06 regular cab (cab off frame restoration)

Not a fabricator but found some angle iron out back kinda like I saw a dude use on a YouTube video and so far this is what the setups looking like. I will respond to other ppls responses here in a few (appreciate any and all feedback ahead of time)

 

mounting this will surely be an adventure.

 

By laminate I assume you’re referring to the frame sections that mount together, and the creasing between them? But ya that’s an idea. And I’d thought about that but idk. In the front frame section things don’t look bad but I want to somehow get as much corrosion out between the sections up front and literally douse the inside of the front frame sections with like por-15 or something.

I have thought about Eastwood products as well but if I’m able to have my fabricator make welds over the seams of the frame i really shouldn’t have to worry about the seams/laminate sections because they should be pretty good and sealed?

im going to have the frame sections separated because im paranoid and ultimately im not trying to have any lamination anywhere. The fabrication bills gona be like 4k.

However, I could still do the multi-layer paint job with the Eastwood chassis paint. Idk I just wana do whatever’s bomb proof

 

I don’t know what the salt belt is. I live in Southern Oregon though. And yes I know regular cabs like mine won’t be around. It’s not a daily driver anymore though I have other vehicles so it only sees maybe 6-7k miles a year if that. 2 oil changes

 

First test ride

 

Got a little bit done today, been working 6 days a week last couple weeks but today we got the following done:
•Front bumper removed
•Bench seat removed
•Engine bay / passenger cabin engine harness unplugged and pulled through into engine bay
•Rear harness under drivers seat unplugged and ran through cab to outside cab
•E-brake cables pulled
•Battery unhooked
•1/0 cabin cable unbolted from batt+

I technically undid one of the bolts under the cab that held a brake line bracket to the bottom of the cab but I’ll get it “for real” off tomorrow.

Still gotta undo the clutch cable/linkage, steering shaft from steering rack or steering coupler we’ll find out when we get there— and some other stuff before I can take the cab off. Then we disassemble the vehicle down to bare frame.

 

Still workin. Ac lines, and steering rack still need to be unhooked. So far in this post I’ve done the following:
•Disconnected clutch line
•Disconnected 4 brake lines
•Fiddled with the battery cable positive/ground (I will be connecting my own lugs and lengthening these cables with thicker cable and doing the big 3)

 

So I’ve been super busy, and I’ve taken hella pictures. But to get people up to speed I removed 2-3 fuel lines on driver side in engine bay, and 2-3 under driver side of the back of the cab, secondary air injection pump hose, doors, emergency brake cable, radiator, drained engine coolant, ac hoses, power steering lines, few grounds. And that’s pretty much it for what it took to get the cab off. Here’s a picture of it up in the air— tried to post a vid but I think it was too long.

 

Once we lowered the cab down I opted to use some vehicle dolly’s and 2x12s. Basically just lowered it down on a couple of big skateboards so we could roll it around, and I tarped it in case a thunder storm rolled through.

 

Finally pulled the engine n trans this last Sunday so I’ll add proof of that. All that’s really left is some suspension and drivetrain stuff like front diff, sway bar, control arms and rear suspension. This is the condition the truck is currently in.

Wish we could post vids longer than 25 seconds cause I have a couple short vids of me pulling the motor n trans. But anyways the next day I just spent time disconnecting the engine from the frame. Which consisted of a couple power steering lines, 4x4 actuator plug, couple o2 sensors, exhaust piping, and like a couple of wire harness brackets or something.

 

Quick check in before I go to work. Have a lot on my plate right now with work and continuing ed but frame was completely isolated, degreased, pressure washed and transported to fabrication this last weekend. Big plan is to move forward with galvanizing and powdercoat when that is finished. I’ll upload more pics and will be throwing together a Timelapse vid on youtube when it’s all said n done.

 

Prior to running it over to fab I used a few rounds of madrone from a tree I fell to suspend it. Last few brake lines, suspension, steering components, front diff, and diff crossmembers were all the last few things to go. The last pic I took of it was the one of it on the trailer. Fabrication estimates that they’ll start on it this week but who’s to say for sure

 

While the frames out for fabrication I ordered up a new clutch, throw out bearing, rear main seal, pilot bearing, and some 5.29s. Clutch is actually already installed at this point, I’ll toss some pics up of that process this evening.

 

Man, you take DIY to God level. Props to you!

 

So kinda a little dump from A to B on the clutch, and rear main job. I opted to resurface my OEM flywheel. The machinist actually does a lot of work for the local Toyota dealership so I felt he was trustworthy and the guy will most likely never see this thread but talk about a super cool dude. Incredibly knowledgeable and he was cool enough to let me follow him around his shop while he resurfaced my factory flywheel. Was really cool to see the process of how they did it. I took videos but was unable to load them to this platform so I did screenshot pics. And for anyone that asks in the future— I used new flywheel bolts as they are “torque to yield” so ya really shouldn’t reuse em. I didn’t know any of this prior to reinstalling my flywheel and don’t recall it in any research I did on the clutch job.

 

The fabrication is underway and now I just need to figure out what color I wana do the frame. But more importantly I also need to find a powdercoater that can sandblast inside the boxed portion of the frame. Because if I haven’t mentioned anything yet— I was originally going to galvanize the frame and then powder it. But I think we’re just gona go with a zinc primer and whatever color on top of that. Most likely just going to be black. Then later here in another month I’m gona order some ladder bars and bolt em on for a show I’m looking to put the rig in.

 

Things definitely escalated lol. But hopefully I won’t have to worry about frame rot after this.

 

This is a Toyota OEM clutch that i took out. I’m assuming the clutch had been changed before I took ownership at 199k miles, it has 318k miles now— but this was an OEM clutch. Whether it had been replaced or not im not sure but it doesn’t look terrible. Really doesn’t even look like it needed immediate replacing to me lol. Either way I’ve been driving on this clutch for 218k miles so I guess it was due

 

So a little update.

I bought the VEVOR bearing puller on Amazon to attempt the regear and it broke on the second bearing removal so I returned it and ordered the Yukon one. Apparently that’ll be like a month before it gets here so that’s ridiculous but hey, here we are lol. Anyways, would have welded it but I don’t have a welder.

On a positive note though I finally got the frame back from the fabrication shop. I turned around and got it to the powdercoater as fast as I could (today).

As for the repairs/mods I had them do a little in-house cab mount chop and they repaired some areas on the frame that needed to be addressed. Some laminate sections, crossmembers, and leaf spring perches were removed by grinding/removing the steel rivets out. This would allow us to apply powdercoat behind the walls of the laminate sections and various parts so that it would in theory make it that much more difficult for rust to form behind them.

In place of the steel rivets during re-installation I’ll be using 1/2 and 7/16 1.25” (1/2-20) fine thread grade 8 hardware to fasten the steel reinforcement sections back in place.

Also, just for the sake of documentation— yesterday after I got home with the frame I went out and attached a wire brush to a wooden stick to reach some of the hard-to-reach areas in the boxed portion of the frame to rough stuff up and sent a shop vac hose in there to get as much debris out as I could. I’m thinking we might be able to get some decent powdercoat coverage in there which would be nice as I know that is one of the main areas that fail on these frames. I’m even considering applying some por-15 or some Eastwood rust encapsulator stuff in there after the powdercoating gets done but we’ll see.

The fabrication was not cheap at all but it was done RIGHT and that’s what mattered to me the most. I’m sure I could have gotten a cheaper price on the work but this just wasn’t a job I was interested in cutting corners on.

Now, without further ado here are some pictures of the broken VEVOR tool that I’ll never recommend to anybody and a couple pics of the frame after fabrication. I didn’t take enough of them and I’m mad at myself for it but I was in such a hurry to get it to fabrication I didn’t even think about it.

 

I’ve been so trash at keeping this updated but I’ve got another update dump.

I began the diff rebuild so I could have a 5.29 open diff for summer cruisin so I’m not spooled up with the 13.5 wides. I’ll throw the spooled third member back in around October or somethin. But so ya I got the new Yukon bearing puller (after the vevo blew up on the second bearing) and the Yukon was rippin bearings off no issues at all. Very happy with that tool as it can rip just about any bearing off with no problems at all.

while rebuilding the I discovered that the dude that had it before me must have been wheeling it as it looked like crap and the pinion flange was marred up pretty good which I’ll include pictures of. But I disassembled the third member, already had an 8.4 open carrier ready to go in it with the ring gear torqued on. I have vids of all this stuff that I did but they probly wont make it to this thread. Might add some pictures though. Aside from that there were some metal shaving in the diff but I cleaned it out really well with brake cleaner and pressure washed the exterior to get all the gunk off.

took the setup bearings that I made from the last time gearing the truck and used them to press the new pinion bearing on, and will use them while chasing the optimal pinion depth for a good gear tooth pattern. Oddly enough I really enjoy setting up these 8.4 rear ends it’s just kinda cool knowing weird shit that not a lot of people know or take the time to know and it’s saving me money (which I need desperately right now and you’ll understand more as to why after I pitch my last bit of information in this update post). I do have to make an outer pinion setup bearing to finish the diff but outside of that the third member is setup and the new pinion bearing is pressed onto the 5.29 pinion. Once I get the setup bearings done I’ll assemble it and run a pattern and let the pattern chasing games begin lol.

also powder coating the SPC UCA’s so I pressed out and wrecked all four of the bushings that go in them lol so I get to buy news after they get done getting powdered.

Last but not least I dropped off the UCA’s today and got to put eyes on the frame and it looks awesome. Didnt grab a picture but I’ll pull a trailer out there on Wednesday and grab some pics of it to post. We did a zinc primer, stone black, and clear vision.

zinc primer: to provide increased resistance to rust/corrosion as years go by

stone black: highest impact resistant black powder I could find

clear vision: highest UV protection top coat available through prismatic powders.

I’ll post pics of what I have now in the next post.