My 99 X-cab Rebuild / Build Thread

Finally got all the Hollidays stuff behind me...

Installed a 2" lift on Wifeys SUV and installed her new tires that we bought back around Halloween. Luckily for me she is a patient woman ~ but her state inspection is due next month.

Now back to work on the truck on my 2 days off / Replacing the inner fender and radiator support..

Showing folks the easy way to get to the alternator and water pump....





SEMA SHOW style poser shot of the Trail Master 6" kit in all it's glory.




Prepping for the 2004 Front clip ~





Father-in-law's clean 300K+ 3.4L auto 4wd x-cab 97 Taco with my Can-back...

 

Damn! Do work son! This build is dedication and talent.

 

where do you live at in virginia

 

98 Tacoma ~ I'm just above Petersburg Virginia in Colonial Heights. Wife has relatives in Danville ~ they've gotta be near you. The guy I was getting the inner fender from was from Danville he has a 98 standard cab crashed 2wd for parts. But he flaked out on me 2x and I got the inner from Red down in Ivor.

Meanwhile I've been working on inner fender and headder alignment. Nothing much picture worthy but I did the first fit of fenders hood and grill today and everything is coming in nice... Ofcourse their are a hurdles as with any crash repair but patience and taking time to tripple check alignment and measurements pays off big dividens.

The first shot hood / fender alignment (drivers side pic / This was the crashed side) not even adjusted yet turned out very nice!!! Will get alignment gaps nailed down and then finsh spot welding headded and inner + more paint and install. Hucking the painted hood in place over the painted fenders by myself was a PITA... but I survied and so did the paint. Lots of blankets and masking tape all the common scuff chip edges.

Another crappy Cell pic ~ Black truck indoors is a hard shot.

 

yea tight squeeze is about 20 mins from my house i live off of piney forest road in danville. after looking at that picture i knew you had to be talking about the place near chatam. i have a friend that lives there and people always give him hell about that.

 

truck is looking great by the way

 

Thanks!!!

My Uncle-in-law Jack Gery is off of Piney Forest just past the Vato Zone and Cemetary right at next light back down in the bottom behind the armory. He runs a parking lot maintainence business (painting / sweeping / ect).

 

does he have a tractor and a parking lot sweeper type thing and other vehicles in font of his house?

 

Yep ~ Though I haven't seen the tractor but I heard about a kid cutting into the tractor plow blade last snow so that sounds right.

 

haha dang that sucks thats about a mile from my house

 

subscribed.

 

Finished final alignment and welding the inner fender yesterday. Black Sharpie line is indicating where donor inner fender cut was made. Luckily I was able to cut spot welds and spread my original brackets and bracing. This allowed me to insert my donor inner fender into a matching glove like pocket. This technique greatly helped with realignment and adds stregnth as you reweld the brackets and bracing back over top of your seam.












FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE

Finishing off the bottom 3 spot welds pictured above, I opened the door checking for heat / smoke / fire to find 6" - 8" flames of FIRE under the dash.


Luckily I had the spray bottle of water on the bench close by (NOT CLOSE ENOUGH). Looks like it was just some insulation matting that caught and then fell onto the main harness. Luckily it fell onto the harness as I was putting the fire out (no wiring damage). Not totaly unexpected but STILL scarry as hell.... Usually you have fire watch in the truck with a bottle while you weld but most days I'm working alone.


Under dash looking up at upper left kick pannel from beside clutch pedal. I have no ideia what the stuff is but it burns much beter the the fire wood for the garage stove.

 

Camera batteries died so back to cell phone pics again...


Fender adjustment ~ Cleaning up the gaps.






Last pic as I was leaving yesterday. All ready to go back with inner fender stuff under the hood and make it run again.
Still alot to do but getting closer... It doesn't look like a wrecked truck any more...

 

Brought the truck home yesterday... Not running =^(


Aparently the brief fire while tack welding the inner fender has caused me some grief... Still undiagnosed at this point. Might try to diagnose later this week. Haven't had the time ~ needed to dress it up with bumper and lights to look leagal (Not wrecked) to park in my driveway.

Could be mice related ~ Working in a hose barn, Could be the stale 2007 Fuel. Could be how I had all the inner fender components bundled up and bungi coreded to the engine while cutting / welding / fabbing in place the new inner fender.


So far I have determined that the fire did damage the 2 wires in connector IF3. Back side of Yellow connector pictured below... Flaming insulation fell on these wires as I was puttign the fire out. Luckily it just missed the main harness. Looks like i'll have to pull the seat to get room to work upside down under the dash and get the job done right.

What 2 wires are in yellow connector @ IF3?

all I can find in the FSM is engien room main wire... I'll check colors again once I get home.





Pics ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

black melted crap is oem firewall insulation (Highly flamable) flamable fiber side is towards the metal and rubber plastic backing is exposed to cabin. Spraying with water prior to welding just wets down the rubber backing and does nothing to midigate the fire hazzard.

 

man instead of taking out seat and working upside down just remove entire dash and pull steering wheel. It gives you alot of room to work and you can still sit upright, whole process takes me about 30 mins now-a-days lol

 

Wiring harness HELL !!!!


IF3 = Front left air bag sensor....


Guess I'm lucky the SRS didn't deploy the bags when I hooked up the battery and turned the key... That woudl be a $2,000 mistake.
Not having the seatbelts buckled might have just saved me.

Not sure if SRS sensor wire shorted disable ignition ~ but it makes sense the SRS woudl be set up to shut off the truck in a crash where SRS deplys the bags.

 

I come home to find a note on the windshield of my Yota... First thought was that it was the city citing me for working on the truck in my drive way.... This after working on it until 11pm last night finishing up the lights and bumper stuff to make it look legit. I'm next to a High School so unfortunatly city officals drive by my house daily. Some of them are not so understanding.




Upon closer inspection somthing is different... The windshield is clear and shiney What happend to my windshield? I just brought the truck home Midnight sat night... hasn't even been here 48 hrs yet.










Did I mention ~~ I have a super cool wife...

That girl is somthing else !!!

 

Wow, Michael. You've really done some impressive work on rebuilding this truck.

Thanks again for the hood off this thing. I hope to get cracking with fixing my Tacoma one weekend soon.

Doug
Richmond VA