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For starters I recently had to pull part of the dash apart & I gotta say, older Toyota vehicles are fantastically put together. It came apart about a month ago, went back together yesterday. It was very intuitive & easy, I love that there was a lot of screws rather than clips.
I have been starting to get some fluid seepage, chasing down a steering issue, rust is starting to be an issue & with the age it seems bushings are starting to fail. I love my truck, I also have a 16 subaru sti but mostly drive the truck & have been considering a full on restoration. My experience is a bit limited, I have mostly done repairs like brakes, suspension & mild engine repair but I am reasonably mechanically inclined & I'm confident the Toyota community has guides for things I have yet to do.
When I say restoration I mean taking it completely apart & restoring it part by part. The interior is fantastic but with the scope of minor issues together I wouldn't be too far off. I wouldn't need much in the way of parts, it seems most of it would be cleaning. I found a few gasket kits for the engine & already have most of the things like ball joints/suspension. My big issue is the frame. It's rusty but not rusted through. If I get the cab & bed off I can easily clean/paint the outside but not sure about how to deal with the inside. I imagine I will have to replace quite a few bolts but I have been shocked how easy most (that I have dealt with) come out.
The one big change I have been thinking about is swapping it to manual. I don't mind the auto tranny but prefer manual.
I guess I'm just looking for outside opinions & potentially advice. I would love to have this truck long term & working on it is so far rewarding & enjoyable. It's a 93 sr5 pickup with the 3.0 6 cylinder.
I did a total frame off resto on my 91 Ext Cab SR5. I stripped the frame down and had it sand blasted and coated. Was really surprised how much work there was in the chassis.
The resto wasn't really difficult, just time consuming. In hindsight my advice would be that whatever you have budgeted for in time and money double it.
With new trucks being crazy expensive this made sense for me.
These are great trucks. I get allot of positive comments from people about the rig.
I did a total frame off resto on my 91 Ext Cab SR5. I stripped the frame down and had it sand blasted and coated. Was really surprised how much work there was in the chassis.
The resto wasn't really difficult, just time consuming. In hindsight my advice would be that whatever you have budgeted for in time and money double it.
I have most of the parts I plan to change but you are not the 1st to talk about unexpected expenses with a restore/build. I wonder how they sandblasted the inside of the frame. I actually have a sandblasting gun for an air compressor, I hadn't considered it but I could see it being useful for hard to reach spots. Maybe I will see if there is someplace near me that does frame restoration.
These are great trucks. I get allot of positive comments from people about the rig.
Yeah, I had an 89 with the 4 pot back in high school. I wish I was in a better spot to fix it back then. I bought it & the timing chain snapped shortly after, there was issues with the gearbox where 2nd & 3rd wouldn't always be available, then the diff locked up. I paid like $4k, $4500 for the engine & it kept nickel & diming me while at the time I needed something more reliable. It's funny though, when I drive my sti the subi guys wave & occasionally kids get riled by the exhaust but with the truck if I go into a store or gas station there is usually someone checking it out & have even had people pull into a lot just to scope it. Bit of nostalgia involved but I love the truck & it's worth the effort. Going to have to figure out something for the subaru so I don't piss off my neighbors leaving at 530am with a loud exhaust while the truck is out of commission.
I have done many restorations , I do it professionally .
I always mention to my sandblaster to blast all the "jig" holes to get the inside as best you can . Its no always 100% , but its the best it can be .
then you have to spend a few hours washing it .
Then I use a product called POR15 . I love it , and had much success with it , just READ the instructions !!! and follow them to a T .
I use a pressure pot , with a "v" notch wand attachment , and also a 90* attachment and "spray" inside the frame first . Then the out side , I prefur to brush , I use a small 1" brush to make sure I get into all the cracks and crevises .
I have done many restorations , I do it professionally .
I always mention to my sandblaster to blast all the "jig" holes to get the inside as best you can . Its no always 100% , but its the best it can be .
then you have to spend a few hours washing it .
Then I use a product called POR15 . I love it , and had much success with it , just READ the instructions !!! and follow them to a T .
I use a pressure pot , with a "v" notch wand attachment , and also a 90* attachment and "spray" inside the frame first . Then the out side , I prefur to brush , I use a small 1" brush to make sure I get into all the cracks and crevises .
Do it. I wish I could do a full restore on mine but I've spent so much building other vehicles there is no way my wife would let me, lol. I may just have to do a little here and there until it's eventually a nice truck.
Friday I started my adventures in ball joints & front shocks. Going to assume everything is oem except shocks. There is only 90k on the truck, it's all pretty rusty but the shocks are yellow & I thought the original were black. All the small nuts/bolts for the tie rods/ball joints came of shockingly easy but the big nut on the upper ball joint is a pita to get to. I decided to take off the bolts that hold the caliper bracket off to move the brake line out of the way but busted 2 1/2-3\4 socket adapters trying to crack them. I want to believe that I am that strong but in reality shouldn't buy cheap chinesium tools.
The above suggestion that it will take more time/money than originally thought is proving true. This started as ball joints, idler arm, tie rods & shocks but after getting into it I noticed the rubber brake lines are cracking & the axles are rusty with warn boots about to rip through.
Really tempted to just continue ripping into it but I wanted to use it for a few projects home before winter & finish clearing the other half of the garage 1st. My riding lawnmower is also buried behind it & will have to cut the back in about a week. I was just hoping to tighten up the creaking & play in the steering. It was starting to feel less than safe.
07-30-2020, 05:38 AM
