I just dumped my 3VZ and auto trans at the scrapyard and holy crap. They weighed in at 820 pounds together which is exactly why I wanted to go with an aluminum engine. The aluminum LSX engines weigh in at around 400 pounds fully dressed.

 

Sounds like fun; 19ft is a pretty decent sized travel trailer.

 

I managed to pick up a few parts. I'm going to gather a few more before I really tear into this thing too much more.

Here is my Advance Adapter to run a Dana 300 with a newer 4L60E Now I know why they get so much money for these...they are high quality for sure.




I also picked up a few engine parts, brackets and such.

 

Tomorrow I am going to order the bulk of the rest of what I need.
An SAS kit and rear lift kit and Driveshafts from High Angle Driveline are the two most expensive things I have left. I am also going to tow the Runner to the shop next week and take the body off the frame to do the supsension work and paint it. I will post pics next week as I take them.

I am going to say April 15th I should be wrapping up the project.

 

Good deal man, are going to pull the body and do the suspension at the hobby shop? I need to order drive shafts for mine. Are you going to order the drive shafts before you get the suspension installed. I would wait until after you get the suspension and motor in, that way you can take all the measurements and get for sure what you need. I will take a look at high angle's site. I am looking at about $400 each through Tom Woods.

Later

 

Yeah I'm going to take it to the metal shop and use their lift to get the body off. They also have stands to put the body on when I take it off. I'm going to do all the work there as well mostly because I don't have a welder yet and I really like the Millermatic 252's they have.

I called High Angle yesterday just to see what they would say and they didn't say anything about needing the measurements, but I am putting a new drive train in it so it probably is a good idea to wait. I was told I'd be in the $500 range to lengthen the front and make them usable with the Dana 300.

 

I ended up ordering 4" front and 5" rear springs on my SAS and rear lift kit. I went through Addicted Offroad for the SAS and rear lift kits, mostly because I like to call and order things versus doing it online and the phone number on WabFab's website went to voicemail. When I called Addicted Offroad Scott answered the phone and I liked the advice he gave so I bought the two kits at 1853 shipped. I really want to order sliders and bumpers too but I'm going to wait until I have the 4Runner up and running before I do that.

 

I ordered Eastwood's frame paint. I bought the stuff to coat the inside as well and a primer and chassis black for the outside. Apparently the more durable chassis black can be brushed on so I will be in the paint booth spraying it on. I can't wait to try the stuff but I need to get the body off the frame and cut all the old stuff and weld the new stuff on first.

 

Since I haven't posted anything worth reading in a while I figured I'd post a pic. This is my front axle, an SAS kit, a rear lift kit, and some other stuff. I'm going to carry it to my 4Runner tonight but the metal shop I'm working on my truck at on base is only open eight hours a day Wed - Sun so I won't actually get to do anything or post anymore pics until Wed. My goal for Wed is to pull the body off the frame, repair the front cross member damage, prep the front axle, and cut off as much as I can off of the frame before the shop closes. I'll post pics on Wed after I leave the shop.

 

Go to go man. I haven't got much done on mine for a while. Things have been crazy between work and home. I hope to get the old engine and tranny out this week. I dropped oof a head at the machine shop last weekend. Hopefully it will be good for an over haul. That way I can get the new engine ready for install. I did get to spend yesterday sand blasting things for repaint in the engine bay. The wife and I have put ourselves on a tight budget so finishing this thing before the end of summer is going to be tough. Good luck on yours.

 

I didn't get as much done as I thought I would. I was able to get the body off the frame and that's about it. My camera is MIA but I'll find it and take pics tomorrow. I am going to work on the axle first tomorrow and then maybe start with the SAS. I was going to replace that front crossmember with one from another Runner but I am just going to plate the one thats there. I ordered the frame reinforcement kit from Addicted Offroad which is a plate that goes over the front of the crossmember covering part of the eaten away crossmember and I am going to weld a plate to the top as well.

 

When I pulled up the carpet today I found piles of sand under it. I also found rust on the bottom of the front two doors which is bad enough that I might get some junkyard doors. The P.O. put some kind of coating on the frame and and some of the suspension parts to keep it from rusting and it looks like a decent coating but I'm going to take it off and put the Eastwood stuff on.

 

Here are a few pics I snapped today. Because of the shops hours the only thing I really managed to accomplish today was disassembling and cleaning the axle which took about three hours to do because of the immense amount of crud that was built up on it. It's ready to be cut and welded on now though so I'm going to at least finish prepping the housing itself tomorrow. Ideally I'd be able to get it all put back together tomorrow as well.













This is the axle as it sits now underneath the body of my Runner.

 

Hey man just a suggestion but take a look on pirate about cutting and rotating the knuckles to get the proppee caster and good pinion angle. You are foing to do a lot of work to that axle. Might as well take it all the way. I wish i would have my pinion angle is going to suck. I am most likely going to have to go with a double cardon front shaft. Later

 

Thanks for the tip but I'm not going to worry about it for now. I'd like to go to custom front axle that is IFS width in the not too distant future. I made some progress today so here's some pics.

Up on stands ready to be torched



Halfway done torching




Done cutting...grinding time...






Here's some pics of a couple of my welds. The dark ones on the axle gusset are not mine.

 

I made some more progress today. I ground everything down the rest of the way and tack welded the shackles into place while the frame is upside down. I also disassembled the rear axle and prepared it for it's date with the torch on Wednesday when the shop opens back up. Hopefully Wed I can get my front axle put back together and torch all the brackets the rear axle and get it sanded down. If I have time I'll flip the frame back over and put the springs and axles under the frame. I am thinking I have 4 to 5 solid days of work left before I am totally done with this thing. I'll post more pics up Wed evening.

 

nice build. getting alot of stuff done. i need to start working on my 82 soon lol

 

Thanks, it's really hard to get things done because I have to work around the shop's schedule. I'm still waiting on a couple of things to come in the mail that are holding me up a little bit; I'd like to have this thing done.

 

know what you mean. i had mine at my work for like a month just bring certain things back to specs.

 

really cool build thread... How is it going now? It has been a bit since an update.