OWNER: Rob Ross
RIDE: '86 Toyota
LOCATION: Loveland, Ohio
CLUB: Ground Level
About 10 years ago, Rob Ross bought an '86 Toyota truck and began to customize it. Over the course of the decade that Rob has owned the Toyota, he's been through the truck and built it, just to tear it down and rebuild it a total of three times. Each time, Rob learned more, while taking his ride to the next level of custom. It's the love of the pastime of mini-truckin' that has kept Rob going all these years, constantly trying to outdo his previous accomplishments by adding to what he's learned.
This time around, however, Rob spent eight months reworking his truck to be more custom and cleaner at the same time than it had ever been. An electrical technician by trade, he's very picky about the way things are done, and this couldn't be more apparent by the way that he's painstakingly thought out the minor details on his own truck. He dove back into his truck and used much of what he'd learned, and with the help of his friends, turned his ride into a fresh new example of his fervor for custom trucks.
Since his most recent completion of the '86, Rob has taken his fresh-faced mini to several events, including Greenville, Mississippi, for Showfest; Lebanon, Tennessee, for Slammin' & Jammin'; Hamilton, Ohio, for the North American Nationals; and the Indy Truck bash in Indianapolis. So far, he's done very well. We finally caught up with Rob in Indy and got the images of his creation, as well as the 411 on what it took to get his truck to this point.
The Low Down
Wheels/Tires 17x7-inch Eagle Alloys with 205/40R17 Kumho radial tires
Suspension Belltech 2-inch drop spindles / 2,500-series front Firestone airbags / 2,600-series rear Firestone airbags / Pete & Jake's shock absorbers / bridge notch / TCI-triangulated and reversed four-link / installation by Steve Holbrook at Holbrook Welding
Engine/Performance Semi-stock '86 Toyota 22R engine / dual Weber side draft 45mm carburetors / Competition Cams performance camshaft / billet wire loom / chromed valve cover / custom-milled oil cap / custom battery bracket / Borla stainless 2-inch exhaust system / LC Engineering Pro distributor / Accel 8.8mm plug wires / Vintage Air heater core / custom oil cap and oil filler neck due to hood clearance issues with stock hood body drop
Body Modifications Engine dropped 1 inch to clear the stock hood / body-dropped 4 inches by owner and his friends / '86 4x4 fenders / '89 two-wheel-drive front bumper and lower valance / tubbed front inner fenders / molded in a Sir Michaels steel roll pan / shaved squirters / shaved antenna / shaved mirror mounts / frenched license plate in tailgate / bodywork by Joey Wykoff in Cincinnati
Interior Smoothed and painted dash / billet window cranks / billet inner door handles / modified stock bench seat (backrest cut down 2 inches) / black carpeting / charcoal-gray tweed with gray-ostrich leather upholstery / charcoal-tweed headliner / Street Beat sliding ragtop sunroof / upholstery installed by Dane's Customs Upholstery in Morrow, Ohio
Paint The body was sprayed using PPG Negaro Blue
Special Thanks Tammy Ross / TJ Beyer / Joey Wykoff / Matt Stone / Rob Nichols / the Ross family