Still Untitled - 1989 Toyota Pickup Full Restoration

I’ve always wanted a Toyota Pickup. I’ve liked them since I was a teenager but my family was a VW family, so I never really chased that dream. But when Top Gear tried to destroy one in 2003 the idea really of owning one solidified in my mind. To appease the urge for another year I was browsing craigslist in late 2018. I had been searching for ‘80s or 90s Toyota Tacoma’ and it occurred to me, “before the Tacoma they were called Hilux (well in the rest of the world), what did they call them in America?” So I did my research and discovered “Toyota Pickup”. BINGO! I searched for “Toyota Pickup” on craigslist and to my disbelief a 1989 Toyota Pickup was at the top of the list.



I Immediately emailed the guy and was like “Hey I want your truck, when can I come get it? As long as the frame isn’t rusted in the middle I’m buying it” A couple days later my brother and I drove to check it out. The frame wasn’t rusted, the underside of the cab and bed wasn’t rusted, and half the engine was in the bed. Perfect! I now own a 1989 Toyota Pickup.


https://youtu.be/2nOM13_0Pn8

I was told that the only thing she needed was a head gasket and would be running. She didn’t sit in the driveway for long, within a week I had her pushed into the garage and started taking off the accessories, cylinder heads and whatever else needed to come off to get to the head gaskets. What I found was good! And bad. The head gaskets were fine! The valves were not. There was so much carbon deposited on the valves that half of them didn’t seal. So I got to work disassembling the heads and cleaning the parts, replacing broken and worn parts, doing a gas leak test on the valves and eventually getting them all cleaned up.

Before

After


https://youtu.be/z2HrmF6XiHY

This is when the project turned from “I’ll just get her running” to “If I’m going to do this. I’m going to do it right. Since I’m rebuilding the heads I might as well take the engine out and rebuild the bottom end. Since I’ve pulled the engine out, I might as well throw a 5 speed in it like I want. Since I’m working on the transmission I might as well check out the rest of the driveline… suspension… frame…

Engine coming out


Engine after sandblasting and painting

https://youtu.be/C_2CVmepbFQ

And that's leaves us where we are today. Today is a big day. You see, since I’ve turned the first bolt, I’ve been recording my time working on this truck. Every week I’ve worked on her I’ve posted a video on YouTube. Today I’ve uploaded my 14th episode, where in I officially pull the cab off the frame (okay only 2 feet forward). https://youtu.be/edeehnI9oMk Because the scope of this project has become a frame off restoration I thought other Toyota truck owners would enjoy following along. So this is where our paths meet. I’ll be updating this thread weekly with any progress, and invite you to follow my YouTube channel and check out my videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGlqBsjpRy0hxwKOYhSU_w/ where I’ll be continuing to upload videos of my progress, along with other projects and adventures I find myself on. If you are interested in watching the project from the beginning, the play list can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI9kfMlH_SPMPVLSp-QTZYObyVOvfTdeX

As I am still relatively new to creating videos so I am always up for some positive criticism. That isn't limited on just thing you like or dislike about my presentation. If I've done something horribly wrong on my build please lend me your expertise so I can make I'm doing everything to the best of my abilities.



I've really enjoyed this project so far, and I'm hope as you follow along you'll enjoy it too!

See ya in a bit!

 

@Taco critter

 

im in

 

@nabilimam

Welcome to TW!

Random question...

I couldn't help but notice that compressor and most other A/C components are missing, and was wondering if your truck ever had A/C?

 

@PennSilverTaco

Hey Charlie! Short answer is Yes, the truck has an A/C system. I haven't removed the cab components yet, and the compressor was covered in power steering fluid grime. It's an old R-12 system and when I chirped the filler port I swear it actually sucked air in. So as to when it worked last, I'd probably say late 90s. I plan on upgrading the system to 134 when I get to that part of the rebuild.

Hope that answers your question!

 

Adding A/C to these trucks is relatively easy too...

My uncle added A/C to his non-A/C ‘91 (he bought the truck here in Pennsylvania but moved to Myrtle Beach so it was kind of obligatory).

 

in for the win!!! can't wait to see the progress, keep up the good work man

 

I love the 6th gen's. It looks like the original 3.0 v6 your rebuilding. Did you ever consider the newer 3.4 v6 to give it a little more getty up than the 3.0. Hey I still like what your doing though. Cant wait to see it when your done.

 

I am rebuilding the original 3.0. I'm sticking with it mainly to get back into engine work again. If I break it, no big deal. I'll learn from it and can move on to my next engine. and right now this build's purpose is to become an enjoyable in town work truck / daily driver, so it doesn't need huge amounts of power.... yet.

But don't worry I've got plans for what I hope is an awesome engine on the books. It's a few projects down the line thought. Finish this restoration, A second truck build (completely different than this), and then the awesome engine for this one. If you hang around hopefully you'll see it all unfold.

 

This week I got a little closer to apex of this journey. It started with the cab up in the crane and the bed still on the truck



Richard came over and it took a little over 2 hours to get the bed off the truck, and onto its cradle on the crane and get the crane rigid enough to move. I can't say exactly where it is because I'll probably piss of the Property Management tyranny that rules my neighborhood.


With the body worked stowed the work on getting down to the chassis continues. I dropped the transmission; literally. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/U4JOLZmTaew
I'm swapping out for the 5 speed, so it doesn't matter what happens to the automatic. I am excited to dig into it and get a planetary out of it so I can finally have one sitting on my desk (like all real gearbox engineers do)!




And this is where the weekend ended. I'll discuss the frame, good and the bad, when I have everything stripped off of it. If you're interested in getting slightly more regular updates you can find me on Instagram under the handle nabelrabel. If you want to watch the progress you can find me youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGlqBsjpRy0hxwKOYhSU_w Time to get ready for another weekend of progress. I'll see you with the next update!

-Nabil

 

First of all, great find and im sure the truck is gonna be awesome!

But I truthfully am cringing you are putting time and money in that 3.0, It would be advantageous for you to do a 3.4 swap while you are this deep. That engine always has huge Head Gasket issues and is underpowered and unreliable.

will be following and cheering from the sidelines.

 

I understand the concern for the 3.0 and I understand it has issues. From what I've read, most off the issues stem from the parts attached to the block and heads (intake, exhaust, engine powered fan and everything else) and not an inherent issue with the design of the block/heads themselves. I'm not blind to the fact that having 2 ports per cylinder isn't the greatest, having half the head bolts on the outside and needing to remove cam shafts to pull the heads is down right horrible engineering, and the stroke to bore ratio could have be better.

The simple fact of the matter is this is the engine that came with the truck and buying a different engine to start with would cost twice as much as what I spent on the entire truck. I'm honestly not being stubborn, or think I have the holy grail of answers to make the 3.0 not suck. There are two reasons why I'm sticking with the 3.0 (for now).

The first one is purely economical (as stated before), I have to budget accordingly and right now the budget needs to be focused on the frame, suspension, and body work. It's a moot point having a built engine if I don't have a chassis and suspension that can handle it.

The second point is that I have some formal education on engine design (part of my graduate program) and there are some things I want to experiment with and turn that theory into application. The 3.0 seems like a perfect platform to play with since I will be replacing it down the road, and if I blow it up in the mean time I haven't really loss anything.

The third point is that if you're following this build I want you to trust me on my future plans for the engine. I mentioned before that after I restore this truck; I have another vehicle project planned, and then after that I'll be starting the built engine project for the 89. I don't want to discuss any details because I'm still doing a ton of research to see if its feasible and I need to stay focused on the projects in the correct order. I promise the 3.0 will be replaced. With what? You'll just have to wait and see, and I'm not giving any spoilers.

In the mean time. I've had another great weekend working on the truck, and I'm working on the video now. So new pictures and video will be up in a few days!

Cheers!

-Nabil

 

Nabil, wonderfully worded and excellent points.

 

I'm finally there! I'm finally down to the frame!


The rear end was rusted on so I had to cut 3 of the 4 bolts to get it to drop. The frame is basically gone from the front bed mounts back. There is enough there to keep make a jig of all the important parts, but a lot of it is going to get replaced.


The front end is in much better shape, but those torsion springs must go, so bunch of this is going to get cut off after I make jigs that locate a couple of the important bits. I'm most likely going to fab up my own hops and A arms for a coil over system. I won't be adding any travel, just getting rid of the torsion springs.


If you want to watch this all happen, the latest video is linked below. I think that's it for the week. See you next week!
https://youtu.be/l_Yf2_9B37A

 

In 1989 I bought the same truck except it was white with the blue stripes and it was a 5 speed. Enjoying watching your journey. It’s very impressive the amount of work you are doing. Good job.

 

Boy this thread has been quiet for too long, but not without reason. Progress on the truck has been moving forward slowly. I even have two more videos about about it. Links below. I just haven't made time to get on here and write anything. Also I've been working on a lot of behind the scenes items trying to get a position where I can start actually cutting the frame apart. Hopefully that timeline matches up with the timeline of finishing the CAD model. Anyways I just wanted to drop in with these two videos and let you anything that's been keeping up with the project know that it's still moving forward. I'd share some pictures too, but I've been having major phone issues the past month, Hopefully that is in the past and I'll have more progress pictures.

https://youtu.be/-2xChEj3BU8

https://youtu.be/yE3NxvRK50s

oh and if you want a more real time update, check out my IG at nabelrabel.

Later guys!

 

Awesome work so far, can't wait to see the project continue.

What are you plans for paint and bodywork? I would love it see it with the period-correct graphics on the sides that most of these trucks had from the factory.

 

Thanks! It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm actually procrastinating on the project a little because I'm preparing to move out of my garage and into a work shop. Working on the logistics of the move, but it might be happen in the next month or so. Of course there will be a video about that.

As for the the paint and body work. I do love the side decals, but they are a little too late 80s for me. Here is what I have on the plans so far:

Exterior:
Front headlights are being switched to 7 inch round.
Adding the hood scoop from the 2016 tacoma (because I love hood scoops and why not)
Adding side blinkers to the existing mirrors
Extending the bumper out an inch (so it looks less squished)
All chrome will be replaced with black, or body color
Painting the entire truck orange from the 2016 color pallet (not metallic, just a good orange)
Make black side decals that are inspired from the period-correct decals
Adding fender flares

Interior:
Going black
adding infotainment system
rear seat delete
adding a decent sound system
seats will have a plaid center patch with orange in the mix.

I haven't really decided on the decal color yet, they might be flat black, or they might be an off color of the orange. Since they are decals I can play with a couple ideas in photoshop once the paint is on. So we will have have to wait and see.

 

now off to youtube to binge watch these videos.....
I dream of being able to restore a 81-82 pickup one day....

 

Yes.