4xFort Build Thread - previously Frame Swap

Hmm thanks! I’ve been reading up a little bit when not working crazy amounts. The guy creating it fabs stuff for a living so hopefully it goes pretty smoothly!

Also, what’s this about?

 

Just admiring your work. I am looking at a frame swap on my 2002.

 

Think about it, how many other truck makes need replacement frames and the owners are like okay with it. I love my Toyotas!

 

Well, after a bit of delays, process is back underway. Should start happening real soon! Just got the frame back from powder coating.
Custom Alcan leafs are being built and awaiting the arrival of the ADS 2.5" smooth body shocks for the cantilever set up being built. Perhaps once all this is done, I'm hoping to do the front with either MCM Fab's mid or LT.



Then I stopped by Panda Express for some quick bites and this was my fortune:

 

A '92 Tacoma, what?

 

Well, another day of swapping work done!

No lift so we had to figure out how to get the beans above the frank...
It was an all day affair

Maybe I should just stick with a 1 foot body lift?


Only some minor damage to the already crappy hood liner so far. Well we ended up lifting a smidge too far and cracked the grill.



Don't worry, it hasn't gotten sketchy yet.


In fact, no one wants to see how or what we used to get it here. Front tires off, onto dolly. Roll forward and then...


Front tires on and rear tires off onto the dolly! And: Yep... Hi-Jacks were used. Tell me just how sketch that is. I already know. But it actually works quite well with three people... One on either side and then someone holding the cab forward with the engine lift from the rear. The cab is shockingly lightweight!


^^That's what we ended up doing Just no pictures of the Hi-Jack action and the rear end up with engine lift.

Lower the cab onto some dollys, roll it back, wheels back on all four and roll it home. Seems like a great opportunity to just make a full on buggy, eh?
Can see all the parts bed on the old yota truck to the left, cab in the middle with the hood up, new frame peeking in on the right!


Monday shall be the new clutch and begin the transfer process!

The old frame was not in great shape... disturbingly flexible even though there aren't any holes rusted through. Anyone want a free frame? For demonstration purposes only haha
The Alcan leafs are being made, and the rear ADS shocks are shipped. Final cantilever design measurements are being worked out. Perhaps I do just need to go LT on the front too... Anyone have some front end LT for sale??

 

BTW, only 5 bolts have broken, need a new flexible clutch line, need a new air filter box because the old one had a hole in the back where the MAF mounted and had been previously repaired, and some minor scratches on the pain that don't really matter to me I feel like it's going quite nicely

 

May I ask how much it was to powder coat the frame? Did they prep/sandblast it?

 

The total for sandblasting and powdercoating came to around $400. Not too bad at all! I wish we could have gotten everything welded on before powdercoating but it just didn't work out that way. The sliders and a few other odds and ends will have to be welded still. But man, the coating added a lot of weight; went from easily moved by two people to challenging.

 

Son of a bitch, that's cheap. I paid $120 to powdercoat my 3" diameter Manual Hub dial faces.

 

Haha wow yeah I was kinda surprised too. They had initially quoted me like $800 but then I was pleasantly surprised when I got the invoices. Full Blown Coatings in SLC. The quality of their work seems to be quite nice! Unfortunately I'll be messing up some of their nice work by welding a few things on still. Debating making the sliders bolt on instead of welding

 

yeah, I don't know how Okay I am with needing to do a frame swap, but it is a great learning opportunity and since it already has a rebuilt title, now I'll be good as new... you know, except for all those old parts... But I'd rather have a solid badass yota rather than a sketchy brokass yota Would I have done this to a Frontier or a Ranger? Maybe, but I wouldn't have been stoked about it, nor would I likely have found communities that are so gung-ho about building out their trucks! You all are such an excellent support and inspiration!

 

Whats the condition of that gas tank crossmember?
Willing to unbolt/ship?

 

There's a fair amount of rust that I scraped off a while ago. It could clean up decently and be repainted; there are no structural issues and no holes rusted through it. I'm actually going to have a fair amount of pieces that I'm going to be looking to sell coming up once this swap is completed.


Today, we pulled the tranny/Tcase out and set to work on the clutch. Flywheel resurfaced. Have the Marlin Crawler clutch package. The old pilot bearing was really really seized in there, such that none of the standard methods worked! Ended up renting the pilot bearing puller from Advance Auto. It doesn't quite fit so I had to take one of the puller arms off to work it in that tiny 5/16" opening. The damn puller had rounded lips so that it wouldn't actually grab the bearing. Once we filed just a smidge off to make them more square, it pulled right out.

Put in a new rear main seal while in there.

Also, finally got the fill plug fixed by taking the tranny to a shop in the trunk of my Neon, lol. They were able to just drill it out and put in a slightly oversized bolt with massive threads. I won't be torquing it down really at all, but it won't be leaking oil anymore!!

Not many good pics, but here's one of the tranny after pulling it out of the trunk The fill hole in the middle is the one that was repaired.

 

Found a head gasket leak when I took off the A/C compressor to do the oil pan gasket today. The dealer did this head 30k miles ago so that seems like the Toyota dealership in NM does sketchy work. If you’re about to take yours in to a dealer here, I’ll give you the specific site if you PM me. It’s leaking coolant outside the engine on the passenger side right side and around the front. I’ll post a pic tomorrow hopefully. But the rest is coming along...

Ahh it’s finally barren!

Begin the refresh!

My custom Alcan leafs. Rated for several hundred pounds over stock because of all the additions. Hopefully they don’t turn out too harsh...

Uh muh gerd. These things are effing beastly. I’m so stoked to see/feel them in action...

Was going to put engine on and the cab too, but I saw a legit coolant leak out of the front right cylinder even though the Toyota Dealership in Las Cruces, NM rebuilt that same right side 30k miles ago, while I was replacing the oil pan gasket. I’ll get a pic of it here when I go back. But dried coolant leaking out behind the a/c compressor and then traced it around to the front, behind the power steering pump area. Maybe they’ll own up to their error even though it was during the previous owner.

Hey, and here’s that spot. I’m not going to unbolt but I’ll cut that section out. Everything would break off if I try to unbolt. I can ship this to you if you want, but it’s a bit rusty... I mean I don’t know how it’d look after a sand blasting, probably just fine. But there’s a fair amount of rust.

 

No worries then, if it would unbolt in good shape I would of been all for it. Sounds more like a PIA now so don't worry about it. Appreciate you following up though!

 

Whew! It's been good to start cleaning everything up and heading towards putting the body back on!!

Went through and torqued everything back down to spec once the engine was back on, including the diff drop kit installed. I really wish that the rear of the diff could also be dropped an inch as easily!

Today we finally got the metal cut for the cantilever suspension set up that had taken a significant amount of design work, so that was exciting to see happening!


Had to cycle an old leaf to see what size shackle will be needed. I had the leafs made for a 98 but this seems to be an earlier model frame since the rear leaf mounts are a full 4" forward of where they had been relocated to on my old 97 frame (they'd been relocated to the 98 spots for an OME setup). So, hopefully it will ride alright with just a longer shackle. Kinda kicking myself for not having gone SUA setup at this point; it'll be the only aspect holding this vehicle back from it's full potential. As it is, the rear should pull something around 17" of travel and the front with the SoloMotorSports LT kit should be around 14".



Cleaned up a few other odds n ends that were bugging me. Getting the spindle/hub assembly separated from the old UBJs and the UCAs was a beast! Also, one of the axle nuts was HUGE! It was larger than a 39mm but slightly smaller than 1 5/8" sockets, but the latter was able to remove it. Stoked to get those Tundra axles with the LT kit


Swapped in my new washer fluid resi since the old filler neck had been cracked and repaired multiple times. The dirt in the washer bottle keeps clogging my sprayer nozzles, so this seems like the smart move haha


Had noticed that the AC tensioner pulley had a little play in it, so that got replaced. The aftermarket ones don't look the same... I'll be hanging on to the OEM one just in case something goes wrong with the aftermarket one...

Awaiting a couple new hard brake lines, and will likely need to create a few to accommodate the elimination of the rear's LPSV and then installing the manual brake proportioning valve.

Ahh, the junk pile grows! As does the spare parts collection! (The bumper is not in the junk pile. It's behind it! It is definitely going back on... for now.)



Thanks for tuning in! Hopefully, this will all be done and driving the day after Christmas! Need a few days to test drive it before a January trip to Moab area

 

Man this came a long way sense i last checked in on this thread.

 

That frame looks so clean. If only they all looked like that. Interested to see the final outcome.

 

Haha thanks! Getting it to that point delayed the whole process by a few months, but it's going to be worth it!