Wavephf's American Hilux build thread

Wavephf

Observer
This project started years ago and I don't remember all that has been done or how certain thing were modified but I will post what I can remember. This is just my story of my truck so please keep negative and useless comments to yourself. I'm not a engineer or body man. I did things when I could and how ever I could.

It all started in late 2009 when my Dad and myself found a 1990 Toyota 4Runner on Craigslist for $1000 with a rod knock. We drove up to Denver (2 hours away) with truck and trailer to look at it. When we got there the owner told us someone else just looked at it and revved the engine and now its locked up. Upon inspection we noticed a hole in the block. Now that the engine is no longer build-able we negotiated the price down to $600 or $700 I can't remember for sure. Drove home with the 4runner loaded on the trailer and parked it until I could find a engine. I'm a mechanic and work at my Dad's shop so do all my own work. In January 2010 we had a customer forget to tighten the oil filter on his Tacoma when he changed his own oil and his 3.4 was knocking. He supplied us with a used engine and I ended up with core. I did some research and found a thread on Yotatech explaining the 5vzfe swap. Now it was time to start working on my project.

I pulled the 3vze(3.slow) out of the 4Runner.




And started the rebuild on the 5vzfe(3.4). One rod bearing spun and the crankshaft was junk. I ordered a new crankshaft and rebuild kit. I rebuilt the engine and swap the needed parts off the old motor.



I got the 3.4 installed and running


Our local engine rebuild stopped by one day looking for a engine oil cooler off a 3.4 but I didn't have one. He went to the junk yard and got one off a good core. He return to tell me I needed to go buy the core engine because it has some extra part I might need. Later that week I stopped buy the junkyard and looked at the core engine. I payed $300 for the core but only took one part off of it. A first gen trd supercharger:Wow1:. I also found some 2" lift spring under a 2nd gen 4runner.


I installed the supercharger and everything worked. I installed a body lift so the hood would clear the supercharger. Some people modify the hood but a body lift was easier at the time.

Not long after that I stopped by a friends house to see the progress on his rock buggy and noticed a toyota E-locker under his bench. I asked his what it was for and he told me it was broken and he installed a new one in his friends truck. He gave me the locker for free. The pinion gear broke off and trashed the carrier. I took it all apart and found that the damaged half of the carrier was the same as the older V6 carrier. So a transfer my stock 4.56 gears into the elocker along with half the carrier and modifier the rear end housing to fit it.


After wheeling for a while I got tired of the dust blowing in the rust holes for I decide to fix it....the cheap way. Spray foam and fiberglass. Turned out pretty good. I the rattle canned the bottom black.



I drove and wheeled it this was for a while and it worked great. One day a few years and about 10,000 miles I was driving in town and lost power. I pressed in the clutch to down shift and it stalled, so I dropped the clutch and it fired up but was making a ticking noise. I pulled over a few blocks later and it stalled again. This time when I started it was knocking really loud. I called for a tow back to the shop and parked it for a few months. When I pulled the engine out I found the crankshaft was broken in half. Keep in mind this was a brand new crankshaft when I built the motor. I called up the engine shop, they called the supplier and informed me it was a new casting made in china to OEM specs. I decided to buy a reground crankshaft this time. While I had the engine out and apart I rerouted some of the pcv and vacuum lines, installed a second hand water injection kit, 320cc injectors, painted the supercharger, installed a 2.1" URD pulley and installed a URD fuel/timing controller. Got everything back together and it was all good again. Although I never tuned it.


I finally fenced in my backyard and decided I needed a dog. I got a black lab (Allie) and she would go to work with me and lay in front of my toolbox. When she got bigger and I started leaving her at home I felt bad because I work anywhere from 10-16 hours a day as a mechanic. I got a second dog to keep Allie company while I was at work. My second dog was a 1 year old golden retriever named Bella. The dogs love to go anywhere with me and really like going out in the mountains but its kind of pain having dogs in the vehicle with you all the time. Wet, mud, smelly, shedding and slobbering all over the place.


I decided it was time for a truck.
To be continued
 

Wavephf

Observer
I was trying to decide what kind or truck I wanted. I was set on a double cab Tacoma but I wanted to transfer a lot of my parts to the Tacoma but I would have to sell my 4runner before I could buy a Tacoma. I decide I didn't want a truck payment so I was looking at 1989-1994 V6 extended cab trucks that I could swap all of my parts into but I couldn't find what I was looking for. I started thinking about chopping my the back half off my 4runner and turning it into a truck. I browsed pictures on google and didn't really find a style I liked enough to cut up my 4runner. I started looking at the overseas Hilux and wished I could import a body but decide it would be way to expensive. I then started working in Photoshop with my 4runner and decided I could build a double cab Hilux. Here is my photoshopped hilux.


I then talked to Uncle about a standard cab toyota he had sitting behind his house for a few years. He traded his MR2 for it and the truck had an out of state title, when he went to transfer it they said it had to be notarized. When he tried to contact his friend to get the title fixed he had already moved out of state again. I bought the truck for cheap $800 with a useless title. I sold the engine for $500 and took the truck home and started measuring out stuff. I decided to take the dogs out in 4runner one last time before cutting it up.


I stripped the trucks interior, removed the broken campershell and cleaned out the bed


I unbolted the bed and back of the cab, removed the doors, made my measurements and started to cut. I lifted the cab and bed up and remove the frame. The dogs thought they were going for a ride.


I remove all the interior pieces from the rear of the 4runner


I double checked my measurements and started cutting again.


Started piecing it all back together again.


I ran into my first miscalculation when I tried to line up the roof lines. The 4runner roof is raised about an inch more than the truck. I cut the rear roof section from the 4runner and spotted it into place.



It was time to start on the doors and finish the door jambs. This is the part most people ask about. I used the front window track, hinges and inner door from the 4runner. This would maintain the all the mounting for the window regulators. I used the rear window track, outer door skin, latch and part of the inner door skin from the truck. I offset the seem of the body and the seem of the upper window frame for strength. The outer door skin seem is about an inch from the front of the 4runner door skin.





Now that the doors were roughed in I shortened the bed 10" in the front. I had to block up my suspension because the axle was now in the wrong place for the wheel opening. I just set some 2x4s across the frame to set the bed onto frame.



From here I hauled it to work so I could redo the suspension, build some bed mounts and finish welding the body up. I don't have any in progress pictures of the rear suspension. I cut the lower link brackets off the frame and relocated them back further where the frame starts to curve up for the original axle opening. This allowed me to get rid of that rock catch point. I moved the cross member for the upper links back 3" and up 2". The main reason I did this was to move the fuel tank up 2" because it hangs down below the frame 4 or 5". If I didn't have a body lift I don't think I could have done this. I cut the rear section of frame off the 91 truck and welded it into place on the rear of the 4runner frame. I was able to maintain the use of 2 rear bed mounts this way. I cut the front bed mount off the truck frame and welded it into place on the 4runner frame. I cut up the original 4 link arms and used 1.5" and 1.75" tubing to rebuild them the correct length. If I keep the 4link setup I will make new adjustable arms with hiems on one end and bushings on the other end. I moved the coil spring perches and cross member back to the new wheel opening. I think I moved the axle about 18" back.

In the middle of all this I ended up with a 2000 Tacoma with baja fenders, bedsides and lift with a bad engine. I had a spare 3.4 engine I installed and started driving the tacoma. The suspension was way too stiff and it was almost painful to drive and I didn't like the looks of fiberglass kit. A friend of mine had a 16yr old son that wanted it so I did some trading. He is a body guy for a major BodyShop repair chain. He son had a 1989 toyota truck he was going to drive when he got his license but he wanted my Tacoma. I traded the Tacoma for the 89 truck and the completion of all body work on my 4runner. I now took a break from working on my 4runner and started some work on the 89 truck so it would be reliable. I used it all winter for trip into the mountains and taking the dogs hunting. It took my friend a while to really get in to the body because there was so much stuff to do. He cut apart my rockers and sleeved them with pieces of extra rocker I had. I didn't think about this when I put it together. He finished the roof, fixed my warped bed sides, finished the doors, the door jambs and fix all of the other small dents and dings around the 4runner. He primed it and them took it into work and painted the door jambs, inside the doors, back of the cab, cab corners and the roof. He took it back hone to reinstall the doors finish up some sanding and priming.



While I was waiting I started on my front bumper build. I used the 89 truck to design it but made it so I could still mount it on the 4runner with a body lift. I made a cardboard template of what I wanted and then transferred that to 3/16 plate. I used a plasma cutter and a ruler as a guide to cut all my pieces out. A lot of welding and grinding later I finished it. I like the TJM and ARB bumpers so I sort of mixed the styles. For some reason I don't have any pictures of the bumper before I painted it but here is the painted bumper after modifying it to fit the 4runner. I bought some euro style vw golf turn signals off ebay. These are the same light pattern as the arb bumpers.



I went and helped him a few weeks later to final sand the whole body and bed. Then finish the paint.



We left it in booth overnight and he sent me a picture the next day. He still had some small spots to sand and buff so I gave him some time.


At this point I will start calling my 4runner a Hilux
to be continued
 
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Wavephf

Observer
While I was waiting for the call to pick up my Hilux I started on my wheels. My wheels came off a 1997 toyota 4runner and my brother painted them before I bought them from him. The looked good at first but had lots of abuse over the years. I stripped the paint off and then the toyota coating. This was no easy task, I think I spent 5-6 hours and used lots of paint stripper. I then used 2 PPG products on the bare aluminum. One is a etching acid and the other converts the top layer of aluminum so it can be painted. I taped off the spokes, primed and painted the inner areas of the wheels, removed the tape and cleared the whole wheel.







I ordered a set of Cooper S/T Maxx tires in 255/85r16 and got them a few days later.


I got the phone call and picked up my Hilux from my friends house. It looked great. I couldn't wait to get started on putting everything back together. I had scheduled a week off work to finish it up.
I installed my new tires first


And then finished the bumper as mentioned above


I started to finish all the small and large things during my week off. I spent at least 3 days wiring up stuff. I like to use factory connectors so I rewired the bed and fuel pump to plug into the 4runner connectors. I ran wires for all the accessories I could think of while I had the interior apart. Bed lights, fog light, spot lights, on-board air, water injection, louder horn, brighter headlights, radio, amp, CB, power port in the cab and bed,boost gauge, winch control and elocker. I moved my clutch start cancel switch to the center console fo I could mount switches on the dash. I reused my rear window switch as a winch control switch, removed the rear defrost switch to install locker switch. I ordered carling switches with custom rockers from www.otrattw.com. I wired all switches to be back lit and work with the factory dimmer.
I modified the truck grill to fit around the A/C condenser fan.

I built a dual battery box for 2 optima batteries and mounted my blue sea fuse block and a isolation solenoid to it.



I reused the 4runner rear seats and seat belt buckles but used the 91 truck seat belts
It took a few days to finish the rear doors. I used the front section of glass from the 4runner and built the rear section from bronze tinted lexan. The window mouldings and door seal were made with a combination of truck and 4runner parts. I picked up a used set of door latches from the front doors of a 4runner so I would have power locks still. I had to build the linkage for the inner door handles. I just modified the 4runner door panel to fit for now but I will probably make a whole new door panel down the road. I retinted the front windows and the new back glass.

We decided to go Moab and I only had a few weeks to get ready so a few thing are still unfinished or got rushed and I will have to re-do them. I built some new rock sliders, slapped on a bumper my dad had in his garage, installed my On-board air compressor, made some e-brake cables, mounted my spare tire to the bed rail, installed a CB antenna in the front bumper, replace all cv boots, got an alignment and installed a new speedometer cable. The alignment sowed the rear end was only out by 0.78 degrees, not bad for eye-balling a measuring tape.



We rushed to Moab and rushed back. I now have to catch up on chores before I can start working on the truck again. Here are a few pictures from the trip to moab.







That's all for tonight

Wavephf
 
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Elbee

Adventurer
If you could source the hilux roll bar and the proper bed, it would be very hard to tell the difference. Those roll bars are great for hauling and all since provide good cab protection and they have flip up tabs to prevent items leaned on the bar from rolling off, and the the beds have those awesome tie down hooks and sweet tailgates.
 

bkg

Explorer
Incredibly cool and very well done! Really dig that you kept the coils, too!

Any interior pics?
 
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