Full frame swap - Advice/input needed

I know it's time consuming & not always easy to get pics... but a well documented write up would be cool to look at it, when you're done.
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I really like what your doing. Wish I had the time or resources to do this. It looks like the end result is going to be awesome.
One question. I just picked up the same rims and have yet to put them on. Are you using spacers with them? What is your suspension or BL lift?
 
I really like what your doing. Wish I had the time or resources to do this. It looks like the end result is going to be awesome.
One question. I just picked up the same rims and have yet to put them on. Are you using spacers with them? What is your suspension or BL lift?

I don't have spacers on them now, but most likely I will have to as the UCA rubs at droop. Not sure what i want to do at this point, haven't completely decided yet. Probably spacers, just not sure which ones.

I've got OME full kit with 881 front and 891 rear, no body lift
 
I don't have spacers on them now, but most likely I will have to as the UCA rubs at droop. Not sure what i want to do at this point, haven't completely decided yet. Probably spacers, just not sure which ones.

I've got OME full kit with 881 front and 891 rear, no body lift

I'll be your guinea pig. I have tundra/ 890s (essentially the same lift as you'll have) and 1.5" All Pro spacers. Lot's of people use the 1.25" Spidertrax. Not sure if there's other bolt up spacers. I'll let you know tomorrow.
 
I'll be your guinea pig. I have tundra/ 890s (essentially the same lift as you'll have) and 1.5" All Pro spacers. Lot's of people use the 1.25" Spidertrax. Not sure if there's other bolt up spacers. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Great thanks! What size tires are you mounting on the FJ wheels?
 
Great thanks! What size tires are you mounting on the FJ wheels?

The rims came with very worn 265/70/17 Bridgestone Duellers HTs. I believe those are the original tires that were on the FJ. My 4runner has 265/70/16 Bridgestone Duellers HTs. I just got done putting them on and they rub on the back of the wheel well. I trimmed it a little and put a self tapper in a little piece of the well that was sticking out. They only rub now if I'm turning the wheel and bounce the front (like out of a driveway) Weird because there seems to be a lot of room in front of the tire. May have to break down and take it for an alignment to see how much caster I can eek out.
 
The rims came with very worn 265/70/17 Bridgestone Duellers HTs. I believe those are the original tires that were on the FJ. My 4runner has 265/70/16 Bridgestone Duellers HTs. I just got done putting them on and they rub on the back of the wheel well. I trimmed it a little and put a self tapper in a little piece of the well that was sticking out. They only rub now if I'm turning the wheel and bounce the front (like out of a driveway) Weird because there seems to be a lot of room in front of the tire. May have to break down and take it for an alignment to see how much caster I can eek out.

I used to have 285/75/16 on the stock split 3 spokes and had very little rubbing at full lock.

Now with the FJ wheels and 285/70/17 tires, when you unload the front the UCA pushes the sidewall of the tire slightly. So I got to do something, and UCA are not in the budget.

Let me know how those 1.5" spacers work out. That might be the fix I need. The tires are the same overall width and height as my old tires, so it has to be the FJ wheel offset.
 
Hey that looks great!!! I haven't been able to watch very closely but I am very impressed. You have made a very good effort and I certainly hope that your frame lasts a lot longer this time around....plus I like the monstaliner on the bumpers. I dunno why lol.
 
^agree. Very impressed with your work & attention to detail. You definitely have some serious skills & patience.
 
Dude your truck looks awesome but you should start a Build Thread since this thread is badly titled to be converted to a build thread.
 
you can just keep going with it but what I'm suggesting is starting a new thread titled "_______ _______ Build Thread" or similar.

This thread is titled ~ "full came swap advice"

Must people click into a thread based on the title.

You can easily copy and paste your posts into the new thread.

Alternatively you can ask a mod to retitle the thread.

Or just do nothing and carry on. The choice is yours.
 
Spacers added

I picked up a set of spidertrax 1.25" wheel spacers and put them on today. I mainly did it because my UCA was literally pushing in on the sidewall of my tire at full droop. I like them a lot. Solved the problem, plus as a added benefit i swear the truck handles corners a bit better now. They do stick outside of the flares a bit more than i would like, so we will have to see how much crap the tires kick up the side of the truck now.

These are 285/70/17 tires by the way.
 

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some pics of the rears
 

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Your wheels actually look pretty good with the spacers. Are you getting any contact/rubbing in any new places...fenders, frame etc.?
 
Just finished a 3 day frame swap on this truck today,Brian the owner and me
Busted our butts for 3days and swapped his rusted frame, I'm sure Brian will
Post some pics and details later as time permits, ass load of work in a short time frame, but we saved his runner from a junk yard for few more years .
 
It's finally done! I wish I had more photos, but to be honest there just wasn't time. Kenworth and I really wanted to make sure we got the frame swap done so it was all hands on deck with little time for picture taking.

It was 90 degrees and humid as hell all weekend, so it wasn't easy for a guy like me that is used to being in my air conditioned office most of the day! But the good news is I think I lost like 5 pounds!

Kenworth really was great and his knowledge and tools were invaluable! I can't thank him enough for all he did!

It was quite the project and with most things being rusted to hell, it made it that much more difficult. Most things we were able to get off with a little effort, but a couple things were rusted so bad they had to be cut off.

The driver side shock mount bolts wouldn't come off, so we had to cut them and get a new top plate, only to find out when the part came that the pressed in studs were too short for my OME lift aluminum spacer. So we had to leave the spacer out on that side until I can get some time to call them to see if I can get the right top plate with the 3 longer studs.

That was really the only thing that didn't go back together correctly. Everything else was either OK, or Kenworth was able to fix it to make it work. Again, he was awesome!

For anyone wanting to do this job on their T4R, I would say you need 2 guys, and one HAS TO KNOW the 4runner well. And one of those guys better have a full arsenal of tools and equipment, or you will be running to buy/borrow stuff you will need and it will hold your progress up.

We basically worked 12 hours days with very little breaks, and I would estimate we had about 40 hours of total labor into the complete job.

Very impressive to get this swap done in 3.5 days if you ask me!

We've got a couple small things to do yet, but overall my 4Runner is back to the world of the living and should be for another 10 years!

Here we have everything disconnected and loaded up to take to the garage where the lift is at to take the body off the old frame.
 

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The body is off and the old frame is loaded up to take back to Kenworth's garage to start the piece by piece swap of all the parts.
 

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Body on the lift
 

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Everything pretty much swapped over to the new frame!! Time to load it back up and take the new frame to meet the body!
 

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