[83LB]

My wife, when she was my g/f had this truck given to her by her uncle because he was done with it. Bummer.
So anyways, after 6 years as a DD and then backup vehicle for a few years, and then my work truck for a couple of years, it was time for an overhaul. from the tires up.

Here's what it looked like before it went into the garage for recostructive surgery, still looks okay but has some underlying issues that needed immediate addressing.

Just to alleviate possible confusion it's an 83 Toyota long box SR5 4x4 with 325kms.

 

[83LB]

It was almost "done" before I started.

 

[83LB]

Sorry, people actually want me to work on their stuff first.:shakehead:

Here's another pic. I put a 2" lift in it about 8 years ago when the leafs started breaking, it was a "soft ride" spring set from NWOR. Those are definitely the stiffest springs I have ever experienced, but it never sagged in those 8 years and when I put my 600lb snowmobile in the back it felt just right.

 

[83LB]

The box is the first thing to go.......

You won't believe how therapeutic it was to pitch that box off and then immediately cut it into little pieces. I can't find the pics of me hacking it up unfortunately, but man that felt good. I've had that 'glass box for 2.5 years now, and everytime I went into the garage I'm sure I could hear it laughing at me.

 

[83LB]

I already knew this was toast, I parked the truck when the 2nd shock mount tore away.

I replaced it with some 2x2 square tubing. Hopefully it won't crack where it's welded to the frame, if it does, I'll have to fish plate it. Don't have a pic of it welded and finished, but you get the idea.

 

[83LB]

Next is the floor repair. This was the thing that I dreaded most, so I decided that I would do nothing else on the truck until the floor was completely finished.

I ground out the old rotted spots and proceeded to replace it with something heavier and less rusty.

The spots on on the floor that were originally double layered for strength is where most of the rot was at the rear, around the seatbelt anchors and seat mounts and body mounts. I adhered the new metal down with 3M panel bond so that there would be no more air space between the layers and if there was, the adhesive would act as a barrier so that any condensation in the future would not have any access to bare metal. I tack welded the new metal down to the floor to hold it while the adhesive cured After curing I then acid washed all the bare stuff and layed on a couple od coats of POR15.

The back lowers of the cab had some rot where the floor met the back wall, so I fixed that up too.

 

[83LB]

I started this project last fall so I'm playing "build thread catch up" big time right now...........

I have been told that if you stagger the rear shocks , one facing forward and the other facing back, like the newer model trucks, that the rear tracks better on rough roads and in washboard (less skittish). That said I went to my buddies house and measured the shock mount locations on his 90 xtracab. I bought the factory shock mounts and measured and welded them onto my frame so they would have the same geometry as the 90's style trucks.

 

[83LB]

I thought that just in case anyone's wondering where exactly this build is going I'll just tell you and relieve the apprehension:
This is going to be my family's 2nd vehicle and thus will be able to be comfortably driven to work my my wife if I need the family wagon. It will also be the yard work truck, have daily driver capabilities (must be reliable), back up work truck for my electrical business, snowmobile hauler, and, of course, be my weekend 4x4 and snow wheeler.
So, if anyone sees me doing something really dumb in this build or anything that you think might give me or you nightmares, let me know. I want this truck to be a great 4x4 but also have VERY good street manners and predictability. 1000 brains are better than 1!

Thanks

 

[83LB]

I doing this build I had thoughts in my head as to where I would draw the line and one of them was that I wasn't going to pull the cab off the truck, not that I haven't done that before but I just didn't want to go that far.

So anyways I was on the creeper under the truck and was trying not to fall asleep (they should have called it a sleeper) and I looked up at the floor repair that I did 8-9 years ago and noticed that it was still holding up quite well, but the inner of the rockers and the front cab mounts were rotting :cwm10:

So off came the cab

 

[83LB]

Started digging around to see how much needed to be removed and replaced... and started hacking into it.

I decided to completely replace my previous floor repair at the same time since it would be easier to fix the other stuff with part of the floor cut out.

 

[83LB]

Got the floor replaced and went to a local fab shop to have them brake me some new body mounts. I gave them my old mount just to have them copy it, but they thought "hey, the thicker the metal the better right"....so the new body mounts are 10ga thick whereas the originals were lucky to be 16ga. they should hold out for a while I think.
I just had them break and shear the sheet metal into shape and I would take care of the rest

 

[83LB]

Here's the new mount massaged into the contour of the original one, welded together and clamped to the rebuilt inner rocker and ready to be welded on.

I don't have any pics of it, but I actually just tacked the mounts on and put the cab back on the frame to ensure that they were in the right position beacuse I just don't trust myself with a tape measure. Then I took the cab back off and premanently welded the mounts on.

 

[83LB]

While the cab was off I took the opportunity to POR15 the bottom at any spots where I had done any welding or grinding.

 

[83LB]

The passenger side rocker was replaced back in the 80's when my wife's uncle dumped the truck on it's side. The unprotected weld job inside the rocker rotted through and so the whole rocker was replaced at this time too.

 

[83LB]

Welded on some temporary tow bar mounts and took the opportunity to whip the frame/diffs down to the car wash before I put the cab back on.

Then dumped some POR15 onto the top of the frame and cab mount brackets while they were still easy to get to.

 

[83LB]

Thanks for the feedback!


Decided while it was easy, to dump some POR15 on the top of the frame and body mount brackets before the cab went back on.

I also put in a 1" body lift at the same time. This saved me a ton of time and energy because it solved lots of clearance issues. I'm using a 92 xtracab gas tank so I can use an in-tank pump instead of an external pump because I didn't want to hear it and also if it fails, the local parts store probably has one in stock or it's overnight. These tanks have exactly the same mounting pattern as my stock tank but get thier additional capacity from them being a little taller so I was mentally preparing to have to make some kind of a drop bracket so the tank would clear the bottom of the box. With the body lift, now the tank actually clears the bottom of the box by about 3/8-1/2"..........nice!

 

[83LB]

Sure is nice to see the cab back on, but I wasn't real tickled to see this as a result........

Apparently my new unrusted and fully welded rocker panel is as not nearly as strong as my original rusted right through, only welded at the top lip and not welded at the bottom pinch weld, rocker. :cwm10:

This baby is going to need some sort of protection fosho.

If this happened after paint I would leave it as long as the door closed, but since it's early in the bodywork stage, it'll get pulled and fixed.

 

[83LB]

For years I have been debating in my mind as to what I was going to use for an engine in this truck. I wasn't unhappy with the 22R, all the ones I've had have been bulletproof reliable, but I wanted some more get up and go too.
I am not a chevy guy so that whole list of options was completely out of the question. I tossed around using a really strong (LCE stroker) 22R or 22RE, even considered a 22RET. Also thought about a 302, 351w and even a 4.6L but I just didn't want all of the extra weight of a V8. So I bit the bullet and got a 3.4 out of a 2000 4Runner and ordered the ORS conversion kit(the day before they closed up shop). This will give me a substantial power increase(like DOUBLE w/o any mods) and I won't have the weight of a V8 on the front suspension.

 

[83LB]

It's gettin there, thanks...

Had to do the pan and dipstick tube swap so I got the ORS dipstick drill guide because my block is too new of a model to have the boss machined. They say you can use a regular drill, but I had to use this one...there's no way that a regular drill and bit would fit in that space to drill through that guide at the correct angle.

Amazing...when you follow instructions, it works the way they say!

 

[83LB]

The recommended drill bit size was a metric bit or a letter bit, can't remember which one, doesn't matter, I didn't have it, but I had the next recommended fractioal size, so I used it. It ended up being just slightly larger than the ideal bore size, so I used loctite on the dipstick tube fitting and then staked it in. It'll be just fine.