dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I think a body swap is your best bet. I have done 5 or 6 body swaps over the years.
Had one up and running in less than a day..of course those were VW bugs
But they were the fastest way to fix rollover damage..

Cyberhorn The Dragon

O..O holy hanna mark your okay i hope! rollover NOOOO
ive been so wrapped up here with crud im sorry i didnt know sooner

Zpd426

I think the decision may depend on your skill set and what you will need to get outsourced and what you can do yourself.

The body swap seems like the cheapest way to go since you will be able to do it mostly yourself.

The roof chop seems like a good idea (if you cage it) and hire a welder/body guy who has done it before and can do it safely and get it straight.

The option of just straightening what you got could be a good idea if your body guy is cheap. (probably cage it as well just to be safe)

Anyways, i saw this pop on of FB and thought of your situation.

very general. Not going to be of use but here it is.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/bo...ge-cage-match/

CamTom12

I've not yet had the joy of being in the situation you're in right now, but if I were you I'd be leaning very hard toward a full body swap.

Sitting in my chair I'm telling myself that I'd also take the opportunity to rewire the harness but when I started swapping stuff that might go out the window quickly.

Red Wagon

You might be able to find a cleanish 4Runner with a blown motor. I'd start at wreckers first.

If you find a score outside of state you could be surprised at how cheap you might be able to get it moved for.

Good luck Mark.

Do you need me to be on the lookout for small plastic etc? Those parts are in good shape up here quite often. Not so much sunshine.

I am in the wrecker off and on. I need to head to them again soon for my recent damage.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Hey guys! .... I keeping my head up..... But it's frustrating trying to find what I need either way and getting nowhere. However, while I have my apprehensions on this one due to a salvage title, I have learned most of what I need to know in regards to checking out the things that matter to me... This one is an 86, fully overhauled motor with receipts, automatic unfortunately but I don't need it( I am sure that someone would eventually want a great deal on overhauled automatic transmission)... , it's pretty much a base model with manual windows and door locks, no moon roof which is in no way a deal breaker for me... The rest of it I can I add. And I suppose I could sell the rims and tires, rebuilt motor, transmission on pretty much everything else including the harness if I go the route of running my harness in... He's a nice guy and he's not trying to push me in any way and he was right up front about the salvage title. He said he will take it to pass smog for me if I want first, if that is what sealed the deal... Things like that. Said we can do a compression test or whatever we want.... I can't deny that it's being pretty much my favorite color Toyota ever made doesn't hurt, but the fact that it was salvage due to an accident causing me to be a little apprehensive. He said there is zero rust and I can take all the time I need tomorrow to look it over in any way minus taking things off. Said I can drive around all I want, etc cetera.... Carfax is saying they call the value in at $1650, and he is asking around double that only because he knows if he asks too low no one is going to offer him anything fair. He said he didn't expect to get what he's put into it back, which is around 5000 over the last 7 years with all the receipts to prove it.....











I'm not positive but it definitely looks a little monkey on the driver side as far as the paint job... You could literally shave in mind... And I don't expect that so much, but at a certain price and up I definitely do. As I said before, salvage title rebuild and so forth is what pretty much has my concern. Not because I'll be driving it, but obviously because of any damage that might not be visible to the human eye. Then again, I've had two trucks that had been in a pretty bad wrecks and I never knew it. Even my truck now was in obviously a serious enough accident or they replaced at least most of the rear panel on the driver side and added some bondo along the tailgate line of the rear panel above the tail light.

As Terry mentioned, it's going to be pretty difficult to find my exact truck options and so forth... One problem I'm going to have if I wind up with an 88 or 89 motor, is the fact that they have a GR temp sensor and different 02 location in the 88 and 89... Not to mention an air canister for smog and so forth.

I'm A, very slight chance, have the line on hey really cherry 89, silver, fully loaded with 22 re: and 5 speed . However, even if that were to happen, I haven't got a hypothetical likely price from him yet. He just picked it up today rescuing it from someone who is going to turn into a truggy. So I just have to wait and see as he is seriously thinking about it. First I need to know what he would ask. Its just a mile or so from my father's house in Havasu...!

As always I welcome your input and please be brutally honest. I don't want to wait too long and it's obviously very difficult to find something right now... But I don't want to make a stupid decision either.

Toyota~Boy

iTrader: (2)

Looks pretty straight chef. What's the info on the title. Was the frame tweaked in anyway?

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

It doesn't say. It just says alert and that it was called totaled do too an accident and was rebuilt. Apparently the guy had it certified and got the paperwork pepole the salvage title but he just bought the 2014 4 runner and is dying to show it off to me. Lol. But the bottom line is he can't keep both of them and he knows he's going to take a loss but considering it is salvage, he's not to butt hurt over it.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

I'm hoping to get an answer tonight as to how much for this other truck in Arizona. I could have it dropped at my father's house and pick it up on my own leisure.

84 yota dude

That blue one looks pretty clean. Is the one in Arizona the '89 red one?

diableri

I was looking at the pillars on my 89 tonight and my entire top in general along with my windshield and firewall area.

From the pics you sent me, I'm not positive I'd want to do the repair work unless I found something horrific involved in a swap. Not because I don't think it can't be done, I'm sure it can. Because I don't think the labor and future possible issues are worth it. That's just my take on it.

I might even take the opportunity to do some modding that might otherwise be a complete pain in the ass. Talk about a great time to plan a pass through Exo! It would also certainly be the cleanest body ever put on one of these things with you doing it. That I am sure of.

I know you want to get on with it, but patience will win out if one of these leads you have at the moment doesn't work out.

Do some research on mount location between the years. I can't imagine they changed but who knows.

I think that as long as the donor is still registered, you just need a new blue sticker from the CHP. At least that's how it used to work. I haven't had to do that in a while. I don't think a salvage title will change that. That shouldn't cause you any more headaches with CARB at engine swap time but I am also not sure of that. From everything I've been told that's completely up to their fickle moods and whether or not you have a gearhead friendly office locally.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

No, it's silver.... jpcabo on Instagram just brought it home.

84 yota dude

Oh, ok. Wait like he bought it? So that one is out of the picture right?

Also here is a cool website that lets you search craigslist by state. Way quicker IMO
http://www.statewidelist.com/

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

No, he bought it but might part with it. It's a bit more in need of work on the body than I thought though.... He will send me more pictures tomorrow hopefully. Also, I'm kind of torn as to whether I should even look at the blue one. It looks clean, but seeing that it has been a wreck that caused it to be salvaged, I have to wonder if you would look like the crease on the firewall in that picture was caused by that? Do you see what I'm talking about? I could see it in person tomorrow I guess, but I hate to waste any time on things that are not logical or optimal I should say.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

You will need to look past the ugly to find a good body and need to look past the pretty as well. My 85 and 86 looked terrible but are rock solid. I tried to find a picture of an 87 pickup that looked like it was a shame to part out, as it looked great, but it had some part of the roof and inner fender structure that had been repaired and I could tell that it was starting to have gap issues and just didn't feel right. To bad as I have been wanting just a cab for a future project, but I had to scrap that one. Upon first glance you would never known it was damaged. Same as your runner having the panel replaced on it, which was nothing wrong with it as it seemed like they had done a good job on it. One will come along eventually, but it is like being a kid the night before Christmas. Seems like it will never get here.

84 yota dude

True, it definitely best to start with the least amount of problems possible

MaK92-4RnR

So lemme get this straight. You're thinking of starting over with a completely new truck and just swapping all your parts over? I'm telling you, a body swap is not hard at all. If you're worried about the salvage title, Just pull the Vin number plates off your red truck and slap them on the new body. No one will ever know. Just have the body repainted back to red. its really not that big of a deal, Mark

By the way, My 1st gen is an all manual truck ( locks, windows, mirrors and no sun/moon roof ) and its awesome. my lady is extremely materialistic and comes from having "nice things" and she absolutely loves the simplicity of the truck. Not to mention, if you ever submerged your truck that deep ( unlikely ) you wont have any problems.

also, Chef. You're not looking hard enough, man. This is on craigslist right now for 1000 bucks.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/4335814508.html

GO GET IT.

CamTom12

Chef, but that and do the body swap! It's a perfect donor!!!

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

I hear yah! That's why I'm always weary of things that have been repainted. However, in just a few seconds I can remove the fenders birthday and look through the engine brake to see if ever wells for dinner fingers were repair, I can usually spot re working on the core support and so forth. I don't think so it should be too hard on the clean body even if it consist totally faded. It would be a bonus to get something with a good running or rebuilt engine and decent drive train, things I can resell to cover some of the cost... I'm going to have to come up with money to pay for your plane ticket! Lol.

One thing I wanted to ask you was whether you knew if the body mount for the 85 chassis and eighty six and up is the same. I know the frame is different, and that has me thinking 85 might not go easily on my 87 frame???

Yes! Trust me, the last thing I want is to have problems.

Thank you very much man! Just to be clear, a body swap is exactly what I'm talking about. I was not looking to swap over my suspension and so forth. Most of my rock lights are installed on the frame and cross member and bumper... The rear bumper. Only 4 of them are on the chassis and would be easy to pull down and let's hang along with the remote relay and auxiliary fuse block, etc. I am NOT opposed to using manual things, but where I live and where I shop and so forth, it is really beneficial to have my two way alarm with electric door locks. This would also in most cases be necessary in order to use my wiring harness on whatever don't be a call. Unless I find the exact same vehicle with every option like I have, you know what I mean?

Sacramento would definitely be doable if somebody could help me get it down here... But look below and see what I am looking at next and tell me what you think. I will be meeting him around 5 while I still have some daylight and time to look through the entire thing...

Hahaha, that is a good candidate, but its just too far for me to haul something... I will definitely find something in Los Angeles.... And speaking of....

***************************

Going to look at this today and could probably get it for a thousand bucks. Maximum asking price is 1200 with a rebuilt motor and a blown rear end. Not blown actually it drives but its making lots of noise. I have a diff right in my garage... Three of them, that would work fine. Clean title in the current owners name , no accidents, never failed smog...

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

In Maryland, when you have "Franken-Cars" that people use a frame from one vehicle, a body from another and drivetrain from yet another with all different number, they get them registered and titled as a HotRod. Not sure what California does, but I'm sure that they do something like that. You could also drill out the VIN plates and swap them over as well - not sure how illegal that is, but who will ever know? (other than us muhahahahaha!) It's not like the VIN is stamped all over the place on these trucks.