Undertaking My Own Frame Swap

Hi all,

I bought a 2004 PreRunner, Ext. Cab, 6 cyl. Tacoma about 2 weeks ago, and was told that it was in an accident ("fender bender" they called it). Anyways, it was NOT just a fender bender; more like a frame bender. Bad enough to where I'm going to replace the frame, and I want to do it myself. Need some help on things to look out for, parts to purchase beforehand in order to minimize time needed, and any other things I ought to be concerned about. I'm planning on following this replacement method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urqq8FbVvb0. That way I don't have to drop the engine or tranny.

Thanks for all your help!

Daniel

 

Bought this site unseen ??

Then had it transported home on a trailer or roll back ??

It helps to know where you are !!

What will be quite easy in the South west is a major project in the great rust belt .

Not to say it is easy but things come apart much easier when not exposed to liquid brine and salt

Fuel and Brake lines just twist off .

It would be less work to find a truck with a bad engine or Transmission and swap yours to that .

So many variables Without knowing just what you have no idea just what your going to need .

Then Frame swap can mean so many different things .

Rolling Chassis to a bare stripped frame

 

This dude nailed it. Impossible to predict what you will run across. Possibly everything.

Fuel lines
Brake lines
Suspension stuffs
E-Brake stuffs
Good time to replace leaking steering rack
All bushings (Energy suspension sells a complete truck kit, control arms/cab mounts/rack bushings etc etc
Good time to replace oil pan gasket
engine/tran mounts
might as well do top end seals too


You could be going into this thing DEEP. I hope you got a bangin' deal on it otherwise your probably gonna be upside down in it for a while if you plan to do it right. If you do plan to do it right, then you oculd have a great truck.