What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

The tin foil that is our bodys would not support a strapped in motor..haha

Plus, youd still have to disconnect exhaust, fuel lines and brake lines and cooling system and more.

 

That's what they told me when I had mine replaced. I didn't notice any signs of it being separated from the engine bay

 

Eh it wasn't that hard for us. At all really. We had a pretty comviemt way to do it though. But like you said you need a good shop and some tools. Nothing fancy though. A good impact, extensions and sockets. Some wrenches. Plus stuff to lift the motor and tranny. There's only one loom on the frame. Brake lines are easy to take off. The fuel lines are attached to the cab.

It really wouldn't be that hard. Especially with another set of hands.

 

Pull radiator, unhook any hoses/lines/ cables that are connected to cab, unplug ecu, unbolt steering, unbolt brake lines, take out driver seat, lift up carpet, pull harness through floor, 6 cab bolts, 6 bed bolts( or maybe it's 4?) and bam your here.

Drop tank, 3 bolts and 2 pins, unbolt leafsprings and unhook rear brake line and diff locker and bam your here.

Minus the dakars lol


All that could be done in a day if you didn't screw around and had 2 people

 

I love those taillights

 

WOW!!! 10k for the frame and labor!! i wonder how much it would cost to just build a tube frame for it like 20k? so is it best if you ave a good frame on a prerunner to buy those parts to beef up your frame now while you can or don't worry about it?

 

This is just amazing! The fact that you are still wrenching on your truck and not paying someone to make repairs or mods makes me respect you even more. I said it earlier, I hope I'm still as active at that age.

 

No prices are shown only part numbers. Someone could search them all and price it all out but I'm sure it's not worth the effort.



New frame, lca's, leaf springs and shackles, e brake cable and various nuts and bolts. I honestly can't tell if they replaced the body mounts but I think so. Especially when the tech told me I can cut right through it as long as I left the bolt in tact.

The second gen I saw in progress when I originally went to talk to the techs had the cab on a lift, the bed on another lift and the entire engine/trans on the ground on a dolley. Wanted to see mine in progress but they started at 8 am and were almost done when I got out of work at 4:30.

You gotta think that most of that is labor though. A frame is only 1/4 the cost.

 

All this talk of new frames makes me want this rusty one I have now replaced

 

Bedliner=win match=fail

 

I know the feeling I had to drill 10 for my roof rack. Once I got the first one done I just wanted to get all the others so I wasn't as nervous

 

so replacing a frame just by yourself can take maybe a couple thousand bucks and a couple days work but people are always sending their trucks to the grave because of this issue? That's a shame..

 

And maybe 5% of the people on here have the space, tools, time, and/or knowledge to do it by themselves.

 

Because at 5K... that's often more than the truck is worth.

 

I bet the number is closer to 1%.

I have the tools and the know how. The dollar vs. hassle ratio was not good enough for me to do the frame swap. Money ahead to find another truck and part out the truck with rusted frame. Besides, a Tacoma with 300,000 miles is pretty much paying you to drive it. I'm not putting a minimum of $5k into it for that many miles.

 

NADA/Blue Book sure.

But I could easily sell my truck for $10-12k here.

And I bought it for $15k in 1999.

 

Yea, I guess so

 

You may be right. My point was after driving the truck for 15 years and 300,000 miles,m I'm ready to start fresh.

 

10-12K? I doubt that... I bought my 99 in 2 years ago for $8,700 in Denver. 01-04 Double cabs I can see 10K+ but not with a rusty frame.

but even so, at 50% of it's value, is it worth it? I'd say for 99% of people NO. They could sell their truck, say for 8K or even the 10K you think you could get for yours, add in the 5k it would take to replace the frame, and easily step into a newer model with less miles and (more than likely) less wear and tear.

 

To do a frame replacement right with new parts you're looking at $3K+ in parts, 20-200 man hours (depending on the skill level of the people dong the work), most will need to buy some tools and all the space needed to do the job. Not everyone has the space, tools or time necessary to do such a job on their own. I happen to enjoy working on my truck so I'd get some bennefit out of it but time is money, the hours spent working on your truck has a cost. You may be able to find a shop willing to do the labor for a couple grand. That puts you at about $5k or more into a truck that once fixed is worth $5-15K. For some that is too much.