06 regular cab (cab off frame restoration)

1st: open carrier prior to pressing carrier bearings

2nd: toasted pinion flange

3rd: 5.29 / 4.10 pinion comparison

4th: outer pinion bearing race

5th: inner third member housing

6th: third member in the hand differential holder

7th: pinion comparison

8th: war table

9th: pinion comparison

10th: yukon bearing puller

11th: old outer pinion bearing (will be made into a setup bearing)

 

Alrighty well I worked a couple 12s this week to shave off some of the anxiety from spending as much money as I have on this Toyota. Ended up buying some new coilovers too. Figured it was time since I’d been riding on RC N3 struts for the last few years. Felt like I was riding in a 5 ton unloaded army truck.

on a different note here’s a quick snap of the frame I got after I got it loaded up. The picture is a screenshot of a video clip I took of it when picked it up. I’ll get some better pictures soon. I’m super pumped and relieved it’s finally finished. Now I gotta put the sob back together..

Also, spoke to ECGS and they recommended a new flange but they’re out of them for 6-8 weeks they gave me a part number though so I might be able to find one elsewhere on the internet.

 

Here’s a dump of a few other pictures I have. It came out really good. I’m also compiling video clips into a big Timelapse of the disassembly, and some of the work I did to it. I didn’t record the clutch job, nor the cv reboot but no biggy there.

 

The cv boot clamp pliers pictured below are worthless as tits on a hog btw. I had to use some snub ended dike plier things I had layin around that didn’t close all the way but they at least helped me get the clamps started. To finish them Im ordering some tool off of Amazon that resembles the actual Toyota tool. Aside from that I also have some updated pics of the frame and it’s current state of assembly.

You’ll notice a decent amount of grade 8 hardware on the frame and this was due to having to remove the laminated sections of the frame so that we could effectively sandlblast and powdercoat not only just the outside faces but behind the backs of the steel as well so that if any moisture was to get back there it wouldn’t be able to rust out from in between the sections.

I approached this project with the intent and goal to never have an issue with rust ever again because I planned on keeping the truck for a long time. It’s just been to damn reliable to envision selling it.

another factor in the decision to do the job like this was because there really arent any regular cab frames laying around anymore. So I just wanted to do what with the funding and time frame I wanted to get the job done in.

 

Shoulda seen the cv boots before I rebooted em. They looked like hammered cat shit..

 

Last quick note,

These items are still on their way:

• 6” Fox 2.5 performance Elite coilovers
• Fox 2.0 rear shocks
• Pinion flange
• Solid spacer
• Powdercoated UCA’s
• Powdercoated sway bar
• SPC X-axis UCA bushings

And these are all possible add-ons I’m considering doing in addition to the previous:

• Custom 4” Deaver/Alcan leaf springs
• U bolt flip kit
• Accutune bump stops
• Horizontal reservoir mounts
• Extended rear brake lines

if anyone has any recommendations on leaf springs let me know— goals would be to:

• delete the 3.5” rear lift block
• achieve about 4” of lift
• achieve a comfortable ride
• achieve respectable travel
• handle an occasional ~400lbs (5-6x per year @ anywhere from 4-8hrs at a time) when I weigh the back end down when I go up in the snow

That doesn’t mean I need them to withstand 400lbs while holding the 4 inches of lift. I can add a tool box and some tools/gear later if it’s a little harsh. To me— it sounds like I’m gona have to compromise somewhere but those are all goals, not must haves.

 

Quick photo dump. Recently received some more parts and tools for the build.

I received the fox 2.5s from accutune but still waiting on the rear fox 2.0’s. I also ordered the crown performance extended brake lines from Accutune that are marketed as 4” longer than stock for 05-23 model Tacomas (turned out to not be accurate for all models), some hammer hangers, archive garage shackles (3.6”) and some rear shock boots. Was looking at doing a u bolt flip kit when I got around to ordering the leaf springs but opted to hold off until I got to that point.

wasn’t too thrilled that the brake lines weren’t actually 4” longer than my factory brake lines. They were only just barely under 2” longer than my factory brake lines. I spoke to crown performance and they told me my factory brake lines were 20” so I ended up having to ship them back to accutune. I’m not sure what was so special about my truck but it’s a regular cab so maybe that’s why.

so if you’re in the market for some brake lines I’d maybe call whichever manufacturer it is who’s lines you’re looking at and see if you can get clarity before purchasing through a distributor and save yourself the extra money in return shipping!

Aside from that I got some factory race reservoir mounts to mount the resi’s horizontally on the frame and I think I’m just about ready to button up the 529 open diff regear. I was able to get a good pattern with my setup race and setup bearing. Got the pinion preload at about 12in Lb’s. Now I just gotta toss the carrier in and run a pattern again to make sure the pinion depth agrees with the final setup. Then I’ll install the pinion seal and torque er’ down.

I’ll get some pictures of the hammer hangers tomorrow too— those things are stout!

I’m also ancy to get the motor and trans in the chassis but the powdercoater has my upper control arms held hostage so I’m kind of at a stand still here as far as what I can do. I might actually just install my factory UCA’s with some old 5100 coilovers so I can get the motor and trans bolted up. I can swap the UCA’s and coilovers out for the new stuff later when powder finishes what they need to do so I can continue working towards getting the cab back on.

 

I took a lot of vids and wasn’t able to post them, but anyone with a link can see the vids I’m posting here from YouTube. Here’s what pulling the cab looked like.
https://youtube.com/shorts/eyO8xPVBv3o?si=Q7iC-S7Gqir_xRxI

 

I'm the newb here, so I didn't get to see this earlier. I did a project very similar to this from 2010-2014 with my beloved '87 Xcab (in avatar). It took me that long as I was working too much, travelling, and I did EVERYTHING, including rebuilding the R151F Turbo trans and the entire engine (22RE). There wasn't a bolt on that truck that I didn't wrench on during that project.

I pulled my cab by stripping it completely down to the sheetmetal, even removing the doors, glass, fenders, wiring, everything. I also had the engine removed already. Then I had 3 other friends come over, we slid a couple of 4x4's under it, and just lifted it off and set it on a dolly that I had pre-made with casters. This made it easy to roll it up onto a trailer, and I could take it to the body shop for paint.

Maybe this is intended to just be a show truck, but there's no way I would have just powder coated the frame. It just doesn't last, for the expense. I put heavily powdercoated BudBuilt steps/sliders on my Cruiser back in 2020, and I've already had to sandblast and repaint them. The powder is failing on my rear bumper now. I had my frame sandblasted, then after I did some fab work, I sprayed and brushed on a coat of Rustoleum red metal primer, then 2 coats of satin black. Still looks good, and touch up is super easy.

I used a cherry picker hoist to set the freshly painted cab back on the frame. I made a cradle that sat under the cab, that I attached to via long bolts through the existing holes in the floor. It was surprisingly easy to move it around and drop it on the frame by myself, even though the engine was already installed.

I loved that truck, miss it a lot. But by 2017 the rust demon started to show up again on the body, and my wife (at the time) had a bad hip and could no longer get in the thing. The heat sucked, no safety, over worked 22RE, etc, I sold it to a fellow out in CO. The truck now has a semi-retired life out in Tucson AZ.

Best of luck with your project!

 

gotcha. Well I’ll tell ya what, I sure hope the powder doesn’t fail. But the zinc primer coating has a pretty strong bond. I noticed as I was wire wheeling some of the bolts I’d get the black to chip away from the zinc primer but the primer layer was very adherent. It was pretty tough to even wire wheel off of the bolts (using a bench grinder). My biggest concern is in the boxed section of the frame where water can pool. Even though they powdered in there I still want to add por-15 or somethin just to provide an extra coat in case any cracks allow water to hangout. If the frame begins to rust again, at that point I will just sell the truck. But this should get me down the road at least another few years. By then I’ll hopefully have won the lottery and should be good

thanks for the feedback and congrats on conquering the project

 

Here’s a vid of some of yesterday evenings and this mornings shenanigans. I faced the challenge yesterday of the OEM UCA’s not allowing the bottom of the knuckle to reach the LCA… so I said screw it and installed some older struts I used to run. Now the truck looks like a low rider lol (not the vibe).

This morning I was able to mount the wheels n tires and put the engine/trans in under the trucks own weight.

as for my next trick I’m thinking I’ll lift the front end of the truck with the gantry crane and install the new coilovers (assuming I get the SPC UCA’s back soon) #cryemoji
https://youtube.com/shorts/BXqpdlWFpwQ?si=r2dcz-8-1jPVPzMJ

 

Very nice! So far, how much do you have into it? I'd be interested to see the total amount when you're all finished. Wish you could have galvanized the frame, it's really the best way to go long term but it's pretty dang hard to find anyone around nowadays with all the different tanks needed that are large enough to galvanize a frame properly.

 

There was a place that was going to do it about 3 hours away from me but powdercoaters get tender feet when it comes to powdering after galvanizing. For me the biggest factor between galvanizing and powdercoating was that I wanted to put the truck in shows so I for sure wanted to powder it, and then time. Because I wanted to have the truck done by a specific date this year (August 23rd) and the one I was aiming for is only 3 weeks away now. It would been another 1000$ and who knows how long to get that done.

and a tally of tools and truck parts I’m somewhere around 10k. But that’s accounting for custom tuned coilovers, 3 layers of powder (1-2 would have been fine), and the tools, clutch, hammer hangers (weren’t necessary). A person could very easily get away with only spending probly 1-4k depending on how they wanted to budget this job and the resources they already had available if they were specifically ONLY addressing the frame.

 

Picked up my UCA’s + sway bar yesterday. Dropped the motor/trans, pressed in the new uca bushings, and started torquing some bolts.

I was able to install the new coilovers but they’re so firm that I can’t get the LCA to compress enough to get the UCA connected. So I’m wondering what my next magic trick will be to get those bastrds on. Maybe I’ll drop the cab on the frame with the knuckles free floating to get the suspension to compress an inch or so if I’m lucky lol (smh)

 

Couple pics of the hammer hangers that I forgot to post yesterday too oops. Still torquing the bolts I’ll knock that out before I go to work today

 

Ah, show truck, I get it. For actual use, especially in the winter in the rust belt, galvanizing is the only way. Nothing like dipping your frame in a sacrificial anode coating to make it last for decades. It would be a complete PITA however to chase every threaded welded nut on the frame before you could insert a bolt.

Very nice work, I am impressed.

 

Oh absolutely, I was neck deep in conversation with the company up the road too, but to me it kind of just sounded like way more time than I had if i wanted to get the truck done by the 23rd. Heck even now Im going to be pushing it and ill be surprised if i do get it done by then but we're getting close so im staying positive. And thats true but they make products that you can apply to the frame that will help mitigate the galvanization process. Galv stop or something or other is what its called and i was going to apply that to the threads. I had it all planned lol