My T4R 1995 Tacoma Project (1 Viewer)

[sn22]

So I dont post much but have learned alot on this forum, usually in the Land Cruiser section but last June I picked up a 6/95 production date Tacoma. I live in NE Ohio so lots of salt and I'm used to working on rust. I also like to save these older trucks and land cruisers instead of sending them to scrap. My wife says I am a great turd polisher, LOL. I've used this project to teach myself to weld, do bodywork and to think outside the box, or at least outside the box for me. So I started w the Tacoma and put the front end of a 99 4Runner on it. It's almost road worthy, finally and I am very happy with how it turned out. Posting these pics and comments in Hope's maybe somebody else can use the info along the way. I did this with the help of my good buddy Rob and my best friends Dad, George SR. My best friend passed away 1-24-09 but Instay in touch w his Dad and all of this work was done at his shop. It's been a fun project w lots of laughs, beer drinking and just general shop shenanigans. Heres a pic of the truck when I drove it home. 2.7L auto w 262k on it, manual hubs and 4x4.

 

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We swapped out core support, fenders and hood along w hinges off of the donor 99 4Runner. Also I welded in new rockers and extra cab pieces and fixed various rust issues in bed and rear wheel wells and tailgate. I used the fender flares off of the Tacoma too. Few more pics getting ideas and mockups......I must say at 52 years old I've never taken on a project of this size. I know alot of people are thinking why work on something rusty etc. For me it was more about the project and seeing it thru to completion and having fun and learning along the way. It's been very rewarding for me so keep that in mind when looking at my beginners work and skill levels.

 

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Few pics of rockers and patch panels......my bodywork is rookie level so I opted to Monstaline this project white, lol....to hide work I used USC All Metal as it's all that stands a chance holding up to NE Ohio salt and slush etc.

 

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Few more pics of rust repair and all metal.....the fender flares and doing gas door cutouts were challenging to say the least....

 

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Few more of bodywork......I should add that before I started all this work I needle scaled the entire frame and undercarriage and drove the truck to make sure it was mechanically and structurally solid before starting in on this project. Everything checked out good so I just dove in.

 

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Few more.....I only used the foam as a backer to hold the All Metal.....dont hate....LOL.

 

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When your cutting the plastic flares w a cut off wheel and hot plastic flings on your finger because you dont have gloves on......ouch..... :-(

 

[Zorlac]

Nice build!

 

[yotadude520]

Nice work - the rust repair looks really well done!