Basic Toyota Buggy Rebuild

[tac1]

Starting this thread to capture the rebuild of a used toyota buggy I purchased.

A little history: Interested in vehicles my whole life, got into off-roading after purchasing a samurai and meeting some like minded friends in the early/mid 2000s.

Samurai progressed to toyota axles, 36” swampers, and the typical parts for the time. Samurai took a nasty multiple time end over end roll. I got really lucky I walked away minus a black eye. From here I took cages, belts, and tool storage a lot more seriously. Sadly this was the digital camera/photobucket era and most of the pictures are gone. Here is the only one I could find from the roll in 2009. It ended up parted out.

Few years later, $1500 clean 1996 cherokee on the side of the road, lower mileage, decent shape, daily drove it for 3 years. Started patching some rust, while the floor is out good time to cage it. Wheeled it pretty often for the next 5 years, stated traveling further away, harder trails, great times, broke parts, axle swaps, suspension builds, ect. 2017 started trying to work for myself, less wheeling time/money xj sat unused. I sold it in 2019 semi-local the new owner has had it out quite a bit and done some nice work to it.

Years passed I wanted a new rig. I wanted to do it from scratch but time, money, and shop space were not on my side. I started looking used, the sub $10k buggy, truggy, juggy used market is kinda rough here. Lots of junk, hammered old builds, incomplete projects.

Then I found this, based on an 1984 4runner 22r, 5speed, dual cases, toyota 8” axles with the parts catalog thrown at them, 4link rear with air shocks, psc hydraulic steering. Older build, the cage/chassis fab work was really well done. Seller knew very little about it. Pretty clear, it had been through some owners; parts robbed off, neglected a bit, engine was not healthy, but no real signs of hard use or damage. As I brought it home.

 

[tac1]

It had good bones but needed a lot of tlc. My first list was.

Tons of knuckle/wheel bearing play, unknown gears/locker
Rear wheel bearing completely shot, unknown gears/locker
Lots of blow-by low compression, one dead cylinder
Rear case held on by 2 bolts, shifter by none
Seats not mounted
Had 40” swampers with fist sized chunks that didn't hold air long

I started with the axles. Front was a pretty straight forward rebuild. It had 5.29 gears, detroit, longs, and six shooter knuckles. I did new seals and the normal greasing.

Pneumatic hammer with a brass tip works awesome for the cone washers. Wish I found this 20 years ago

Made a 3rd member holder

Rear axle was pretty rough trashed gears, welded carrier. It got new 5.29 and and arb. I like the auto locker front, arb combo with cutting brakes for the riding we do.

 

[tac1]

After the axles it sat for a while trying to collect parts and save money. Goforth had a great deal on 39 sticky iroks, cleaned up the old wheels I think they are early allied beadlocks

Found a good running 22r. Went through it with all the normal stuff head gasket, timing chain, seals etc

Rebuilt the transfer case setup. It is now 23 spline, front case is top shift, twin sticks, and 4.7 gears in the rear case.

 

[tac1]

Then on to the part I enjoy more, building things. The floor was original from the firewall back to the rear 4link crossmember. It was pretty hacked up so we removed all of it. I'm pretty sure the slider and rocker tube work was done when it was less buggy. It also got chopped off.

One of the main things I wanted to address was the b-pillar not tied in to the rockers/frame, circled in red

I used .120 wall 2x2 square for the new "rocker", some form of tree kicker will be added back in. It will be trimmed/capped to match the down tubes at the end.

New floor “frame” seat mounts, and removable tunnel

 

[tac1]

Couple lessons learned from the xj. Make panels removable for easier access/maintenance later on and do everything possible to reduce exhaust heat on the floor.

I re-did the exhaust using an old flowmaster. Flex pipe after the header flange and hard mounted out the back with v-bands. It comes out in 3 parts

From here I started on the floor panels, my wife did an awesome job on the templates. 14ga steel flanges panels are .060" aluminum.

 

[chaplinfj60]

love the seat adjustments...

 

[tac1]

love the seat adjustments...

Thanks I've done several like this. Usually they end up all warped and twisted, I beat the seats in and never touch them again. My jigs and heat control are improving this set may actually work.

 

[chaplinfj60]

so cool

 

[chaplinfj60]

you maybe doing this allready but if you use a steel rod and connect the outside to the inside its super easy to pull seat. the only drama is you need a hole in the panel or remove the panel.

 

[Blase]

In to see how it turns out. Work so far is all top notch!! Very Very nice. Thanks for posting it.


As stated already love the seat mounts!!! I did something similar but you did it WAY better IMO. I added tubes for mine since I didn't replace or brace the factory floor. I like yours better! LOL

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Nice build!!

 

[Arickvan]

very nice

this is giving me some ideas on chopping my floor out to gain some head/leg room

 

[jhama78]

Clean work cool to see an old rig get some love.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Wish I would have done this when I mounted my seats.

I wanted them cage/frame mounted, so I cut slots in the floor to weld 1.5 square to the frame and boat sides. I'm very confident in it's strength, but working with the stock floor sucked. This looks way better

 

[tac1]

This pretty much brings the thread up to date. I'm trying to get the floor, rockers, seats, and console painted and wrapped up this weekend.

Overall the seats fit pretty well, plenty of head room even if I had a helmet on.

 

[tac1]

Corrected some of the harness angles, they were ok by the prp paper but closer to ideal now

Thanks for the comments on the floor, I'm really happy with it. All comes out in minutes with a small impact. I'm going to tack and seam seal the old floor to the square tube, the console overlaps about 2" im going to do a rubber seal there. Not really sealed but decently covered.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Too late now, but you could have just pulled the tabs off the belts and ran them around the tube.

 

[FleshEater]

Any plans to add support to the A pillar? Looks like that could mess up the chassis on a hard roll.

 

[tac1]

Too late now, but you could have just pulled the tabs off the belts and ran them around the tube.

They were wrapped, I wanted to raise them a bit to get a better angle going through the seat with it in the back position. Probably no difference crawling at low speed but one less thought in the back of my mind.

Any plans to add support to the A pillar? Looks like that could mess up the chassis on a hard roll.

I have some plans/ideas, open to others. I wanted to get the seats/interior/rocker rails in place and see how hard it is to get in and out of. I use my rig as a utv/tractor/skidder around my property so in and out is a bit of a priority. I'd like to double the a-pillar with a slightly smaller tube, paint image below, possibly setup for doors.

 

[FleshEater]

They were wrapped, I wanted to raise them a bit to get a better angle going through the seat with it in the back position. Probably no difference crawling at low speed but one less though in the back of my mind.



I have some plans/ideas, open to others. I wanted to get the seats/interior/rocker rails in place and see how hard it is to get in and out of. I use my rig as a utv/tractor/skidder around my property so in and out is a bit of a priority. I'd like to double the a-pillar with a slightly smaller tube, paint image below, possibly setup for doors.

I’m no expert by any means but that looks like it would help a lot. Also shouldn’t make it too hard to get in and out of. That loop down will be really nice for that.

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Looks great, sure would like to find one like this someday.

 

[untchabl]

Good to see another rig with the 39" Irok stickies, not many people running them. I've been happy with mine so far.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

They were wrapped, I wanted to raise them a bit to get a better angle going through the seat with it in the back position. Probably no difference crawling at low speed but one less thought in the back of my mind.



I have some plans/ideas, open to others. I wanted to get the seats/interior/rocker rails in place and see how hard it is to get in and out of. I use my rig as a utv/tractor/skidder around my property so in and out is a bit of a priority. I'd like to double the a-pillar with a slightly smaller tube, paint image below, possibly setup for doors.

Personally, I don't see that doing much.

Your b pillar area is obviously very stout, which does help. I think i would just add a gusset where the little horizontal black line is and call it good.

 

[chaplinfj60]

added benefit of the extra bar is it provides a simple mirror mount for the drivers side.

 

[tac1]

Good to see another rig with the 39" Irok stickies, not many people running them. I've been happy with mine so far.

Glad to hear it. I've had 36 and 37 iroks on samurais before and was happy with them.

Personally, I don't see that doing much.

Your b pillar area is obviously very stout, which does help. I think i would just add a gusset where the little horizontal black line is and call it good.

I agree a gusset there would be best gain for minimal work short term.

Wrapping up the interior parts as I need my shop empty for paying jobs the next couple weeks

Really happy with the transmission tunnel, maybe got a bit carried away with the rivets, I just bought an m12 rivet gun

 

[Etyler2]

Looks good!

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

That trans tunnel looks fake.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Awesome job on the interior.

 

[Roktoy829]

Looking great. How well are the rivets going to hold up?