Build The Divide 1988 XtraCab Rehab

[cbmontgo]

I was perusing the local Rising Sun forum and saw a post about an '88 Toyota plow truck for sale right down the road from me in Divide, Colorado.

I'm mostly a Land Cruiser guy, but always liked these trucks and knew I'd buy one if I found a decent one. So I get in touch with the owners and run down the road to take a look.

Original owners, 141,000 miles with the 5-speed and the 22RE. We agreed on a number and I nervously drove it home. It hadn't run in over two years, but fired up and drove down the highway with no issues.

So hang with me while we bring this thing back to life as a driver and a camping truck.

 

[G-Cat]

So in

 

[cbmontgo]

I spent a lot of time chatting with the couple. I enjoyed hearing their stories about taking it over various mountain passes around Colorado and how much love they had given this old truck over the years. They bought it new in 1988 at what is now Toyota of Colorado Springs. They were sad to see it go, but its plow truck days were over and newer vehicles had long ago replaced it.

Here are a few more pics from when we pulled it out of the leaves and removed the tire chains. He had already started pressure washing the lichen off of it by the time I got there. It had great bones and ran incredibly well, especially considering how old the gas was. The tires had almost no miles on them and the oil change had 27 miles on it. Clearly was well maintained, even though this stuff had to be changed out ASAP due to age.

 

[RevISK]

Present.

 

[cbmontgo]

Driving home, I noticed that the old OEM Toyota tape player seemed to be running, so I turned up the volume and "Lookin' for Love" by Johnny Lee was playing. Popped out the cassette and it was the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. Good stuff. Put it back in and "Stand by Me" was the next one.

The owner gave me his entire tape collection with the truck. I need to open the old Case Logic and see what all is in there. Must be 50+ cassettes.

Got home. Within the first hour I had to remove the plow. Toyotas don't deserve all that crap hanging from the front end.

 

[cbmontgo]

I didn't want to run this thing too long without fresh oil at least. Put it on the rack and put some new synthetic in and opened/topped off all of the gear boxes.

I had to remove the front skid plate to access the front diff, which also gave me the chance to remove the snow plow mount. Luckily, it was bolted on using the OEM holes and was an easy removal.

Coolant and power steering fluid look great, but I will still flush both of those some time in the near future.

What all of this told me is that it was well maintained. Rare to see clean gear oil in trucks that were put out to pasture.

 

[cbmontgo]

Rust. This truck has little to none other than on those pesky rear side panels. I've decided to pull the bed and send it off to my buddy @DangerNoodle for a proper reconditioning with new steel.

Spent a couple of hours this morning loosening the bed, removing mud flaps, and disconnecting wiring. Hope to get this in his hands in the next week or so.

 

[cbmontgo]

Bed is off. Ready for next steps.

Looking forward to pressure washing the frame.

@DangerNoodle I will be in touch later today or tomorrow.

 

[cbmontgo]

Tech question. I couldn't really get a read on how many spacers/isolator pads/grommets/cushions were under the frame on each of the 8 main bed mounting bolts. Various parts and pieces fell out. I'm thinking the order was bolt, isolator pad, frame, cushion, washer, then the two nuts?

I do know that all of them seemed to have one of the rubber isolator squares (66441-66444) on the top side under part 66418, as pictured here on this truck:

 

[cbmontgo]

Dropped off the bed in Buena Vista for welding, drove some nice back highways, and did some pressure washing. DJ gave me a tour of his shop and we had a great time talking cruisers and checking out the famous LF40 Wheeler Build. His workmanship is top of the line unreal.

I also ordered a new rear bumper and some restored "4WD" OEM rear mud flaps since mine were aftermarket weird stuff.

The next order of business is finding a body shop that can paint this 147 silver metallic over the new steel.

 

[cbmontgo]

Had these old OEM wheels in my parts pile from years back. These will be going on the truck. I think the chrome will go great with the silver.

 

[RevISK]

I'm liking the OE 60 series wheels more and more.
However, not a fan of chrome in most cases, here it may work well though...

 

[G-Cat]

Had these old OEM wheels in my parts pile from years back. These will be going on the truck. I think the chrome will go great with the silver.

View attachment 4206438

Perfect with the chrome bumper, mirrors, door handles. Love it.

 

[cbmontgo]

Great things happening. @DangerNoodle is wrapping up rust repair on the bed. Looking like some very nice work. It was a little more involved than we had originally hoped, but I'm thrilled to have a pretty much rust-free truck after this.

Should have it back in my shop some time this weekend and on to next steps.

 

[cbmontgo]

Perfect with the chrome bumper, mirrors, door handles. Love it.

Agreed.

Picked up a set of 31 x 10.50 KO3s at Discount Tire. These were the factory size for what we called the "big tire package" back in high school. Not sure what the correct terminology was for these in the dealer brochure, but I always thought the size looked dynamite on the trucks and 4Runners of the late 80s and 90s.

Looking forward to getting these installed.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I should post a few of the pics from the repair on this bed.

Original condition.

 

[DangerNoodle]

Passenger side p.1

 

[DangerNoodle]

Passenger side p.2

 

[DangerNoodle]

Passenger side p.3

Everything was 100% disassembled, sand blasted, patched, treated with a copper weld primer, and reassembled.

Driver side. I had to go slightly farther and pull the rear floor panel to easily access some rust pockets. I always go till i find clean metal between the seams, or it always comes back.

I ended up finding a spare in a body mount in the driver side.

 

[DangerNoodle]

Driver side p.2

Seam sealer. I used 3M EZ Sand Repair Material. Its about the best self leveling with high flexabilty and adhesion sealer I've used.

Flipped the bed to work the bottom.