scemipdx

My friend gave me this truck a couple of years ago when he was moving overseas. It was his daily driver for a few years and only has about 82,xxx miles on it. Being an SR5 it has the 3vze, but when the head gasket failed, Toyota put a whole new block in about 30,000 miles ago. I think one of the previous owners lived in San Diego and the clear coat was peeling. I have spent the last couple of months prepping and painting the truck.

The only other issue was that the transmission popped out of first when you first start from a full stop. I replaced the shifter ball seat and socket, but the problem persisted. I recently swapped the transmission from a salvage yard, but there is whirring sound when the clutch is not pressed in, regardless of the transmission being in gear or neutral. I fear it is the input shaft bearing. I will probably have the original rebuilt and ready to go when this one fails.

Other things I have done so far:
- New hood (original was rusting)
- Replaced all lights except headlights.
- New front bumper
- New valence
- Fixed passenger door that wouldn't unlock
- Replace driver side interior door panel with salvaged door panel
- Replaced the rear bumper with one off of craigslist
- Replaced both power window motors
- Refinished wheels

Before Photos




Damage Door Panel

scemipdx

Interior Before

Carpet Cleaning

Interior Apart

scemipdx

Old Vs. New Seat



Old Vs. New Bushing

scemipdx

Sanding

scemipdx

scemipdx

We stripped the wheels with aircraft stripper, wet sanded the aluminum and applied clear coat.


BEFORE



STRIPPER



AFTER

scemipdx

Roark

Holy cow, this is my kind of build! Good, clean, trucks. Paint looks good, your plans sound good, everything is great

Question though.. Can you explain your wheel refinishing process a little? You said wetsand and clear coat, but maybe a little more in depth?

scemipdx

Duke:


All we did was strip the wheels with a produce called Aircraft Paint Remover , wet sand the aluminum to remove the pitting and oxidation with 320 grit working up to 1500 grit. Once the wheels were smooth and shinny again, we shot them with two coats of clear coat. The whole process took about 4 to 6 hours for all four wheels. We didn't even take the tires off just taped them off.

Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

I will post some interior shots this weekend if the weather holds up.

Roark

I'll have to try that, and I'll be sure to ask if I have any other questions! Please update this whenever you can.. Live, authentic restoration cannot be beat. I commend you.

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Very nice build.

I have had the same issues with previous transmissions. One in my 92 excab that you had to hold into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd or it would pop out of gear when any torque was applied via the throttle. Had one that had no 1st, or 2nd gear synchro's and no 3rd gear at all. Drove that one for awhile.
And my current trans in my 85 has the whirring sold of an input shaft bearing. I would drive them all until the break. These things last a long time even when they have problems.

Great job on the paint. It really came out nice.

scemipdx

Duke and Gizler - Thank you for the kind words. I have put a lot of time and effort into this and it has been very fun and rewarding. Lucky for me, I have an associate that owns a body shop and has been mentoring me through the process and did the actual spraying of the paint and clear for me.

It's been great having Yotatech to research most of the problems and finally a place to share my progress.

rattlewagon

New paint made a world of difference! Nicley done!