Fix or Sell? Frame rust but good truck.

Do you have a pic of the area around the front spring mount when it was cut off? I'm getting ready to do mine and am just curious how others are doing that part? Did you cut the bottom of the box rail out under where the cap is running?
You are moving faster than I am. Looks good.

 

We spent a ton of time cutting the shackle off cleanly from the frame only to find out that the cap won't fit up unless you cut the bottom of the box out along the bottom curve. I don't have a pic of the cut section but I marked in this image of about where we cut on both sides. This was the worst section of the frame and the passenger side is better with only a small hole but figured we'd proactively strengthen both sides. Best of luck.

 

Just to be clear @gzig5 we only cut enough out to fit the cap tight against the good steel on the bottom of the frame. We didn't cut out the entire bottom section that the cap fits over.... I did call Safe-T-Cap to figure it out and even though I did hold for awhile, they were pretty helpful.

 

Thanks! That is helpful. I was wondering how it would fit if you didn't cut the bottom off along the entire length. From the info I've gathered, a bit of overlap at the ends should be OK or is desirable even.

 

Running into issues with bushings fitting in the Safe T Cap upper shackle mount. I swear it has to be too small of a diameter compared to the factory. ARB bushings had to be hammered in and the pins had to as well but they were bulging so I cut them out. Got a set of OEM and they went in a little easier but the pin (still a greasable one that came with the ARB/OME kit) will no go without hard hammering and bulged the OEM bushings as well. I may just have to shave down the ARD/OME ones. Second pic is currently where we wait while I figure out those stupid bushings. FYI, POR 15 takes a week to come off skin lol

 

Do you still have the old mounts to measure off of? I wonder if it something simple like the original part is a metric size hole and the new one uses the closest standard English size tubing? Do you have calipers to take accurate measurements? I just installed new stock bushings in my upper mounts which are still OEM, and even though the bore was fairly crusty the bushings slide right in without a fight. A poly bushing is going to be a lot more sensitive to the bore diameter because it won't compress like the OE rubber.

Oh, and thanks for the info on how much to cut around the front spring mount. That saved me a ton of time. I did the whole cap on the driver side but the passenger wasn't as bad so I cut the new front mount off the cap so I could keep it and sectioned the part to give reinforcement everywhere else. Saved a lot of time. I also found I had to trim the cap to fit reasonably around the brackets and body mounts. I took an inch off the top on the outside wall to allow better access to weld that seem, otherwise the angle the MIG has to take results in crappy penetration. Don't be afraid to break out the plasma and modify the caps. I think they are quite a bit oversize on purpose.

 

So close. The factory hitch, hardware, bumpers are all refinished so just need to call the reinforcements to lift the bed back on. The OME lift and factory painted wheels along with a straight piped 3.4L (for now lol) are a nice touch. I’ll post more pics of everything when completed. 6 pounds of mig wire is what it takes to completely cap the rear half of the frame in new steel in case you’re wondering…

 

Now that you have done all that work -- Fluid Film that frame!!!

 

Amen brother! Already bought and ready to apply liberally!

 

Really inspiring stuff here! I just got my first Tacoma and it’s going to need some love like this!

 

Cherry Bomb sounds great! Finally, bed is on and out on the road! Alignment Monday!

 

How do you think a cherry bomb would sound on the 2.4l Tacoma?

 

I think it would sound like a Civic with a coffee can. But I’m speculating.

 

Gotcha

 

The OME 2-inch lift, front and rear, plus leveling kit turned out about perfect for factory tire size.

 

Looks great now hurry and sell it while you're ahead haha! Or be in the same boat as me and put 6k into total motor rebuild so it can fail in a year and you have yard junk instead haha.

 

@danlor76 Love how the wheels look! How'd you paint them?

 

Wet sand, clean, two coats automotive primer, wet sand, clean, two light coats of Dupli-Color Wheel Paint in bronze, wet sand, clean then three coats with the last coat the heaviest. One can per wheel. Had to use a Dremel with a “scotch pad” wheel on the center caps to get the loose paint off without using a paint stripper and to get in the logo indentations. Bought black lugs instead of messing with painting the old ones. We were going to leave the caps off because it still looked pretty good with black hub wheel bearing covers but uses the caps because we put all the work into them lol. We used index cards lined up around the rim to protect tires (off the truck) and a rolled up index card around the stem. We didn’t use a clear coat so we’ll see if the multiple coats stand up.

 

In addition to the play by play above, here are the original on the truck and the first primer sand and the the first primer sand to the first paint coat sanding. Keep in mind, and you can kinda see in the wheel still on the truck, the original wheel surface was pretty crusty so the wet sanding was a must. There is a thread here of a guy who used a quicker method. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-steel-wheels-repaint.790061/

 

@danlor76 Nicely done. Looks great! Thanks for sharing the process.