After many years of ownership and neglect I've started an official rebuild of my truck. I bought it in 2017 while I was in college when I realized I that despite growing up turning wrenches on dirt bikes I wasn't really confident I could maintain a car. So I bought this as a project and used it as my daily until 2020 when I graduated and bought a new car. After that the truck sat in storage while I moved around the country for work for a couple years. I never really got to do anything fun with it but it was a fun project and learning experience. I built a bed to replace factory one that rusted away to nothing, swapped a 5VZ in after I stupidly ran the original 3VZ out of oil, and solid axle swapped it because it seemed neat. A couple years ago I attempted a fairly successful rear full float conversion with disk brakes. This was just a good excuse to drag the truck out of storage and keep me entertained while I was waiting on some upcoming life changes so it still needs a v2 with some updates.
At this point the truck needs a full rebuild of everything...mechanical, electrical, interior, exterior but the first phase is getting it back to running and driving reliably. The 5VZ is having intermittent problems that I can't diagnose or replicate, the steering needs redone, the bed is bent and rusty (I'm a lazy painter), the transmission probably needs a rebuild after roughly 350,000 miles and so on. I've got some unique plans that I'll go into once I start posting details of the rebuild, but for now I'll share some of my old pictures from my old mods in upcoming posts. For anyone who's a nerd like me,
The Truck of Theseus is a play on words coming from
The Ship of Theseus, from Wikipedia, "The
Ship of Theseus, also known as
Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other." I think it’s fitting since the truck is a mashup of parts from all over and it's only going to get less original as I go on.
Big picture, how the truck is currently configured
- 1988 Toyota Pickup Xtracab SR5
- Engine: 5VZ-FE Swap, 1997 3rd gen 4Runner donor
- Transmission: R150F, 1988 original transmission
- Transfer Case: VF1A, 1988 original transfer case
- Front Suspension: 1988 rears up front
- Rear Suspension: Ford 57's from an early 2000's junkyard F150
- Front Axle: SAS with a 1983 axle, 1988 IFS hubs, 2006 Tundra brakes (can't remember which caliper), homebrew z-link style steering
- Rear Axle: 2015 4Runner rear disc brake (14BD caliper) and full float conversion using some brackets I designed
- Bed: A flatish bed that I built as my first welding project
Rebuild Plans
- Engine: 2011 VW CJAA common rail TDI, donated by my totaled Jetta Sportwagen
- Transmission: R156F, purchased from a totaled 2TR powered 2016 Tacoma
- Transfer Case: VF4AM, purchased from a totaled 1GR powered 2006 4Runner, I'll be attempting to convert this to twin sticks
- Front Suspension: Spring under and shackle forward using 3rd gen pickup rears
- Rear Suspension: No changes planned aside from removing a leaf or two and replacing bushings
- Front Axle: Flip it to work with the driver drop VF4 case and build more robust steering
- Rear Axle: Finish the full float conversion, it's perfectly functional but I have more tools and space so it's getting a v2 that should be a little better
- Bed: Build a new flat bed, hopefully out of aluminum so I don't have to paint it
- Other: Refresh everything that's been neglected over the last 36 years (brake lines, fuel lines, radiator, bumpers, lights, etc...)