Topic: Help - 84 Frame under 1st Gen

[Gtrobb]

The frame on my 81 is in pretty bad shape - previous owner (at least two owners ago) patched both sides in rear, but I'm not comfortable with it. I've been looking for a good 1st gen frame in my area (Western NC), but all I have come up with is a 2wd. Good friends (one a professional welder with a lot of chassis experience) have offered to help cut the 2wd and replace cab-back, but I have found more rot under passenger foot and driver's front spring-rear hangar on my frame.

However, I have located an 84 frame in GREAT shape. What am I looking at to swap everything over to this frame? Will all of my 81 stuff work? What am I going to need to tackle as far as "modifying/moving"on the 84?

This is a daly-driver, so I am looking for longevity and dependability (the high steer/IFS box conversion will have to wait) and I need to use as much of what I already have as possible - new bushings, motor mounts, hoses, etc are going to take a big bite.

I 've searched and read a lot of posts on frame repair/cab swaps, but nothing on a 1st gen to 2nd gen frame swap. I did find a thread discussing a 2nd gen ARB bumper on a 1st gen, but all it mentioned was that the front body mounts would be a little wider on the 2nd gen.
I did pull the frame schematics from Pirate's Toyota FAQ thread, but I am converting the metrics to inches on those.

I was hoping to learn from someone's experince here...opinions welcome (use the 84, use the back half of the 2wd, or use the entire 2wd adding spring hangars, etc.

Thanks.

[jimbo74]

using the 4x2 wouldnt be too bad really... you could use any of the SAS kits out there and it wouldnt be bad.... also with the arch of the 4x2 in the front, you can run hysteer and all that stuff later with less lift as the frame arches higher.... you would be basically retrofitting a 4x2 frame with an sas, and 4x4 conversion, you already have the parts, so you will jsut need new tranny/tcase mounts and the spring hangars really....

[79coyotefrg]

the 84 frame isnt that big of deal

go with the 84 frame

[89 toy]

the cab mounts are different they wont line up and the bed mounts are way different on a 84 the front bed mounts are tall on the 81 they are low and the mounts on the bed itself drop down. just use the 4x2 frame and add a sas kit

[jimbo74]

the front bed mounts arent a big deal, i jsut left mine off... i have a 4x4 83 bobbed shortbed on my 85 4x2 truck

[79coyotefrg]

i stand corrected,   Me> < Me

[toybuilt]

A 84 cab is a couple inches longer than a first generation cab, but I beleave the only mount that you would have to move back is the 3rd (last) cab body mount 

[Gtrobb [OP]]

Thanks for all the input, but I have solved the problem.  I brought home an 83 4x shortbed frame Saturday. Truck had 109,000 miles, but had not seen a lot of salt. Frame is in GREAT shape - all of the body mount pucks are still excellent and very pliable. Brake and fuel hard lines are also in good shape as truck was only sitting 2 or 3 months. Frame also came with gas tank skid, tranny crossmember, and power steering box - and I was able to get a nice set of rear flares and the passenger fender I needed as well.

Plan now is for full frame-up resto. I did a full frame-up on a CJ5 about 4 years ago (which was sold for down payment on my house), so I am pretty pumped to get started on my Toy. I'll start a thread over in Projects when I can get started on this.