Farva's Build: 1998 SR5 2.7L 4Cyl

Well this is my first build thread! I'm gonna try to keep up with it the best I can. Both for the documentary aspect and (mostly) because I am pretty new to a lot of the stuff I'm gonna be undertaking so I'm sure I'll have plennnty of questions along the way, but that's what it's all about right... living and learning.

Any way here's the story....

I bought this truck in Maine while on leave between units for $6,000. I'm with the USCG and am currently stationed at AIRSTATION Atlantic City, NJ.







I'll be honest, It was more than a little rushed. I had been looking for months and this popped up and it pretty much felt right' / I REALLY needed to get my butt out of the little Ford Focus Hatchback I'd been driving since I totalled my 4Runner a while back. So I scooped it up. It is definitely a work in progress and I for sure bought myself into a project.

At the time of purchase the ODO read 117,000. The driver side door wouldn't open. The back right quarter had taken a few good licks from the brush and it had no flooring, just the sheetmetal and factory sound deadener. There is no radio and while I have all of the interior parts, I am missing (and still waiting to recieve from the PO) many of the factory fasteners that hold them to the body and dash.

It has an aftermarket driver seat and an original passenger seat. Stock it was the 60/40 bench.

I quickly found out that it was in need of a new steering rack. So that drained me of another 800 bucks real fast. And thats before the tire rotation/alignment, and the shaft I recieved from the State of Maine Tax
system...

Needless to say I felt myself slowly sliding into buyers remorse...

But I picked myself up by my bootstraps and reminded myself that a project was, all in all, what I wanted. I wanted a truck to make my own, and didn't want any kind of financing to get it.

It also came with plenty of perks and aftermarket upgrades, though:

-A frame you can eat off of. The truck grew up in Georgia so it didnt see salt at all. I brought it in to Toyota for the frame check just in case though and they laughed at me it was so spotless.
-Custom bumpers (bolted) and rocksliders and grill: See above.
-2 HELLA lamps: Also see above.
-2" Body lift
-Stainless brake cables all the way around.
-Most of the bushings have been replaced with Energy bushings.
-Sway-A-Way Racerunner 2.0's up front: (Probably in need of rebuilds though)


-Downey 5-Leaf Pack with Bilstein 5125s in back:


-A K&N filter on an AEM intake
-Nology Spark plug wires

-A dual fan system on an adjustable thermostat


-An MSD 8913 Dis-Tach Driver (no tachometer inside though. A mount, but no tachometer...

-This custom exhaust set up... looks a little bit hacked to me but I don;t know for sure.

Downey Headers:


To this 2 3/4" or 3" Down tube and a Cat of an F250... high flow I guess.


Leading to this shawty looking muffler and back to an what looks to me to be an FMF dirtbike Exhaust lol...




-And finally a little bit of piece of mind that the PO seemed pretty mechanical as far as engines and maintence go and the amount of pride he took in his maintence routine he kept with the truck and that he was the only owner of the vehicle.

So onto my checklist of future projects:

-Fix driver side door - DONE
-Strip/prep/re-paint Bumpers and rocksliders
-Black out the grill and surround
-Remove the factory sound deadoner and lay down some roll-on herculiner or Bed-Armor on the interior floor
-Install a radio and speakers
-Find some replacement seats
-Find a center console from a later model bucket seater to slide between my seats.
-Try to figure out why my shift levers are postitioned so funny. I think the PO did a shawty extension job when the body lift was added.
-Repaint that red console face black along with the new center console.
-Install a VHF radio hopefully in the dash under my new radio if I can fins one that fits.
-Replace the tan fabric on the doors with a black fabric.
-Rebuild the SAW's (if it's worth it...)
-Replace the ball joints
-Strip down and recoat the spindles
-Check and replace all bushings as needed (pretty sure the ones out back on the leaf pack are no good...)
-If I can find one that will drop right in replace the entire bed body.
(bolded in hopes that someone here will happen to know someone who knows someone looking to unload one...)
-and if I get a replacement bed hit up the local Maaco for a half decent paint job. (Doing the prep work myself of course)


I'm looking to slowly turn this into as close to an overland adventure truck as I can. Something that can get me through some technical terrain and also handle the day to day back and forth on the pavement.


So there's my first ever first post of my first build thread... I can't wait to get down to business and share ideas and thoughts with you all.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think...

 

Looks like a good fixer upper. Looks good so far. Thanks for your service.

 

Hey thanks guys.

You think it's a better idea to rebuild than go new? What would you think would be some tell tale signs that going new would be a better option?

 

Alright I've been a little busy with work and training, but I managed some time to get the rear bumper off the truck, sanded it down got rid of all the rust, hit it with some spray on "Rusty Metal" primer (the guys at the autoshop said that even though I took the rust down this was a good idea on any metal that had ever been rusty), then painted it with Rustoleum's Spray Can Bed-Liner.

I sand blasted the brackets and hit them with the same primer and some rubber undercoating spray. After bolting it up I also sprayed over all the bolts with the undercoating for more corrosion protection. Bolts arent cheap man! I almost went Grade 8... to rich for my blood haha.

I thought long an hard about whether to use Herculiner on my bumpers or even get them Line-x'd but I couldn't stand the idea of spending that much then just dinging them up. With the rattle can stuff if I muff it up all it'll take is a few swipes and It'll look good. The stuff definitely doesn't have near the texture of the professional stuff, but I'm not unimpressed for what it is.

Sorry I didnt have my camera going for some before/during pics but here's the finished product and some pics of the front bumper untouched (the rear had pretty much the same rust problems).






Front bumper still needs the same treatment. Im gonna media blast this though. Really get a fresh start. Also Im looking to weld some brackets to put some of the same material my grill is made from across the lower portion of the bumper.




Next Up: I'm waiting on rebuild kit's for the SAW's and I'm gonna snatch up the 13"x2.5" WickedFlow at that shweeet discount price from the group buy!

Til next time,

Peace.

 

I'd look into some wider backspaced rims or spacers and some beefier rubber. That's gonna be my next buy! Hope I'm not too late on this thread! I wanna watch this thing blossom!