1997 Extra Cab Frame Swap Project/ Restoration Build

Weathers been crappy and raining non stop. After a ton of googling, facebook forum, and forum searching I landed on these control arms as I plan to do a 2 inch lift with 33s. These were the most reputable and budget friendly arms I could find that werent ebay chinesium. Im also paranoid about balljoint failure as Ive had them fail on me with crappy Detroit Axle ones in the past while going 40MPH.

Spoke to the team at Torch Offroad back and forth via email and they gave me a 10% off my order on there upper control arms. They were very accommodating answering all my questions. They also have a lifetime warranty on their products to any failures issues etc they ship you out a new product. They have a ton of aftermarket Toyota parts.

Ill provide a link to it : https://torchoffroad.com/collection...ota-tacoma-6-lug-upper-control-arms-2-4-lifts
Discount code was TORCH10.









On a nicer day I plan on starting working on the frame prep for moving the mounts around. In the meantime Ive been repetitively spraying the entire frame and components with WD40 and PB Blaster to hopefully make removal a lot easier.

I don't have a garage to work out of with a hoist so I unfortunately have to plan around the weather.

 

More Parts Arrived.

I got two top hats (one not pictured)
Two cam bolts
What I thought ebay said was going to be a pair of CV boots.
Sway Bar Frame Mounting Brackets

 

THE HEAT INDEX AND PROJECTED RAIN DIDN'T STOP ME TODAY

I scored a mini snowmobile trailer off Facebook Marketplace for $350 with title so that I can put the frame on it to transport it from my backyard to the garage.

Then I used another Tacoma to drag it out of the woods lol




Removed Leaf Springs off the frame, much like everything else had to torch em out and use a BFH. No joke about an hour to get these bastards off.


Sway bar Brackets are toast, but the rest of the frame is solid.


Where shes sits for now until I get around to the next step which is moving the body and bed mounts, along with installing the sway bar brackets.

 

Dang man that’s quite the project!

 

Touched the frame today. Moved some mounts around with the help of my dad with his grinding and welding expertise.

Some things to note: Double Cab Frames have different Bed Mounts. So we had two spare rails left and right from a 1999 extra cab which we borrowed the bed and cab mounts from. Rear Cab Mounts are slightly different.



Plasma cutters are awesome however we dont have strong enough electric in the house to run it so unfortunately had to result in using an angle grinder like a redneck for the job. Took hours this way lol.





Welded on some new sway bar brackets and cut a hole out where there was rust forming near the leaf spring bracket. Frame is perfect otherwise.





I forgot a pic of all the mounts we cut off they are now chillen in my sandblast cabinet for another day. I have to purchase one bed mount from Toyota.

Old Cab Mount Bushings from both frames, pretty shot. I ordered a Energy Suspension Replacement kit which is significantly cheaper than sourcing OEM ones.

Next post will be welding new body and cab mounts into the proper places. Might not get around to that til next week.

 

Coming along man!