Red Leader

Some 1990-91 Toyota 4runners came with an optional rear tire carrier / swing -



I'm retrofitting one to my 1990 4runner.

Now, some of you might be wondering "Why a rear tire swing?"

Well, let me tell you. I don't suppose, what with the extra weight hanging of the back will give me that extra little snow traction I've always been looking for, that all the women love a man with a rear tire swing, and that the extra step of having to move a 4ft long horizontal chunk of metal and tire every single time I want to open the back of my 4runner up sounds really fantastic, I'm probably just looking to cause myself extra pain for no real reason and I like building up my immunity to tetanus and welding burns. I like the look of them and figured that stock is never, ever good enough, so here we go. I started looking for one and found a complete specimen at the local yard. $25 later and...



It has been literally sitting around for 2.5 years and I figured it was about time to do something about it. This is my 'Christmas break rear-tire swing install or bust' moment. My hope is that if anyone else out there is thinking about doing the same thing, this thread will hopefully provide some valuable insights (aka please learn from my screw-ups).

It will be going on my '90 4runner, so it is 'fitting', pun intended. Some folks have used these tire swings on other gens and other vehicles. I am going to try to do this as close to 'factory' as possible. We'll see how far that gets me!

First of all, there is an internal reinforcing bracket spot welded to the inside of the tire swing-equipped 4runners. Here is what it looks like:



I snagged this from a 4runner at the yard that had originally been equipped with the tire swing. You have to get this bracket by cutting the outside skin of the donor vehicle off. PITA.

In order to do this retrofit on a 2nd gen (close to factory as possible), you are going to need the following:

- Tire swing (duh!)
- Internal reinforcement bracket
- Tailgate mounting hardware

Every time I was at the yard, I kept my eyes open. I got lucky and found this beautiful tire swing, complete. I attached the mounting bracket off of the tailgate to it and off I went, as I had seen some folks retrofit the mounting bracket onto their existing tailgate, which was my original plan. Well, luckily enough, at a later point, I found an entire rear tire swing tailgate, in awesome shape, in the exact same color as mine (white) and snagged it. If you can, trying to find one as it will cut down on a lot of work, and every time you see a tire swing there should be a tailgate right there that fits it! Now, the guts were stripped so I am taking out the guts of my tailgate and swapping them out, but it will save me a lot of time trying to custom-mount the bracket onto my old tailgate. Plus, there are two main perks to using a factory tire swing tailgate - the reverse lights are already in the correct position, and the tailgate has the proper reinforcement plate inside it to stand up to the rigors of the weight of the tire swing.

My goal is to get the internal bracket attached, mount the tire swing, and swap out tailgates, all before I head back to work after New Years. This is my daily driver. I have little kids, so my time between them, family, trips, etc, will be limited. I'm up for the challenge!

Here is where I stand right now - old tailgate is off, guts all taken out, new tailgate (still a shell), prepped and ready for the swap. Interior of 4runner prepped for planning/cutting and bracket installment.

First, got all this junk out -




Then, taking off the old tailgate -



Don't forget the electrical connector. This is one of the easier Toyota connectors to undo.




The connector pulls through the bottom underside of the rear bottom quarter panel -



What I have been working on tonight is how to tear into the sheet metal. There is no way that the reinforcement bracket will fit inside without metal removal. First things first, I removed the inside quarter panel trim, then the plastic cargo hold bin (two push pins at the top, gotta squeeze them out from behind, PITA). This gives access to the sheet metal. First thing to do is drill out some spot welds holding in a metal column -

Red Leader

Here is where I am currently at. Cordless drill battery ran out of juice.

Feel free to follow along and chime in! This post should get updates nearly every day as I quickly run out of time lol.

L5wolvesf

I've been thinking of doing this with my P/u.
Hope it work out good for ya.

BTW, did you just cut out the corner support, body panel and all, from the donor?

Red Leader

I opened up the outside corner of the donor 4runner to get the support piece out, and then I kept a little corner piece of the external skin, where the bolts attach, so that I can line it up to my 4runner and have a general location of where to drill the holes. All I need is one hole to just bolt the tire swing onto. From there, I can attach the other side of it to the tailgate and just scribe the rest of the holes and know where I am supposed to drill.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

for some reason most of your pics are showing up. I tried to see if I could fix them but no luck

Red Leader

Wait, so are you saying the pictures are not showing up? If not, I'll take a look see at what the issue is.

Thanks!

Also, just a test but does this one show up?

millball

I see lottsa pics now, including your last test pic.

Red Leader

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Made a little progress this afternoon. Zipped this piece out:



That gave me a little more access to the reinforcement piece behind it. The good news is that the top end of it is just barely out of sight and connected by 4 spot welds at the top.



This is what the piece looks like when it comes out:



Unfortunately, I had to zip off the bottom as there was just no way to get access to it. The back bottom side wraps around behind under the tailgate area and it would take a lot more work to try to find the end of it. For all I know, it could be connected to the other one and be part of a huge piece in the body work. See that little cut into the little square cutout at the top? That was my idiot cut. Don't do that one haha.

Here is how the internal reinforcement piece is looking up inside there:



Got full access on the top, but not on the bottom:



This is the bottom part of the support pillar. There are two layers to it. The left side of the outer layer is completely free, but I don't know if I am going to have the access to just cut the other side. Still trying to visualize how to make it happen. All the parts that look like rust isn't rust at all, just dust from the cutting wheel.

I am using a dremel and for some cuts, using a 90 degree elbow attachment which is saving my bacon. Have gone through about 5 of the large (1.5") cutting disks so far.

Next up is getting that bottom section out them fitting the reinforcement plate in and seeing how it all lines up. Once I get it in, I will be marking holes from the backside and doing some test fitting! Before I attach the tire swing, I am going to throw the new tailgate on to help line things up.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

wierd, not seeing them.
here are screen caps of what I am getting
1) using internet explorer
2) with chrome

curious to you how your's come out since I didn't have the inside peice, i bent some flat stock to fit the inside.
I just missed out getting the rear tire mount tailgate on craigslist. I also used flat stock on the inside of the tail gate with i did my rear swing out

L5wolvesf

Just curious here, are you planning on reattaching the pieces you remove? I would imagine they are structural to some degree.

BTW, I can see many pics - good write up carry on

L5wolvesf

I see that when I check out older posts, I figured the pics were gone cause the person who posted them are gone.
I'm on a most/very recent version of Chrome BTW

Red Leader

Strange. Here are the images:

https://sli.mg/ciNFQM
https://sli.mg/n321r3

https://sli.mg/iDYyD3
https://sli.mg/Gu1Mwa
https://sli.mg/5yQYKy
https://sli.mg/Hlz4Fd
https://sli.mg/b46ZWZ
https://sli.mg/mQT458
https://sli.mg/ZUm9ak
https://sli.mg/YEHSnY
https://sli.mg/PF7qSM
https://sli.mg/8s0w0b (don't do this, this was my 'idiot cut' lol)
https://sli.mg/6tqniK
https://sli.mg/1n2kGP
https://sli.mg/S3jSHk
https://sli.mg/6zQyHq - fits on top
https://sli.mg/RzZbhw - but not here. Gotta figure out how to cut all this junk out. Still thinking on it...


The stock Toyota piece is good because it is a corner brace - check out those first 2 links. However, I don't think it is something that Toyota sells. It was spot welded to the inside of a 90 or 91 that I found in the yard and had to rip the side of the vehicle open to get it. However, because of the weird labor involved in getting it, it should be easy to find if you can find a 90 or 91 in a yard that originally came with the tire swing since most people might not know about it or don't want to put the effort in to getting it. You'll need some GOOD tin snips or giant pliers (what I used) to get the skin open and then of course a drill with bit and spot weld drill-out bit.

When I get mine fitted correctly, I am going to use some urethane to attach it to the outside skin and then weld it back up to the support piece. They are pretty well reinforced from the factory.

Are you still looking for a factory tire swing? Do you have a u-pull-it yard around you? I originally thought they were somewhat rare, and I suppose they are, but they are a teeny bit more common that what I had thought. I've seen about 3 in the yards. One I found before I found mine, and it was missing some pieces (including the license plate bracket), then I found mine which had everything, and then I did see another.

If one of these is something that someone would be interested in, I'd be happy to keep an opportunistic eye out. I need to go back there at some point because I am keeping an eye out for a driver's side fender in good condition.

I'll probably get a chance to rip out some more metal tonight. The goal is to get the bracket to fit up where it is supposed to. Any creative ideas on getting that piece at the bottom out are welcome.

Red Leader

Yep, I'm hoping to re-weld whatever I can, which is why I'm trying to be strategic about these last pieces I take out. I have a feeling they will cut out a little easier than they will weld in.

Red Leader

So, you guys see these circled indentations? This is the area hidden when the tailgate is up. https://sli.mg/k1JZ3R

These are where holes are drilled for the internal tire swing bracket. Of course they are un-drilled on 4runners not equipped with the tire swing, but what is nice is that they provide an absolute great reference for initial attachment of the bracket. From there, I will be able to mark the rest of the holes from behind.

L5wolvesf

Are you still looking for a factory tire swing? I would prefer the factory carrier. That's why I'm keeping an eye on what you're doing.

Do you have a u-pull-it yard around you? 2 within 50 miles and then some in Phoenix.

Any creative ideas on getting that piece at the bottom out are welcome.
From what I can tell it kinda looks like you could sneak in the support as it is now, but that's just from pics.
or
Can you cut the rod insert the support pieces and reweld it with a sleeve over it? Just a thought.

Red Leader

Unfortunately, there is no good way to fit that bottom corner support past this area. Unfortunately there is no other way. The press-in area for the taillight gets in the way and things just keep getting smaller near the bottom. Worse comes to worse, I think a hacksaw will fit down there! I'm not too worried about how they will come out, I'd just like to be able to get things welded back up. If I am unable to get the same support, I'll weld up a custom support to link all that stuff back together.

One more thing...if you do find a rear tire swing, make sure it has that license plate bracket. When I pull it out to test fit, I'll take a picture of the connector clip for it. I remember trying to get to it or undo it was a PITA. Having some good pictures of the clip interface should be helpful in getting it out without busting anything. I feel dumb because I had to cut the wire harness behind the connector for the tailgate I got from the donor vehicle and I hate doing that. I have found some parts that I needed at the yard but were broken from someone else trying to get to a different part and that is always annoying. A few months ago I found a beautiful 3rd gen 4runner 5-SPEED wiring harness...except for some tool chopped it off at the transmission points to get the trans out quicker. I spent a half-hour disconnecting things trying to get it off before I found those shredded wires underneath. I don't want to be that guy to anyone else, ya know?

L5wolvesf

Another thought, do you have access to the donor truck? Maybe see if you can get the support out of it.

L5wolvesf

Yeah, been there, after spending an hour messing with some part then finding it's been hacked. Now, I check things out real careful before I even bring my wrenches etc into the yard.

Red Leader

That is actually a great idea. I will check to see what 4runners are in the yard. With some things, like rust-free fenders, are a 1-to-20 odds in finding, literally any 4runner would have this piece and because it is shielded from the outside, any one should be in great shape.

The challenges would be finding the time to get there and then pulling enough of the old piece out to then retrofit a new one in. What I think I might do is cut out the pieces that I can, then weld them up outside of the vehicle, then put them back in to weld them as 1 piece. That way, everything will match up decently well with the cut lines still spot welded in the vehicle, and hopefully should save me some headache try to get good welds in tight spots (although good welds will likely not be happening either inside or outside the vehicle haha).

L5wolvesf

You could drive without the support temporarily until you get another one – without the spare on it. Or fab an additional / temporary support.
Also, is there enough room to access and weld in the support once the carrier piece is in?
What state are you in BTW?