1984 Pickup "NEKBONE" Rebuild

[Wyatt Pine]

Hey Everyone, I am a long time member of the forum with my FIRST Toyota! I always wanted an 84-88 pickup or 4runner. Growing up my dad had an '84 single cab 4x4. He bought it in 1992 and had it until he got rid of it in 2004 to upgrade to a '97 land cruiser. Ever since I have always wanted a Toyota 4x4. I could never justify the 'Toyota Tax' in my area, I had a few other 4x4s over the years. Here's a pic of the truck back in the day. My dad's victory pose after getting out of a mud hole in around '94.

After he got rid of it, we would see it periodically, in various states of disrepair. It never left the Hampton Roads area of VA. When I got older I would try and chat up the owner every time I came across him. Every time I saw him I'd ask if he'd think about selling the truck. I always got the same answer, "Nah, never, I love this thing." A few years ago I could tell I was getting on his nerves a bit about it and he took down my phone number and name, and wrote it on the title for the truck, which was in the sun visor. I saw the truck in April and figured I'd hang out and wait for the owner to come out of wherever he was shopping. Here's how it looked when I rolled up.

Evidently, he liked what I was driving that day, My '88 Isuzu Trooper. After a very nerve-wracking conversation, I had worked out most of a trade. Over the next few days and a few phone calls I arranged an even trade, truck-for-truck.

I definitely got the sore end of the deal, but I finally had the truck back after 20 years.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

My dad always joked about the speedometer conversion table glued to the dash, "NEKBONE'S SPEED-O-METER", I figure that's as good of a name as any. NEKBONE it is.

 

[aztoyman]

What's your plans for the truck?

 

[Wyatt Pine]

What's your plans for the truck?

Not really sure, I don't want to do a full resto, as I still want to wheel the truck, but I need it to be nicer than it is. Probably high steer, RUF, sliders and lockers.

My last post was the first of many. I picked the truck up in April, worked on it for a few months and I have been daily driving it for a few weeks now.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

At this point I hadn't driven the truck almost at all. I drove it around the parking lot of the pervious owners job for a grand total of maybe an 1/8 mile. I took it over to my Dad's place (less than 5 min) and quickly came up with a laundry list of issues to fix. Some of the more obvious issues being the 13" steering wheel with no power steering, no turn signals, and the battery as my passenger. I got it in the driveway and started looking it over.

The wiring was BAD. the more you look, the worse it gets.

I started with the battery situation. Moving the battery to the factory location was not going to be simple.

The battery tray was long gone. and had completely tore the inner fender.

 

[Toast]

Damn, that rig needs Jesus. Too bad you weren’t closer to the west coast, Ive got some clean bucket seats, decent dash pad and other miscellaneous interior parts I’d give you. Word of advice, do NOT build a 22r/e for this rig. Put all of your effort into a 3RZ or 5VZ. If I could do it all over again this is what I would do.

 

[Manhattan]

Wait… we can’t do a full resto then go ‘wheeling?

Congrats on the new toy; looking forward to seeing where you take it.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

I shoved the inner fender back into place the best I could and where the metal was thick enough I welded the inner fender back together. I still had a huge hole where the battery tray used to be.

I used one of the front fenders to make a sheet metal battery tray. Its by no means perfect, but it will work until I find a good donor to cut and transplant the whole area...... that will probably never happen though.

At the same time at the other end of the truck I started working on the frame repairs that needed to be done. I got very familiar patching and repairing frame on my last couple of vehicles so these areas didnt really concern me. I started with the crack right behind the cab on the drivers side.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

I got the "Battery Tray" in place and self-tapped into place for hammering and massaging. Once everything was coated in weld-through primer I started tacking it into place.

I ordered a cheap metal battery tray from amazon to use and got it welded into place.

I then spent a couple hours going through all the wiring and getting rid of what I didn't need. Mostly getting ride of wire nuts.

 

[aztoyman]

Man, you're determined to git'r done. I'm going to quit bitching about sun damage. I'll take it over rust any day.

 

[Lucille]

That frame needs a little more love i think. Looks pretty bad.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

The frame needed more help for sure. I am trying to keep this thread in some kind of chronological order, despite doing all this work at once. I had a few areas of frame that needed repair under each side of the cab had rust spots and just behind the cab as well.

After finding the gas tank crossmember in really rough shape, I decided to pull the cab off the frame to be able to fix the frame and floors more easily.

This meant finishing the front axle rebuild, in order to be able to roll the chassis out from under the truck cab. I don't have a lift so I figured it would be the easiest way to separate the two.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

The front axle rebuild went as expected. Most of the time was spend cleaning the axle when it was removed. Everything on this entire truck was CAKED with dirt/oil/grease. Its surprising it ever got this rusty in the first place.

The brakes were toast as well. I rebuilt the calipers and I am ashamed to admit I still have the toasted rotors on the truck. I have IFS calipers ready to go for 60 series rotors.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

I was able to reuse the wheel bearing and almost all of the trunnion bearings. One was absolutely destroyed.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

I used the opportunity of having the front axle out to replace the god awful add a leaf that was currently installed. One was missing from the drivers side front corner, I am assuming it broke at some point and was removed. If anyone knows what brand these are I am curious to know. The front AAL was over 1/2" thick and the rear was close to 3/4". Plainly put, there was no suspension travel almost at all. My dad confirms they had been installed the entire time he owned the truck. I installed a spring from a spring pack I got out of a junkyard s-10 blazer.

 

[Box Rocket]

May God bless you with patience and determination as you work through this. You've got a lot to get sorted.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

At this point I was neck deep in frame repair, floor and body repair and was contemplating how I was going to replace the metal around the windshield with the truck still on the body. I decided it was time to dig deeper than I wanted to and remove the body. I had never removed the body off of anything. I had taken beds off of pickups, but this was new territory for me. My dad and I got creative. We had jacks, jack stands and a Harbor Freight engine lift to work with.... I reinstalled the axles and started removing the cab.

We could lift the front or the back of the cab, but not the whole thing at once, too heavy and awkward for two (smaller) guys. we ended up working the body up steps at a time. we used a couple of ladders, boards and our municipal trash cans in order to lift the cab up. We rolled the chassis out from underneath and slowly worked the cab back on the ground.

Now I can actually see the floor/body mounts I am trying to repair.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

The drivers floor was worse than the passenger side, Both needed rocker work and the body mount replaced. neither side was attached to its frame mount anymore.

I was able to find a decent set of floor boards locally, from an 87 I think.

After drilling out the spot welds, for days, everything welded in great.

Please excuse my flux-core mess, a half-hour with a grinder made it look way better.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

I then set my mind to the many (mostly smaller) frame repairs. I had a couple holes under each cab door and where the frame kicks up behind the cab. I blame my dad for not rinsing out the frame 20 years ago .

I also plan to treat the inside of the frame. I have had decent luck with eastwood internal frame coating, however I think I may wash the inside of the frame with ospho one or twice to help eliminate some rust before coating. Not sure yet what the plan is.

I smoothed out my welds and primed and painted my patches.

The fuel tank crossmember I scabbed back together and plan on replacing in the future when I can find a good donor.

Its good enough for now however I am not proud of my fix. That will not be shown here.

 

[aztoyman]

I have been trying to sell my cab and frame for months now. I got contacted JUST now for the cab but the frame might end up being cut up and scrapped. Too bad you're not closer. I can probably cut chunks off of what you need and ship?? It's an 88 standard cab 4x4.

I think Ospho inside the frame rails is a good idea. Just make sure it's completely flushed out and compatible with whatever you coat the inside with.