I bought this truck from my uncle sometime around '97/'98 in pretty sad shape. I did a frame-off "restoration" with a '92 bed, Alcan springs, and 35" tires. This was my first true off-road truck. I apologize for the picture quality, but that is what digital cameras were like back then!

Eventually, this truck ended up as an extended cab on a standard cab frame with a Toyota Supra engine. See the Supra swap link under "Technical" for more info.

Background

At the time that I purchased this truck I was planning on using the front end off of it to do a straight axle conversion on my '92 extended cab. I bought the truck from my uncle for $800. It was in what I would call very bad condition. The bed was rusted out badly, the cab corners were rusting, the frame was rusting, and the front fenders were also in bad shape. The engine was pinging badly and in desperate need of a tune up. After looking the truck over for a day or so, I decided that it was still in too good of a condition to be sold off as spare parts. That night is when my 3 month long (and still going) project began.

Disassembly 

I began the whole project by stripping out the interior of the cab. The plastic trim was very brittle from years in the sun and had broken at many places. I ripped everything out and threw it away. I took out the vinyl flooring and scraped the tar-like pads on the floor off. I ripped out the headliner and everything. I did not know at the time what I would end up using, but I planned on getting the interior sprayed with Rhino Liner or something rather than trying to find all of the trim at a junk yard or buying it new. After the interior was stripped clean, I took off the bed and the fenders and threw them out since they were not even remotely repairable. Until this point I had planned on just replacing the bad body parts and lifting the truck. When I removed the bed I discovered that the frame beside the fuel tank had developed major rust. Dirt had accumulated inside the frame rail, holding moisture and causing cancer. I made up my mind that I was not going to let this stop me and decided that I would tear the truck down to the frame, sandblast the frame, fix it, and repaint it.

Removing The Cab and Engine

The next step was to remove the cab. I unplugged all of the wires and hoses taking special care to label everything so that re-assembly would be easier. I disconnected the steering column and all of the body mounts. I also removed the doors and windows from the cab. I lifted the cab off of the frame by using a lift that my dad and I rigged up. We have a trap door in the ceiling of the shop in which we laid a 6"x4"x12' beam across the floor joists and attached a come-along to it. I then looped my tow rope through the doors and tied a chain to the front of the cab. I was alone when I lifted the cab off and did not realize until it was too late that I forgot to disconnect the clutch hose. It ripped in half. With the cab in the air, I pushed the chassis out of the shop and backed a trailer in. I lowered the cab onto the trailer and took it out behind the shop so that I would have more room to work.
After the cab was gone, I used the same lift to hoist the engine off of the frame.

Fixing the Frame and Installing the Suspension

I continued to strip everything else off of the frame so that I could take it to the sandblaster. While the frame was away, I focused my energy on cleaning and painting the axles and other parts. A project of this size takes many late nights of cleaning and painting, cleaning and painting, and then some more cleaning and painting.
It took a week for the sandblaster to finally get to blasting my frame. The cost for having it blasted was $120. The results were shocking because the frame looked like new (except for the rust holes). I took the frame home and spent the following week cutting the rusted metal out of the frame and welding in new sections. After many E-mails back and forth with Toyota Tony and phone calls to the guys at RMOR, I had decided that I was going to use 4" Alcan springs. The front ones were to have the spring pin drilled 1 1/2" forward from the original location, and the rear ones were to be 5" longer than the stock springs and mount similar to the Mazda rear spring conversion. I chose to use the spring hangers from an '89 pickup rather than the '84 mounts because when turned around backwards they have a better clearance angle. I welded these mounts on while I was working on the frame and had easy access to them. I also cut off the rear of the frame to the shackles. I was positive that I was going to have a shortened bed of some type on it after shortening the bed on my '92. At this point I should have cut off the old front shock mounts, but hindsight is always 20/20. I did some measuring to be sure that the frame was not bent or twisted in need of a visit to the frame shop. When measured diagonally the 2 measurements were within 1/16". I figured that it just doesn't get any better than that.
After all of the welding and grinding was done on the frame, I started painting it. I sprayed 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of blue polyurethane paint. The frame and axles were finally completed and the springs had just arrived frame RMOR! I was ready to reassemble.

About the Suspension

I fabricated the shackles in the machine shop where I work. Both the front and the rear shackles are made out of CRS - 0.250 thick and 2" wide. They are all 2" longer than the stock shackles and have no gusset in the center. I believe that having a shackle with a gusset does not allow the suspension to flex as it can without. I used M18x150 socket head cap screws for the shackle bolts. I hand tightened the shackle nuts rather than using a wrench so that I would have as much flex as possible. I drilled and pinned the nuts so that they would not back out. I used Downey U-bolts on the front and rear and a Dick Cepek dropped drag link for the steering rather than flip the ball on the steering arm. I am not currently happy with the performance of the steering and plan on doing a crossover steering conversion at some point. I fabricated my own adjustable torque arm rather than spend the money buying one. I ended up having a hard link at either end of the rod rather than rubber like the original Toyota one. I originally made one with rubber bushings in it but could not get the truck to stop pulling to the passenger side under braking. I was finally able to get it to stop straight by using hard links and preloading the axle slightly. I managed to find power steering at a junkyard for relatively cheap. It came with the brackets, pump, gearbox, and all of the hoses.

Bodywork and Cab Installation

Once the suspension was installed, I put the engine, fuel tank, wires, hoses, and brake lines back onto the frame. I then pulled the chassis out behind the shop and brought the cab inside to begin working on it.
This was my first attempt at major bodywork and I was encouraged by how well it turned out. The only reason that I will probably not do the painting again is that it is a ton of work to prepare. Repainting an entire truck inside and out redefines the term "sanding". I spent every evening and Saturday for three weeks cutting out metal, forming metal, welding metal, applying body filler, and SANDING. I think I did more sanding on this truck than I have done in the rest of my life combined. One of the tools that made sanding a little more bearable, was my random orbital sander. I used about 50 sanding disks in that thing. I cut out as much rust as I could, but some of the little spots did not need cut out. I sanded them as best I could and applied a product called Moisture Cured Polyurethane to them. MCP is supposed to be one of the best rust inhibitors around. It is very amazing stuff...and very tough to get off of your hands. Following the preparation I was finally ready to paint. Painting was actually very enjoyable. I started out with 2 coats of primer. Primer is great to spray because it dries in about 30 seconds and it makes you look like a pro. Following the primer I sprayed on 2 coats of Pitch Black. I did a decent job with the topcoat except for one of the new fenders. I sprayed on a little too much paint and had sag. I planned on fixing it sometime, but after wheeling and scratching the entire paint job anyway....I really don't see the point.
When I finished painting I started putting everything back onto the firewall. I then put the cab back onto the chassis and hooked everything back up. I was very relieved after the truck started on the first try. By this time I had decided that I would use Durabak on the interior and had purchased a gallon. This product did not deaden the noise quite as much as I had hoped, so I installed carpet. I installed Toyota Celica bucket seats in place of the old worn out bench seat. They all but bolted right into the existing bolt holes in the floor.

Bed Choice and Installation

When the entire front end was back on I started thinking about what bed I was going to use. Since I put so much money into this truck I was planning on selling the '92. I had chopped the bed on the '92 a few months before and knew that if I was to sell the truck for a decent price, I would need to have a full-length bed on it. I did not want to have to buy a new bed for both of the trucks, so I decided to see how well the '92 bed fit on the '84. As I had read somewhere the bed works perfectly. The sides of the bed extend about 1/2" past the cab but do not look bad. The lights on both beds have the same connectors and the body mounts are the same on both. The only thing that did not bolt up perfectly is the gas filler tube. New holes must be drilled in the bed to accommodate the pattern on the filler cap. I tried switching filler tubes where they attach to the fuel tank, but they are a different diameter.

Testing the Flex

When the truck was again able to get around on its own power I started testing the suspension. I drove it up this hill many times to try to determine shock lengths and front shock tower locations. I soon came to realize that I would need to swap to an IFS rear axle because I needed the extra width to keep the rear tires from hitting the frame under compression. These pictures are taken before I swapped in the new axle and you can see that the up travel in the rear is definately limited.

The "Final" Product

I later swapped a Supra engine into this truck and put a standard cab frame under it, and then I ended up parting it out and using all of the “good” parts on an '85 4runner. The 4runner has its' own page here .

**More Pictures Here**