1993 Custom Toyota Mini Truck - Project Dragged Daily: Part II
| 0509mt Chas 33 Z
For Part II of the frame build on our '93 Toyota project, we added body mounts and control arms to the chassis. Aaron Iha got down to business, using the same Pro-Engineering program that was mentioned in Part I, by designing the control arms and working out the suspension geometry.
The parameters that Aaron had to work with included measurements of the actual wheel and tire combo along with the wheelbase. Using these as a basis for control arm placement, he began to work through all of the suspension geometry to allow for 12 inches of lift without any camber change throughout. This alone is a huge engineering feat, but he also had to take into account adjustability for caster, camber, and tow.
| 1. We began with the body mounts by taking measurements from the stock frame and the cab.
Since we were installing a Toyota Supra independent rearend (stay tuned for this part of the build), Aaron built a total of eight control arms. We opted to use the Supra hubs but wanted to do something a little different so we wouldn't be stuck with the six factory link arms attached to the stock Supra spindle. Aaron was thinking way ahead of the game and modified the rear spindles to use a set of upper and lower control arms. He also rotated the spindle 180 degrees and swapped them left to right.
The body mounts didn't really need much engineering because we just had to take measurements from the stock frame and cab. Using these measurements, it was simple to build the cab mounts and front body mounts on our new chassis. With the body mounts in place, we were that much closer to seeing the rocker (not the pinch) of our Project 'Yota lying smack on the pavement, and now that we have control arms and body mounts, make sure to check out the rest of this project as one of the coolest air suspensions ever designed comes to fruition.
