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!

 

I'm aware its been 13 days since I last did anything, I was away on vacation and came back only to have my basement where I have my sandblast cabinet and stored parts flood out, so cleaning that mess up took a few days at best.
But none the less got something done today, Machine shop guy hooked it up! $100 to press in the new bushings on the lower control arms, install the new wheel bearings, and backing plates on the hubs.

 

Liked for the progress, not the flood.

 

Yeah the area in jersey I live in got hit bad with flash floods.

 

I hope it didn't damage your furnace, electric panel, etc.

 

Thankfully not. Just ruined all the boxes I had my parts neatly stored in and organized lol.

 

Been pretty busy lately but holding myself to the standard of trying to at least have the frame prepped and ready before I tear into the truck by end of august.

In the meantime I organized and re boxed all the parts that got caught in the flash flood from my basement. No more soggy parts/boxes.


Still got order my Bilstein 5100s and some Coil Springs. Debating if its worth going with Old Man Emus for coil springs or if I can just get a stock replacement and slam em on the billys? Any advice on that would be helpful as im ideally going for 2 to 2.5 inches of lift.


Also bonus pic of the bed/body mounts chilling in the blast cabinet. Still have to angle grind the last bed mount bracket off at some point and do some welding to clean these up and make them not look as rough.



The images are higher res on my phone but for whatever reason tacomaworld wont accept HEIC images. So I have to screenshot what I have on my phone and re upload as a .jpg

 

August

Sandblasted all the Bed & Cab Mounts. Took about an hour to get em decent. Going to be installing them on the new frame shortly.

 

I did Billy’s with OME 881’s on a single cab and got about 2” of lift, I called Wheelers and told them exactly what I was looking for and the tech on the phone was super helpful.

 

How is the ride quality? I hear mixed opinions. Can I get away with using a stock replacement spring and be fine? Trying to decide if its worth spending almost $300 on coil springs.

 

I got mine assembled and shipped for $530, I would definitely go for achieving the lift with a coil that way you aren’t getting the lift from loading the stock coil which will give you a rough ride.

The ride now with the Billy’s and the 881’s is night and day from the rough country garbage coilovers and stock springs I had one before. Just yesterday my wife and I were driving on a bad mountain road and she goes the truck literally feels like we’re floating over these bumps compared to before.

 

Thats just what I needed to hear. I guess its worth the money spent in this case. I found a set of 5100s on ebay brand new for $490 and a set of 881s for $250. Does that seem reasonable lol? I shopped around and that was the cheapest I could find.

 

No that doesn’t sound like a good deal. Go here and check it out

 

Thats only for two shocks. My price was all 4

 

So order the rears for another $220, you’ll still be cheaper and the coils will come assembled.