Toyota Xtra Cab Pickup Makes an Extensive, Fascinating Project
After stumbling upon the perfect Toyota pickup project, this Yota Tech member spent years perfecting it.
Toyota pickups are the most popular project vehicles here at Yota Tech, and for good reason. They’re plentiful and infinitely customizable, for starters. And if you look hard enough, there are still some solid ones out there at reasonable prices. This particular 1992 Xtra Cab met all of that criteria, which is why YotaTech forum member Lybrium couldn’t resist picking it up nearly three years ago.
“Hey all, this 3.0 came onto my radar recently. And, well, I kind of just bought it out of nowhere. I’ve been looking for the right compact truck for a project, and this one fits the criteria. The seller was motivated enough to come down significantly from his initial asking price, and now here she sits.”
After further inspection, this old Toyota turned out to be a pretty solid start, too.
“The odometer reads 457k. The PO had it for only a few months and knew nothing about what work had been done to it. So unfortunately, I knew very little about this truck before taking the dive. Luckily, after spending a couple days cleaning, changing fluids, removing broken crap…most of the surprises have been good ones. The frame is solid. Cab/interior is immaculate. I had an hour long drive home with it on the highway and I was blown away by how smooth everything felt with almost a half million kilometers.”
Still, the Toyota pickup obviously needed some work. So the OP immediately began collecting parts for it. Next, it was on to disassembly. The OP removed the ugly running boards and began working on refurbishing/modifying the stock bumpers. Soon, the truck was already looking much better.
The OP had a little fun wheeling his new toy, but major work loomed on the horizon. He soon decided that he wanted to do a full engine swap, rebuild the transmission, and clean up the frame. The decision on which engine to go with was soon decided when he found a 3.4-liter with just 40,000 miles on it at the local junkyard. And just like that, the hard work began.
After a countless hours of labor, the OP finally saw his new drivetrain up and running smoothly just a couple of weeks ago. And he’s now checking off the final items on his to-do list before this Toyota pickup project is back on the road again. So be sure and head over here to watch this awesome build come back to life!
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