, the Chenowth I got everything was painted black including shocks and shock shafts in many places. The most black car I have ever seen lol
 
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