3rd gen pick up Sliders and Exo

[Provience]

trying out a copy and paste of somebody else's content, with permission. shorter thread, curious if i can get it done before going to bed

YotaAtieToo

Doing some work on a buddies truck before it gets (more) destroyed

Truck started life as a very clean 2nd gen. Years ago he brought it to our shop and we did a TG sas and rear suspension. Dual cases and 4.7, lockers, bumpers and Sliders. After years of thrashing it a frame swap and an extremely extended cab/engine swap, I'm doing some more on it.

Doing some Sliders. He cut the trail gear Sliders off when he did the cab swap since they were so smashed you couldn't open the door. I don't understand why people think 120 wall is enough for Sliders. I showed him how I did the Sliders on my 4runner and he liked it. So away with the rockers and in goes 2x3x3/16 box. I used 2x2x1/8 for the frame tie ins to same a little weight since they won't be taking the hits.

Unfortunately soup bowl had its way with the passenger side before I did if he get a new door it should be easy enough to flatten out.

Cut some simple gussets out of the same 2x2

The plan is also for a partial exo, similar to the one I did on my 4runner. I've always hated how the b pillar on exos seem to catch on stuff, but it also sucks to hammer your door sticker area and not be able to put a new door on it. I have some ideas, but haven't decided yet how I'll do it.

 

[Provience]

Alex123456 said:
I also hate round tube sliders, both for function and form.

Looks great.
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I'm not against round tube at all, just has to be something substantial. For on the cheap, we used to use 1.5 schd 80 (1 7/8x.200)

I plan to build some for our 3rd gen 4runner out of 2x3 also and then have 1 3/4x188 step/kick outs to keep the rocks away.

Did the rear hoop today, needs a little tweaking but you get the idea.

Got a bunch done today, 188 wall is tiring to work with🤣

Hoop is 120, X is 090 and the b pillar is 188 plus the 120 square. Overkill on thickness, but it would have looked like shit with just the round tube in there. Hindsight, if I did it again I'd move the bar back a little and just cut the corner off the cab if that makes sense. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it.

Fender bar is kinda ugly, but I didn't want to over complicate it, plus it will be covered anyway.

 

[Provience]

Caught up the other side and the bar above the windshield.

..

Copied the cowl bar from my 4runner, will need to trim the hood, or just not open it very far 🤣

Normally do the typical center bar and the a V to each corner above the windshield. Decided to try something different on the one.

 

[Provience]

the_white_shadow said:
The cowl bar is the hardest part of the exo to make look clean IMO. Especially if you are retaining the wipers.

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If you want to retain the hood opening all the way without cutting it, yes, it's pretty hard. My buddy did one through the cowl space, which I wanted to do but it would have made doing the upside-down V really hard.

The hardest bars I've done were the c pillar hoop on a 3rd gen or Tacoma ex cab. They are super funny shaped and angle forward.

I ended up redoing the roof to make the bars sit lower in the front. Looks much better. Also did the center bars. I had planned on doing 1" tube( I think mine were ~1.25") but it just looked like it wouldn't do anything.

Had my buddy who manages a hitch and weld shop shear these up to make it easier.

I just have a few gusset tubes and final welding left. I'd like to pull the majority of it off and fully weld it, but it's going to be a pain. I may just lift it up 6" or so and cover the cab with a welding blanket.

Finished up a few gussets before pulling the cage off.

 

[Provience]

theytookmyname said:
planning to keep the bed?

I like all of the detail going into the exo
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He's keeping the bed. He said he doesn't care about it getting smashed, but I may see if he wants to just run a single tube right on top of the bed rail to keep it from completely smashing in.

Thanks, I'm actually enjoying this stuff for the first time in a while. I usually get frustrated and burnt out quickly

Couple more pics

Got it welded up, underside painted, back on and mostly welded on. Forgot to take pics

He said not to worry about the bed tube, but to go ahead and move the gas tank and build the door bars. Not sure how I'm going to run the tubes for that yet.

...

Well, I fucked up I don't think leaving the hinges on when the doors are off is a good idea for what he's got planned.

I sanded the tube a bit to help, probably have to get allen heads, oh well.

2 options I came up with for the doors, I think we both like B.

Option A

Option B, obviously it's not exact, but you get the idea.

 

[Provience]

Also got the gas tank roughed in there. Should work out well. I would like it a little lower, but exhaust is in the way as it is.

Finished up the tank mounts

Tried to rotate the fuel pump to point the lines in the right direction, but of course the pattern is asymmetrical

So I used a brake line bender to get them pointed more in the right direction. Worked well because the lines all reached.

Also got the bed cut an back in its home. I did fuck up and added an inch to the depth of the cut instead of subtracted, so there is a much larger gap than I hoped. I have a plan to make it work though.

 

[Provience]

Fixed the rear bumper. When we built it ~12 years ago, the truck was so clean we didn't want to cut a hole in the body to brace the the frame, we figured he wasn't going wheel it hard enough to matter. Well after years of abuse, 1 side was gone and 1 was cracking. Sides are 188 and braced to the frame, should be pretty good now.

Got some material and hardware to button up the bed. Going to put the front bed panel in right behind the tank and use the piece I cut out as a little deck to protect the lines and wiring. Wont be super bling, as I'll be using good old angle iron and probably some self trappers, but it will be functional


Finished up the bed stuff, made it all screw in so that way if he ever gets a new bed, he can just cut the hole and drop this in. Came out decent for a few hours of work, kinda makes for a nice place to throw certain things. Would be easy to fully enclosure it, but he said fuck it.

Got the driver side door done, I always wanted to do this to my 4runner with all 4 doors, neat to finally do it on something. The only worry I have is that after a few good hits, it may be hard to bolt back on, but it's only steel, can always be chopped up or bent back, or even redone.

I'm sure some will question the strength of the bolts, I designed the plates to take all the stress, the bolts really just hold it on.

2" 120, cut in half. Drilled through and used 3/8 ID tube for a sleeve.

 

[Provience]

Drilled and tapped the tube (almost 3/8 thick right there) and made a plate out of 3/16"

I wanted to bend up some 1/8", but I can only do 20" in my brake. So I did the redneck bling method and sanded the corner of some angle for the bolts I drilled all the way through, then drilled only the bottom out to 3/4 and used to 5/8 ID tube so the Allen could sit up against the upper wall of the tube, yet the tube is still sealed.

I also went full length to make it easier to panel in if he decides.

Driver side all done.

hodgiemoto said:
Are you concerned about the cage rubbing on the cab with such tight tolerances? My cage has about 3/4" gap and it hits on the body once in awhile. It's only 1.5" tube tho..
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Not at all, the point isn't to try and keep the body in perfect shape, it's to keep the occupants safe and hopefully keep the glass and ability to mount doors intact.

Buttoned up this thing today.

Cut a piece out of the hood and then riveted on some rubber, super bling, I know

All back together again, if only it was all 1 color, it would look good

 

[Provience]

editors note - aaaaaaand then we never got any updates outside of it getting pushed out of the garage Parks should be opening back up here shortly for *gasp* legal public access to public land

 

[Provience]

let me know if this works for you feel free to add away or just say something and i can delete/edit

edit: and edit your link in the pre-96 sticky thread 👼

 

[Thefishguy77]

Looks great. All pics seem to be there.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Damn dude!

​​​​​Thanks for doing all that

 

[Provience]

I think at first there is going to ultimately need to be a bit of this copy/paste stuff. this took me about a half hour, and that was with spending a few minutes talking to my wife about the frustrations caused by the policy/content control change on the old site