Posted: 4/10/2016 10:43:45 PM EDT
Over the winter I put together a new AR. Now that it's spring time I need something new to do. What to do? Something bigger and kinda cool with a small amount of kinda dumb. Let's fix up a Toyota truck. A Toyota 1 ton dually truck 
So, here is where this project begins. For about the last 3 years of his life my step father was unable to drive due to being in a wheel chair. Despite this he would not part with his favorite vehicle. So it just sat on the side of the house. After his death it still just sat. My mother wanted it gone so she gave it to me. What he had was a 1990 Toyota motor home. Here is a picture that I stole off the interwebs of a similar unit. 
My step father's unit was not that nice. He had backed in to a couple of things and fucked up the coach a little. Everything else is in real nice shape. |
Now the fun begins. The Toyota is in Tucson AZ and I live in North Texas. How to get it there from to here? It would surely need a battery, the tires are mostly likely dry rotted, and I'm sure the fuel tank is full of bad gas. Driving it is out of the question so I broke out the sawzall and big,big hammer, rented a dumpster and went to town. Sorry, no pics of that as I forgot. Here is the finished project up on the trailer for trip back to Texas.
ETA - I can report that with just that load, fuel economy with my 5.4l gas F250 was in the suck zone for the trip home. |
It took awhile to find the parts that I needed but as of today I'm ready to move forward. The simple thing to do would just fill in the missing sections of the roof and back wall. Where's the fun in that? Besides, once you own an extended cab truck you don't want to go back. So what we need is a new cab or a cab clip. Sort of like this.
Here it is in the back of my trusty F-2 fiddy. 
The price was right and the cab is in perfect shape. All the interior is there including the back seat. No damage and no rust. Next week I'll start measuring and cutting so I can do some welding. |
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Quoted:
Is it the 22RE or the 3.0 V6? For your sake I hope it's the 22RE. Easy to work on, still being made, lots of parts available, no headgasket issues, etc. I've got an old lifted 3.4L 4x4 I'd love to turn into a flatbed. They're fun little pickups. I have the 3.slow motor. It hauled the motorhome around pretty good. Now it just needs to carry my lawn mower around, maybe a 55 gallon drum of solvent now and then. |
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UPDATE. This thread is going over like a lead balloon but let's see this out until the end. I know Arfcom loves Toyota trucks and this not a Trump thread.
I skipped a week then worked on the pickup last week. I forgot to post pictures though. Last week the first thing that happened was the glass went away. 
Time to make some measurements then drop the top. 
New cab cut to match. 
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For this week I had to split my time between building new wheel pants for a customers airplane and working on the truck.
Saturday. New gas tank, fuel level sending unit, and fuel pump day. 
Sunday. Put stuff together day. 
Next week I'll double check the fit of the new cab then start welding. Everything is just held together with screws right now. |