Builds Starting over with 87 HI TEQ pickup (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy9A]

So first I'll explain the title of this thread. Basically I started over with my wheeling/crawling vehicle. This build began about 3 years ago but I'll sort of do it like this is all present day since the truck is never really "done" anyways. I just figured it'd be nice to have a spot to document the build and keep pictures.

Back in 2007 I bought an immaculate 97 4runner for a daily driver. Eventually I discovered what trails, wheeling, rock crawling and all this good stuff is about. The 4runner slowly got built up as I always discovered a new area where it fell short.

In the end the 4runner had:
3" lift front, 4" lift rear (land cruiser coils), 33" M/T, 1.5" front wheel spacers, Marlin adapters and dual cases, fuel tank relocated to rear with f150 tank, rear tube bumper with skid plate for f150 tank, 4x innovations original prototype front bumper, HF 9K winch, 4x innovations sliders, Lock right rear locker, reinforced rear trailing arms.... I know theres more but that's what I recall right now.

The 4runner was generally good to us. I used to tow a pop up camper 7 hours down to Flat Nasty or Washeta, wheel the s*** out of the truck for a week and pull the camper back home. Even after smashing in the factory fuel tank and denting the trans pan on one trip it got us and the camper back home (with a lot more stops for fuel and topping the trans fluid off occasionally). Someone that used to wheel with us called me careless for that stuff. Almost tried to lecture my like a displeased parent. **** em. I wheeled the truck and occasionally daily drove it for about 10 years.

Here's a few pictures of the 4Runner in it's prime

 

[Jeremy9A]

The trails that our group wheels started to get less friendly to small tires and IFS suspension. There's always more trails to wheel and places to see. I felt that I had pushed that 4runner through some trails that not many, if any, Ifs trucks had been through. So I'm not in any way doubting anyones IFS truck ability to hang with a solid axle truck.

But heres my scenario- the 4runner needs to go to at least 35's to go where I want to go. It was underpowered with 33's so no way would anything bigger be ok. The options I saw were:
A: Go to 35" tires or larger
re-gear the diffs (dump money into an IFS re-gear and locker? I could )
trim out a wagon body to stuff the tires

B: Go to 35" tires or larger
Solid axle swap the front
re-gear diffs
still have a wagon body to trim out to stuff tires. This also meant getting into trimming the rear doors and into the cargo area to keep the truck low where I wanted it.

I kept coming back to the idea of simplifying things and going back to a pickup.
These were my main reasons I figured:
-Easier trim/chop to stuff tires
-Lighter (the 4runner gets beached on rocks easily)
-Less low hanging anchors
-Mostly flat frame that glides over rocks
-Smaller and easier to get throught tight spots
-Could carry, organize, store, tie down stuff easier
-A lot more drive train products for the older Toyotas (there's a lot more now than a few years ago)

Another factor was that it did start to get tiring driving far, wheeling for a week and driving the 4runner back home. It seemed like the front end would always get tweaked a little in these trails. Slip off your line and bend an inner tie rod. Bend a steering knuckle. Driving all highway back home with the alignment off by a lot is not pleasant.

 

[Jeremy9A]

During the ownership of my 4Runner there were vehicles that came and went. For a while I had an 83 pickup that I sort of stumbled upon and picked up cheap. It took some work finishing up an aborted motor swap by the previous owner, re-locating the crossmember for a newer trans, finding the correct driveshafts, putting the interior back together, and some hours with a buffer. Found a used set of tires. Repainted all the black parts black again.

I always thought back to this truck. I wanted something simple to wheel and I had that. I have no clue why I sold that truck. I didn't need the money, but sure, I could use the money. In my mind I think I just figured "I found this thing cheap needing work and I can find one like that again" Wrong. I sold this truck back around 2008. Prices have obviously skyrocketed since then. But this was my pickup that I kept thinking about.

 

[Jeremy9A]

One thing you won't see very often in the north half of illinois are older Toyotas. I enjoy seeing them on the road, or in a driveway, or anywhere really.
I would usually see this older 80's ugly brown 2wd pickup when I went on test drives from the shop I worked at. I could have driven down any other roads but I always just chose to go past and look at that truck. I must have driven this route for over a year. It wasn't rotted like it should be as the truck still had bedsides and rockers. You couldn't even see through the doors.

Eventually something good happened. On my usual drive past the pickup- a "FOR SALE" sign in the window! I sent my wife a picture and she loved the truck (thats how I remember it at least).

 

[Jeremy9A]

I got in touch with the guy and found out a little about this truck. His wife has been driving it in the warmer months and it is useless in the snow so it just sits in the garage all winter. The truck came from a relative somewhere in California years back. It has 244K miles, leaks a lot of oil, smokes... PERFECT! I test drove it and it intermittently ran on 3 cylinders and then back to 4 cylinders. That indicated it wasn't a mechanical misfire and probably ignition. I checked out underneath and the frame looked great, the floors and underside were still immaculate. bed floor is solid, motor and trans coated in oil. We struck a deal at $800. He included a few gallons of 15w40 they had been dumping in this poor truck.

I drove the truck home about 3 miles and dug in immediately. The cause of the misfire was very apparent when I went to pull the plugs and the #1 wire crumbled. I figured I would get plugs, wires, cap, rotor, valve cover gasket (puking oil and I wanted to adjust valve lash anyways), air filter, headlight bulbs. The Napa nearby that we dealt with through work was $93. I opted for name brand stuff from rock auto for $27 and waited a few days for the parts to arrive.
So I got the truck running great and I started daily driving it and getting to know each other. My wife and I were planning on moving within the next year so I wasn't going to get into any big projects with the truck. I just tinkered with it here and there cleaning it up, get a working radio in it, fix the exhaust, fix the horn, etc.

The truck did clean up well. Turned out the truck is not brown- actually "wine red"
I took a picture of this side by side comparison of what a little bit of polishing compound did for this little truck.

And the passenger side after some compound

 

[rustED71]

Wow, that thing cleaned up and buffed out nice, looks really good! I've always wanted to SAS a 2wd, I hear the frames are nearly identical to the straight axle 4wd trucks frames so you should have plenty of clearance for high steer. Look forward to your updates!

 

[Manhattan]

Nice work on that paint!

 

[Jeremy9A]

I continued to drive the truck and enjoy it while trying not to get into any large projects with the truck due to the upcoming move. I did determine that a decent size oil leak was coming from the front of the head gasket where the timing cover mates up to the cylinder head. I thought it was mostly coming from the valve cover initially but also figured that was too easy. Someone had the timing cover off at some point and tried to sneak it back in smashing the head gasket.
So I pulled the cylinder head to replace the mangled gasket, replaced the timing chain, guides, tensioner, water pump, and belts. Back on the road.
After closing on the new house we were left with about a month to move in. We actually moved everything with trips from the Tundra, mini truck, and some friends that wanted to pitch in. We rented an enclosed uhaul trailer for one day too.

The mini truck did get to help out with the move. It apparently has a bed capacity of 6 mini bikes?

 

[Jeremy9A]

We moved in to our house in October. I wedged the mini truck and supra into the garage along with mini bikes, grills, and who knows what else. I will always have more mini bikes, grills, and vehicles than a normal person sees being reasonable. I kept wanting to get started on the mini but I didn't have heat in the garage, no 220V, and I'm a poor fabricator. Finally I talked with a friend of mine and made a list of what I needed to get started. I ordered up parts and he lent me a plasma cutter and welder for quite a while. He also had a cord he made a while back so I could pull the 220v from my house's A/C and run it into the garage . Another friend brought a torpedo heater over and we got started! We figured "let's drink and see what we can get done before the alcohol takes over". We went through some captain morgan, smoked cigars and pondered, and the wives passed around tequila.

I ended up with a pile or two of scrap initially.

 

[Jeremy9A]

Once I got all the 2wd stuff out of the way I was left with a decent looking clean slate. I did get the rest of that stuff off the front frame section eventually. It's still on there in a lot of pictures until I cleaned it up to install the front shock brackets. I was just to excited to be making progress.

It was actually quite a bit of relief to get to this point. You know damn well that you can only go forward from here... or it ends up on craigslist after sitting like this for 9 years.

You can see how the 2wd frame has a lot of room with the way it travels upward in front of the cab.

 

[Jeremy9A]

I started with getting the front axle under the truck. The front spring hanger kit is made by trail gear and I just had to hope that it all works out on a 2wd truck. I couldn't find any information that any SAS parts will work for this frame. I'm pretty sure the frame reinforcement kits would not work so I never ended up purchasing them.

Turns out the fitment of the spring hanger and frame tube jigs are pretty dead on. For anyone curious- the frame tube jig is just a thin piece of sheet metal that you place around the underside of the frame near the mount for the front cab mount. It has a hole that you trace out to cut on both sides of the frame and then you slide a tube through the frame and burn it in place. This is now where the upper bolt for your shackle goes.

I thought I had some better pictures but must have lost them through phone upgrades and downgrades. If anyone wants to see any particular pictures how things fit or were done just let me know!

As far as the garage floor goes... our house is a brick ranch built in 1957. We were lucky enough to purchase it from the original owners who kept it up and updated important things like efficient HVAC, water heater, new roof, etc. The garage is detached behind the house and was built in the 60's. It's not my ideal setup and it sometimes sucks having concrete like this. Normal things like rolling a floor jack or welder cart across this floor can stop you really fast. I have to pick my route carefully when sweeping the floor. We'll be a little more picky about things on the next place we move. We do love the house but we would prefer more privacy with a larger lot and a nice size shop/garage to fit our 5 vehicles with room to work and hang around with friends. Illinois keeps giving us more reasons to get out with every law and fee that goes into effect. But back to the truck....

So first I burned the spring hanger and shackle tubes into place. The springs in this picture are the rears from this truck. They measure in around 47" if my memory is still working.

After hanging the front axle housing under the springs I realized the trucks old rear springs were not going to work for me. I thought people were running these and the issue wasn't anything to do with the 2wd vs 4wd frame. These springs located the axle waaaay too far forward and there was no way I could mount the IFS steering gear box even if I cut into the front core support and mount. Turning the springs around put the axle at an unusable location close to the cab. The leaf spring center pin was just too far off center of the spring. So a friend came to the rescue and gave me a set of old all pro spings he wore out. He was running them for years on a SAS 92 4runner and I figured my little ole mini truck wouldn't care. These springs put the axle right were it needed to be.

 

[Jeremy9A]

This location is roughly where the IFS gearbox bracket went. I'm not sure if the factory 2wd gearbox would have been any help to have since this truck never had power steering. So this gearbox I installed is just your average run of the mill 4wd IFS box. I was able to get a power steering pump, brackets, tensioner and pulley, and reservoir from a friend who has been through a lot of toyotas. It all bolts on to a non power steering setup just as you would hope. The power steering pressure line is just a stock one from rock auto and the return line is bulk hose off a reel in the parts room. I did need to get the extra pulley that bolts onto the crank pulley and ads an extra groove for the power steering belt.

The brackets I used for the IFS box are from Slag Fatory in Chico, CA. I had never heard of the company and found them listing the brackets on ebay. Their price was the best and both inner and outer brackets are 1/4" (Most kits have a 3/16" inner bracket) and they were generous with stickers. They make some good looking products and builder parts.

With the jack stands now under the axle housing and the weight of the truck on the suspension I could finally see what my shackle angle was going to look like. I'm pretty happy with how it sits.

 

[Jeremy9A]

The front axle was as far as I could go with the parts sitting around. The front axle has a factory 4.88 3rd with lock right locker.
I moved on to the rear suspension since I was waiting on the front axles, knuckles, high steer, arms, etc. For the rear springs I figured the 63" chevy leafs were the way to go. The springs are cheap and plentiful, they ride nice and soft, and companies make kits to install these pretty easily. I went through Sky's Offroad Design for this kit and it included all the parts needed besides the springs. I went off somebody's write up for the measurements to install the hanger and shackle mount. The front hanger is installed forward of the factory one. If you go off measurements it's a good idea to leave the factory one on the frame until done. I think the usual recommendation is 8.5" forward eye to eye for the bolt.

The rear shackle hanger has a measurement to install it at. It turns out, on my truck at least, that the mount just butts up behind the factory one at that measurement. Now on my frame the boxed section ends right after the factory shackle mount so I cut out some steel and boxed it to the end for reinforcement. Otherwise the shackle hanger would be installed on a section that is just "C" channel. Everything is "tacked" in place and the springs are hung. Some chevy trucks had these spring packs of just two leafs with an enormous overload leaf. I did remove the overload leaf before this picture. There are pros and cons to either leaf pack and I figured I'll just see how this works out. Easy enough to change them out if i need to .

 

[Jeremy9A]

The rear housing is in and I can see where I'll be with rear shackle angle. I opted to run the brake lines over the leafs to keep them out of harms way. The center brake line is just two factory ones to double the length. I searched around for braided stainless steel but couldn't justify the price at the time. I ended up finding that helpful hint about doubling up the rear line on someone's youtube video. I did the same for the front lines. You just add a factory rear brake hose to each front. $7 extended brake line! At that price you can just carry spares or find them at an auto parts store. I figure If you are going to travel 8 hours to go wheel for a week, I don't want to try and get special order parts shipped and be down for a few days. I've watched others go through stuff like that and it can make an awesome fun trip turn to something miserable. It's nice if you can just run factory Toyota parts or at least something common from a parts store or junkyard.

So anyways.... I got the rear housing installed and I am really happy with that shackle angle. The rear 3rd is also factory 4.88 with lock right locker. The rear wheels went on for a test fit and to get the truck somewhat on the ground. The tires are 35X12.5 and were a good price after a friend upgraded.

 

[rustED71]

I used factory rear brake lines to lengthen my fronts when I sas'd my 86' 4runner. I was on a tight budget and couldn't justify the cost of those spendy braided extended lines. They worked out well, and like you said really cheap and easy to find replacements. I like how your build is coming along, nice work!

 

[KLF]

...and I'm a poor fabricator. ..."let's drink and see what we can get done before the alcohol takes over". We went through some captain morgan, smoked cigars and pondered, and the wives passed around tequila.

I think I figured out your problem.

Are you gonna grind all that crap off the frame from where you torched off the IFS? A lot easier to do without the axle in the way.

Cool project!

 

[Jeremy9A]

I think I figured out your problem.

Are you gonna grind all that crap off the frame from where you torched off the IFS? A lot easier to do without the axle in the way.

Cool project!

lol. Yes I got it all off of there. I initially cut everything off with an older plasma cutter that needs some help. An air hammer with a chisel bit eventually peeled that off the frame and an angle grinder smoothed out the rest.

As far as angle grinders go. The harbor freight one might seem like a good deal but looks can be deceiving. When you work into the late hours of the night and the angle grinder just starts spinning very slow and smoking while every store is closed.... that sucks. Not sure if the new Hitachi one is gonna last forever but it has to be better than harbor freight. It's probably still made in china but hopefully by 8 year olds instead of harbor freight's 4 year olds.

 

[yotadude520]

Nice job! Really looking forward to seeing it done.

Any ideas for the front bumper?

 

[Jeremy9A]

For the bumpers - Easy and functional. I can't justify anything too spendy so I'm just looking for protection and the ability to hi lift from the bumpers. I have 60 feet of tube in the garage

 

[yotadude520]

For the bumpers - Easy and functional. I can't justify anything too spendy so I'm just looking for protection and the ability to hi lift from the bumpers. I have 60 feet of tube in the garage

Sweet!

Now quick question - do you have another 87? Or is this the same one that's mentioned in your sig...?