if you own an older Yota truck/runner AND you or it has lived in the "rust belt" you know the drill; my passenger side frame rail and crossmembers look like bad brown swiss cheese. I have searched, meditated, PRAYED and finally have decided to dive in to fixing this mess once and for all. If I succeed I have a great little truck for years to come. If I fail, there will be a BUNCH of nice 87 Xtra cab 4x4 parts for sale!
I have chosen to fix this instead of junking/finding a new truck for a few reasons:

• 6 months ago I installed a new motor
• The rest of the truck is in good shape
• It gets WAY better mileage than the fullsized p/u I was driving
• I have a BEAUTIFUL rear frame section from an 88 runner that was hit in the front
• I (and the guy working for me) both have years of heavy truck/wrecker frame work so we feel fairly competent
• The truck was bought new by my Dad in 88 and he gave it to me a couple months before he died
• I dont do any hard wheeling
• I REALLY LIKE THIS THING!!!!!!

We will get started tomorrow morning and yes, we will take PLENTY of pics. This is our plan, we are going to remove the fiberglas bed from my truck and cut the frame completely off on both sides 8" behind the torsion bar mounts. The donor frame will be sectioned likewise BUT we will leave a "flap" of metal the heighth of the frame on the outer edge (about 12"-16" long). We will butt the ends together and heat/bend the "flap" out and over the outer side of the existing frame. We then will drill and install 4 bolts thru the flap and its overlapped frame section (in front of the torsion mount). All edges will be wire welded (butt and lap joints).
This process will give me a pristine rear section that should last my lifetime!

Any thoughts or comments are welcome, we are flying by the seat of our pants here!

 

cant wait to see the process.

 

Done yet???hehe.

 

If you have done this on Real trucks you should just do it the same way.

You want to avoid straight butt joints or lap joints hence where the fish plate name came from pointy at both ends.

avoid stress risers by not welding the corners .

It is such a habit I would also have a fish plate on the inside of the frame to catch your bolts as well as be welded .

Take your time welding the less heat saturation into the heat affected zone the better.

Now you may be fooling yourself the only reason you are fixing this truck is because You want To!!!

Good Luck any questions feel free to PM

 

In this first phase we stripped everything off the rusted frame. Next we marked and cut the donor section. In the process we decided to cut out a
12"-14" section of the inner frrame box. The plan is that it fits snuggly inside the existing frame and will be bolted across the joint. Here's some pics so far. After further thought and input I decided to cut the frame at an angle instead of a square butt.

here is what my frame (or whats left of it) looks like.

Tomorrow we cut out the rusted part and attempt to fit it all back together. :wabbit2:

 

I would guess when the splice is finished you will be installing all new brake and fuel lines.

You are lucky in that part of the country you can find good frames yet. In the great salt belt they look pretty much like your old one.

 

looking forward to seeing the progress...

 

WOW.......I knew this was gonna be a process but sheesh.......
I am VERY blessed to have a guy working for me that is AWESOME with a wire welder! After cutting both frames at a 45 degree angle (inner side, top and bottom, leaving a section of the outer "skin") we found that the old adage is true: the best laid plans of mice and men...........
Everything didnt match quite like we had hoped BUT we had already anticipated adding some gusset plates to the inner side, and the outer side that we left long worked like one too, so here are some pics of the process. This is the donor rear from the 88 4runner.

 

After supporting the front half with a jack under the trans crossmember and pulling all 4 cab mounts so we could jack the cab up off the frame a bit we removed the fuel tank (and horribly rusted lines) and the once-already-replaced brake lines. Then we marked cut the frame.............

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/...r/64a87074.jpg
Fitting the 2 together we decided that the more strength we could add to the joint the better so we cut some of the inner frame sections (the fit into the outer section and are welded in) and slipped them into both the old and new frames about 16" beyond the joint. As I mentioned earlier the joint didnt line up perfectly but we were more concerned with truing the rear end up.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/...r/32473739.jpg
The gap in the frame on the Passenger side was filled with left over metal from the donor 4 runner and welded slowly so as to maintain as much of the frames temper as possible. The outer section of frame the is longer was cut off to make the gusset plates for the inside and then hammered to and welded to the outer frame face along its length to give extra support.





more to come.................fuel tank issues.........bed mounts had to be cut off and rewelded......and a HUGE blessing that came when I got a call asking me about the rear diff I was about to unbolt from this frame..............Stay tuned!

 

FYI comments are welcome but critics are not welcome! if you dont like it that's ok, just dont rain on my parade! it worked well for me on a 400mile trip this weekend.

 

im glad ur saving it! good job!

 

check my album there are a few pics of how my frame was fixed was the same way frame actually came right apart while driving only driveshaft held here together. Its always worth keeping old toyotas running

 

Thanks Stalker for the vote of confidence! It's too cool an old truck to let go.....oh, and she qualifies for the Antique tag this year too!

 

nice job on your "shorty".
what's with the 63"chevy springs? are they just heavier? i was thinking about doing the "ZUK" mod.

 

63s give better flex!! Found your thread!

 

like I told you before I dont "wheel" much so I dont need a lot of flex BUT I would be thrilled have a better ride and heavier load carrying capacity SOOOOOOOO
I'm gonna do the ZUK mod and see how it goes before I buy/replace my rear springs.