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Heres the the rest of version 2.0- the body swap and paint. I used rustoleum 2x painters touch paint. I did a lot of prep work and I considered having it painted professionally, but just couldn’t justify it for a crawler.
Engine bay clean up and sprayed
Base coat, this was back in September/October
Best part: laying down some SR5 stripes! 😀
First time outside all assembled, got the top all painted too, I just did it with a small roller, turned out OK I think
It’s funny how others can look at all these pictures and it seems like progress is going really fast, and there are no hiccups. This is a year and a half of work. Probably over 100 hours of prep work on the body. Hours of taping and painting, and sanding. I was beyond excited to get back to re-assembly and mechanical. I will never, ever, paint another vehicle again.
- Slick, What do you mean spray it with PVC?
My equipment mechanic should safety it without an issue, I know another shop closeby that safetied my friends 85′ it was a low km 4runner but full crawler, so I have some options. Here’s his rig:
It is crazy though I had some 285/75 tires put on my work truck to replace the 265s and Costco wouldn’t install them and even the random mechanic I got to do it said he wouldn’t safety it because they’re 3% over stock size! To me that’s unreasonable.
@Slick_yota thanks for responses! I’m glad you guys are actually watching!
Definitely nice having a shop, still looking at getting a hoist. It’s just tough to find a decent 10k hoist, I need one that can lift my one ton trucks.
Thats a good question about the floor panel. I never really thought about it, I hope it goes ok. If not I know a guy. Everything on the truck will be new when I got to safety it so I’d be bummed if it didn’t pass.
The day I got the 88 body on the 85 frame. I was worried about this part, because I don’t have a hoist, and the body was at my friends shop where I don’t have any of my heavy equipment. Ended up using an engine hoist and ratchet strapping from the roll bar up to the ceiling joists in his garage. Which worked out pretty well.
Once I got it to this point, progress went a little faster. It was a year working on it up to this point and it was driving me nuts that it wasn’t near to be done.
I freshened up the 87′ 22re over the winter, had an Sr5 gauge cluster to go in it. Then I stumbled upon a TG front bumper and dual skid plate, a used high steer and a set of solid axles. Parted out what I didn’t need and kept the rest.So I got the body on, loaded it up on the trailer and brought it home. I was really excited.
Got it all primed at my shop!! And a member from SONTT who lives close by gave me an awesome deal on some old style MTRs on tacoma rims.
Once the body was done it’s prep work, I had to get going on the frame. I wanted to put the frame back under it, and then move it to wear I was going to paint it. Old body was thrashed. POR-15 was my friend on this build.
Tear down on the 88, definitely wasn’t as clean as I thought it was. I pulled the body, and brought it to my friends shop to clean up the body a little. Once I got into it, it was very time consuming, the floor needed to be replaced on the driver side, and some work on the rockers. But! It was way better than my 85 and in my opinion still worth fixing. Let me know what you guys think.
Bought the 88, but the trucks were staying at my parents house where my shop and equipment is, so progress was pretty slow. I didn’t touch the 88 for a while but I kept wheeling the 85 for a few more months. Went on our annual trip with my buddies which was awesome. And used it for firewood.
I do love this forum by the way, I hope it turns into what SONTT was.
I took these pictures for a kijiji ad. It was super rusty all over, it looked good in pictures. I decided that I wanted to sell or part out and build something cleaner that I could daily drive every now again. I’m a Landscaper so my red Ford is what i drive everyday, but I figured I could drive my wheeler around on the weekends or get groceries and stuff.
Then I realized that every time somebody inquired about my truck I would turn them away, or make excuses. I really didn’t want to sell it and I knew because the body was so bad that I would never get the money I wanted out of it. I put so much work into it and it had some sentimental value to me too.
So I did this:
88′ DLX, decent body, good top. Interior was fairly clean, dash wasn’t cracked. 22re was blown and the tranny was taken apart. I also bought a newer 22re from the same guy. He has some kijiji ads out in West Lincoln, great guy to deal with. Bought lots of stuff off him.
Wheeled, wheeled, and wheeled some more. I’ve had so much fun with this truck. I’m happy 4 or 5 of my friends built Toyotas too. I couldn’t think of a better truck to learn mechanics on.Oh and I painted the rims black too.
Haha I wish I was in Australia, my friend is there now for 8 months, he sends me a picture a day of quad cab Hilux!
Continuation of version 1.0:
Skys off-road rear hanger kit, and I did reverse F150 springs. Built a rear bumper.
By this time I was still trailering it to go wheeling, it didn’t really make sense to keep it on 33s if I was going to trailer it. I didn’t like the push pull steering, I was starting to crawl more, and I wanted some more flex. So this started the first phase, version 1.0. Truss the axle with Trail gear stuff and rebuild, highsteer, new hanger and boomerang shackles and RUF springs to move the axle a few inches forward. Build a square shaft and find some tires.
It sat too high, so I took a leaf out and then wheeled it without lifting the back more, because I’m impatient. Tires are 36×12.5 bias swampers. This trail is around Apsley.
Thumbs bs up for a fixed floor, now it can hold my camping gear. Took it up to Minden trails when I first got it. It was in the spring and really well, slid around and smashed up a lot of the body on that trip. After that I got a winch.
