Budget Crusty Toyota Rehab/Restore thread

Just creating a space to document this project as I go:

Quick backstory, I've always wanted a 1st gen Tacoma and finally bought a cheap/slightly crusty/non running 1996 xtracab 2.7L 4x4 that was being sold locally for about $1200:



It was a suspected bad crank pulley and the prior owner was sick of throwing $$ at it. He briefly fired it up so I knew it ran but didnt let it go for longer since the crank pulley apparently drives the oil pump. I was looking for a project vehicle as I know very little about working on cars and wanted something to learn on that would be easier to work on, parts that are inexpesnive, and if I f#$cked anything up I wouldnt have too much money into it. This truck fit the bill!!

 

Welcome To TW...

 

Borrowed my friends shop to get it up and running (Eli @ Otisco Ironworks, Otisco NY if anybody needs a good wrencher/welder).

Crank pulley actually came out without any trouble, the bolt holding it in was on hand tight!

the keyway was cracked a bit, which I believe allowed the bolt to eventually work itself out.



Bought a new crank pulley/harmonic balancer and crankshaft seal since the old was one was toast. I used the "ratchet strap" method for tightening the crank pulley bolt back on there since brakes along wouldnt hold it (demonstrated here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0TpEZJ-68). Very useful if youre by yourself

Dorman Harmonic Balancer 594-141

Duralast Crankshaft Seal 710644

ALso replaced all the serpentine belts while I was in there. All In it was about $115 for the pulley, $10 for a seal and 50-60 for belts, had a coupon so ~ $170 to get it running and driving again. STarted right up!

 

Few more pics of it operational



SKi grip shifter mod

 

Next up was new tires. The Mastercrafts that were on it were dry rotted and undersized. I found a guy local that was selling a brand new set of Falken WIldpeaks in 31x10.5X15 for $700. I was surprised to learn thats one of the standard tire sizes available on this truck stock. He worked at a tire shop so I got him to mount and balance them for his asking price.



Much better!



I'm about $2k into this truck by this point but its running and driving now. The tires almost doubled its value! I really like these tires, they have good on road manners and really arent very loud. Theyre not the cheapest but I think theyre a great option if you need an all terrain that doesnt suck on pavement.

 

LOL its not pretty but it works!

 

So like I said this thing is a little crusty... I noticed my bed/cab alignment wasnt great, checked out the rear cab mounts...





Yah, a little cooked. Order two new ones since the passenger side one is on its way out too.



These were $65 apiece, not cheap but way easier than fabbing up something from steel and probably about the same cost at end of the day:


Also picked up new body bushings bc mine were as u can imagine pretty crispy, went with Energy Suspension bushing kit off Amazon for about $100:

 

Removing the old rear cab mount bracket on the drivers side






Cleaning it up




New bracket and bushing on (yes, thats brown spray paint, its what I had laying around)



Maybe 1mm off but close enough for me and a heck of a lot better than the cab banging against the frame like it was before

 

Construction ahead! :-D I'm sure my "financial manager" hopes I never come across a project like this for $1200, I'd snag it up in a heartbeat. Looks like you have the rust in your sights, nice!

 

You are correct, rust proofing is on the menu before the next winter. I dont think it will survive much longer without addressing that

 

My brakes never seemed to work very well, but recently straight up sucked., I thought maybe I had a leak, and upon further investigation:



That is my Load Sensing Proportioning Valve (LSPV), which apparently is a pretty garbage braking system thats a frequent failure point on these trucks. Mine was pissing bake fluid all over and killing my lawn, so It had to go!

 

I decided to bypass the whole thing rather than replacing it with a used unit. I dont tow or carry leavy loads super frequently, so I dont think I will miss it. Basically from what I've read, you just have to connect the top "input" line to your rear brake system, and cap off the bottom "return" line that goes back to your master cylinder. I bought a cheap brake line flaring kit off Amazon for $40 that came with 25' of 3/16'' brake line, educated myself by watching some youtube, and now that I was an expert on brake lines, I set to work!

Splicing the input line to the rear brakes, I opted to keep the majoirty of the brake line as it seemed in good shape, only where it connected to the LSPV was rotten so I nipped all that off:




I kept the return line where it was in case I ever wanted to reverse it for some reason, just bought a inverted flare plug to cap it off. Is this the proper way to cap off brake lines? I couldnt really find info about it but it seemed to work.



Capping the return line:



Using the "one man bleeder" sysetm with an empty bottle, some fluid in the bottom to prevent air from entering system, and some plastic tubing






Glad I found this, makes it a hell of a lot easier than gettin someone to open and close the bleeder screw and its probably faster too. Had to use a zip tie to get a tight enough seal on hose to keep air from entering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wwq1Vlk4Wg

 

Evicting some freeloaders!

 

Good luck on your transformation

 

FIrst look at the bed without the liner.... Not as bad as I thought it could be

 

WHats the best tactic for bed repair? Bend sheet metal and weld in place? Is there cheap patch panels? DOesnt need to look beautiful, but want something that will last. The liner is going right back in after I fix it so it wont even be visible.

 

i looked into this really hard with my previous ranger. it was slightly worse, but pretty much the same issues.


'one guy' took it too far(as 'that one guy' usually does):
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1439887-ford-ranger-bed-floor-replacement.html

the reality is that what you see rotting through only the 'tip of the iceberg' so to speak, which was my problem-- i had no issue repairing just the front of my bed, but after looking at the above link, realized that most of my crossmembers were starting to rot out as his were as well.

at that point, options quickly become limited.

1. repairing the entire bed is an option, but extremely time consuming--i don't have even a fraction of the patience, time, or tooling that guy had to do that kind of work--you can repair the visible rust, but it's a game of wack-a-mole, as new spots break through later on, meaning a full teardown and repair/repaint is really the best option here. there are also zero new replacement parts available. so patch panels are limited to scrap yard take-off's, or what you can build, like that guy did.
2. replacement of the bed with a similar age, non-rotted bed is an option--- i had started looking into this route. some salvage yards like dicksautoparts.com specialize in this industry. but non-rotted beds generally go for $800-2,000 depending on how worn out they are, and none are perfect. and the likelihood of finding the same color is slim to none. this was far too much money for me to have a mis-colored bed, that still looks like it was dragged through a chain link fence.
3. just flatbed it.

4. put the liner back in, and reenact Colonel Klink: "I see NOTHING!!"
#4 was what i finally went with...

 

Yeah Mine isnt that far gone but not beautiful. Was thinking of using it as a testbed for learning to weld, and forming sheet metal doesnt look *that* hard (famous last words Im sure). This video seemed pretty informative, I think I'm gonna give it a go since I dont want to invest too much into this truck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36zkc9UQaTs

 

A truck bed is a great place to learn to weld.
A quality 120 volt MIG welder using .023 wire and gas does a nice job on sheet metal.