Resurrecting a Beater - The Adventures of 'Roony

I'm starting this thread on behalf of a good friend and housemate who recently acquired a 2000 Tundra TRD, which has been nicknamed 'Roony due to being maroon. Over the course of this build he'll be chiming in as well.

As the automotive adage goes, "buy the best example of the vehicle you want". This went out the window when he picked up the cheapest Tundra in the state. $3,200 cash and it was his. It needs a bit of love, but has good bones. Being a Colorado Toyota rust is pretty minimal.

The intended purpose of this truck is to be a winter daily, a camping truck, light duty tow-rig, and a snow plow host when needed.





(My 80 in the background - a 1997 LX)



As far as we can tell it's been in one accident and had the fender and bumper replaced. At some point the door will be replaced but it is functional for now. The window goes up and down, but only the exterior handle works. Thankfully, the frame is still straight.



The interior is about as clean as one would expect for a truck of this age and mileage.





The seller was kind enough to include a generic timing belt kit, which is desperately needed. We plan on getting an OEM Toyota belt to replace the one from this kit. Thankfully he has another car to drive while we gather parts and tools for the job. The Tundra is going to stay parked until the TB job is done.



It currently has 228,718 miles on the clock, so the break-in period has been completed.



A quick check with the CEL scanner indicated that some oxygen sensors may be needed. I'll have to look again but I think it's P0135. No other codes are being thrown.

Under the hood, everything appears to be solid. All fluids are clean, nothing leaks as far as we can tell, and the battery is new. No milkshake in the radiator. Transmission works as it should. AC and heat are fine. 4-Hi and 4-Lo engage easily. No weird smoke coming from the exhaust. Overall it seems pretty mechanically sound but cosmetically rough.



The front end is... loose. There are a lot of worn components in the steering department. Per the previous owner the brakes were done pretty recently. Wheel bearings may also be needed. There's play when wiggling the wheel at 3 and 9, but not at 12 and 6, so the ball joints may be ok for now.




This is going to be a joint wrenching effort and we have our work cut out for us. We're both mechanically competent and have all the tools required to get this thing fixed up. The short term to-do list:
- Timing belt
- Radiator (seems fine but might as well replace it while it's out for the TB)
- Tie rod ends
- Sway bar links
- New tires (probably 33's/285's, currently on 31's/265's)
- Odds and ends like bulbs and making the radio work
- Buff out headlights
- Replacing the hood latch
- Wheel bearings
- Fix interior door handle
- Properly attach bed topper

Some of the long term goals:
- Custom bumper to host a winch and a 2" receiver for a snow plow
- Maybe a lift and larger tires
- If 35's, regear
- Lockers
- Replace the smashed door
- Make it pretty/one color

So yeah. We're looking forward to being part of the community! Thanks for reading.

 

looks like you guys will have fun with this

 

She's rough, hopefully the frame is in decent shape? a good wire wheeling and oil rub may be in order. Good call on the OEM timing belt. It would seem much of the exterior is being held together by ratchet straps. Worrisome. Lots of good info in here to help you with your journey, good luck!

 

Thank you! Should be a fun project.

The frame appears solid, only minimal surface rust and no damage from the side impact.





While poking around under the truck I realized a spare tire needs to go onto the shopping list.

As far as the ratchet straps go, they're only holding the hood shut and the topper on. The bumper is securely bolted on. We have a new latch for the hood to install, and the topper is coming off until we find proper hardware.

I also tore the door open to find out why the interior handle didn't work. Turns out the cable had snapped. Looks like it's a $20 part, should be easy to take care of. Going to hold off on ordering it until we track down a whole new door to see what's included with it. The temporary fix included the handyman's alternative secret weapon - baling wire.

 

Frame doesn't look bad! Good luck with your projects. That cable that broke looks to be in fine shape, I would investigate further why it broke. May have something binding the door that made the cable pull effort too high causing it to snap.

 

I'm in Denver and have some random door spare parts from a sequoia door I bought and stripped. Do you want the interior handle and cable? $free.99

 

Thank you! I didn't feel a ton of binding in the mechanism in the door latch assembly itself, and the handle seems fine too. Do these ever just wear out on their own? Otherwise I'd guess the door taking a hit might have had something to do with it.

Deal! PM sent.

 

It's been a hot minute since the last update, shout out to rock climber for helping us get the door fixed. The supplied cable dropped right in.

Other things that have been done since March:
- New brake caliper on front passenger side
- New sway bar end links
- New tie rod ends
- Properly affixed the topper
- New radio
- Burnt bulbs replaced

The sway bar end links were definitely overdue for replacement.



We also wanted to do a shakedown to see how capable the truck is, so we took it to a nearby 4x4 loop and did some moderate off-roading.



The truck ran the trail with relative ease when aired down to 20psi. The skid did meet a rock at one point but it was a pretty minor hit.

'Roony was also put to work doing truck stuff, hauling gravel and pavers, and various brewery related things like kegs and cases of beer.

This weekend we started to tackle the timing belt, water pump, alternator, radiator, etc etc.



Fred was a valuable assistant throughout the process.



Everything came apart easily, all hardware bagged and tagged as it came out and parts laid out in the order they were removed. The belt didn't look too bad, but it's probably a good thing to be doing anyway.



We did have to get creative in order to get the impact gun onto the harmonic balancer/crank bolt....





Some torque was definitely lost through all of the extensions, but eventually the impact gun prevailed.

But here's where things came to a grinding halt: The water pump came out and we noticed that the gasket was a metal/rubber hybrid. The new one from the kit the previous owner included was paper. After some Google searches we decided it would be better to toss the paper gasket and get the correct one. It should be picked up today and progress can continue on this project.



Should have more updates soon. Thanks for reading!

 

Sourced the correct gasket for the water pump and continued work. Torquing everything to spec as we go.



The next snag was a broken tensioner. Should have had one ready to go but it was one of those things that was overlooked when ordering parts.



Speaking of things that broke... one of the Youtube videos we were following indicated that a 2x4 with some holes drilled was an appropriate replacement for the correct tool to hold the crank in place while torquing things can in place.

A 2x4. Right.



After some head scratching and digging around in the shed, a strap wrench was cobbled together by using the old serpentine belt and the breaker pipe.







This obviously isn't the ideal way to torque things down, but the wrench clicked a few times and another piece of the puzzle was done.

 

Well done sir! I love your ingenuity.

 

Nice work so far! For $3200 I'd gladly rack up more miles on that Tundra.

 

Appreciate the comments everybody!



I was out of town for the last few days but more progress has been made.



J decided to upgrade the alternator vs. going with an OEM unit. Apparently these are pretty good. The new unit bolted up without a fuss. The old one will be rebuilt and kept as a spare. The red adds +15 horsepower and torque.



More reassembly.



The pile of remaining parts and hardware is dwindling. Seriously folks, if you're doing this for the first time, lay everything out and label it precisely. It makes things go so smoothly.



Since the radiator is out, might add well put a new one in with fresh fluids.





Hopefully more progress will be made tonight, it'll be nice to have this wrapped up.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? The radiator from the Toyota dealer had the hose outlets on the wrong side. Was there a mid- production design change?

The new one after dropping it in and realizing it was wrong:



The old one:



The truck was needed for truck things this week so we cleaned up the old radiator and slapped it back in. The incorrect part will either get returned or exchanged.

Before wrapping up we also did an oil change.



Runs like a champ! Really happy that this is done.

 

I think you either ordered the wrong radiator or they shipped the wrong one. I zoomed in and searched the part# on top. I think it says 16410-AZ057. Google is saying that's the radiator for the 3.4L V6 offered for our trucks.


The correct part # should be

$151 221-0517 Radiator

221-0517