Frame Swap, Build & other stuff

I think so, it all went to Miguel. I got the truck in Carson City NV from a guy who bought it already rolled. He got it for the motor and sold me the rest. The truck was from grass valley ca. The kid who had it rolled it off the road down a hill onto wood fence. The 6x6 fence post went through the roof just missing him. When I posted the ad for parts the kid reached out to me and gave me the whole backstory.
Here's the thread for the part out. It has a lot of pictures of the truck in it.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/delete-ignore-old-post.554013/

 

It’s not a terribly hard job. Really easy if you have access to a lift. Just a fair bit of money to source everything

 

damn that's wild. cool to know the backstory, thanks for sharing!

 

I wouldn't say this would have been much easier if I had a lift. Really depends on how bad the rust is, how much patience you have, and if you have the right tools. All the simple things took way longer than expected for me. But then again, I was using a propane torch & wrenching for the first time. haha

 

I use to do the frames at the dealer. With the rack I got them down to 1.5 days (8-10 hour work days) worth of work. I’ve helped a few friends swap other brand trucks. Once you realize how little there actually is to remove the body it’s amazing how quick you can pull them lol

the rust is a pita. But eh I deal with it on regular repairs for anything else so

 

So you would lift the body off, transfer everything over to the new chassis, then drop the body back on? I read through the factory replacement manual at one point. Guess if I ever do it again I'll have to try it that way.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys! Sure was a hell of project. So much it’s hard to recap.

My last post left off with throwing together the rear. The original gas tank was rusted out and leaking so I junked the whole thing. Tracked down a parts guy who had a tank from a 2000 prerunner. Came with the filler neck, fuel pump assembly, a solid skid and tank strap. I decided to use the pump assembly from my truck (with new fuel pump, filter, and gaskets), but unfortunately the fuel level sensing float gets caught inside the tank somewhere so the fuel needle doesn't go very far past empty. At least the light turns on when its really low.. good enough for me and no more EVAP codes. Someday I'll swap in the correct one.

Other than that, I cleaned up the E-brake cable and LSPV both of which were still in pretty good shape on my truck. Hooked up all the brake lines, rebuilt the drum brakes (new wheel cylinder, shoes, springs, etc), connected and adjusted the E-brake...



Oh yeah, new wheel bearings of course. Found a great local machine shop guy that would do any job for 25 bucks flat (which is insane), and a damn good job at that. Sergio from Ted's Auto on MLK blvd if anyone in the LA area is looking for a guy. I'd just drop off the parts and he'd have it done by the end of the day. He pressed new bearings for the rear axles, sandblasted and pressed bearings for the spindles, assembled coilovers, and restored calipers.

Here are some nice before & afters...

1. Spindles. These were a major PITA because I busted a few of the LBJ bolts and had to drill them out of the spindles. Took me multiple days and many drillbits..... one of the worst parts of the project rivaling the seized body mount bolt. But hey, looking fresh now. All new bearings, seals, and dust covers. Painted them up black with the chassis saver paint before reinstalling them. With new LBJs of course.




2. new Coils, UCAs, rotors, brake pads, inner & outer tie-rods, marlin brake lines... donor LCAs, steering rack (HUGE thanks again to @Broke Okie Ty), restored CV axles and calipers...



Some close-ups...



Was gonna throw new seals in my front diff but they looked totally fine. Good trick for getting the CV axles back in is to get it started in the hole with the clip facing down, hold them straight out and tap the end firmly with the palm of your hand. This took some time but got them in there eventually.

And then for the finale. Everything was back together except I didn't bleed the brakes yet. In a rush to get out of town for a couple weeks I wanted to move my rig to one side of the driveway so my roomates could use the other half. Sure enough I accidentally fired it right into the garage, crashed it into my old frame which luckily stopped it from knocking the house down but poked a couple nice holes in the drywall.

Something had to go wrong... haha but could have been way worse.



Anyway, got the box back on it. Almost done! Just need to put on the bumpers & bleed the brakes and repair my drywall, then I could use the truck to move all my stuff to a new place. Neighbors were probably pretty happy to see the project coming to a close. ha.

 

Im about to embark on this exact same journey. How long did this whole project take? In hindsight is their anything else you would change or do differently to make it easier???

Also how is that chassis paint holding up? I used a chassis paint in the past and it totally didnt hold up after only 5 years and everything rusted away. Im thinking about coating my chassis with high build primer first then automotive grade paint with gloss similar to what you would use to paint body panels on a car.

 

Hey man! sorry for the late response — preparing the frame took about a month (hand-sanded all the surface rust off, power washed, hand-painted with “chassis saver”). The chassis saver stuff is holding up really well. I sanded mine down too fine. Leave some grit on it for the paint to grab.

2 months total downtime from when I started the teardown to up and running. Definitely a 2-man job.

If I were to do it again I wouldn’t touch any bolts without a MAPP torch. I spent days wrestling with seized bolts. Would also help to have a proper lift, was tricky sliding the new frame under it in the driveway. Lift the body up as high as you can otherwise. Re-tap threads when you can, and be ready to replace every 10 or 12mm bolt you deal with. I broke a lot of them.
Do the body mount bushings on the new frame. Wish I did that. Oh, and new brake lines.

cheers, good luck!

 

Looks great! yeah im still in the prepping the frame process, if you checkout my build thread in my signature you will see the setup I have the frame on currently. I did purchase all new body mount bushings through energy suspension. I am also going to be doing the swap without a garage and lift but it can be done. Thankfully I have a slew of new parts waiting to be put on the new frame so their isnt much thats going to be transferred over from the old frame.

When I did my partial restoration a few years ago I touch a majority of stuff under the frame and re installed everything with anti seize so im hoping that pays off and the torch will stay away for the most part.

Unfortunately I have to do some modification to the frame I got as it was a double cab frame and not an extra cab frame, so I have to transfer the two rear body and bed mounts to the appropriate spots on the frame.