Hot rods come in many forms, but they all share a common thread: passion. Canadian-born Georjah Erin Silva went against the more common route of starting her lowrider project with an Impala or Cutlass. Instead, she opted for this 1989 Toyota pickup to bring together her many loves and ideas.
The truck started as a salvaged project from Craigslist and evolved into a wild creation that took four years to build. “The original plan was just to get it going,” said Georjah. “But then we decided to just shoot for the moon with it.” She bought it as a basket case that hadn’t run since the early 1990s, with the original intention of just slapping it together. Instead, it snowballed into a fully customized mini truck. “I laugh that the only thing original about the truck is the shape of the cab and the glass,” said Georjah. “My heart and soul have always been in low riding.”
“You’d think I’d do an Impala, but I like different and oddball. I’ve always liked mini trucks. For me, it was about taking something that you wouldn’t put that much love into and channeling a lot of ideas into it. With the way that it all came together, it was so different, but it all meshed.”
Before this project, Georjah had two 1959 Impalas. She kept an original dash and rear seat from them and got rid of the rest. “I knew there were a few things I wanted to do—put a ’59 Impala dash and seat in it. I wanted it to be all these things I love. I was really excited about this little truck, more than an Impala.” She kept the rear-seat centerpiece and bought replacement Impala seat covers, then asked her upholsterer to combine the two together. The full-size Impala dash was a major undertaking. A local metalworker took roughly 7 inches from the center of the dash, along with the edges and back. She added a gold “Toyota” emblem to replace the Chevrolet logo.
Under the hood is the original Toyota block but upgraded to 22RE four-cylinder specs with a G3660 Garrett turbo poking through the hood. A Terminator X handles the EFI. “It’s just a baby turbo, but we’ve dressed it up with some engraving,” said Georjah. “Cramming everything in here is a bit ridiculous.”
The block is powder-coated to match the frame and machined by Wayne’s Engines in Riverside, California. A custom fuel tank rides behind the cab with a Holley in-tank sending unit and pump.
She started on the project in 2020 while living in Canada but now resides in Riverside, California. You’ll notice the chrome USA and Canadian flags that grace the tops of the three Full Throttle batteries—two to run the hydraulics and one to run the car itself.
The color came from an unlikely place: a 2013 Chevy Spark. Called Techno Pink from Sherwin-Williams, with House of Kolor clear. “The gold adds an extra layer of pop.” The front end is from a 1992 4Runner with a Toyota truck grille. The Classic Instruments gauges are color-matched to the car and say “Tofu,” the car’s nickname. There are 11 “Tofu” items hidden throughout the truck, including brackets in the rear suspension and the throttle cable bracket.
A cantilever setup from Hoppo’s includes hydraulics. JSI Fabrication did the Watts link and the Currie Ford 9-inch. “I wanted to make it mechanical and interesting. It looks complicated, but it’s really simple,” said Georjah. The coilovers on top are stationary but are used to regulate the hydraulic pressure for a smoother ride. “I stuck with my gut on my vision, and that’s how I got to where it is today.”
