First gen total rebuild

I live in the SF Bay Area and I’m looking to completely rebuild my 01 Tundra SR5 automatic to a 4x4. Not a rock crawler but something that can handle the ruts. Looking for an auto engineer/designer and to outsource welding and electrical mods to get it bolt on ready. Not looking to break the bank with the highest end gear, but something capable. Thank you for any advice/direction

 

Welcome from NC! Lot of great members here that I am sure can point you in the right direction…let’s see some pics of it.

 

Except for the paint it’s stock and it needs a lotta love. I’m also looking to change the interior; seats, plastics, cluster gauge, audio, door plastics, front and center console, the works

 

Are you saying, you want to change your 2wd to a 4x4? If you’re not able to all that work yourself, it’d be cheaper to buy a different truck.

Edit: Welcome from SoCal!

 

That's a loooot of money and work knowing you could just buy a truck with the drivetrain you want. Is there a reason you're set on keeping the truck which has options you don't want? 4x4 swap is probably going to set you back at lest half the value of the truck, if not more.

 

Aside from whatever welding may be needed to get it bolt on ready. Not sure if that cost makes it not worth it, but it would be my project. Yes, I plan on installing everything on this with some help from a friend who is a retired mechanic.

 

Am I missing something cuz this is definitely not an 01, nice truck nonetheless. You’d probably better just getting a 4X4.

 

Typo it’s a 2004

 

I’m in the service/repair industry and have always wanted to customize a vehicle for practically and my comfort. Full lumbar support seating, advanced air filtration system, rubberized weathertech style flooring, weather/sound insulation, large moonroof. Still have to crunch the numbers to see if what I want is economically prudent. This is more of a research project as of right now but it would be fun to make it a reality. Just looking for ideas or resources. Limit is the imagination

 

I don't think that means what you think it means. JK

I would build it as the most capable 2WD you can and enjoy it. I'm doing that with the same truck, so obviously, that's what I would do...Yew!

 

Perfect candidate for a solid axle swap.

 

What’s “break the bank” mean to you. Cause the nonsense you’re talking is a 100k build.

Most people have these trucks because they are solid and reliable and don’t need all the creature comforts.

The only way I would ever convert a 2wd to 4wd would be if the truck had some sort of sentimental value. Even then, I still probably wouldn’t do it. Toyota has way to many electric gremlins to be playing around with.

 

This is kinda what I was alluding to earlier.

It's not like you just slap in a new diff and call it a day. 4x4 swap, at minimum, and I'm probably missing a few things:

• Diff, driveshaft, associated mechanical bits, and your gearing on front diff MUST match the gears you've got out back
• All of the sensors and wiring harnesses to link the ECU to the new hardware and see what state it's in
• Obviously, a new 4WD ECU, or someone who can re-flash yours (if even possible) and hope you don't need a 4WD engine harness (which I seem to recall you may)
• All of the interior panels and wiring: New 4WD center console, with 4HI/LO buttons, Shift L button if applicable for your truck, and you'll need to get one with the correct HVAC controls for your truck, or swap that over, instrument cluster, etc.
• Structural stuff, like 4WD crossmembers, and all the other little adaptable bits.

I was pretty conservative earlier saying it'll cost you "half the price of the truck", I'd expect a truck like what's pictured to go for $18-21k where you are in that shape. If you know wtf you're doing, can do it yourself or with free labor, and you have access to all the used parts cheap, I think you could get it done for $8.5 - $10.5k. If not, you can expect to double that. Again - you may as well buy a truck with the basics you need and built it up, there's so many available, just may take some patience.

But the pain doesn't end at the wallet. You also must consider the practical stuff Diablo brings up. Electrical gremlins, and "whack-a-mole" syndrome that people deal with trying to get this working, and may regularly deal with after it's complete. It's not like you're taking an entire drivetrain - like someone would do with an LS drivetrain swap. I've done that numerous times, it's not bad, you pull the ECU, harness, engine and tranny out of another vehicle and drop it into a donor, re-pin the harness, reprogram the ECU, start it up and iron out the wrinkles. That's easy in comparison, you're just taking the guts from one car and sticking into another chassis ripe to receive it, maybe fab some new engine mounts or a tranny crossmember. Taking one specific, critical component of a drivetrain that defines how all of the wheels turn and bolting it in ... totally different ballpark.

If you offroad with this thing, what happens when suddenly, mysteriously, won't engage or stops moving entirely? Do you call your mechanic that helped and ask him to come tow you home? How many times will you be able to do it?

I'll be eagerly watching if you actually choose to go through with this, and hoping you have some success. But I think 99% of the people who come here to say they're going to do this exact swap don't realize what they're getting into and grossly underestimate how difficult it is in any modern post-1999 vehicle.

 

I appreciate that input Shifty. I do have a sentimental attachment. $100k build with labor right? Budget idea was $25k Diablo. Reasonable if I do most of the labor? I figured $19k for parts with $6k for unforeseen costs, design fees, welding, framing the roof for the moonroof install. I’ll be gutting it. New drivetrain, suspension, electrical system, doing most of the work myself aside from the drivetrain and moonroof installation. Just using the truck as a chassis. I may actually want to make it a bit of a rock crawler. Nothing competition based by any means, but reasonably capable. Perhaps my budget is too low

 

Run the numbers, real-life numbers, component by component, but do it with someone who has a very clear vision of everything that's needed from start to completion.

I'll give one bit of advice, coming from one of at least a couple guys here with drivetrain swapping experience. You're figuring ~30% overage for unforseen parts costs. Real-world, that number probably should be bare minimum of 50% for parts alone. For something simple like just a simple engine swap, 30% would be plenty.

"Why?" you may ask? You won't be able to find everything off the shelf on something like this. For the adaptive things, you'll pay a premium for R&D. Then, if you need that one thing that's not made, and must go used, Murphy's law dictates the only one you'll find is going to be outrageously priced, and the person who has it will know exactly what it's worth.

That doesn't include labor. I can't comment on labor, because I don't know what you're capable of doing and/or what support you have in place, what tools and experience you have at your disposal. My rule of thumb is to try my best to identify the work I know I absolutely can't get right easily - like figuring out drive line angles or fabricating drive shafts which are 1,000% critical on something like this - and determine how many hours labor, then multiply that times $150/hr just for the labor, not the parts.

Crack open a spreadsheet. Make columns for "Thing to do", "Labor hours", "Cost of parts", "New or Used?" to start. Line-item things you're wanting to do, one task per row. You may want to start with a header for the row: "Interior stuff", "Drivetrain stuff", "Exterior stuff", for example, then line-item rows, indented under it.

Everyone has their thing they want to do. You seem serious, and that's cool. You'll be upside-down on this thing almost out-the-gate, and I can tell you from painful experience, if you start this and don't finish it, you'll be lucky to sell for 1/3 - 1/2 the actual value of the pile of parts. Unfinished projects suck to offload because the buyer has no way of knowing what's good and what isn't, it's a huge f'n risk, and you'll pay dearly for that. Your all-in attitude is a damn requirement here.

 

If you are dead set on proceeding hit up Mike Shaffer over in Union City, great guy who knows his shit.

https://www.shaffersoffroad.com/

 

Its more like

• 4x4 trans with transfer case
• Trans mounts
• Front/rear drive shafts
• Front axles
• 4x4 spindles, or get the 4x4 hubs and press i to your 2wd spindles
• 4x4 control module (separate from engine ecu, you don't need to mess with the engine ecu and the harness plug is there in the passenger kick panel)
• Center dash bezel with 4wd buttons, plugs/harness are there already
• A bit of harness for the ADD
• A bit of wiring to extend the speedo harness

If you are lucky you can get it all off a scrap truck for fairly cheap but its best to use the same year and model. There are differences in wiring between years and 04 is a bit of a bastard. I've seen guys get the parts under $2k. Thats roughly what a premium mid travel suspension costs and you could reason that 4wd will benefit you more than mid travel. The work itself doesn't look too hard aside from swapping the transmission.

Edit- the "worth doing" is if you are capable of doing the work yourself. If you pay a shop you'll be broke.

 

Your budget is probably fine as long as you do a few things.

1) Decide exactly what you want from your truck. Where do you plan to drive it? Out in the desert sand? Crawling through the rock scapes of Utah? Plowing through mud? Maybe a bit of all? It's a game of matching parts to purpose and sometimes you can compromise. If you want a desert runner, long travel suspension, body panels, and frame reinforcement will eat your budget fast, however, you won't necessarily need a 4x4 conversion. If you want a mud truck, long travel is not necessary, you can run a slight lift for bigger tires or even a bracket lift, but a 4x4 conversion would be the best bet. If you want rock crawler action you need the 4x4 and you can take the opportunity to add a solid axle up front. It's a lot of fabrication work but if you google "sas tundra" you can see how others got through. This is the most crticial thing, so many of us have thrown money at parts and changed directions after. That destroys budgets.

2) Once you're decided on the expectations for your truck, start looking into parts. This is where expectations matter. Make a list of the parts that make sense. Don't stop at suspension and drive train. Think about armor. Bumpers, sliders, skid plates alone can run you $4k if you don't build them yourself.

3) Be realistic about what work you and your friend can do correctly and what work needs hired hands. The 4x4 swap you can do if you use stock Toyota parts. A 4x4 swap with solid axle may be a different story since you'll be making a Frankenstein and redesigning the front suspension, steering and brakes. Really do the research with the idea of "here is my goal. Here are the steps to get there. Am I willing to go that way?"

 

Budget is $25k? Buy identical truck but in 4wd and keep both. Use leftovers to pay extra insurance and prop tax on a second vehicle.

 

easy enough on a 04 first you get a 4wd transmission out of an 03-04 jshift transfer case (no need for electronics) front diff axles and spindles You can lock out the front diff acuator with a hose clamp so all of your shifting is done with out electronics in the transfer case