My Dad and I are heading to San Bernardino this coming Friday for a father son road trip! I can't wait.. My cousin Neil has graciously offered the use of his car hauler, so we're excited to have a good reliable trailer to pick up the frame with. Today I got the oil changed in the 4-runner as well as new windshield wipers, filters, and topped off all the fluids.. Monday I'll get the tires rotated and make sure they're road worthy (they'd better be.. the tires are less than a year old).
So what exactly are we picking up? Well I'm glad you asked! :)
We started out just looking for a build up of a base chassis to update the truck from its current antique stage to a much more road worthy, high performance state..
The base chassis comes with 2x4 main rails and cross members, complete frame with sub-structure cab mounts, bed mounts, core support mounts, complete coilover Front suspension with Power rack & pinion, Fatbar 4-link rear suspension with billet coilovers, Outboard Power Brake system with pedal and remote full master cylinder, along with motor and trans mounts.
We couldn't stop there though, we've also added a new custom made 21 gallon aluminum fuel tank that sits at the back of the truck underneath the bed between the frame rails behind the rear axle. I also had them run all of the fuel lines to complete the job.
The back of the chassis is pro-street style which means that the shocks and mounting hardware are on the inside of the frame to allow maximum clearance for big #$% tires! :) Here's an example of a pro-street rear end. Note that this is not a picture of my frame, I haven't received pictures of ours yet.. but this is a very similar frame built by No Limit Engineering for a'56 Chevy Pickup.. It does have the same style and size Mickey Thompson tires on it though!
We also added a Currie 9" Ford Rear end with a Detroit Locker posi-traction, complete brake plumbing thru-frame fittings with stainless steel lines, had them mount the engine which we had shipped to them from Doug Herbert Performance Engines so they could attach the fuel lines, headers etc. I can't wait..Once we have the frame back to Utah, the fun begins.. We'll completely strip down the original truck and start going through it to see what can be re-used in the restoration.. Anything with rust, corrosion or damage is getting tossed and replaced with new parts. There are a few local shops that offer media blasting at pretty reasonable rates, so we'll take the metal parts over to them to have them cleaned up to see what we have to work with.
I'll post some pictures of the new frame when we pick it up, so stay tuned!
