Grem's build thread

[Gremcat]

I guess now is as good a time as any to start this. New rig is a 89 SR5 3.0. So far have fixed the AC, tuned up the motor, cut the door hinges of and went with clevice pins, tan soft topper, and 31" BF ATKO's. Now for the plans:

This will probably take at least a year or two because I am currently pretty disabled still. First priority is a Procomp lift. The shocks are shot and just navigating the speed bumps in my neighborhood the suspension bottoms out. I am also going to leverage a couple friends machine shops and hydro cut some plate bumpers, rock sliders, etc. These mods should at least allow me to get up some of the trails at Uwharrie. I haven't been wheeling here and most of the time back home it was out of necessity ( trying to get back in to a fishing hole, quad stuck, retrieving firewood, etc. ) I am about as abusive to my stuff as it gets so I want it to be capable of punishment but the majority of it's life will be DD. I have been a Toyota fanatic since I was a kid and next to a Trekker and maybe an FJ this is my dream.

I thought about SAS but don't think I will need it for my uses though they are pretty cool. I am thinking of using some 80/20 from work we use on the robots to build a new interior. I am thinking of doing the dash and center console with finished sheet metal skins and a full set of Autometer gauges with a diamond plate floor and some more comfortable seats. 80/20 is pretty cool stuff and having access to the water jet makes this the most straight forward path I think to a clean custom interior where kids, dogs, animal blood, and such will clean out easy.

On the door side I wish I had a way to come up with soft doors but just haven't yet. I like going door less or maybe tube doors but I work an hour away and getting caught in a storm would be tough. I might take some stiff foam and cutout my door shape and then stack them and just carry them on top of a gun safe style sliding drawer for storage in the back though this will kill me for storage when we go camping.

On the engine side I have 180k and knock on wood it runs good for having sat for 5 years. I am thinking once the rest of the truck is close to finished finding someone in NC to help me with a 3.4L SC swap.

Exhaust is still a toss up. My friend has a tube bender and welds stainless steel for hanging granite cladding so I am sure he could help me here. I hate to put headers on the 3.0 when I want to switch to a 3.4.

Tires will stay with the 31's but will probably find a set of 35's to swap out for trips to the mountains.

I am just starting to look at fiberglass fenders. It looks like the truck took a hit to the drivers side and the grill is cracked and the fender dented some. Might just swap on high clearance fenders before paint. for paint I am going to go to a buddies body shop. He does Antiques and hot rods but for something this basic I think he can knock it out no problem. Just going to clean up the burgundy that s there and undercoat it.

I think I have been bit by the bug. When shooting a pistol match today one of the vehicles was a first gen and I poked around for useable parts

Have only had this a month or two but loving it already. Now that the weather is good I have the sides up on the top a lot and must get offers on it three times a week with three or four more people approaching me to check it out. My friend I shot with today made a comment about it a month ago being not family friendly but today just had to drive it. I told one guy that offered me more than double what I paid for it I wouldn't take triple his offer. He just walked away. I hope to be the old codger still driving this thing in thirty years and as such I am trying to rebuild it right the first time. Thank you again to everyone here who has helped me make decisions based on your experience. I will try and update with pics here shortly. With my disabilities, a 2 year old, and a 2 month old things will be slow.

 

[541joseph]

:worthless

 

[Gremcat]

Thinking of buying a parts truck just to mock up the interior parts on. I ofund some companies that make floormats out of diamond plate and sheets as well but I want to check with my buddy first and see what he can get. I hope I am not under thinking the dash. I think an 80/20 frame bolted up to the firewall and sheet metal skins would be super easy once you figured out how to mount the frame. For those not into 80/20 it is an erector set for engineers with 4 channels on each stick that can mount almost anything too. Not super cheap but I really want a clean looking interior in this. Thinking of taking out the carpet and using bedliner then insulation and then either direct bolting the diamond plate or mounting a few sticks of 80/20 with a few cross supports so I can run wires etc. later.

 

[Gremcat]

Also might call the range where they hadthe Zombie Match. They had a clean gen 1 they are using on their pistol course and minus some spray paint it is a shame to waste it. I didn't see a SAS under it or a Inclinometer though

 

[Gremcat]

Just a few quick ones. I cut the hinge bolts off and added clevice pins. Need to get some of those clear door edges to keep from bumping up the doors when I get it painted. To bad the weather has been crappy here. One day I had the doors off and I was to wore out from therapy so I left them off and of course it rained. It has been over cast for a week and no rain. Tomorrow I am going to swap the PS pump out since it sprung a leak. I need to do the Valve Cover gasket too but won't have time this weekend. I also need to get a Torque wrench that measures in Ft lbs. to do it. Does anyone know the torque spec for the 3vz motor valve covers? Also saw someone who was making a plate rear bumper and it looked way to bulky on a first gen. I am back to looking at tube bumpers. The big plans for right now are a Procomp suspension or maybe a SAS and Tube doors. Wish someone made a soft door for these. I also plan to cut some foam like a Pelican case for a rifle to keep the doors clean and put them in the hatch area for when I am commuting. I like the 31's like I knew I would form previous vehicles but I think with the lift will be 35 KM2s. I need to adjust to the new Daycare bill first though. 2k plus a month is going to kill me. I miss the old days when my ant watched my oldest for free to keep her granddaughter occupied. Anyway I will try and get better pics later. It does have the nice burgundy interior currently.

 

[Gremcat]

Also need to get my youngest son a cool nascar style car seat. My wife and I have been swapping the seats and it is a pain in the tail. He always wants to take "Daddy's truck" to school. It is nice just sticking him through the side rather than having to bend over into a car. Not sure what I am going to do when I need to go back to work. I do get points with the Therapist for working out my bad side on the clutch though

 

[Gremcat]

I am also torn between going crazy on this like fiberglass front end high fenders custom bumpers almost sandrail interior etc. or trying to keep it nice like an old man's gen 1 Bronco or something. Maybe build this one and buy a low miles original too. These darn things are addicting. I may pick up the one at the shooting range just because I hate to see it rot. A friend is a die hard Toyota guy and we could maybe get it running for him. Just want to save everyone I see. Absolutely love Slackers Trekker.

 

[Gremcat]

Update:
Hit by a bus while parked and unloading my kids and the driver ran. Rear fender took a beating but otherwise mostly ok.

I had some idling issues and loss of power for awhile. I checked compression and fuel pressure and both ok. I put all new injectors in, harmonic balancer was wobbling due to coming apart so swapped that, fuel filter, intake gaskets, front brakes and calipers, rear brakes, rear wheel bearing and seals, Pittman and Idler arm, OME rear 2" leaves. I dropped the tank and flushed out all the rust and tried to swap in a sending unit but the dealer part was wrong and the other listed was discontinued. I could modify the rod but the plug was 4 wire and mine is 3. Put the tank back in with old sender, TPS is in but I think it is out of adjustment. Need to go through one more time with the feeler gauges and check resistance. New starter contacts ( that sucked ). It was running weak today but maybe some junk in the line from cleaning the tank or and this is worrying me I plugged the rubber lines back up and may have screwed up the orientation and routed the return to the evap. Not sure how to tell which is which without pulling the pump again and also running the pump with the line disconnected to see which is pushing gas. A friend is doing the bearing for me so when it comes back I will get it sorted. I got a quote for the gear sets. I am waiting on one more from East Coast. New Bilsteins arrive Monday and then need to figure out what to do to level the front and get it aligned. New steely rims soon and hope it holds me for awhile with my soon to be 4 hour commute. Oh and flushed the radiator and all rust already 4 weeks from last flush. Either left over from last flush or needs to go to Red coolant. Also, welded on a high flow converter and a Flowmaster 50 Delta and all new tailpipe and she is sounding good except around 50 mph with the soft top it is a bit much. Hit 60-65 and it quiets down again.

 

[Gremcat]

Also, made the huge mistake of sitting in a Corbeau demo seat. Yup 800 bucks for the cloth version and brackets but soon they will be ordered. Commuting 4 hours on uncomfortable seats sucks,

 

[Gremcat]

Good news is the rear bearing was fine it was the outer seal that some PO had beat with a hammer and it was leaking. The bad news is when flushing the tank I a. hooked the evap and return lines backwards on top of the tank and b. must have not dried the tank after I flushed all the rust and crud with water. I tried hand drying it but must have left a pocket in there or some of the rust clogged something. It is running rough under heavy acceleration. This is what started me on the road to all new injectors, cat, etc. I had hoped I had this fixed. Hoping a few tanks of gas will fix the issue. Don't want to drain the tank a third time. I have tried products to get moisture out but have had no luck in the past. I guess I should have flushed the tank with the old gas after filtering it? I wouldn't think rust could have gotten into the fuel filter but maybe? I changed it recently but after a few tanks of fuel may change it again. I am sick of fuel/acceleration problems. I even put a TPS in to fix an erratic idle and high end power issues. I have put about 2500 into this truck in the last 3 weeks and still running rough. I feel like I am just about to turn the corner.