2003 Tacoma doublecab shortbed bed swap and frame cleanup

Here was the original bed. Rusting out around the fenders and very much more underneath. I pulled the slip-in bedliner and saw so many holes that I knew it would be just easier to remove the bed entirely and swap on a gently used one I could refurbish before starting the removal project.







Next is the gently used bed I got off Craigslist in a town nearby. Took my in-law's trailer over and picked it up. Believe me this first pic shows some rust on that one, but it was a far cry better than what I had (skip down to near the end for the spoiler if you like). It was mostly just surface rust with two not so big holes that just needed a quick cut, patch in some new metal, weld, seam-seal.



Sand blasted the newer bed (nevermind the picture I took for my daughter with her stuffed animal). Cheap siphon feed blaster (like $20?) and some aluminum oxide blast media.



That was after the blasting and holes patched and covered the areas all with a couple coats of CRC Rust Converter before priming.


All primed above (couple different types of primer as I ran out of one and switched), and then 3M Dynatron seam sealer caulk used to patch over the welds and every exposed seam between metal sheets.



Flipped it over and put a couple coats of bedliner on. Used Plastikote brand (Project Farm on YouTube had a good review of bedliner brands and the Plastikote seemed to meet my needs for my climate).


Treated myself to a used truck cap for a good price as a reward for all the hard DIY work and savings to myself. Here I am picking up the refurbished bed after getting it painted. One of the few things I paid money on other than parts and supplies.



The deer hunting gambrel pully system was hung from a beam in my garage to stabilize the bumper from falling in my lap when removing. Check out how bad that rust was on the inside suface (next pic)!


Next pic shows the fender after I ripped out the rust to give myself more access for accessing the bed bolts on the passenger side.



There was like nothing left of the middle mount! The bolt got a point that it was just spinning because the weld-nut that accepts the bolt on the bed side was torn from its metal.



The front bed bolt could only spin so far and would have snapped, so I had to get in there with an angle grinder and cut to a point where I could take a torch to the weld-nut, then put a vice grip on the weld-nut, and then remove that bolt.




Here's the driver's side after smashing/ripping out rust. I had already replaced the filler neck and the gas tank this spring to get rid of the small evap leak check engine codes I had.



Next you see what I did in order to lift the bed by myself singlehandedly. Two winch straps crossing each other diagonally. I got an approximation on their positions, then tied them together good in knots so they wouldn't slip/move when the real lift happened. (Practiced a little because a wobbling few hundred pounds could have wreaked havoc on the parts below, the gas tank, the filler neck, not to mention the back window, etc. Seemed like a sturdy enough way to go). The carabiner you see is one from my rock climbing hobby. I figure if that could hold the force of a falling human and save their life, a steady smooth left of a truck bed that might be about the same weight would be just fine.



Method having been checked, on the next day I detached the pulley system, backed out and back in again in a way that I could just lift the bed and drive out from under it. Did it by myself, making sure not to tweak the filler neck (which I didn't bother to detach).


And check out how trashed this original truck bed was! Ready to haul off to the junkyard for scrap metal refund.


Since I'm going through all this effort I might as well clean off the frame and protect it. Don't want it snapping in half 2 years down the road when I could have helped protect it. Yes my truck supposedly had the frame recall done about 5 years ago... but I wonder if that was just the "coating" rather than a fully new frame? What do you guys think? Know that the northeast US has insane amounts of rock salt put on the roads that practically melts unprotected metal in 5-10 years. Used a few things to clean up the frame: air-hammer; a few different shape wire wheels on my cordless drill; a sanding wheel on the cordless drill; the sanding disc of the angle grinder; and actual sand paper.



This first frame pic shows the passenger half de-rusted and 2 coats of CRC rust converter over top of it, while the driver half is the original untouched starting point. The next pic shows it all after two coats of POR 15 paint.


Time to reverse the process. Layed the new bed down, winched it up. My wife stabilized it as I backed the truck in and she made sure it cleared the filler neck well and didn't bang the back of the cabin.


Lowered it back down. Bolted it on. Used 4 new bolts from a local Mennonite farmer's "hardware store" (charge about 10x less than the hardware store) and the two back most specialized Toyota bolts (that have a doohickie welded on) I cleaned up with a wire brush and rust converter before remounting. Put a gently used bumper on care of @Taco critter (local 1st gen enthusiast). Painted the lower portions with the same bedliner I already used for the rocker panels and bed. Also did the top rim of the bed with the stuff. Layed on the truck cap. Done!



If you like this, I have stuff posted about my rocker panel refurbish job too in another post.

 

Nice workmanship!
Jeff

 

Nice work!

 

i would say NO to that CRC coating junk, i have seen pics of it on TW
frame looks to have been swapped?

 

Too late for that!

 

sorry! i meant the coating Toyota applied to frames that were not swapped
i thought it was called CRC?

you had asked if the frame was swapped or re-coated

"Yes my truck supposedly had the frame recall done about 5 years ago... but I wonder if that was just the "coating" rather than a fully new frame? What do you guys think?"

 

Awesome freaking well documented job hombre I love reading through well completed projects and repairs

 

Nice write up, the truck looks great.
I'm off to read about your rocker panel repair next.

 

If the frame was replaced tracing through the VIN should be easy enough if you really want to know.