Good to know there's a couple people who still have some hope in me and the ol' 1st gen!

I'm still fumbling around trying to collect good tools so I can do some fabrication I can be proud of. I finally found my own garage space in town and have been renting for a year in August. I have had quite a few cars through the garage now, but I have a hard time dumping so much money into this build while I'm still struggling to live on my own. This thread will be getting revived soon though. I'm set up a little better now and plan to work on the 1st gen little by little when I have time between other work. I already cut the cage out a few weeks ago and have been debating engine swaps.
@PlanetExpress I was planning on swapping the 2UZ, but after a little more consideration I decided it's too heavy for the application I'm going for. I think a 1UZ would fit me better, but if I stumble upon a deal on a built LS I won't hesitate. It's basically a waiting game with this build now because the mods I want to do are big bucks and I need to use that money to invest in other things right now.

I'm thinking about starting another thread so I can share the other yota's I've worked on and log any notable wheeling/camping trips. I have a sweet 2wd 86 Pickup as a daily that I'm doing some decent work to and I recently finished up a 3.0 HG on a 95 runner that I think I'm going to keep for a while also.

Updates will be coming soon and thanks to anyone who's still rooting for me and the 1st gen!

Well after almost exactly 2 years, the 87LT has a beating heart again!!! I really can't believe it took this long, but I wasn't about to buy a crate 22re for $1200-$1400 and everyone selling used wanted $600 for engines with blown heads or other problems. This is what was pushing me towards a swap because if I pieced everything together right I could probably do a swap for around $2k.

I had a complete 2002 Sequoia I picked up as a donor truck for $1100. Upon tearing it down I realized just how huge and heavy the 2UZ is. After some consideration I decided a 1UZ would fit my truck a lot better so I bagged that idea. While keeping the entire powertrain and other misc. parts I was able to make my money back quite easily. I actually made about $1000 on top of the $1100 and have a full 4.7 powertrain sitting in the garage now. I picked up a 2wd 3rd gen runner for $400 that had a blown 3rz. I'm highly debating throwing the 2uz and 8.4 rear axle in that and making a sweet 2WD LT V8 3rd gen build. Decisions, decisions....

A couple months ago I picked up another 87 4Runner with 171k miles for $500.. Yes, I got the entire truck for $500 versus paying twice that for just an engine. It sure pays to scout for good deals everyday! This 87 is beat up pretty good, but the powertrain is solid. I mean come on, it's a Toyota with less than 200k! I did about 70mph through the canyon all the way home and she handled it flawlessly. God I love these old trucks! At first, the plan was to part it out to fund the V8 swap on the 87LT. After a month or so it finally clicked in my head that I have the perfect donor truck to get my main rig going without dealing with the troubles of a full swap. I could have the 87LT going in a couple months versus a year or more so the tear down began!

I never really figured out the problem with the original engine so I was super nervous that I had wiring issues from chopping up my harness. I still had a lot of wires to clean up and pieces to mount after chopping out the previous cage. I ended up mounting everything I could to the firewall and finished up modding the harness. Looking back on it now, since I basically chopped and modded every wire in the engine harness I wish I would have just put the whole harness and fuse box in the cab. I had spent too much time on it already though so I said screw it. It's good enough for now. I just wanna drive the *****. I also had to JB weld a new line and fitting in my fuel pump bracket because mine broke. I couldn't find the exact fitting I needed so I just got the one that fit best from Orielly's and called it good. I hooked up the battery, gave her a whurl, and she sputtered to life! SUCCESS FINALLY!!!

So now that the hard part is done, I have begun the new shock hoops. I have limited access to steel in my area which has made the fab process very slow and limited. The only 1 3/4" DOM tube they offer is 3/16" wall so these should definitely take a beating. This time I've decided to slightly sacrifice my shock positioning to accommodate a more simplified cage. There is so much stuff in the way (intake, master cylinder, steering, etc) that makes it very challenging to fab a cage that looks completely symmetrical while still clearing every component and keeping your shocks in the correct position. I'm taking my time trying to keep everything consistent and it is starting to come together. The main tubes are about done then I will start on shock mounts, cross brace, and bump mounts. I'm also going to move the shock mounts on my lower arms in a little bit to clear my brake lines from the calipers as well as add gussets and bump pads the the upper arms. After that I just need to mount my power steering reservoir, radiator, hood, fenders, grill, and lights then she should should be ready for a test drive!

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Time for an update! These next few posts are going to be a bunch of photo dumps just to show my progress. Hopefully this can serve as motivation to people with little to no fab experience and/or tools.

This cage turned out much better than my first try even though I'm still very limited with my tools/experience. It definitely isn't perfect, but I literally built it with a 4" grinder, my dad's welder, and a hammer. You can see my Dewalt chop saw in a few pictures, but I was only able to use that to cut my tubes roughly to length because something is internally wrong with the saw causing it to jump around and not cut straight at all. After the first couple cuts I realized it was quicker, easier, and safer to just cut everything with the 4" cut off wheels.

I hope this can serve as proof that you don't need big fancy tools like plasma cutters, tube benders/knotchers, etc. to build cool sh*t. With a $40 grinder, about 100 cutoff wheels, and a whole helluva lot of time, patience, and desire to build something for yourself, you'd be surprised by what you're actually capable of! Get in the garage and build something!

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So. Much. Cutting. First picture isn't even 1/4 of the plates I cut... Gotta do what you gotta do! At least I was able to tune my Dad's welder with all the time I had to spend welding!

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I decided to throw some gussets on my lower arms while I was moving the shock mounts. Also made bump pads for the uppers that double as gussets.

Fab Tip: Whenever you're building multiples of the same part (or slightly the same part), tacking them together makes it much faster and easier to make them more, or close to, identical

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Finalized the shock mounts so I could start on the crossbrace. The cross brace took way longer to make than it probably looks like because all I had to work with was a 3"x1.5" tube. I cut it down to about 2"x1.5" to perfectly fit the bushings I used which added a lot more avoidable cutting and welding. Turned out okay in the end. Again, gotta do what ya gotta do!

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Little bit o' weld porn

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A couple quick hood mounts and shes looking pretty mean already! Oh did I mention I'm finally out of the 31" tire club?? She's on her own weight once again and sitting sexy on 37s. Somehow they still look small to me, but boy I'm loving the stance even with the terribly backspaced wheels. I'm sure my drivetrain is going to love them too!

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Awesome work!

This is really cool. I'm building a LT setup for my 2nd gen pickup based off your original control arm pictures that I found on Google. It's awesome that this truck is still being built

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That is awesome.

Thanks everybody! Another update will be coming soon!