OltorfTD

So, A few weeks ago i bought a sweet lil' pick up truck off of ebay. it's got fairly low miles and it's a loaded SR5. However, it's a 94, and it was a northern truck. All things considered, with proper maintenance and some preventitive maintenance, it should last me a REALLY LONG TIME. Which brings us to this thread.

There's some surface rust on the bottom. I'd like to fix it before it gets terminal.

It needs some suspension work up front. The steering feels strange to me.

The rear end is sagging, and the leaf springs are pretty rusty.

So, here's what I'm going to do:

Replace the leaf springs, all 4 shocks, suspension/steering components up front, and all the bushings. I'm priced just about everything out, and my goal is to do it with $1000 or less.

I do have a few questions to start off with:

1. I'm going to get a por15 starter kit, the 6 pack (6 cans of 4 oz por15), and a quart of metal-ready. Is this going to be enough to coat the whole frame and any other components that can rust? I'm not really sure how many square feet that is.

2. I need some leaf springs, and I'm a little bit bewildered because leaf springs that give you a lift are way cheaper than OEM replacement ones. I'm not looking for a lift, just a rebuild. Where can I get some good leaf springs? Am I just going to have to shell out $320 for stock replacements?

3. the bolts are rusty as all get out. i tried PB blaster with limited success. My dad has a welding torch and an angle grinder. I don't know anything about welding, and there's not much room down there to get an angle grinder in there. Any suggestions? I have a feeling that rust is going to be my worst enemy on this project.

Also, just to give credit where it's due, I'm gleaning a great deal of info from this thread:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...08/index2.html
Thanks for the help. This weekend I'm going to remove the bumper and toss it (it's junk), Change the O2 sensor, and use a wire brush everywhere I can to get rid of rust.
My next step (another weekend) will be to take off the leaf springs, shocks, bed, bushings, finishing removing the rust, prep/paint it, and put everything back on.
Another time, I'll do the front. I'll post up more when I get to the 2nd and 3rd part.
And THEN sometime in the distant future, I will do the body work! yay.

wheatus

when you strip it to bare metal make sure you get their metal prep on it in a timely fashion, don't wait for days. also POR-15 is UV sensitive so if it is exposed to direct sunlight it needs to be topcoated.

OltorfTD

i'm going to get the starter kit, which has all the prep supplies. I'll be top-coating it with that metal ready stuff.

anyone know about leaf springs? I'll get just get JC whitney ones unless I hear otherwise.

PlugItIn

try your local auto store...sometimes there pretty cheap

OltorfTD

alright, so i just ordered some leaf springs and rough country nitro 9000 gas shocks. the reviews seemed to be pretty good for them. has anyone ever used those before? also, i just spent $437. I have $563 left.

Matt16

Just for reference, Moog replacement coil springs aren't a bad price, so i would expect the leaves to be no different relative to OEM.

OltorfTD

what are coil springs, do they replace leaf springs?

edit - never mind. they go up front. i'll look into those.

gary96360

lol theyres no coils in the front of a 94 pickup.

iamsuperbleeder

thanks man!

I can't say much for the rust part, as down here in Florida that's not a huge ordeal...

but if you've got any questions about the front suspention rebuild, don't hesitate to ask



so where's some pics of this newly aquired Toy?

jaypee784

I just got an undercoating done on my 2000 4Runner that I got 2 weeks ago. It was originally from NJ and had a ton of rust underneath. I took it to a local body shop that did undercoatings and it cost me $432 dollars and they kept it 5 days. They pressure washed the bottom to get anything loose off, wire brushed as much of the metal and rust as they could and hit every nook and cranny, put a neutralizer/converter on, then put a rubberized undercoating on all non-moving parts and painted the moving parts. It looks 100% better. There is no way I would have gotten under the car and did the amount of work they did and felt like it was worth my own time for the $ they did it for.

Evil.Dingo

I ordered them on tuesday, got them today. Doing the install as we speak. I will post as soon as I'm done. It was a total of 312.00 with a set of bushings and shipping included. Can't beet that.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/Leaf-Spring/600003427.jcw

OltorfTD

can't beat that at all. i just need the hardware. i'm probably going to have to grind off all the stupid bolts holding the springs on.

i am definitely going to look into that. 432 is a lot cheaper than the 1 or 2 grand i thought it would cost. although there's not much of a rust prevention market in the bleached-bone-in-the-sun-dry heat we have out here in west texas. if i end up moving up north for grad school later this year i'll check it out. i'm going to call around here anyways.

you will probably hear from me . i have some pics up on my fquick account. www.fquick.com/oltorftd


no WONDER i couldn't find any!

OltorfTD

ordered bushings: $180
por15 stuff: $126

$257 to go. can i do it for less than $1000? i don't think so.

iamsuperbleeder

pretty good looking truck

I like how you used the eBay listing pictures

Keyser Söze

I used JCW's springs on my 96 Taco last summer. They were a perfect fit, and I have no complaints so far.

OltorfTD

word. i'm too lazy to take my own pictures i did take some cell pics last night. maybe i should post those? we finally took the shell off and my wife wanted some pictures with it. it's her truck anyways. what the heck. i'll post 'em.

edit - they're on my wife's phone. i'll have to get them from her.

that's good to hear about the leaf springs. i'm doing this whole rebuild so this truck lasts a looong time.

edit #2 - and if anyone's curious, the accord is my car. one o' these days i'm going to swap an acura cl-s engine/6 speed in it. o man... fast.. i'd like to put a newer tacoma engine/6speed in the pickup (i have a thing for 6 speed transmissions. don't know why.) but i hear that's a huge pain and i want an easy swap.

OltorfTD

i guess i'm resurrecting my own thread here, but i finally got a round tuit and started this project. i took off the bed, leaf springs, old shocks and the spare tire hanger that was rusted solid. I had to order about $1000 (!!!) worth of bolts and parts and stuff from the dealership. the back end is all painted with por-15 and i'm just waiting on parts to put it all back together. it wasn't nearly as bad as i thought. now i just have to see what exactly i want to do with the front end. i'm going to replace all the bushings with the energy bushings master set, put the new shocks on, replace all the steering components, and, of course, paint it with por-15 in the front.

the starter set and 6 tiny cans of por-15 works for 2 coats in the rear. i'll probably get another starter set for the front.

iamsuperbleeder

it took you 7 months to get started on this?



I don't feel so bad about not getting to my tortion bars and getting an alignment last weekend now




some "superthread" this is... where's the pics?


lol


keep up the work!

OltorfTD

hey man i've been working overtime at one job and working part time teaching at the local community AND getting ready to move to utah for grad school.

*plus i have a high maintenance wife, but don't tell her I said that *

i'll take some pics saturday.

iamsuperbleeder

lol, I hear ya man

it's all good, I was just mess'n with ya; geez, cool off


lol, the people of YT do love pics though