Mike's desert adventure toy build - 4x4 AC

I've been looking to get into a Tundra for a reliable desert toy for some time, and after selling our last house and buying an older home that needs some work, the need for a pickup has grown tremendously. We have a handful of other "Toyotas", including a Lexus Gs400, Prius, and my Lexus Sc300 race car project, so I'm fairly familiar with the brand, love the known reliability of a properly maintained Toyota, and not afraid to get my hands dirty with them.

I found this 2000 AC 4x4 Sr5 with 212k miles cruising Craigslist one morning at work. It had no photos, but the price was right so I reached out to the seller to see if they could provide some. At first, I saw pictures and dismissed the truck altogether, but given the current market for trucks in my area I thought, what the heck, I can put in a little work, I'll just go look at it and see how it looks in person. It's a little rough around the edges, but after looking it over, seems to run well, and the price was right. It has also had the frame replaced under the recall, so while there is some rusting in a few areas, particularly the bed, the frame is in good shape. We decided to pull the trigger and took it home.

I'm really looking forward to getting this thing back into shape, and really just wanted to start a build thread so I can keep track of progress on it moving forward. As of now, I will be doing a minor lift/level, and will be replacing the whole front end on it so it's fresh. I've already ordered some OME front struts with 885 springs, JBA upper arms, Wheelers rear 3 leaf progressive AAL, bilstein 5100 rears, and all the regular maintenance stuff associated like LBJ, new LCA's and tie rod ends.

Here's how the truck looks as of today. I already threw LED's into all the interior lights because I couldn't see anything with the dim bulbs that were in there.

 

Over the weekend I did the valve cover gaskets and timing belt replacement. I'm not sure if this one has ever been done, so after pulling a timing cover last week I parked the truck until I got this addressed. Replaced with a full

$191 Aisin TKT021 AISIN TKT-021 Engine Timing Belt Kit with Water Pump - Compatible with Select Lexus GS400, GS430, GX470, LS400, LS430, LX470, SC400, SC430 Toyota 4Runner, Land Cruiser, Sequoia, Tundra

Aisin TKT021 kit, and did the fan bracket and clutch while I was at it. I also replaced the accessory drive tensioner and belt.

The old parts were definitely showing their age

 

My rear window latch inner folding arms were broken, and one of the main latch handles was missing altogether so I swung by my local junkyard and found only one latch handle available. It was from a truck with a tan interior, and mine is grey. This would have left me with mismatched latch handles so I decided I'd dye them both black with RIT dye, then put everything back together, replacing the inner arms with black aluminum replacements I got online. It's a small item, but the repair resulted an an oem look, with improved function and security, so I'm happy.

 

Welcome! It's black!

 

Thanks, and yes! All 4 of our "Toyotas" are black! The three pictured, plus my SC in the garage.

 

Did my plugs the other night and when I was done the truck sounded like it had a misfire. After tinkering I found that one of the welds on the resonator had cracked so it was leaking on one inlet. I knew the exhaust had been pieced together poorly, so I wasn't horribly surprised by this, just threw me off because I had just done plugs. It must have cracked when I pulled it into the driveway just before working on it. Anyway, I ran it up to the local muffler shop for a quote, then drove it home since they were booked for the day. As I pulled it in, the hanger broke, and the left pipe fell to the ground. Looking at it again, the other side of the resonator had cracked up as well so it sounded quite poor and too loud. It was obvious this needed immediate replacement.

Derp.

Anyway, took it back to the muffler shop today and they replaced everything from the cats back, as it was a junky mess. I forgot to take pictures of the original mess that was down there, but it was pretty haggard, rusty, and poorly welded. New setup is a simple 2-1 with Flowmaster Super 40 and they threw some random tip on it. I'll probably replace the tip since it's not really my style, but otherwise it's a tremendous improvement. It sounds nice, welded nice, and hopefully won't fall off on me again

Side note, if anyone in AZ has a tailgate in good shape, holler

 

Threw my Bilstein 5100 struts in the rear tonight. I've taken the past couple days to soak everything in my favorite penetrant, acetone and ATF.


I've read post after post about people taking hours fighting the upper nut on their rusted old struts, so I was dreading this a bit, especially since I have back problems and wasn't really thrilled about working the struts at an odd angle for an extended period of time. I spent about 5 minutes tinkering, realized this was going to take as long as I'd heard, and decided I wasn't going to torture myself with this any longer.

Enter my friend: ol faithful

With a 12" Diablo blade, I was able to easily reach the upper strut nuts and cut both sides off in about 2 minutes flat. This was the way to go, hands down. After cutting the uppers I undid the lower bolts, which came out easily, thanks to soaking in penetrant for days prior to this, and everything popped out as it should.


The rest of the install was pretty straightforward. I greased the new strut bushings with lithium grease before install to avoid squeaking in the future, and tightened everything up. Done for tonight as its already later than expected. The AAL should go in tomorrow, replacing the Hellwig helper leaf. Just a quick drive with just the rear struts is a tremendous difference, as the old struts were not providing much dampening any more, so I'm really excited to get the rest of the suspension, front and rear, together this weekend.

 

If you pop the tailgate inspection plate I bet you could beat out most of that dent

 

I actually did that the other day. I'd still like to replace it, as I couldn't get to all of it, but it looks quite a bit better for now.

 

Got the rear finished Saturday and started on the front, which is where the real fun began. There is quite a bit of corrosion on the front end components, so I knew I was in for a bit of wrestling. I also overlooked a few things, so burned up more time than I'd like to have, running around and getting the right tools to get everything done. In the end, most everything came out ok. I did use my Sawzall to cut out the lower control arm, and the bolt from the upper, and I had replacement bolts ready. I also ended up breaking one of the bolts that held in the lower ball joint, so that was fun drilling and tapping that.

At the end of my weekend, I have the rear completed, and only the passenger side done on the front. I'm pretty bummed I wasn't able to get this fully completed on both sides this weekend. I'll have to put the drivers side off for a couple days, or maybe until next weekend. Fortunately I have my GS to drive for work until I'm done.

Passenger side components together.


It's nice to see it from this side so I can get an idea of how everything will look. Obviously it'll still settle a bit, so we'll have to wait until I can get the drivers side finished, get it aligned, get my new wheels onto it, and get some miles on it.

 

Got the lift wrapped up last night after work. Fortunately the drivers side didn't give me as much guff as the passenger side, despite having more corrosion. The truck looks much better, and has a bit more clearance. Ignore my cam bolt alignment, it will go in on Friday for alignment and they're only a block away from the house, so the truck won't be driven until then.


I also did my did my diff drop while I was at it.


I'll be calling Discount in the morning to order tires for these TRD Pro wheels I got for a deal on Labor Day. Plan is a 285/70/17 BFG K02.

 

Looking great!

 

Finally got the truck aligned on Friday, so that was nice. This morning I was able to get my tires mounted on my wheels, and I'm stoked on how it came out. Drives great and looks great. I'm pretty happy with how this truck is coming along.

 

When I initially did the lift, I completely overlooked my rear bump stop situation, or lack thereof, until it was install time. Since I had already gotten everything apart before I left my brain haze and realized my rear stops were 100% deteriorated, I proceeded with the lift and figured I'd just add some later.

Anyway, I got my stops in and installed them this week. I went with the Durobumps after hearing that they were decent for offroad purposes. Super quick and easy install, only took a few minutes really.

What remained of my old stops. Just the plates LOL.


New Durobumps


Installed



Also took the truck out just before these came in so I took it pretty easy as I didn't want to blow out a new strut, so I'll have to get it back out and actually drive it a bit harder to see what these Durobumps are all about. Anyway, here's a few pics of the last time out.

 

Well, I was looking under the front to try to determine how rusty my existing front bump stops are, as I want to upgrade my fronts to the Durobumps as well, but I found I have a torn CV boot on the drivers side. Le sigh



So I've ordered the 930 EMPI boots and have them rushing shipping. I have plans to go hit a trail with a buddy next weekend so I'm hoping I can reboot these this week before that trip so I don't get dirt into the innards of the CV. Fortunately it doesn't look like they're covered in dirt now, so I'm hoping this occurred sometime this week during my work week, after I was in the desert last week. No clicking or anything yet, so fingers crossed they're in good enough shape for a simple reboot next week.

My brand new swaybar endlink is back there like

 

Well, I dont have much for pics of my CV repair, but I ended up just putting in a new axle for now, as I didn't get the right boot. I bought a boot for the inner, but my tear was on the outer. Brain fart moment I guess, so I just put a NAPA unit in for the time being while I got new boots.


All went well there, and we had a great time out. Ended up taking a 27 mile trip around 4 peaks, which put us right near the shooting spot my buddy and I frequent. Brought the ladies along as my copilots



The day after this trip, I could gear some clunking around up front so I started inspecting. Everything seemed tight until I pulled on the rack, and I realized my bushings were pretty shot. Threw the camera under the truck and gave it a wiggle and confirmed that I had a bit of play here.


Raising it up, I found that I had a lil clicking from the rack, and I have a lil leak on the passenger side. I decided to just bite the bullet and buy a new rack from Toyota, and ordered new oem tie rod ends while I was at it. Why not.


Old rack out. I also ordered polyurethane bushings to put into the new rack so I don't have to worry about the crappy oem bushings failing again down the line. Nothing like modifying brand new parts and voiding warranties




Just a comparison on the oem and poly bushings. Mind you, the ends of the oem are cut off on one side to remove them easier. The oem bushings have a lot of open space, and are made to allow quite a bit of movement, which I'm not a fan of. The full contact of the Poly makes it not only longer lasting, but makes steering considerably more responsive.



Anyway. New rack and tie rods are in. I think I got my measurements damn close to the alignment specs, as it drives fine for now, but I'm still taking it in for an alignment tomorrow.

 

That is a lot of work but it seems to be paying off! Sweet ride!

 

Thanks!

It's funny, I joke with the wife that someday I'll buy a nice new truck that doesn't need rehab like everything else that I buy. She says I'll just end up being bored. The reality is that I actually enjoy doing a full rehab on my vehicles, and both of my Lexus', plus this truck, have undergone a ton of work, not to mention all the other cars/trucks I've owned over the years. There's something nice about them all once they're dialed in, and you got to put everything together just the way you like.

 

That’s awesome. For some reason suspension work bothers me and I’ve been wanting to replace my lower ball joints lately…and I don’t want to pay someone else to do it. How easy would you say it is to replace these with a garage and basic hand tools with a Jack and Jack stands?

 

Way nice and now sounds like a dependable ride!!! Good job!!

 

This can be a pretty straightforward job if you have the right tools and your truck isn't as corroded as mine. Outside of regular hand tools, I'd recommend a torque wrench and ball joint puller. Unfortunately, on mine, one of my bolts broke in removal, so it took a bit longer after needing to drill and tap my knuckle.

 

Cool. I have everything except the ball joint puller. Thank you!

 

This thing looks great!

 

Thank you! Not too shabby for an old beater

 

Upgraded my front bump stops today. I did the durobumps for the front to pair with my set in the rear. The Durobumps only take the place of the rear bumpstops. Coachbuilder recommends bumpstop extensions for more than one spacer used. I've seen people use washers, as well as some smaller spacers cut from 1/4 plate for this. I didn't think the much larger spacers I've seen would be necessary as I am not running a huge spacer lift, and am just running a couple of the Coachbuilder plates. Anyway, I picked up some large washers from my local ACE and spaced both front and rear bumpstops with two washers each, which is about the thickness of one coachbuilder spacer, so I'm hoping this will be sufficient.

Before


Old/New side by side

With washers and loctite


Installed


Both sides with spacers


Both sides after putting the truck back on the ground. You can still see there's quite a bit of space. I'm open to opinions as to whether I need more spacer than this, or if this is enough.


I guess the next move is to go drive the hell out of the truck in the desert and see how they feel

 

Nice i always like first gen tundras!

 

Went to the shooting spot today. Then stopped on the way home and picked up a camper shell that was for sale. I'm still kinda undecided on whether I really want this or not. I love the functional side of it, as the cab has been getting a little full with tools, inflator, extra clothes, etc, and I could actually camp with this. I'm just not sure I like the look, even if I did paint it, which I intend to. I'll keep it on for a few days and see how I feel about it after a bit. If anything, I may just keep it on my side yard unless I'm using it.

 

If I could have a easier way to remove mine, I might think about taking it off when I’m not using it, but that’s hard to do right now.
You can fit a lot in, but it also makes it really difficult to load in a tight Tetris fashion, I take my tailgate off to load and unload usually.

 

Yeah, I dont know if it's realistic to expect to remove it regularly or not. Fortunately I dont carry that much. I just don't like leaving anything exposed in the bed, as I live in the city. I'd have honestly bought a Sequoia if I didn't expect to have an occasional need for a bed, so this is a decent compromise I think.