4Runner body on truck frame swap
12-30-2007, 11:08 AM
#1
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4Runner body on truck frame swap
Preferably a swap involving a 92-95. Anyone know of a write up or anyone who has done it? I've searched here, pirate, google and haven't been able to come up with anything. I'm sure theres something on pirate but I struck out.
12-30-2007, 12:02 PM
#2
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im pretty sure the frames are almost the same i doubt it would be worth it id just put an axle in the front and jack it up it will probly look alot better then a truck frame and im not sure if the wheel wells would match up quite right
12-30-2007, 12:19 PM
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the whole back of the frame is different, the runner is linked, it could be done with enough creativity and beer and a welder. If it were me, I would just add leafs to the back of the existing frame on the runner, I am sure the runner frame is reinforced at different points than the truck since the runner is longer and bigger and needs more support, just my opinion, but anything could be done, its your truck, just start unbolting stuff and give it a try, its how we learn, and let us know how it goes.
12-30-2007, 12:30 PM
#4
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Thread Starter
Wheel base is the same if I remember correctly (103"), so I don't think theres an issue tire to wheel well wise.
Would it be worth it? I'm sure it would be 100x easier to sell one and buy another, but then again, I wouldn't want to have to start over again. I figure if I had the same year 4runner I'd keep the 22RE (have one with less than 20K on rebuild), I'd want to swap springs to leaves (already have leaves), lift it and 33-35's (already have 33's). I have some sentimental value attached to this one as well and promised myself I wouldn't get rid of it unless it caught on fire and drove itself off a cliff.
I've seen 4Runners swapped to Extended cabs, primarily 84-89's. Just trying to find info on a newer model. There's always an extended cab swap but would really prefer more interior room.
Basically I'm just looking to see what was needed modification wise to the frame and to the 4Runner body to accomplish the swap (if it has been at all).
Would it be worth it? I'm sure it would be 100x easier to sell one and buy another, but then again, I wouldn't want to have to start over again. I figure if I had the same year 4runner I'd keep the 22RE (have one with less than 20K on rebuild), I'd want to swap springs to leaves (already have leaves), lift it and 33-35's (already have 33's). I have some sentimental value attached to this one as well and promised myself I wouldn't get rid of it unless it caught on fire and drove itself off a cliff.
I've seen 4Runners swapped to Extended cabs, primarily 84-89's. Just trying to find info on a newer model. There's always an extended cab swap but would really prefer more interior room.
Basically I'm just looking to see what was needed modification wise to the frame and to the 4Runner body to accomplish the swap (if it has been at all).
Last edited by EWAYota; 12-30-2007 at 12:48 PM.
12-30-2007, 01:56 PM
#5
Registered User
as mentioned
Rear suspension is LEAF on the trucks and COIL on the 4Runner.
Body mounts will need to be welded on the truck frame - in particular the mounts after the rear door will be "taller" on the trcuk (bed) than the 4Runner.
Also - the gas tank may not work and you'll have use the 4Runner tank...
IMHO its alot of work...
Rear suspension is LEAF on the trucks and COIL on the 4Runner.
Body mounts will need to be welded on the truck frame - in particular the mounts after the rear door will be "taller" on the trcuk (bed) than the 4Runner.
Also - the gas tank may not work and you'll have use the 4Runner tank...
IMHO its alot of work...
12-31-2007, 12:43 PM
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well, if it helps at all, the 4runner frame from the second gen was essentially, less some differences in body mounts and reinforcement points, the same as the short bed standard cab frame. I always thought that the 4Runner used the longer frame, the one thats on my truck (121"?), but its the short frame.
Long bed trucks standard cab also used my frame, as well as the Xtra Cabs. but Im curious, why exactly are you looking into this?
Long bed trucks standard cab also used my frame, as well as the Xtra Cabs. but Im curious, why exactly are you looking into this?
12-31-2007, 12:49 PM
#7
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Thread Starter
Purely curiousity at the moment. I have and still am looking heavily into an extended cab swap onto my frame (notch cab for frame rails and front cross member, relocate body mounts, relocate gas tank or replace with aftermarket is basically all thats involved with that), but the added back seat down the road could become very useful.
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12-31-2007, 01:05 PM
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ah, interesting! When I learn to weld and do metal fab, I'll have a custom project involving a 4runner and a p/u.
12-31-2007, 02:43 PM
#9
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If you 'wheel it, or camp much, you don't want a 2nd gen runner body ... extended cab is the best compromise I think. Still have some room in the cab to store stuff you'd like to get to on the road, but can carry all your camping stuff in the back. Seems Molly and I can't fit squat in our 'runners... a simple camping trip packs it to the gills.
01-01-2008, 11:27 AM
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06-25-2009, 01:32 PM
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Reply to 4Runner body on truck frame
Hey guys, I'm new to the site, i had been hearing alot of people talk about yotatech and i decided to check it out and i just happen to come across this posting and i thought it would be a good chance for me to make a first post for myself in responce to the guy askin about puttin a runner body on a truck frame, Simply because we are just about to finish up one of these swaps today... i know this post is really old but still to this day i havent been able to find much info on doing something like this so i figured why not post it anyways..
Now i know this post pertains to a 4wd but we did it on a 2wd, and i would bet that it's not much different if at all. The truck belongs to my good buddy jason and he is always getting these crazy ideas to build like this...but for him and me it's more about the fun in doing it and showing it off when it's done, we just enjoy doing the work.
Anyhow the story is he had sold his 91 4 runner to his girlfriend and he had bought a 90 standard cab truck, both the truck and runner were in great shape, well about 3 weeks after he sold her the runner it cought on fire and everything under the hood burned badly, it was the 3.0 v6 5 speed runner, it was a dam shame because it was such a nice rig, anyhow she didn't have any sort of insurance coverage on it that would cover the fire damage so she basicly had to eat it. Well that's when jason got the crazy idea lol, he bought the burned runner back from her and went to town gutting it, he pulled everything from basicly the front seats forward out and tossed it, as it all had fire damage. after doing so we tackled the task of getting the body off the frame, this would have been a piece of cake had we had a lift but he just moved into this shop he is in now and has not been able to get a lift yet, so it was floor jacks pallets cherrypickers etc..
Once the body was off he took the time to clean up the fire wall taking everything off of it because it was all either burnt or badly damaged, he sanded the firewall and shot it with some paint, it looked good as new, now that the runner body was there and ready to be put on its new chassis he pulled the truck in and did the same, gutted it from head to toe removing everything from the inside of the cab and removing the cab bed etc.. it was just as easy to leave the 22r in the truck chassis so he did,
Now that the 2 major pieces were there it was time to see if the body was gonna even come close to fitting on the truck frame..keep in mind we had not done much research and the research we did do was not very informative so we just to the chance, how else ya gonna learn right? we took a few prior measuments as far as wheel base and things like that and it all checked out. So anyways we suspended the runner body just high enough to roll the truck frame under it, well after attempting to set the body down 2 or 3 times with no luck we gathered that the crossmember behind the trans on the truck was gonna be a major issue, as well as about 8 inches of the front half of the gas tank on the truck frame, they were both running into the floor of the runner body before it would set down. also only 4 of the body mounts are correct, the front 2 for the core support and the the 2 just under the front doors lined up, the rest had to be cut off and moved about 6 inches forward and 2 extra body mounts were added to the very back of the truck frame. as far as the gas tank and crossmember being in the way...instead of trying to relocate the tank and butcher the cross member he just decided to moved a section of the floor up just under the back seats where the problem was. This actually turned out really good, he raised it about 6 inches in all and plated it back in with some sheetmetal and seam sealed everything, once that was all finished we set the body down and everything looked good, he used every single interior part from the truck as far as the dash and cluster dash harness brake booster pedal assembly break lines etc...everything from the truck bolted directly onto the runner it was amazing! the gas filler neck was tricky but if you can get creative there were a few different options for this..he chose to buy some new hose and run it in mostly the stock location it worked perfect.
the wiring for the power windows and locks and rear lights and stuff was tricky but believe it or not in the cab just under the driverside seat and the passanger side seat the plugs were different but most all of the colors matched up perfectly to make the tailights work correctly, The windows was basicly a matter of finding the power lead inputs and just feeding them with a 12v switched source, all in all though it went smoothly. He went with the 60/40 split bench as well from the truck it looks good in there,
after putting the interior back together we went over the truck high and low and double checked everything and so far so good, that brings us to where we are now, just a few minor details left as far as filling it up with fluids bleeding the brakes etc..
considering the work invloved it went real fast,
He drove his yota to work on monday and here it is today thursday and its almost done, he is going to drive it home tonight from the shop, so really if you just take it head on from start to finish it can be done pretty quick, Now this is all providing you have access to some major tools as far as welders plasmas/torches sawzals etc and know how to use them, If you don't have much time working with fabrication and similar things i wouldnt reccomend tackling this by yourself lol but if your handy with tools and have a general idea of how things work then i say take it head on! it was fun for us, I know i just kinda beezed over the whole process so if you have any questions about anything specific feel free to ask i will get back to ya...Anyhow hope this info helps someone somewhere...Talk to ya guys soon
Now i know this post pertains to a 4wd but we did it on a 2wd, and i would bet that it's not much different if at all. The truck belongs to my good buddy jason and he is always getting these crazy ideas to build like this...but for him and me it's more about the fun in doing it and showing it off when it's done, we just enjoy doing the work.
Anyhow the story is he had sold his 91 4 runner to his girlfriend and he had bought a 90 standard cab truck, both the truck and runner were in great shape, well about 3 weeks after he sold her the runner it cought on fire and everything under the hood burned badly, it was the 3.0 v6 5 speed runner, it was a dam shame because it was such a nice rig, anyhow she didn't have any sort of insurance coverage on it that would cover the fire damage so she basicly had to eat it. Well that's when jason got the crazy idea lol, he bought the burned runner back from her and went to town gutting it, he pulled everything from basicly the front seats forward out and tossed it, as it all had fire damage. after doing so we tackled the task of getting the body off the frame, this would have been a piece of cake had we had a lift but he just moved into this shop he is in now and has not been able to get a lift yet, so it was floor jacks pallets cherrypickers etc..
Once the body was off he took the time to clean up the fire wall taking everything off of it because it was all either burnt or badly damaged, he sanded the firewall and shot it with some paint, it looked good as new, now that the runner body was there and ready to be put on its new chassis he pulled the truck in and did the same, gutted it from head to toe removing everything from the inside of the cab and removing the cab bed etc.. it was just as easy to leave the 22r in the truck chassis so he did,
Now that the 2 major pieces were there it was time to see if the body was gonna even come close to fitting on the truck frame..keep in mind we had not done much research and the research we did do was not very informative so we just to the chance, how else ya gonna learn right? we took a few prior measuments as far as wheel base and things like that and it all checked out. So anyways we suspended the runner body just high enough to roll the truck frame under it, well after attempting to set the body down 2 or 3 times with no luck we gathered that the crossmember behind the trans on the truck was gonna be a major issue, as well as about 8 inches of the front half of the gas tank on the truck frame, they were both running into the floor of the runner body before it would set down. also only 4 of the body mounts are correct, the front 2 for the core support and the the 2 just under the front doors lined up, the rest had to be cut off and moved about 6 inches forward and 2 extra body mounts were added to the very back of the truck frame. as far as the gas tank and crossmember being in the way...instead of trying to relocate the tank and butcher the cross member he just decided to moved a section of the floor up just under the back seats where the problem was. This actually turned out really good, he raised it about 6 inches in all and plated it back in with some sheetmetal and seam sealed everything, once that was all finished we set the body down and everything looked good, he used every single interior part from the truck as far as the dash and cluster dash harness brake booster pedal assembly break lines etc...everything from the truck bolted directly onto the runner it was amazing! the gas filler neck was tricky but if you can get creative there were a few different options for this..he chose to buy some new hose and run it in mostly the stock location it worked perfect.
the wiring for the power windows and locks and rear lights and stuff was tricky but believe it or not in the cab just under the driverside seat and the passanger side seat the plugs were different but most all of the colors matched up perfectly to make the tailights work correctly, The windows was basicly a matter of finding the power lead inputs and just feeding them with a 12v switched source, all in all though it went smoothly. He went with the 60/40 split bench as well from the truck it looks good in there,
after putting the interior back together we went over the truck high and low and double checked everything and so far so good, that brings us to where we are now, just a few minor details left as far as filling it up with fluids bleeding the brakes etc..
considering the work invloved it went real fast,
He drove his yota to work on monday and here it is today thursday and its almost done, he is going to drive it home tonight from the shop, so really if you just take it head on from start to finish it can be done pretty quick, Now this is all providing you have access to some major tools as far as welders plasmas/torches sawzals etc and know how to use them, If you don't have much time working with fabrication and similar things i wouldnt reccomend tackling this by yourself lol but if your handy with tools and have a general idea of how things work then i say take it head on! it was fun for us, I know i just kinda beezed over the whole process so if you have any questions about anything specific feel free to ask i will get back to ya...Anyhow hope this info helps someone somewhere...Talk to ya guys soon
06-25-2009, 01:41 PM
#13
Registered User
Hey guys, I'm new to the site, i had been hearing alot of people talk about yotatech and i decided to check it out and i just happen to come across this posting and i thought it would be a good chance for me to make a first post for myself in responce to the guy askin about puttin a runner body on a truck frame, Simply because we are just about to finish up one of these swaps today... i know this post is really old but still to this day i havent been able to find much info on doing something like this so i figured why not post it anyways..
Now i know this post pertains to a 4wd but we did it on a 2wd, and i would bet that it's not much different if at all. The truck belongs to my good buddy jason and he is always getting these crazy ideas to build like this...but for him and me it's more about the fun in doing it and showing it off when it's done, we just enjoy doing the work.
Anyhow the story is he had sold his 91 4 runner to his girlfriend and he had bought a 90 standard cab truck, both the truck and runner were in great shape, well about 3 weeks after he sold her the runner it cought on fire and everything under the hood burned badly, it was the 3.0 v6 5 speed runner, it was a dam shame because it was such a nice rig, anyhow she didn't have any sort of insurance coverage on it that would cover the fire damage so she basicly had to eat it. Well that's when jason got the crazy idea lol, he bought the burned runner back from her and went to town gutting it, he pulled everything from basicly the front seats forward out and tossed it, as it all had fire damage. after doing so we tackled the task of getting the body off the frame, this would have been a piece of cake had we had a lift but he just moved into this shop he is in now and has not been able to get a lift yet, so it was floor jacks pallets cherrypickers etc..
Once the body was off he took the time to clean up the fire wall taking everything off of it because it was all either burnt or badly damaged, he sanded the firewall and shot it with some paint, it looked good as new, now that the runner body was there and ready to be put on its new chassis he pulled the truck in and did the same, gutted it from head to toe removing everything from the inside of the cab and removing the cab bed etc.. it was just as easy to leave the 22r in the truck chassis so he did,
Now that the 2 major pieces were there it was time to see if the body was gonna even come close to fitting on the truck frame..keep in mind we had not done much research and the research we did do was not very informative so we just to the chance, how else ya gonna learn right? we took a few prior measuments as far as wheel base and things like that and it all checked out. So anyways we suspended the runner body just high enough to roll the truck frame under it, well after attempting to set the body down 2 or 3 times with no luck we gathered that the crossmember behind the trans on the truck was gonna be a major issue, as well as about 8 inches of the front half of the gas tank on the truck frame, they were both running into the floor of the runner body before it would set down. also only 4 of the body mounts are correct, the front 2 for the core support and the the 2 just under the front doors lined up, the rest had to be cut off and moved about 6 inches forward and 2 extra body mounts were added to the very back of the truck frame. as far as the gas tank and crossmember being in the way...instead of trying to relocate the tank and butcher the cross member he just decided to moved a section of the floor up just under the back seats where the problem was. This actually turned out really good, he raised it about 6 inches in all and plated it back in with some sheetmetal and seam sealed everything, once that was all finished we set the body down and everything looked good, he used every single interior part from the truck as far as the dash and cluster dash harness brake booster pedal assembly break lines etc...everything from the truck bolted directly onto the runner it was amazing! the gas filler neck was tricky but if you can get creative there were a few different options for this..he chose to buy some new hose and run it in mostly the stock location it worked perfect.
the wiring for the power windows and locks and rear lights and stuff was tricky but believe it or not in the cab just under the driverside seat and the passanger side seat the plugs were different but most all of the colors matched up perfectly to make the tailights work correctly, The windows was basicly a matter of finding the power lead inputs and just feeding them with a 12v switched source, all in all though it went smoothly. He went with the 60/40 split bench as well from the truck it looks good in there,
after putting the interior back together we went over the truck high and low and double checked everything and so far so good, that brings us to where we are now, just a few minor details left as far as filling it up with fluids bleeding the brakes etc..
considering the work invloved it went real fast,
He drove his yota to work on monday and here it is today thursday and its almost done, he is going to drive it home tonight from the shop, so really if you just take it head on from start to finish it can be done pretty quick, Now this is all providing you have access to some major tools as far as welders plasmas/torches sawzals etc and know how to use them, If you don't have much time working with fabrication and similar things i wouldnt reccomend tackling this by yourself lol but if your handy with tools and have a general idea of how things work then i say take it head on! it was fun for us, I know i just kinda beezed over the whole process so if you have any questions about anything specific feel free to ask i will get back to ya...Anyhow hope this info helps someone somewhere...Talk to ya guys soon
Now i know this post pertains to a 4wd but we did it on a 2wd, and i would bet that it's not much different if at all. The truck belongs to my good buddy jason and he is always getting these crazy ideas to build like this...but for him and me it's more about the fun in doing it and showing it off when it's done, we just enjoy doing the work.
Anyhow the story is he had sold his 91 4 runner to his girlfriend and he had bought a 90 standard cab truck, both the truck and runner were in great shape, well about 3 weeks after he sold her the runner it cought on fire and everything under the hood burned badly, it was the 3.0 v6 5 speed runner, it was a dam shame because it was such a nice rig, anyhow she didn't have any sort of insurance coverage on it that would cover the fire damage so she basicly had to eat it. Well that's when jason got the crazy idea lol, he bought the burned runner back from her and went to town gutting it, he pulled everything from basicly the front seats forward out and tossed it, as it all had fire damage. after doing so we tackled the task of getting the body off the frame, this would have been a piece of cake had we had a lift but he just moved into this shop he is in now and has not been able to get a lift yet, so it was floor jacks pallets cherrypickers etc..
Once the body was off he took the time to clean up the fire wall taking everything off of it because it was all either burnt or badly damaged, he sanded the firewall and shot it with some paint, it looked good as new, now that the runner body was there and ready to be put on its new chassis he pulled the truck in and did the same, gutted it from head to toe removing everything from the inside of the cab and removing the cab bed etc.. it was just as easy to leave the 22r in the truck chassis so he did,
Now that the 2 major pieces were there it was time to see if the body was gonna even come close to fitting on the truck frame..keep in mind we had not done much research and the research we did do was not very informative so we just to the chance, how else ya gonna learn right? we took a few prior measuments as far as wheel base and things like that and it all checked out. So anyways we suspended the runner body just high enough to roll the truck frame under it, well after attempting to set the body down 2 or 3 times with no luck we gathered that the crossmember behind the trans on the truck was gonna be a major issue, as well as about 8 inches of the front half of the gas tank on the truck frame, they were both running into the floor of the runner body before it would set down. also only 4 of the body mounts are correct, the front 2 for the core support and the the 2 just under the front doors lined up, the rest had to be cut off and moved about 6 inches forward and 2 extra body mounts were added to the very back of the truck frame. as far as the gas tank and crossmember being in the way...instead of trying to relocate the tank and butcher the cross member he just decided to moved a section of the floor up just under the back seats where the problem was. This actually turned out really good, he raised it about 6 inches in all and plated it back in with some sheetmetal and seam sealed everything, once that was all finished we set the body down and everything looked good, he used every single interior part from the truck as far as the dash and cluster dash harness brake booster pedal assembly break lines etc...everything from the truck bolted directly onto the runner it was amazing! the gas filler neck was tricky but if you can get creative there were a few different options for this..he chose to buy some new hose and run it in mostly the stock location it worked perfect.
the wiring for the power windows and locks and rear lights and stuff was tricky but believe it or not in the cab just under the driverside seat and the passanger side seat the plugs were different but most all of the colors matched up perfectly to make the tailights work correctly, The windows was basicly a matter of finding the power lead inputs and just feeding them with a 12v switched source, all in all though it went smoothly. He went with the 60/40 split bench as well from the truck it looks good in there,
after putting the interior back together we went over the truck high and low and double checked everything and so far so good, that brings us to where we are now, just a few minor details left as far as filling it up with fluids bleeding the brakes etc..
considering the work invloved it went real fast,
He drove his yota to work on monday and here it is today thursday and its almost done, he is going to drive it home tonight from the shop, so really if you just take it head on from start to finish it can be done pretty quick, Now this is all providing you have access to some major tools as far as welders plasmas/torches sawzals etc and know how to use them, If you don't have much time working with fabrication and similar things i wouldnt reccomend tackling this by yourself lol but if your handy with tools and have a general idea of how things work then i say take it head on! it was fun for us, I know i just kinda beezed over the whole process so if you have any questions about anything specific feel free to ask i will get back to ya...Anyhow hope this info helps someone somewhere...Talk to ya guys soon
It's like Moses walking down the mountain and telling us that although we have no idea who he is he has created the first 10 Commandments for Toyota ownership.
1) Get thee to a shop and purchase one 10mm, one 12mm and one 14mm socket, thou shalt use these on thy temple...
2) Find Yotatech when it arrives and thou shalt be members and prophets......
3) Covet not thy neighbors Jeep.....
4) Abecedarian shall be thy priest....
5) Follow not the Swampthing for he shall lead you to tempation.....
6) Iamsuperbleeder shall be the Lord of Longevity, follow him to 300,000 miles...
7) Ask not until you have searched! So sayeth the Scuba....
8) Matt16 shall lead you to fertile grounds of fishing if thy runner is capable...
9) Listen not to Junkers88 as he is slightly off his mental camber....
10) I have no idea for this one....
WELCOME TO YT!!!!
Last edited by Junkers88; 06-25-2009 at 01:42 PM.
06-25-2009, 02:01 PM
#14
I know this thread was started ages ago, but here's a 1st gen 4runner body on a 2000 4runner frame/drivetrain/suspension
http://irbisoffroad.com/project4.asp
(click on the picture to open up the gallery)
http://irbisoffroad.com/project4.asp
(click on the picture to open up the gallery)
