Fully polished TuRD

You have an investment in that Taco.....how about either replacing the entire frame or possibly better yet, replace the frame sections one piece at a time.....just like Johnny Cash did with his Cadillac
Start by taking the bed section off and replace both chunks of frame from the cab on back. Those are the easy sections. Then replace the sections under the cab......one side at a time. Make it either .120 or .188 wall thickness. or mix and match. Just have to buy the 5x2 under the cab.....and the 4x2 under the bed. You already replaced the frontal section with new frame so it's partway done already.

You will benefit from having a plasma cutter to neatly severe the body mounts and such.

 

At that point i may as well buy a new truck! Trust me i have gotten more than my moneys worth out of it, however starting with a clean frame truck from the desert would be easier and better than patching all this back together. Plus the body is starting to rust under alot of the dents. I have thought about building a frame from scratch and ttansferring evreything over, then i talk myself out of that fairly quickly.

 

I say a jeep comanche or a 79-85 SA Pickup Been eyeing those and makes me wish I would have built one of them.

But out of your options: 1st gen tacoma or 3rd gen 4runner. That way you have spares and itll be a easy swap the second time.

 

Slander,
why don't you give it a shot by doing just the easy sections.....the rear. Do it just like you did the front end. You already know the rear of the frame in stock form is a joke because it is only C channel.

A whole new stock factory frame might be rust free....but it is still weak on the back end.

 

No jeep, been there got the tshirt. The early trucks are long extinct around here and dont meet my driving to the trails in ac comfort requirements. I would love to build one though!

 

I was thinking about it, however i would have to go way under the cab to hit any good metal to attach the frame to.

 

Go RC... I too can't stand the electronic stuff.

 

Did some wrenching today, mostly tightened bolts up (u bolts were damn near hand tight) and fixed my collapsing fender. I hacked way too much out of the fender and my battery tray started to really collapse in on itself.




Booger welded this piece of scrap i had laying around, hope it holds.


Also remeasured my frame height after the springs got broken im sitting at 22 1/4.

 

That thing is lowwww.

No sense building anything else because it will get trashed too. Just back half it if the rust is taking over. Super easy to do plus a good excuse to go f150 tank at the same time. No one will judge you if you keep it stock length with the bed too

 

Its the rust taking over the rest of the halfs that im worried about!

 

An 80's full size K5 or first gen 4Runner is the only thing that I would build besides the Xtra cab Taco. Even then, the Taco is still the best platform to build, especially if you are driving it. No way I'd build either a K5 or first gen runner to drive to the trailhead

A third gen would be a pig compared to the Taco and no glass would survive...ever. Been there, done that. Only thing I miss was the sleeping in the back and it was power everything Plus they do rust, not as bad as first gen's but they will in the salt belt.

 

Yea no... the only american truck i would run is a ford or chevy 1 ton reg cab and strip it down, cage it and run big ass tires wih no lift for dirt ass cheap. Dont want to do that right now.

I would take the glass out, at least the side glass, and replace it with sheet metal before wheeling it. I also like that the 4runners dont command the assinine prices that the tacos do, ill take some piggishness to save 5 grand on the purchase of a truck.

Just thinking longish term, and not doing a frame off restoration on a damn 2002 build date vehicle.

 

Havent done much to the truck besides drive it due to traveling for work and a vacation. I have been compileing my fall/winter work list once it starts getting colder and rainier:

Im going to add some leafs to my rear spring pack, replace my spring bushings

Cut the rear spring pads off and reweld them in the correct spot this time

Front air bumps

Make my delrin shackle bushings and finally fix the alignment.

Snowy is giving me his old interal roll cage, so i need to figure out a way to get that to fit and tie the seats into it, eventually put a 5pt harness in it for wheeling.

Tons of little shit like wrapping powersteering hoses that are rubbing on various parts

Fix my clock spring so i can get my horn and cruise back.

Install steering stops so i dont break my clock spring again.

Replace the winch rope that i broke on my last trip

 

Did the garage alignment today to figure out why my truck had a massive pull to the right, turns out i was at 1/2" toe out from wheeling in the black hills. The truck drove fine except for the massive righthand pull, now it only has a slight pull to the right above 55 post alignment which i can live with and i think is due to my blown out spring bushings.

 

Slander,
What is your caster set at?
Any death wobble?

 

5* to the rear i think, no death wobble. I was aiming for 6+. The numbers should be earlier in the thread.

 

So you have +5.92, Allenfab has +6 and I'm currently @ +6.34.
I'll back it down to +6 and start there, thanks.

 

Do you have death wobble? more caster the better (to a point). a friend of mine is running 10 for example. if you have death wobble look at all the other possible causes first.

 

Well check this...
Only the DS hops after hitting a bump in the road, PS is fine.
Everything is friggin' tight too.

The only difference is the PS shock tower is 1" further back than the DS, leaving the CO at an angle instead of vertical like the DS CO.

Has me thinking of removing the PS shock tower, moving it forward to match the DS and re-welding.

So you're saying add caster?

 

I'd throw caster at it normally. I run close to 12 on my truck without any problem. Where you at now?