Making a safer 2nd gen (and 1st?)

[jbtvt]

Started on this the other day. Plan is to at least add some side collision protection, possibly beef up the support at front of roof depending on what it looks like up there. I'm pulling the anti-intrusion bars out of the 3.4 swap donor. Only tested the rear half of the door bars for fitment so far but once I trim 1/4" off the lock protection plate it looks like they'll fit beautifully in the '90. There's no way to get them into the '90 doors without unseaming them so I'm cutting the bars in half to remove and install and will insert a tube inside, or sleeve outside, whatever I can find that's a closer diameter, and weld in place to join the pieces inside the door. Not ideal but much better than the sheet metal between me and anything else out there right now. 3rd gen doors are ~1" longer than 2nd gen doors so would likely need to cut something either way. Goal is to spend less than a day on the doors, and hopefully less than that on anything else.

There are several spot welds holding it on several faces, but there's also a sheet metal plate that wraps behind the latch. The only way to get this installed would be unseaming, again, so I cut the door apart, pulled it out, and cut the plate part off.

Once that's in place and the bars are sheathed ID/OD, plan is to drill holes in the '90 doors and weld them to the sheet metal. Updates as they happen and I think of them, which might be a while the way the summer is shaping up. Just wanted to get it going.

 

[Cali 4runner]

I like this idea. These trucks are like tin cans from the side.

 

[PowellSixO]

Damn, you're ambitious. Lol. Keep it up.

 

[Dropzone]

so you are pulling a 90 door apart?
I think my 94 has the additional side impact bar.
been a year or so though since I had a panel off

 

[jbtvt]

Just pulling the interior panel off the '90 and peeling the plastic down. Yea, pretty sure '94 was the first year they added the bars, good deal.

Little more time on it tonight before it got too dark, pulled the front section of the driver's door bar out and test fit it, also works. No sheet metal in there so just a matter of drilling out the spot welds. When I put them in the '90 I'll drill holes in more or less the same spot and plug weld them, then paint exterior and rust proof interior - Ultimate oil undercoating guide (DIY Waxoyl).

Here's a shot of the rear section of bar in place in the '90 with the anti-jimmy plate pried back

Front section on the ground

Front section in place

Both bar sections dry fit and the overlap

Amount that will need to be trimmed 1/2"

Bar OD 31.94mm

ID, after deburring 27.97mm. There is a weld seam so will need smaller than that for interior tube

As I think about this, I'll probably also shoot some epoxy from one of those 10oz self mixing tubes over the front and rear contact points to lock everything together more, after plug welding. It seems like I'd get more strength epoxying bar to the door skin also but everything I can find says to use non-structural foam to attach skin to anti-intrusion bar so I'll prob stick to that again, same way it came off. Going to try to find a shortish section of tube to go inside existing, welded to splice them, and a longer section, close to the longest section of bar I cut in half to sleeve the outside for extra strength, assuming there's room between the window. Need power to this thing to check that. After the swap is finished... Now to pull the rest of these bars and get the engine going.

Sliders later also and I've been toying with a design for bolt-on triangular bracing up front to prevent cabin collapse in a head-on, that earned it the lousy front crash rating in 1990, but not sure that will actually fit. More on that later maybe.

 

[Blind Cleric]

Could you also replace '90 doors with '94 and up doors?

 

[jbtvt]

Could you also replace '90 doors with '94 and up doors?

For sure. '94 and '95 anyway, not the 3rd gens. My truck was in CA most of its life and has no body rust and I'm in the northeast so everything else around is in bad shape. Doors in the area that were clean on outside but probably rusting through inside out like they always do here, from salt running down windows, were $100 each on car-part.com when I looked a few months ago. Plus paint and all the time for that. And I already had the parts 4Runner here so trying it this way.