Grandpa's '97 Restoration

I've been so lucky to have Toyota trucks in my life as long as I can remember.

Growing up my Dad had a red Toyota Pickup (year unknown) that he got on special from the dealer for $5,000 flat. It had no A/C, manual windows and was as basic as they came, but he used the HECK out of it. After having that truck for many years, I remember him taking me to a used car dealer around 2001/2002 to look at what would become his next truck, his '98 Ext. Cab, 4x4 M/T in Mystic Purple Mica:


During the test drive, with no dealer representative, he took the truck to some local trails. I was only 6 or 7 years old at the time, and I clearly remember him taking it into a mudhole that he was sure was only a few inches deep. It wasn't. He gunned it through and the truck was CAKED with mud. He looked at me and said "I guess this means that I'm buying this truck". He took it to a friends house to hose it off (I remember the air filter being muddy....) then going to the dealer to buy it.

Many great memories of going camping, riding trails, and SO MUCH hard work. My Dad taught me value of service with this truck. Countless widows and families and need were helped by cutting down trees and hauling them away, hauling appliances, tools, on and on. I loved when I would sit in the middle seat, and my Dad would have me shift the gears while he worked the clutch.

When the time came, it was the vehicle I learned to drive. While my siblings were taught in our automatic transmission vehicles, my Dad insisted I learn manual. He took me to a back road, where I killed it a dozen times. I wasn't confident and he ushered me onto the main road. I came to the main 4 way stop light in town and of course was first in line. When the green came, I killed it half a dozen times, and no one was able to go through before it went red! I was so embarrassed, and my Dad just walked me through it step by step. I became the main person driving it, as I would drive it to school and friends houses for the next few years.

Then getting to be an older teenager, I got the bug for a faster car, preferably a WRX since I really liked Rally. My Dad wanted to get a new truck anyways. I eventually found another car, and the truck was given to a guy that my Dad worked with who drove it for quite a while before giving it away.

About a year after getting my new car I got really nostalgic for that old truck but knew it was gone. I did some quick looking, but everything that I saw was well out of my price range. I continued to search like that on and off for the next decade as I came into my own starting my career and family.

Fast Forward to July of this year. My Dad knew that I had been looking on and off, and called me to let me know that he had just remembered that my Grandfather (who had passed away approx. 2 years ago) had an old purple Toyota truck, but didn't remember much else about it. He pointed me in the direction, and let me know if I wanted it that I probably could have it. It was sitting in the desert of Utah at a distant relatives house, where it had sat behind a shop since 2005. I contacted some other family members who went out to take a look and send me pictures.


They were very quick to temper my expectations, letting me know that it looked very rough! It had a lot of stuff in it, flat tires, and very rough paint. All I saw was my dream truck. They graciously cleaned it out, aired up the tires, and pulled it to the side of the road where I had it picked up and brought across the country to me.

I could not wait while it was in shipment, and was the most giddy I had ever been when it got here. Getting around and underneath it, I realized just how clean it was! From what I can tell looking at reports, the frame was never replaced, but I am hard-pressed to find much rust on it. There are very small light points where there is some, but I cleaned them off, and have put fluid film over them for the time being. Most of the frame still has it's original coating on it. There is rust on parts like exhaust line, but it's not terrible. There's a bit on the body, but I'll get to that in a bit.

While waiting for the truck, I made the beginnings of a decently extensive spreadsheet for tracking the restoration, as well as I purchased a Haynes repair manual that I read cover to cover. I also watched TONS of first gen repair content (shoutout Timmy The Toolman) and ordered a timing belt kit.

The truck had about half a tank of gas. It had all of the paperwork and plates on it from when it was last touched in 2005. The tires have good tread but a lot of cracking in them. I started by cleaning the interior and finding some goodies like additional replacement parts that my Grandfather had like boots for the steering rack, oil seals fuel filter, oil filters and others. I then replaced the battery. When my buddy connected the new one, we were greeted with a very loud theft prevention alarm. I cut the power lines to the horns, then tried to crank it. The starter worked. I cranked it again just for fun and it STARTED. I WAS AMAZED! I killed it as I didn't know if there was anything in the radiator. I filled the radiator with some hose water, and started it again. It ran around 1750 rpm and after a minute or so settled just under 1k rpm. No dashlights. I still am astounded.

When I could pry myself from behind the wheel, my wife and I went around the outside with Ospho and painted it on all of the rusty spots on the body. My buddy noticed something was leaking underneath that looked like it was coming from the steering column or brake master cylinder. All fluids looked as clean as you could expect for it sitting for so long. I eventually decided to move it from my buddies Dad's place who has a lift, to my Dad's place, as I was in line for the lift. I drove it for the 2 miles to my Dad's place with my dad following me. The suspension was a bit bumpy, but the engine revved very smoothly.

Once it got to my Dad's place, we pressure washed it and moved it to start inspecting further and doing the timing belt and water pump. I drained and removed the radiator and sent it with my Dad to a local radiator shop to inspect it. As I got under the second timing belt cover, I noticed that the timing belt looked pristine, like it had been done just before the truck had been left! Looking closely at it, I could find no signs of cracking in it. I also didn't see any signs of oil leaking from the seals. I made the choice then and there to leave it on for now, and then do the change after 30k miles if I don't have any issues. My Dad was excited to see what was in the toolbox as we didn't have a key. He drilled the rivets and was able to pop it. My Grandfather had left many good tools back there. He also loved to hunt fossils in the desert, and had tools for that as well. We riveted the handle back on and disconnected the lock for now.





My Dad got the radiator back from the shop where he said it looked brand new. I reinstalled the radiator and topped it off one bottle of premix and hose water. I put the truck back together and still had to deal with the stinking security system that now was immobilizing the starter. I found a key fob for it on eBay, and also found the security defeat switch. I tried, and had my Dad try several times to use the defeat switch to overcome it, but to no avail. I replaced a cracked signal light as well.

I ended up having my Dad tow the truck up to my house so I could work on it more here. I inspected the fluid levels in the rear diff, transfer case and transmission and all were great. When I checked the front diff, I couldn't get any fluid on my finger no matter how far in I reached. I topped off the gear oil, and moved back to the security system. I ended up ripping the whole aftermarket security system out of there. I buttoned the dash back together.

Next I flushed the power steering by sucking out the old gross fluid, and putting in new fluid. I did that with 2 bottles and got it nice and clean. I then flushed and bled the brakes and the transmission. I noticed a spot on the ground. After crawling all over, I realized that the power steering return line was leaking. I ordered a full aftermarket assembly, and then replaced them. The connections to the steering rack were an absolute PITA to disconnect and connect. I ended up having to get a flex-head flare nut wrench to break them off. When putting the new lines in, the first time I tried to put them in I filled them with gunk. My Dad cleaned them, and then put some tape over then ends to keep them clean. After lots of fighting, I got the power steering buttoned back together and working well.

I moved on to checking gapping the spark plugs. After a week or so, I picked up some purple automotive spray-paint, primer, clear coat and a sander and went to town on the rusty and worst spots on the outside of the truck. I got them covered up, coated and good to go.

I then noticed 2 oil spots on the ground under the front. I realized that the seals on the front diff were bad. I tried to drain it, but only then realized just how much a PITA the 12 mm Alan bolt on the front diff is! I ran an impact on it till I about burned it out, and tried a breaker bar, but still have not been able to bust it. I've soaked it with P.B. Blaster, and still no dice.

I gave up, and ordered the new diff seals. When I got them, I moved to installing them. I started with the passenger side as I found a good video to do them fast that started there. I was able to pulled the wheel, disconnected the lower control arm, then pulled the CV axel. I pulled the seal with a slide hammer, and installed the new one (I used a 10mm Alan head on the end of my socket extension and slowly hammered it in going all the way around many times. After seating it to the correct depth, I fought reinstalling the CV axel till I found a good tip to grease the retaining ring. As I was moving quickly, I didn't think and with a greasy hand grabbed my brake rotor... I left that the wheel off as I was out of brake cleaner. I moved to the drivers side. I took that wheel off, disconnected the LCA, and then began to pull the CV. It came about 1/3" but then stopped. I tried prying it and it wouldn't budge. I tried rotating and prying. No dice. The next day I pulled the hub off, and tried to slide hammer it, nothing! It wouldn't budge! I did bad things to it... I put the CV hub pulling adapter into the gap and tried to jack it into there to try to wedge it out. Nope. The sketchiest I got to after days of trying was to tie a very old thin rope that was in the toolbox around the back of the Axel Housing in the gap between the diff and the CV axel, then connected it to a come-along that I ran to a big tree in my front yard:


I made sure to clean the brake rotor on the passenger side, reinstalled the wheel and dropped it to give the truck more friction against side to side forces. Running the line around once, it snapped after getting good tension on it. I then doubled it around and pulled till I got to full pucker, then called it quits on that method. I HATED THAT CV AXEL. My Dad came over and recommended I cut the upper boot as it was already cracked. I did, and pulled the lower portion of the CV axel leaving the Axel housing and shaft in the diff. Then, off the recommendation of another video, I connected the slide hammer to some vice-grips, connected them to the housing and hammered. I would get 4-5 good whacks in before the assembly would come off. I rotated, reconnected and hammered for hours. Nothing. I would pry and hammer, nothing. Then came Christmas Eve. My Dad came over and asked me to come show him the CV Axel that I was having issues with. IT WAS OFF. I had left the slide hammer on it the day before in frustration. My Dad came along and with one big pull with his whole body the sucker came loose! That was the best Christmas present I could have asked for.

After Christmas, I picked up a new CV axel, reinstalled it by disconnecting the sway bar and put it all back together. I took it for a nice test drive through the neighborhood and grinned ear to ear as she ran well.

I then refilled the front diff, (still couldn't get that POS drain plug off), rear diff and transfer case with Royal Purple hypoid gear fluid, and the transmission with Redline MT90.

I'm now working through the paperwork to get it registered. I can't wait to be legal with it! I'll be posting updates as I do more work.

 

I’m not reading all that.

 

lol, TLDR, had a first gen, missed it, got my Grandpa's first gen that I'm fixing up.

 

Worth the read!

 

Most recent update. After changing fluids in front and rear diffs, transfer case and transmission, I've had another oopsie. I was changing fluids at night while cold outside. In doing so, I did some of it more quickly than I should have. It was my first time installing new crush washers. Instead of being a good boy scout and using a torque wrench and the proper torque spec to reinstall, I just used a half in breaker to get them all good and tight. I got the transmission good and tight to the point that I heard a heartwrench click that will forever live in my psyche. It looked fine the night I did it, but inspecting a few days later there is a small leak... Also looks like there is a small crack at the 6 o'clock position under the drain nut. (Boy will I be living and dying by the torque wrench from now on).

After reading other threads, the current plan is to drain the tranny, JB weld the ole girl, put her on at spec, and hope that it holds and doesn't grow. Lesson learned.

Other items, Drivers Seat Belt has been removed and sent to Saftey Restore to be rebuilt. The other seat belts feel and look fine.
Still waiting on some paperwork to register it. Once that's set, it's getting some KO2's and getting taken to a trail or two! Can't wait.

In the meantime to anyone following this thread, does anyone have any good recommendations on products to use to seal the frame, diff's and other misc items like my skid plates? I'm planning to brush off any rust on any of them (most of them are pretty clean), and I would like to put a good coating on them other than fluid film.

Also, does anyone have a bead on a original radio that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg for? 2 bills for an old radio on ebay, and I'd much rather give my sheckles to someone here if they've since upgraded.