Hey guys, I'm a long time lurker and I finally decided to bite the bullet and post something to try and give a little back. It only seems right after all the great information i've gleaned from you all over the years. A little background, this is the truck I learned to drive on, and the one that has been in my family since Bill Clinton was still the president. My dad recently parked it and was about to sell it because it had fallen into such a state of disrepair, and I just couldn't let that happen. I've begun the long and arduous task of bringing my old friend back to life. So here is the beginning of hopefully a long and prosperous thread.

 

That's a cool looking truck! I had a chance to buy one off my uncle, thought it would fit the family a little better, but then opted to buy my 4runner instead. They are unique, don't see to many around anymore. Whats your plans for it, are you keeping it mostly stock, or going to do a lift? I think it would look tough lifted & rolling on some 35's!

 

Thanks! I think thats why i'm so attached to it. Well its hard to say exactly what I want because my priorities seem to change every week. But my two main goals are 1) restore it to daily driver status and 2) Modify it to be tall-person friendly. I'm 6'8'' my dad is 6'4'' so I want to be able to move the seat farther back and the steering wheel farther up. Additionally there is a laundry list of problems at the moment

1) no heat/AC -vents are destroyed/missing and lines are open/damaged condenser
2) shot suspension everything is HARSH in the truck
3) no radio - maybe a carputer, or something really cool that I don't even know about yet?
4) shot Interior. I've looked into the hercaliner interior threads, and i'm leaning toward this option.
5) Shot transfer case - right now this little friend of mine pops out of 4WD for like, no reason whatsoever.
6) Drivetrain rejuvination. The odometer is around 235K miles and we have never replaced clutch/U-Joints/Rear Main seal/etc
7) 22r to 22re swap. I already have a Donor Engine for this and i'm gathering all the secondary/tertiary parts now.

I think that about sums it up... Although I still have a lot of desires to make this baby go crazy off road, I don't even know where to start (search function). Thats what makes this so hard, every thing I want to do only leads to the better (more expensive) options. I'm pretty sure this will evolve based on what I discover during the build.

 

Here are some more pictures to show what I've been up to

This is the dash and door panel pretty well destroyed as well as the state of the seat covers lol

my little frenemy the blower motor and housing

more dash disassembly along with gross shag green carpet and tasty beverage



finally the back bench seat complete with the carpet and a good look at how bad the interior has gotten

 

As a fellow tall person (6'7") I approve!

 

Thanks Swimmer! Honestly, the tall hacks are the ones i'm looking forward to the most. Most people will never know the joy that an extra 4'' of leg room brings!

 

Update, I got my donor motor back from the machine shop today. Time to start assembly!

 

I know its a dead thread but any updates on this project? Nice looking project you have and would love to know what became of it.
Trying to gather all the custom cab info I can and I know on another post someone mentioned doing a Custom Cab collection but no luck yet finding much.

 

Hey OCN!

Thanks for the interest. Here is the update. This project was dead, but then was brought back from the dead last year. While in the middle of the engine rebuild I got a job offer that required me to move to Seattle. I sold the engine to another local yota nut who put it in his first gen 4runner. About a year after that we sold the truck to him in the condition pictured here. Dash was torn out and everything, gauge cluster was precariously placed on top of the steering assembly for the drive. After almost four years in WA I came back to NM, and after about a year back the local yota nut sold us the Custom Cab back for the cost of parts he put into it. Right now it has only been driven about 120 miles in the last 4 years. 60 miles to its home, 60 back to mine. Still needs an engine, the transfer case still pops out of gear in 4low, but otherwise it's just waiting for the build to continue. We did get back to the future bumpers on there. I don't have any recent pics right now but I will post some later. Thanks for digging this up!

 

Good to hear you have it (again) and have not given up on it.
Just picked up an 87 myself and will be doing the 3RZ swap when the time comes. Love these trucks and have always wanted one since they were new.

 

Sorry it took me so long to actually get back to this. Here is a good shot of the BTTF front bumper