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Hello, I am new here. I have owned a few Toyotas over the years but the one that has been with me the longest is my 1990 4x4. I have owned it for well over a decade. It has treated me well and I have taken care of it. Unfortunately a few months back somebody decided to try driving on the left side of the road and really put a hurting on this glorious truck. I was not sure at first but I am now determined that it must live again! I will post a few pictures and document my slow progress rebuilding my favourite truck. It is getting a new used frame, a new used engine, and many more new parts both actually new and used parts. many other parts will be rebuilt, re sealed and re painted while the entire truck is apart. I have posted a picture of a burnt truck that I got my frame from. One of the frame after it had been dissasembled, had a few small patches and then painted. The last picture is how it stands now, the new frame with most of the suspension assembled onto it.
Last edited by red90toyota; 12-15-2016 at 03:48 PM.
I really like sas trucks! but i'm keeping this one pretty close to stock and keeping it ifs. I am however in the middle of building another truck(93 extra cab) that is sas, going to a 5 speed instead of an automatic, and has a 3.4 swap. That build has a ways to go. Still need to put the interior together after swapping to a tacoma dash harness and make the hood scoop and finish up a million other little things on it. I'll have to get some better pics of it soon but progress on that truck came to a quick halt when my other truck was crashed, it was my daily driver and I want it back
Thanks man! I'm pumped to get it back on the road! So i'm close to finishing assembly of my front suspension. I plan to get the chassis rolling and set the cab on the frame. Then weld the new front piece to the cab while all the body mounts are bolted to the frame. Then patch all the rust holes in the floor. Then take the cab back off to put the engine and trans in. Then put the cab back on for good and put everything back together. This will probably take me a couple months because i'm just doing it at night, and things are going to be pretty busy in the next month or so.
It's sad they can't all be frame off restoration. Sorry yours had to happen from a collision but I love watching these types they are the best!
For your photos It looks like you are using the "attachment" (Paper clip) not the "Image" (Photo frame) options. That will put them inline with the text and let you put comments on them. You will have to check and fix the rotation before you send them off.
Wow thanks! I really should have been able to figure that out but for some reason I was overlooking the picture icon. I know one picture here is a duplicate but I was just seeing how they would show up. The other picture is a steering system I got from the junk yard. I was going to use the whole thing, but the tie rods are iffy and the shock does not have much resistance and the bushings on the shock are shot. I plan on getting new tie rods and a new steering shock because I don't want to have to take any of that apart again. All the arms on my old steering system are bent up. Even the shaft going up to the steering column is bent. I will take a picture of that eventually. the torsion bar was bent on the side that was hit. I decided to replace both torsion bars with a used set so they would match. I even painted them in metallic green chroma base with clear coat ha ha. I had a front differential laying around that had about 100,000 less miles on it. I decided to re seal the side axle seals and put that one in, Might as well if it is already apart. Also I am unsure if the tube that is bolted to the diff (the one that holds the longer axle) is bent on my old one, so it just made me feel better to put a different one in. That diff also came from the burnt truck I got my frame from. That burnt truck also gave its tranny to my red truck about 2 years ago. Its so nice to see this old truck get some new parts, What is the most frustrating to me is replacing parts that were just replaced a few years ago. But I am very excited because the truck will really be in much better shape after it is together than before the accident.
Sorry to hear your truck of 10 years took a hit. Great to hear you are bringing it back to life. One thing about a tear down like you are doing is that you can get several issues fixed at once. Welcome to Yotatech.
Thanks Terrys87! I have been reading your posts lately, you have a lot of good info. Somewhere in there you had some pictures of replacing a bearing on the input shaft on a trans without taking it apart too far. That was really interesting to me because I just replaced my trans a few years ago due to what was probably that bearing. I might just replace it on this thing before my build is done just so I know it will last a while and maybe I can get a few more years out of my current trans.
So its been a while since I have been on here due to Christmas and stuff but I have finally made some more progress on my truck. I got my steering box, idler arm and steering relay rod installed. I'm still waiting on my tie rod assemblies from Toyota. I tried both a Monroe and old man emu steering shock. Both of them hit the frame when the steering system was fully locked to the left. They both hit the ear that hangs down from the frame. It looks like the pitman arm would hit this ear on the frame when the steering is at full lock. Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe once I get my tie rods the steering will stop before the shock hits the ear on the frame. I guess I just need to wait until I get my Tie rods and go from there. I should have taken a pic of that but I was not thinking of that at the time.
Well I do have a pic or 2 of how nasty my inner fenders and firewall were. I guess all those years of spraying cosmoline on everything caught up to me. Anyways I spent about an hour pressure washing that off and I
did end up getting it pretty clean
next I rounded up some help and we sat what was left of my cab up on my new frame
A few hours of working on it with my dad later and we had the new front piece welded onto the cab. This was a little more involved than I had originally anticipated. We had to put the doors back on to see if the fenders would line up. Then we had to put the fenders on to see if the hood would line up. It took a decent amount of adjusting and bending things around but we got it on there pretty strait. Its not perfect because my cab is still a little messed up but the outside body panels fit just fine and I will be well satisfied with it. I am glad we spent the time to trial fit everything even though it all came right back off. I will know it will work when its time for
final assembly.
I still need to finish welding this together but it is on there good enough where it is not moving around as its worked on. Im so glad to be making a bit a progress on this again! My goal is to have this truck done in about 2 months but it will probably end up taking me longer.
I removed my cab from the frame again in order to paint the cab and lay the motor and trans on the frame a little easier. I know this is not really necessary but with absolutely nothing hooked up to the cab it is just a matter of removing six bolts to get it off, very much worth the convenience to me. The first thing that I wanted to do was paint. The weather is abnormally warm for this time of year and I want to take advantage of It while I can. It's not crazy warm out but at 40 degrees or so I have a hope of getting the garage warm enough to paint, normally it is colder than this in January
here I have it all taped up and in prime. I used a urethane primer and it seemed to work quite well after the primer I used a couple different seam sealing products on the areas that I worked on, some of the stuff they put in the wheel wells from the factory was wearing off, in those spots I sanded out the bad areas and spread some seam sealer to try to match what the factory had I put one more layer of primer over the seam sealer stuff and then finally put down some color on this thing. It does not match perfectly, it is a mix off all the extra reds we had laying around, but I think it looks fine for being under the hood I was talking about the factory coating in the wheel wells coming up. Even where it was not coming off there were cracks in it. I'm guessing all of the times I pressure washed the underneath of this truck sorta tore that coating up. Anyway, I put the clear coat on really really thick down there to try to fill in all the cracks. It had several runs under there which is exactly what I expected, but I'm hoping it keeps the cracks filled up and holds that stuff together. I mixed up some more urethane primer for the
inside of my floor where I patched things up, and for some areas where the rust was not severe yet but the paint definitely needed to be replaced I used a brush to put this stuff on. I know it is supposed to be applied with a gun, but I did not want to have to worry about masking the inside of the truck and getting over spray and what not. I'm not sure if brushing it on will be a problem or not, It might have been too thick to dry properly but it will be a good experiment and I will have a better idea of if it works next time.
I'm definitely letting this stuff dry a couple days before I put the color and clear on, also brushed. Again, I know this is not how its supposed to be done but this will never see weather, and I think ill be able to tell if its working before I put the interior back in a few weeks.
I'll probably spray some undercoating underneath to give it one more layer of protection, but ill worry about that later. Next I will finish painting up the inside of the cab. After that I will start preparing my motor. I got a used motor that has around 100,000 less miles on it than the one my truck did have, might as well put it in while everything is apart. I just ordered a new water pump, timing set, front and rear seal for it. I will need to put all that on before it goes in. Also I will need to switch the pan because my motor came from a 2wd. I think ill have to switch everything from my motor including the wiring harness. I don't think my newer motor has a knock sensor. I am also a little worried because the outside of the block of my newer motor is a bit rusty. I am hoping that after I re tap the holes for the knock sensor and the power steering pump bracket there are enough threads left (and they have not just rusted away. ) But I guess ill figure that out in the next week or so. I also need to try to get some broken studs out of the exhaust manifold of that motor. If I remember correctly 2 of the three studs used for bolting the manifold to the exhaust pipe are broken off.
Last edited by red90toyota; 01-16-2017 at 07:16 PM.
I could have mentioned this earlier, but this paint gun is awesome. my most recent paint job under the hood was nothing special but I have also used this on several more showing paint jobs and it works great! It sprays just as good as other guns I have used that were 10-15 times as expensive. You can pick up one of these bad boys for around 10 dollars at hft if you wait for it to go on sale. I keep a few brand new ones around. I hardly spend any time cleaning them out. If it gets bad I just use it for junky stuff or throw it away and break out a new one.
I chopped my old frame in half and set it up in the garage as a temporary engine stand while I get this motor worthy of being put in my truck. It is really nice to work on a motor out of the car with plenty of room! Because my new motor came from a 2wd I have to put a 4wd oil pan on it. this extra one I had was getting a bit rusty so I decided to throw on some metallic green paint I had laying around
The oil pan is painted with the same color I re painted my torsion bars with. I ran out of black so I am using this on random parts now. I really dig the color and its not too obnoxious. I am now in working on the motor. I ordered a bunch of stuff from 22re performance. The guy I talked to was really cool. I got a new timing chain, thermostat, water pump, motor mounts, front and rear seal, fuel filter, cap and rotor, basically a bunch of general maintenance stuff I would rather do now while the motor is out of the truck. The studs are broken on the manifold where the exhaust pipe bolts to it, ill try to remove and replace but I expect that to be a challenge. my other problem is that The hole where the knock sensor threads into along with several other threaded holes in the block are very rusted and the threads are barely there. They are so rusty because the truck the motor came out of was a 2wd sans a/c and these threaded holes were out in the open without a bolt in them to keep out dirt and water. I have been reading about something called a time sert, its kind of like a helicoil but it is a solid bushing threaded inside and out. Looks like you re drill and tap your holes and put this thing in there and it gives you a new set of threads. I'm hoping I can use that on these rusted out bolt holes.
Last edited by red90toyota; 01-23-2017 at 05:46 PM.
Well I got my timing chain and water pump on, that felt good. I also cleaned up a valve cover and got a new gasket. I really need to deal with my exhaust problem though. The studs that hold the pipe to the manifold were messed up, it got ugly when I tried to heat it up to remove and replace This is after I gave up on using this manifold. The stud that was already broke broke off even shorter, the other one came out but stripped the threads out on it and the manifold. At that point I did'nt even try the third, ill just have to use a different manifold I have that has good studs. here is the stud I actually got out of that thing, the threads in the manifold looked just as bad. At this point I removed the manifold, I almost had perfect success, but one bolt took all the aluminium with it. this is the nasty hole it left in my cylinder head. I am not yet dedicated to a plan yet, I'm going back and forth on using a helicoil, a time sert, or just re tapping and getting a bolt that will reach down to the threads in the bottom that were not damaged. That last option is probably the easiest. I did some very careful measuring, if I used a bottoming tap I can probably get almost the same thread engagement as the original(only short around 1 thread)
This sad beginning is going to have a happy ending.
Out of curiosity, do you think the Harbor Freight spray gun is as good as ones you can buy from the parts stores or Lowes or Home Depot? I want to get a spray gun just to practice with in the future.
Thanks! I'll definitely post some pics of however I end up dealing with that stud. It is an annoying problem but I'm not too worried about it because everything is so accessible right now and I have a few different options. In my experience that spray gun is every bit as good as the ones you get elsewhere. I honestly feel a little guilty every time I trash one. They would last a lot longer If I took care of them. But for 10 bucks its just not worth the time to clean them out really good, especially when you consider the cost of all the thinner and stuff used to clean them. I also figure the less chemicals that I get all over my skin the better. You definitely need to get a regulator with that gun, I have one set up on the bottom of the gun and It is really easy to adjust the air pressure, it definitely does not need all the pressure that my compressor puts out right out of the line. I think I normally pull the trigger half way down so the air is coming out but not the paint, then adjust it so it maintains around 30 psi give or take a little depending on what you are doing. It also seems to perform the best with thinner paints like what you use for cars. I also thin out some rust oleum once and a while and spray it with that, you will save a ton of money vs spray cans on bigger projects. My biggest complaint about that gun is that where the lid screws onto the gun it will get gummed up and difficult to get on, especially if there is even a tiny bit of dried paint on the threads. Another thing that is nice is that you can get an extended warranty from hft for a few bucks more and they will give you a new one for any reason within the year or whatever. I have never actually done that because I don't make it to the store very often and they are so cheap to begin with. I think they are about 20 normally but sometimes go on sale for 10-12 bucks. In the next few days ill take a pic of the other side of the regulator and maybe 1 or 2 of the nicer paint jobs I have done with that kind of gun.
Your truck is looking great. Sometimes I wonder what it is about these trucks that makes us willing to do that kind of work to keep them underneath us. I'm right there with you. If my wife called and said the house burned, I'd immediately ask if my 4Runners were ok before I asked if the fire was out yet. Off frame rebuilds are the best too!
Hey, I thought I was crazy and that I was the only one who thought so much of the Harbor Freight cheapo spray gun. Like many special tools, I bought one from Harbor Freight just to see if I liked the process of painting with one before I invested in a good one. I got one like you have and loved it. I painted a metal locker with it and it looks like the metal was struck from that color steel. Flawless! I said, "I'm a natural at this painting thing!" Invested in a good setup and have never been able to replicate the results from the $15 rig. That may be a topic worth a thread of it's own.
Thanks for the encouragement Charchee! I am glad there are people out there who understand! My family thinks I'm a little too attached ha ha. There is definitely something special about these trucks. I see you have an 89 and an 02 4runner, both of which I think are great picks!I like the body style of the older one better but like the engine of the newer one better, both are awesome! Here are a few pics of a pretty good paint job with the hft paint gun, this is my project truck I was working on before my truck got wrecked. I have not made any progress on it for months now that I am working on my red truck but I will finish it eventually I guess. There is a bit of dust on the truck so I guess it would look a little better if it were cleaned up, but it is very respectable. The bed and the fender are painted with the hft gun, the door and most of the cab are factory paint.
The bed on this truck is actually off of the same burnt truck that I got my new frame for my red truck., there is a pic of that truck at the beginning of my build thread.
I did spend some time wet sanding and buffing the bed, I think it looks great, but don't expect the hft gun to do quite this well without a little extra work after painting. This bed used to be blue. this is a close up of the fender. I did not wet sand this or buff it at all, this is exactly how it looked after the paint dried. This fender was red before. This is an even closer up of the same fender
There are definitely flaws in this paint job that you cant see in the pictures, but I am very happy with it! especially when you consider that It was done outside with a 10 or 15 dollar gun.
oh, here is the regulator I have on the hft gun. can't remember where I got it, very likely it was also hft
12-15-2016, 03:39 PM
