I'll start by giving CUBuff 4Runner a big thanks in helping me yesterday at his dad's sheetmetal shop. There's no way I could have done the tailgate conversion by myself in my garage.

The bonus for swapping tailgate is getting rid of the heavy 4Runner tailgate. You loose all the glass, elec. motor, and all the other stuff in the window to make it go up & down. You also gain 4" of clearance at the bottom of the gate. It makes connecting a bumper to the frame much easier. The negative, you loose the back window. I've only run the hard top 5 months out of the year and don't get much during that time. If it was a daily driver, I probably wouldn't suggest the conversion. I'll make a soft top window for the rear to keep some of the heat inside.

I took some heavy damage to the driver's side rear quarterpanel a couple of years ago running BV Carnage on 33's with no rear bumper. Wasn't the smartest idea I've had. Here's the result of that trip.



Instead of fixing the damage, I just cut out the damage and left it for a couple of years.



The conversion was a good way to get rid of that low hanging quarterpanel and to make it eaiser to connect a bumper to the frame. Here's the pics.


Last picture with the stock tailgate in place. You can see my orange test spots to see what color orange I want to paint it somebody. The passenger side rear quarterpanel has taken some damage over the years as well.


Here's the damaged area that I've covered with cardboard & duct tape to keep the CO fumes from getting inside while running it with the hard top. Nice & ghetto.


Here's the pickup tailgate test fitted. Notice how much trimming has be done on the bottom quarterpanels.


Jeff welding up the 1" by 1" sqaure tubing frame that we used to relocate the hinges. The hinges sit between the 2 supports on each side.


Hinge supports tacked into place on the rear 2" by 3" crossmember I've put in between the rear framerails.


Hinge supports welded in. This shows that rear crossmember better.


Pickup tailgate hung and quarterpanels trimmed.


We welded a bottom piece of sheetmetal to the quarterpanel.


Driver's side was worse since we had to weld in a filler piece of sheetmetal between where I had trimmed and the bottom cap.


Passenger side welded. Just need some seam sealer on the inside and it's done.


Amazing how well the pickup tailgate fits in there.


Just need some paint and a rear bumper.


Driver's side was hard to work on. The Toyota sheetmetal is sooooooo thin. It's hard to weld without blowing holes in it left and right. This side will need some grinding and some bondo to make it look OK (it's not a show car so I'm not worried about it )


Another picture of th driver's side. The exhaust pipe used to touch the bottom of the quarterpanel. It's now 4" low.


The finsihed product.

I'll get some pictures of the sheetmetal work inside. With the conversion, I gained 4" of interior space as well.

 

Thats a great idea, turned out frickin awesome! Good job man.

 

Cool!!

 

very cool! must be nice not needing the rear window!!!

 

Could we have more pics of the hinges, and the tailgate from the inside? Awesome idea, by the way.

MC

 

Here's the rest of the pictures to show the latches and the sheetmetal work inside the tailgate.


I just reused the stock latches from the pickup. Seemed easier than fab'ing up another solution.


Height difference between the pickup latch vs. the 4Runner latch. I'll just leave the 4Runner latch as another tie down point for the rear.


We used sheetmetal over the 1"x1" frame and just tacked it to the tub in multiple spots. It's plenty strong to stand on.


Close up of the pickup hinge location, sheetmetal, and the orginal hinge location for the 4Runner tailgate.


Just alittle gap that I'll close up. Once I seam seal and heculine the rear, it will look somewhat stock.


Here's the space I gained in the cargo area. It's not much but I'll take as much of it for camping gear as I can get. I've always loved the way 4Runner's looked bob'ed but I use all the cargo room when I go camping so it wasn't feasible for me to bob the rear behind the seats.


Couldn't see the rear frame rails before the trim. Now it's a straight shot. It will make building a rear bumper easier & stronger.


Just sits in the garage 98% of the time.

 

Nice!

 

Looks like you did a good job man, lookin great.

 

hey do you have any pics on how you did your fenders my look like crap right now thanks sorry for changing subject

 

Rear fenders?
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f88/...runner-136170/

Front fenders? I don't have a writeup. They are pretty easy to cut. I can take some pics if you need them.

 

So would you be willing to send me some parts off your old gate?

 

What do you need?

 

Inside/outside handles, entire internal latch mechanism and the outter part that says "Toyota" on it. I'd even take the badge if you wanted to take it off, lol.

Previous owner started ripping my gate apart and never put it back together. Didn't even leave the parts in the truck for me. I can reach inside of it and pop the latches manually, and the window works, but that's about it.

Think it over, lmk. I have money, lol.

 

It looks great, man. The taillights are pretty sweet as well. I can't wait to see the whole thing tied up and painted. I think it is going to be pretty clean. I'm sure you will see a big lack of the "4runner tail drag" issue. Did you happen to measure how much departure angle you gained? What are you thinking for a bumper?

 

I know that I am late to the party (about 7 years late), but is there anyway someone could post the pictures again? I am thinking of partaking in this build on my 86 4runner

 

Old thread, I know, but maybe @Volcom can reupload some photos...