RBx-Runner Daily

X-Runner Resurrection


In 1992 my father bought his first Toyota Pickup, 2wd 22re 5spd A/C long bed single cab that I later bought from him (around 2006) as he wanted a newer Tacoma 4x4. Fast forward a few years, ok, like 13years and the corrosion that plagues the Mid-Atlantic is slowly lightening my truck to the point I need to replace it as it also has 240k miles. I still daily the truck but after being under it a few times in the past year, the frame is disintegrating so I need to replace my daily with another truck.

I wanted a 1st gen Taco 2wd because they were still quite small and now had better suspension and more hp in the engines offered. My shopping list consisted of manual transmission, electric windows and A/C with around 100k miles on the clock. Well if you look around you can find them, and they aren’t cheap. I don’t want a second gen Taco, they are too big, I want a mini truck.

Well, I bought a 2007 X-Runner. Craigslist ad said it needed a transmission (RA60 are made from glass evidently), so my son and I went out to look. Upon inspection we found some very bad repair work done by a body shop that should have their hands broken. The owner claimed the truck had not been in a wreck while they owned it, bought used from a dealer. So we negotiated a price of $3200 for the X-Runner with 107k miles, had it towed home.

Fast forward a few months and its cheaper to do a cab swap then have the very bad rocker and a-pillar repaired. So while I have the truck disassembled, there is a whole lot of ‘well while I have it apart’ maintenance/mods.

Needs:
Transmission parts rebuild – done
Atrocious attempt at body work repair on the rocker and a pillar – Cab Swap

New Blue next to Old Blue, hate to see her go



Transmission Rebuild of sorts, mainly replaced syncros, some gears and shift forks about $1000 in parts


Accumulator bypass


China closet all buttoned up (came with short through shifter)


Rocker Repair Nastiness, exposing the areas to see the extent



Under cab, rocker repair



A-Pillar mess, again cut away to expose real damage


THIS is not what I had in mind for a daily driver, trust me, this is not what I wanted to do, but the body shop quotes to replace the sheet metal were bonkers. Enter $1000 cab from car-parts.com.

Start….



Typical rust, this will be dealt with swiftly


Prep new cab, 2010 Taco, 4cyl auto….




Separated…


Most of frame coated in POR-15


On the list:
- JFR Y-Pipe
-Magnaflow cat-back with added resonator
- New OEM shocks at all 4 corners
- BBK (TBD)
- All fluids changed
- Sound deaden cab
- Undercoat Cab
- OEM Trailer harness
- Back-up Camera
- Replace EVAP hoses
- New stereo

 

Man that's some serious work you have cut out for you. But I don't think you will regret it. It will look really good once you're done.

Are you keeping the same stock Speedway Blue or changing up the colour?

 

2012 up front conversion ? Awesome work so far

 

Wow. Don't lose a screw.

 

YEs, too expensive to do a color change. I don't mind the blue, but I'd like a more subtle color due to my driving habits.

No front end conversion, just the cab unistructure is being swapped. Same truck sheet metal from 2005-2015

Many containers and labels. More worried about not reusing all the bolts and fasteners. I was a autobody tech in my previous life.

More to follow

 

Looks good man, can't wait to see the final product.

 

Any updates?

 

frame was POR15'd and heavily cavity waxed.



Prepared firewall for front clip






then had 6 friends lift the cab and set it on the frame.



Did some sound deadning.




Welded the front clip on and painted


new cab has POR15 applied to all seams in hopes to neutralize(slowdown) spot weld rust. entire under floor undercoated thoroughly. All cavities or channels coated with cavity wax heavily. This cab was extremely clean, but MD road treatment isn't very kind to our vehicles, so hopefully what I am doing will slow the corrosion down a bunch.



A few caveats:
The new cab was a 2012 iirc with auto, and had the newer pedal style e-brake, so that bracket was removed to make way for the clutch install. Also, I needed to install the old style e-brake mounting brackets, which I forgot about until last night, DOH!
On to reinstalling everything.....

 

Nice work. That daily driver is going to last 4eva lol. Lot of work done the last couple weeks

 

thanks, that's the idea. finally feels like a more manageable project.

 

Amazing work, love the progress so far.

 

thanks for the kind words, I'm hoping to have it ready for paint next week. Still need to get the truck moving under its own power before it gets the correct color.

 

It's looking awesome man. Good work.

What kind of sound proofing did you use? I'm looking to do mine and was wondering what kind is the best for sound and how it applies.

 

I don’t know if this is the best, but it’s way cheaper then dynascam and gets great reviews. Most deadener is a butal of some sort anyhow. I used two layers, in some spots...Noico 80mil and 150mil found on Amazon. Using the two together makes a better end result as sound/vibrations do not like to travel through differing substrates.

 

Looks pretty decent to me. I am looking to upgrade my audio setup soon and the sound deadening will be part of it.

I'm also going to be doing the same as you and Por 15'ing the frame. The frame itself isn't rusting, but the welds are starting to so I want to get ahead of the game. Did you use a paint brush or the spray can?

 

I like to use the disposable sponge brushes to get into seams and crevices. I will also use a spray gun when dealing with larger flattish areas. You will need to clean the factory wax off the frame before you apply POR15.
Update....
Cab gets paint next Monday! Will be adding a Viper 5706 since I’ve deleted the factory security junk, that actually wasn’t hooked up.

 

Truck goes to paint this weekend, and hopefully painted early next week.

in the meantime.....
Anyone have any experience installing a Viper 5706(or any R/S) and a 535T window control? I have read the 'How to install a Viper 5704' thread, but window control isn't part of the install. And i have read the OTW mod thread, informative, but not hooked to a Viper R/S.

thanks

 

awesome job.

 

What a project. Nice job

 

Update...
Cab got painted






not shown but windshield and rear glass got installed yesterday

dash got removed for a third time to install the alarm brain on the passenger side. to eliminate the inherent mess of wires right where my clutch master lives.



This weekend I will be...

• Doors
  • Install
  • speaker upgrade
  • wire window module 535T
  • Sound deaden
  • Cavity wax
• Alarm R/S
  • Terminate wires
  • mount brains
• Body ,Rocker and cab
  • Wax cavities/cowl/pillars/rockers
  • install body kit brackets
  • square cab/tighten bolts
• Install Carpet/Interior panels/headliner/seals