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Howdy fellas, sold my 2014 single cab Tacoma and got this. After a long time mechanic, this will be my first restore attempt.
any help will be much much appreciated. The bed could be saved, but I am going to tastefully flatbed it. Y'all are welcome to the bed if anyone wants it. Looking forward to it !!
Nice truck! Love the look of the early 80s pickups.
What's first on the to do list?
First to do is get hand held blast gun and save what I can on bed, and yank it off.
Then I will disassemble the cab, remove it from frame, and blast the frame. Then I will paint it with rust encapsulator, then regular black paint.
Then I will start replacing floor pans and repairing the window frame corners. I am thinking about buy a cheap TIG machine. Thoughts?
Hi,
If your rear bed corners (sheet metal around the tail lights) are any good and you're willing to sawzall them off and ship I'll buy them. Look at my build thread for replacing the cab floor pans.
Just don't buy a flux core welder. Pay a little extra and get one that uses gas. A 110 welder will work very well for sheet metal and even for frame repairs. Get a welder that will do at least 1/8" metal if you need to do any frame repair. Oh, and don't use an orange extension cord with your welder. Get a nice heavy gauge one or your welder won't work correctly, don't ask me how know.
Hi,
If your rear bed corners (sheet metal around the tail lights) are any good and you're willing to sawzall them off and ship I'll buy them. Look at my build thread for replacing the cab floor pans.
I am gonna focus on getting the truck going before a commit to sawzall the bed up. But I will keep you in mind
Originally Posted by 81 4X4
Just don't buy a flux core welder. Pay a little extra and get one that uses gas. A 110 welder will work very well for sheet metal and even for frame repairs. Get a welder that will do at least 1/8" metal if you need to do any frame repair. Oh, and don't use an orange extension cord with your welder. Get a nice heavy gauge one or your welder won't work correctly, don't ask me how know.
Yeah, I already have a Lincoln 145HD set up with argon, I just want a TIG machine too
Wow those are expensive. Ohh well, it is a restoration after all. I have done some searching bit not found anything so far, but exactly how to you go about replacing the rusty parts of the bed? Of all the builds I look at I have only seen one person weld on the body, and that was on the rocker panel. Do you just cut out, reweld and then shape it? Or shape and then weld back in? And I imagine if you run a bead it will warp, so tack welds only?
So I got some updates for yall. I have a good-running 2003 VW 1.9 turbo diesel and a w56 ready to swap into truck. I have found all the necessary parts for the restoration. Even a new floor for the bed. I threw a new battery on it and it will start on start on ether, but idles rough. So my question is, should I continue the route im going, or should I restore the truck to original condition since its an all maching numbers truck?
Flatbed (if i go that route) will be made of 2x2 14 ga square tubing with 2 inch 14 ga flat bar welded upright between the bars, 9 inch fold down sides made out of 18 ga with a roll on top for strength, and 1/8 aluminum diamond plate on the deck that has been glued down to the 2x2 runners with some stuff called "sikaflex" that we cant get in the USA, but i can get on the Ebay Australia website
Last edited by 81rustBucket; 02-05-2020 at 07:15 AM.
Why you decided on a vw instead of a om617? Just wondering
Merc is almost 600 lbs and a lot larger than 1.9. If you go the Merc route, you have to have a new cross member, new drive shafts, need at least a 3 inch lift, and only certain transmissions to get the rear of the engine away from the fire wall. Also, good luck getting parts at Auto zone for them.
The VW route is much easier. 361 lbs, Clears the fire wall fine, mounts to any transmission , can keep cruise control if you want, parts are readily available (locally, I don't need an engine that you have to order an injector from Istanbul) you can keep cruise, and in the end you have an OBDII port to reprogram your outputs if you want .
IMHO om617 has no place in a Mini truck. Might as well put a 4bt in it at that point.
Ive been wondering abt diy sandblasters. Air compressor, hose, can of sand. 600 sounds ok to me but for that price id expect them to do an excellent job. But im cheap as @#%&
07-21-2019, 03:49 PM
