2003 Access Cab 2wd Revived from sitting since 2019 Build Thread

Hello everyone. I have been posting on here as I work to get my dad's truck back on the road and decided to make a build thread for it and link previous comments and issues here plus add all of the photos I have so far as well. Photos will be added later since my phone doesn't like to upload them at my work location.


Background:

My dad bought the truck used in 2006 after the original owner traded it in with "placeholder" miles on it. I have the original window sticker from purchase plus all of the paperwork from my dad's purchase. My dad used it for commuting to work as a machinist at John Deere and also his side business doing animal damage control work around the Quad City area in Illinois. He bought this truck after he totaled his 1st Gen Tacoma Extended cab.


In 2015, his kidneys started to fail, and he started dialysis, and the truck started to sit for long periods of time as my mom wouldn't drive it unless he absolutely had to and dad started driving less. At this time, it was around 125k miles on it.


In Dec 2018, they took it in to be serviced to get it ready to try and sell it and the dealership found several cracks in the frame. I had looked up the situation at that point when he told me and saw that some people were getting frame replacements and others were getting their trucks bought out from them (which I later found out was much earlier) and the dealership ordered his new frame. 4 months later, they get the truck back in Mar 2019. They told them that it needed a new axle as the current one was rusty and leaking as well. So, since they didn't have the money at the time to fix it, it was parked next to the driveway and there it sat until my first trip up to help them start going through stuff in Sep 2021.


2021 Pictures Here:


When I first saw the truck, it was full of leaves and limbs in the bed and hadn't been started since it was parked. I was able to jump and get it running while I was there for the week and looked it over. Wheels started turning at that point that I wanted the truck but at the time, I was getting ready to start my new job and we had just moved to TN. I started my research here and started coming up with a plan, but life delayed all of that until the summer of 2024.


Summer 2024 Pictures:



Went home to see the family in July 2024 and I took my daughter with to do some more work around the parents’ house. The wife and I were discussing some automobile purchase options one being getting my dad's truck back on the road as well as her buying her uncle's Chevy Master Deluxe Coupe. While out at my parent's house, my daughter fell in love with the truck and since she just had gotten her driving permit, we started looking into all of the work it would take to get it drivable and get it to TN.


But in October 2024, things turned bad for the family. My mom got sick and ended up in an extended care facility and then went downhill fast and passed away in Nov 2024. I went home for almost a month to get my dad moved into an apartment and get anything out of the house that we wanted so we could sell the house. I got the truck hauled to the local dealership to see if they could get it running (wouldn't turn over but could hear the starter engage) "add link to post here" so I could possibly drive it back to TN eventually. Stealership didn't do a whole lot except tell me I needed a new starter. But they did check to make sure the crank would turn freely which freed up the starter, but they never tried jumping again after it arrived. I ended up having to ship it to me. When we put a jumper box to the truck to get it into neutral, the truck ended up starting and I was carefully able to back it off the trailer with 2 flat tires.

More to be added later

 

No pictures.

 

See the opening remark on photos. I am adding more to this post and will add the photos after work tonight.

 

Sorry to hear about your folks
We all are going to be in that same situation one day, on both ends. Taking care of our parents, and then eventually becoming those parents needing to be taken care of.
Hope things are going good for you and the family now, i know it hurts to lose a loved one. Hope the truck story has a happy ending, you're super lucky you gotta new frame.

 

Here are the pictures I took in Sep 2021.

 

Pictures I took June 2024

 

Nice to have the LSD since it's 2wd.

 

Weellll, after swapping out the rear axle, I don't have LSD anymore. For now. I kept the axle shafts and the carrier, so, I do have the option of going back to LSD if I want to. I am slowly getting the pictures to load and will document what I have done. The new axle seems to have bad bearings so I may be swapping an axle shaft really soon.

 

Looking forward to seeing the out in the open semi cleaned up look. Hell of ride for a young adult once everything safety wise is fixed for her. Patience is on your side.

 

I love resurrection threads. Good on ya!

 

Got my photo dump done finally. I will start filling in on formation and adding links to the threads that i have already created for issues and also some of the posts on other threads.

 

DAAAAAANG the paint shined back up ?? NOICE