RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

This will be the build thread and record of my attempt to save my third 4Runner (1986) from the Massachusetts rust and destruction. Thanks for reading! (PICTURE HEAVY!)

Bit of history to start off:

When I was 15, I started getting the 4x4 bug. My dad had a 1989 4Runner with 190k on the clock that he bought brand new off the lot in '89 with 350 miles on it. I got my license and promised myself one day I would get that car. Sure enough, my dad ended up getting an insane deal on an 05 4runner and the 89 which he had DD-ed for the past 20 something years was mine for 800$. I didnt do much to it besides break some minor things, put on 31's, mounted a roof rack on it and make a bikini top for it in the summer. I drove it everywhere my senior year of high school and finally had to leave it behind when i left for school and boot. It had 194,693 miles on it when my dad sold it for 500$ to some kid. The frame was junk (being a New England truck), but the 22RE was mint; never even started to tick. I was sad to let that go, but again promised myself that I would one day, buy myself another one. I recently found that same truck on craigslist a while back that said "frame is mint" and was selling for 1250$....

In her glory days:

Doubling as an emergency response vehicle:



All stock:



She spent her free weekends on jack stands:



After waiting patiently for 2 years, I couldn't wait any longer and trailered home a 1987 SR5 4runner 5Speed from maine which I bought for 420$. The trailer and gas brought the entire purchase up to right around 600$. It was a decent frame, horrid body, with a running 22RE engine but fuel issues and wiring harness issues. This truck is currently in the classifieds section for a part out, though there isn't much left!

This is how it looked when my brother and I picked it up in March 2011:



Trailered behind my mom's 2007 Tacoma and heading back.. 256 miles to go:



After giving in to the wiring harness demons, giving up hope on ever getting it to run again, and getting too many local offers for parts off of it, I decided its fate would be as a parts truck for a soon to be new truck. That new 4Runner came not too long after from a guy in Western Mass. And thus begins its build thread:

1986 Toyota 4Runner SR5
22 RE 5 Speed Manual
161,000 on it when purchased

The day I drove her home, Summer '11:



For the time being I'll skip to how she stands today, but I will fill in the builds and mods since as soon as I get some more time.

Summer 2011 #1:



Summer 2011 #2:



As of January 2012:





#1 goal of this build is to prove to myself and to many other toyota owners out there that rust can be turned around and trucks are salvageable and with some time can be saved!

#2 is to make a capable IFS, relatively stock expeditionary 4Runner that is capable of moderate offroad trails, has the capability of carrying passengers, gear and supplies and provides a suitable and economical vehicle for DDing, adventures, trails and 2012 of course.

Planned modifications:

Frame swap, complete body off tear down (Summer 2012)
1.5" BJ Spacers, T Bars
4Crawler Greaseable Shackles
OME ~2" Lift Suspension all the way around
Front bumper
revise/improve rear bumper/add Tire Carrier
Aux Fuel Tank
E Locker in rear
Rhino-line the interior


ALL input is more than welcome, you guys on this forum are great!




much more to come...

jswizz

Hey there Redneck Batmobile , looks like a capable 4runner ! does it have any lift now ? It doesn't look like you have the back sag like mine did ! lucky there . 2" would be good I have 2" and clear 33's. But keep up the build . I'll check it out .

85 sr5 4runner 33's ,2" body and rear shackle for level for now .
Brush Guard/lights ,moog greasable tie rod ends
And hopefully soon another top, for a half top or ?

baddest94

If your going to have the whole body off you should try and lift the drive train up like 3in and do a 3in body lift that would get you a better ground clearance for the transcase. shouldn't be to bad with the body off. just custom motor mounts and tranny cross beam. Just throwing some ideas out as requested LOL. Ive wanted to do this to my pickup but havn't had time or money. Love the 4runners cant wait to see how it turns out man

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

The front t bars were cranked almost all the way when I got the truck, but the back springs were flat, just like everyone elses. I swapped in a whole new rear end (I'll be covering that shortly) from my 87 parts truck that had unidentifiable rear lift springs that gave me right around 3" in the back. I'd like to keep the option of running 33's open in terms of how much I lift it, but I'm planning on sticking with 31's for the long term. Therefore my goal is right around that 2-3" lift in total.


Thats actually something I hadn't even thought about so thanks for bringing it up! I don't know if I like the idea of body lifts, much less a 3" one, but I may see what I can do to lift the drivetrain a little bit. I saw a build a little while back where someone made a completely flatbottomed 4runner which I thought was definately impressive. They lifted the drivetrain up into the cab and just clearanced the floor. Your idea is definately going on the drawing table. Thanks!

I'm glad both of you touched on this point. I'm going to be relying on you guys for a lot help with my suspension components. I really want to focus alot on the suspension of this truck just because I want to get as much out of her as I can while still staying with the factory IFS system that toyota designed. I think its a very solid design and can go wherever I need to when properly modified.

- I'm going to stay away from bracket lifts simply because they are going to put the truck up too high in my opnion. Gas mileage and road manners are important to me, especially considering I go to school in Vermont where there are more hills than people and wind on the highway really affects you the higher you sit.

- I'm also not going to go with a long travel suspension, due to price. Yeah it would be wicked cool and get me some serious extra flexibility which the IFS does lack, but I don't see any reason in the near future of this truck that would even remotely justify over 1200$ for just long travel. If I did, I'd definately go all out with blazeland!

- And just to clear up any dreams of you crazy SAS guys, I'm gonna keep it IFS. I love SAS'd rigs, but its also sad to see an IFS get sliced up, so I'm keeping her original! That and the same issue as with an LT kit: the investment would be over 1000$. The only was I'll SAS this truck is if I get my hands on a 1985 4Runner frame. Then we'll talk!

- As I mentioned before, the truck right now has really stiff rear springs, homemade lift shackles and the front has a serious torsion bar crank to level it out. It rides extremely rough right now which I would like to solve, and the rear springs also don't like to flex very much (which is also due to the fact that the shackles are almost permanently rusted at just under 80 degrees or something. The springs on it right now are some sort of aftermarket brand spring that I can't identify. They ride at a nice height, and I'd like to keep the truck right around there. It offers a nice balance between clearance and still being a daily driver. The shackles have got to go. I'll be putting in either 4crawler's or wabbit's greasables. The front, is probably going to end up with some type of BJ spacer and then I'll relax the torsion bars all the way to equal it out and hopefully get some flex back.

- Ideally I'd love to go OME torsion bars, springs, etc, etc all the way around the truck, but this is also a semi-budget build and I'd like to keep it that way.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

Or first (real) snow of the year was just yesterday and we only got around 3". There were a few days earlier this month when my brother and i were in shorts and t-shirts cutting the old body off of my parts truck (pictures coming soon) that were right around 65 to 70 degrees.

Crazy i know...

baddest94

Hey man i done the 1.5 spacers and relaxed the torsion bars with new procomp shocks and it made a world of diff. On my truck the torsion bars was maxed out hardly any movement up front at all now she actually flexs pretty good for ifs i would like to add low pro bump stops for a lil more though. And i got a 3in body lift on mine ain't had any probs out of it. And that tread you seen was axleike if i remember correctly and thats where i got the idea from just seemed easier without the cutting and just lifting the body what you wana raise it. Like i said can't wait to see which direction you take it

takeitoutgetitdirty

If you look on 4crawlers site he has a write up about 2" body lift and a 2" motor and tranny lift. Looks nice and clean for the crawlers out there.

rattlewagon

Looks good! Youd be surprised where you can go with 31s and a locker.

twistedyota

iTrader: (1)

heyy truck looks good. i hear you on body lifts but they can be good. im thinking about doing one, im not going to do a 3in but im really thinking about a 1.5in.
ive done a lot of researching and you should check out this thread:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...runner-200608/
it has som good info.

as far as lifting the body off the frame i would look at these:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...thread-227399/
and
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...ild-up-234352/

they have some rlly good info

and with a little body lift you can go like
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199/morph-187544/
with cutting the whole floor board up

or you could get a flat crossmember like one from budbuit and modify it to fit a small body lift.


as for as your rear springs you could buy a brand new pair, or take the pick up ones you are using and mix and match those with the old 4runner springs to make a custom pack.

or you can go to 57in ford springs or 63in chevy springs which both give good lift and flex, the only down side is tht you have to do a lil modifing with the hangers.

Zelephant

Your about as local to me as anyone is on YT, glad to finally see a build thread! Your goals for your truck seem very similar to mine, I'll be watching to see what you come up with.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for everyone's input! I have some serious buildups/pictures to add to this about the work I did over the summer, and as soon as I do that today I will address the suspension/ lift ideas, which have been been going back and forth from my head to paper and back to my head.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

So I finally have some time in between classes and work for yotatech so I'm going to try and do some more on the truck buildup and write up. My goal is to try and catch myself up to where I am currently and cover the work I did over the summer to get this truck on the road, to truly make this a build-UP, so bear with me, because I don't have too many pictures of the work besides general ones. Simply because my dad, my brother and I were working tirelessly to try and get it on the road most of the pictures are older. I'll try and add in a few tricks I learned by trying to get my 87 running before I changed its focus to a dedicated parts truck.

I'll address the suggestions and questions about the lift and such after this post.

I already posted the history of this truck, so I'll start with picking it up:

June of 2011


The GOOD:

I always wanted a 1986 because of the lack of diagnostics and its the simplest 1st gen with IFS they ever made.

It was also an SR5 with power windows, power locks, a sunroof too.

Had under 200k on it and it was a 4 cyl 22RE with a 5 speed (I refuse to drive an auto 3.0). And finally it was cheap and local.

Also came with 2 yakima load-rack bars for gutter mounts as well as a wimpy and sad excuse for a roof basket!




The BAD:

1. Bad frame
- It is solid enough to drive, but I have to be careful sometimes. Lots of rust in the rear brake equalizer area, shock mount areas, on the gas tank cross member, and the entire spare tire carrier area/ rear cross member was practically rotted away



2. Rust on all 4 wheel wells
-My options are limited to patching my junk fenders with steel, bondo-ing them with kitty hair, or sucking it up and just buying new fenders. If finances allow, in the long term I'd like to get some new fenders(hopefully used and cheap) and I have long long term plans to go with toyotafiberglass.com for the full rear quarters. For now I'm going to see how much fun bodywork is with a 110V stick welder and bondo! Yay! Or not......



3. No rear brakes
- The rear brakes had been plugged right at the master and the front lines had been terribly rerun most likely do to the old ones rusting out. I'll get into it more about this later, but as a result of the previous owner blocking off the rear brake lines, the LSPV was seized, and both rear drums were practically seized as well.

4. Tires
-The tires on the truck looked to be the original duelers that these trucks came with, and were worn all the way down to nothing. It was inevitable that I would need new tires, and obviously brakes, so we proceeded to take the tires off. The rears came off with a bit of a fight, but such was not so with the fronts. Something in the aluminum must've reacted with the metal of the hubs and they bonded with eachother. Took my brother and I about 2 hours per tire. I'll discuss this below too

5.Tired 22RE
-The engine was a problem in and of itself. Stock RE with around 160,000 miles on it. Felt underpowered and a bit choked for air.



6.Plow truck
- The truck had been a plow truck and thus I'm sure had been abused to many extents more than it deserved. Not to mention it had spent its whole life in New England with the salt and snow. Rust rust rust. Enough of it to make me wanna move to georgia or something! The rear bumper was junk, one whole hitch frame mount was rusted clean through. The sway bar mounts were rusted away, the rear axle was junk, and the floors had some serious rust on them as well.



7. Suspension
-The rear springs were flat-lined and to some extent inverted so they're going to have to be replaced and i might as well lift her a bit while i'm at it. The shackles are also frozen in position, so the only flew i get is out of the springs.



8. Paint
- The original paint is faded after all those years in the sun.



8. The minor stuff (comparatively)
-Junk radiator
-Clutch was pretty soft
-Rusted floors
-Lots of interior trim missing
-No radio or speakers
-Leaking fuel lines
-No floormats, rear carpet, headrests
-Non working rear window
-Broken gutter mounts

Now that I went through that whole list it seems like I shouldve just made the trip down south and bought one of them "rust free 4runners"! Well I guess I'll never know what 'rust-free' means! Maybe one day.



So it begins.

Zelephant

I had to deal with rust similar to yours on my truck, check my build to see what I came up with. It won't win any awards and I can already tell the rust will return sooner or later. But it looks presentable and beats the jagged rusted quarters. It's basically a delaying tactic, I'm hoping by the time the rust returns I can afford fiberglass panels.

Dutchbelly

Good luck with the build. Subscribed.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

I just checked out your thread, and it gave me a lot of hope that i'll be able to do most all of the bodywork and patch panels that I'm hoping to. My quarters are in pretty rough shape, but I'm trying to get someone's old ones from a parts truck and ill just stitch weld them in if i can. But I'm definitely going to have to do the rockers myself and some floor patches. I'm waiting to do the body repair until it comes off the frame simply so I can see what I'm working with a bit better and give myself a little more room. I want to strip the underbelly of the truck of all the rusty stuff and replace, repair and repaint all that i can, sections of the floor included.

Thanks! I can't say enough good things about your thread. I've read it through a couple times already as a few of the members recommended it. Pretty sure I'm going to at least try and lift the drivetrain a bit, and maybe even cut the floor a bit too since I'll be patching some anyways. Tons of motivation from your build already so a huge thanks, your talent is crazy.

RMP8080

Oh, New England that explains all the rust...lol

I had to re-build my frame, so I know the feeling. Good luck.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

From the beginning I knew that the frame on the 86 was going to need some serious attention, a swap or some serious new metal and lots of welding to save it. Taking into consideration that any proper frame repairs would require the body to be off of the frame, I decided I was going to ditch the idea of saving the 86 frame, and instead, putting the truck on the frame of my 87 parts truck. POR-15 will be used as a top coat, and the frame will be almost completely dissasembled, and everything gone through while i take the time to upgrade and improve my OEM drivetrain. Though labor intensive, I aim to keep this truck for a long time and want to fix it right. That swap will be happening over spring break or as soon as I'm home for the summer.

This past summer however, I decided I needed to do something urgent about the rear axle and suspension, as it was rusted to hell and such rust was going to make the brakes and lines almost impossible to do right. Looking at the 87, I saw that I had a good rear axle and decided it wouldn't be too hard to undo four shackle bolts, drop it and bring it home.

So I did just that...

Inner frame rail:



The lug nuts came off very easy, as did most of the bolts on this truck which proved to me that the rust was not as structural and dangerous as i had originally diagnosed it to be when I first picked up this truck. The rims came off very easily, revealing good drums and freely moving brakes! I jacked up the back axle after the wheels were off and stacked cinderblocks under the frame high enough so that in full drop the springs would still keep to axle off the ground and allow me to take it off without the weight of the truck on it.



A shot from underneath before the axle assembly came down. The gray paint is rustoleum that I had when I got the truck. Decided I had nothing to lose if I hit as much of the frame and important things as possible, as least to cut down on the surface rust while the truck sat. It definitely made a difference!



Another shot of the axle, a bit more of the wheel assembly from the inside though. I forgot to mention that my emergency brake cable was severed on the 86 so that was going to need to get fixed obviously. I looked at it closer and realized that the arms on the inside of the hubs were frozen solid from rust on the other truck. They weren't on this truck! All the more reason for the swap. Guess I'm gonna need some new bump stops though!



The cherry bomb that was in the truck. Straight pipe to and from this with no catalytic converter. True Maine 4Runner genius!!



The rear came off extremely easy, but the shackles were bent to crap almost like the whole axle was shifted laterally to the passenger side. The rear springs also vexed me, because I noticed right away that they had some sort of aftermarket bushing (yellow) and were way too stiff and curved to be a stock spring. I figured it would give me a decent amount of lift to fit my 31's that I was planning so I just shrugged my shoulders and kept going.The front came off just as easy as did the driveshaft. The rear pain was trying to get the brakelines and flexihose off without serious damage, becuase most of the fittings were stripped or rusted down.



It was off in less than an hour, and it took me the next couple minutes to get it into the pickup bed. Now if only I was smart enough to realize that it was going to be a little hard to get up to the truck all by myself. Made a ramp and had it up in no time.

RedneckBatmobile

iTrader: (2)

just finished the frame swap over spring break! And a happy birthday to my truck today, as she turns 25 years old officially. She got an oil change and a 10$ car wash!

frame swap thread:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...ctures-251080/