Restoring a T100

Since some have commented how dead this group is, I thought I'd post my experience with bringing a '95 T100 back to life.

I have owned a '95 Nissan pickup for several years, which we used primarily to haul gasoline to our hangar at the airport. Our airplane prefers unleaded car gas which, at $2.19 per gallon, is a heckuva lot more economical than leaded aviation gas, which is running $4 per gallon. Since our plane takes 84 gallons at a fill, you can do the math. That truck paid for itself in just a few months.

Well, after running 7700 gallons through that fuel transfer tank (that I had made to fit the bed of the Nissan), the frame rusted though. Since the fuel tank and pump, weighing over 350 pounds, sat directly over the break in the frame, I decided it was time to retire the old Nissan to less strenuous duty.

It was time to find a new fuel hauler.

After scanning the papers for a few days, we test drove a couple of prospects. We looked at a '95 Ford F250, which was simply awesome. It sat nine feet in the air, and everything was made out of solid chunks of steel. Shifting was a chore, the seat was 12 feet across, it had manual lock-outs -- in short, I loved it.

My wife, who is 5 feet tall in heels, looked like a toy poodle sitting in the back window. She said "No friggin' way!" -- and we kept looking.

The T100 was next. We drove it, and it drove well. Best of all, she fit in it. The clutch was obviously slushy, the inside was beat, and it hadn't been washed in years. The guy selling it was a finish carpenter, and it had been his work truck. He was the third owner, and it had been in Iowa for its whole life. He was asking $4500, basically blue book value.

It had some nice things going for it. It had a color-matched topper, which we needed to keep the fuel tank and assorted other goodies out of the snow and ice. The wife liked the way the seat could move all the way up, allowing her to shift easily. It had some dings and scratches, but no rust at all -- a miracle in itself in Iowa. So, I asked the seller -- a decent chap -- if he would mind if I had my mechanic look it over before I made my decision. He said that would be fine.

Well, my mechanic returned a two-page list of problems, totalling over $2000. The clutch was shot. The front brakes were gone. The tires were bad. The timing belt was 100K miles past due. The rear driveshaft was toast. They recommended against buying it.

One very good thing about it: It had absolutely no rust, anywhere, even on the frame. It had been Ziebarted, and washed regularly, even if it didn't look like it.

Sadly I took the truck back to the seller, with the typed report from my shop listing all the problems they had found. I told him that perhaps he might find someone willing to pay $4500 for the truck, but it wasn't going to be me -- and I handed him the report.

He looked it over, I told him to call me if he would reconsider the price -- and we departed. I never thought I'd hear from him again.

That night he called me at home, and asked if I could swallow $3000. I hemmed and hawwed, and told him that I'd sleep on it. The next day I called him, told him I just couldn't give him $3K for an old truck that needed $2K worth of repairs, and offered him $2500 -- plus a couple of getaway weekends at our aviation theme-suite hotel. He jumped at it, and we agreed to meet for lunch to close the deal.

Meanwhile, I got on the phone and started shopping the problems around to various repair shops, looking for the best prices.

Within an hour of buying the truck, it was sitting in a local tire shop getting two new tires, and front brakes. From there, I drove it straight to the Toyota dealer, who spent the next day replacing the timing belt, water pump, and accessory belt. (Interestingly, the dealer's price on replacing the timing belt/water pump was HALF of what the local shops wanted -- "only" $450. It's not every day that the dealer is the cheapest, but it *does* happen.)

The next day I drove it to a local transmission shop for a new clutch. As long as they would have the tranny apart, it made sense for them to do the driveshaft. This turned out to be a big mistake.

The clutch replacement went quickly, but they had to send the driveshaft out to a place in nearby Cedar Rapids, where they could replace/refurbish any wear parts. (Carrier bearings, etc.)

At the end of waiting five days, this shop announced that the shaft was beyond repair. (The part that went into the transmission was egg-shaped.) So, they started looking for a used/serviceable shaft and, after another day, they found one in Kentucky, which would cost $350. I said okay.

Five days later, after Christmas, it arrived -- and it was the wrong part. It was for an automatic transmission, and mine is a 5-speed. Back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, the guy at that Cedar Rapids shop (who did all their ordering) was on vacation....till after the first of the year.

I was screwed.

So, the tranny shop owner finally started looking -- something he SHOULD have been doing from the start -- and found one in South Dakota. I okayed it, and he ordered it. Meanwhile, he and his tranny shop were moving from one location to another -- in the middle of doing my truck. They transported my truck from the old shop to their new shop

-- a distance of four blocks -- by putting it in 4-wheel drive, and driving it without a rear driveshaft...

New Year's Day came and went -- and still no driveshaft. I was now visiting this shop every day, sometimes twice a day, just to keep my face in theirs. I was never rude, but I was always *there* -- and they got the message. Finally, they start wondering where the shaft was -- it was now four days overdue -- and they start calling around.

Apparently the shippers had tried to deliver the damned thing to the old shop (even though there was a big "Moved To..." sign in the window) and they ended up taking it back to their warehouse in Des Moines, marked "Undeliverable".

I about had a cow.

After some stern words, the shippers managed to get the shaft delivered to the shop that afternoon -- fantastic! Unfortunately, it didn't come with any bolts -- and my shop had lost mine during the big move. They simply didn't have the bolts to attach the driveshaft, and had to order new ones from Toyota. They would overnight them.

FINALLY, the next day the bolts arrived -- without nuts. Luckily, the shop had nuts that fit (God knows if they're the right ones, but by this time, I didn't care...), and I was out the door with my "NEW" truck, over three weeks after buying it.

But the saga wasn't over. Remember, this is a fuel truck, so I had to have the transfer tank, pump, and associated wiring moved from the Nissan to the T100. So, it was off to yet ANOTHER shop, this one owned by a friend who had installed the tank in the Nissan, back in '03. At

3 in the afternoon we started moving the tank....

...we finished at midnight -- NINE HOURS later. Because the T100 has an extended cab, the space between the front of the bed and the wheel wells was smaller (by four inches) than in the Nissan -- even though the truck itself is MUCH bigger. So, we had to heat the wheel wells with a torch, and beat them flat with a ball-peen hammer. This eventually punched holes in the wells, so we had to tack some steel back in there, to make the wheel wells whole.

Fun stuff like breathing fumes from burning undercoating and lifting the transfer tank in and out of the bed half a dozen times (while we measured, cut and pounded) took many hours. We then reapplied fresh undercoating, put the topper back on, and started moving the wiring....

...which turned out to be three feet short. The Nissan was a MUCH smaller truck, and the wiring was too short, too. So, off I went to Menard's to buy heavy-duty wire....

With that finally done, we started drinking beer, and talking about what else we could do to make the truck "right". This is always a slippery slope, but it resulted in some good stuff happening. The rusted in, "permanently attached" trailer hitch gave way after heating it with a torch, and beating it with a sledge hammer about four thousand times. (No more skinned shins.) The induction chamber hadn't been cleaned in probably 100K miles, and was full of crap and corruption. We cleaned it with a special solvent and a tooth brush, and were rewarded with a smoother, more powerful engine.

At last, at midnight I took my truck home -- bringing the long, seemingly endless saga to a close.

But it was worth it. The truck runs and drives great, the price was right, and I've got the peace of mind that comes with knowing that many of the "wear items" on this truck have been replaced. Best of all, because it's a much heavier duty truck, hauling 350 pounds of fuel in this thing is a real joy compared to the little Nissan. The T100 doesn't wallow around like the Nissan did, thanks to its MUCH beefier

4x4 suspension.

I've now started working on the dumb little cosmetic things. Today, I installed custom seat covers (Ebay: $30), covering up the terribly worn (only on the driver's side) upholstery. (Luckily, the seller had incredibly heavy-duty floor mats down, so the carpet is pristine.) I used some of the unseasonably nice winter weather to wash and wax it today, removing years of grime. It's actually pretty good looking, under all that dirt!

Now, does anyone know where I can find replacement hydraulic pistons to replace the ones that used to hold up the back and side windows on the topper? I'm tired of them hitting me in the back of the head!

:-)

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination"

Reply to
Jay Honeck
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Completely not relevant to anything in which I read this thread for but thanks for the read, I read it top to bottom which is rare for longer posts like that, Cheers.

Scotty

Reply to
Scotty

Interesting. Thanks for the compliment, but what do you mean when you say that restoring a Toyota T100 is "not relevant to anything in which I read this thread for"?

Just curious, since I thought I was writing about a Toyota truck, in a Toyota truck newsgroup...

;-)

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination'

Reply to
Jay Honeck

Nice story, Jay. Hope all continues well for you. Call a "Truck Cap" dealer, they should have the struts you need. It worked for me, anyway. Bill W

Reply to
Bill Wolcott

I believe he meant that his reply wasn't relevant to the question in your post, asking about the gas springs.

I hope the following links meet your guidelines as to relevance... :>))

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Google search:

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Reply to
TOM

Wow, thanks!

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination"

Reply to
Jay Honeck

Thanks, Bill. I spent a few hours this afternoon with rubbing compound, chrome polish, spray wax, Super Clean, and a bunch of rags. It's amazing what a good detailing does for a truck!

If our truck cap dealer is like our camper dealer, those gas springs will run two or three times what they're worth. I've found a local auto parts store that has ordered them for me, so in a few days I'll (hopefully) have windows that stay up!

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination"

Reply to
Jay Honeck

I read it for tech tips and info relevant to me. You post was neither but I did enjoy the read.

Reply to
Scotty

Scotty wrote:

Great post Jay. I too have a 95 T100. 2wd, regular cab, long bed, 3.4 V6 Auto Trans. Bought it in December of 2000 for $5K with 219,000 miles on it. Had it been anything but a Toyota, I would have kept looking. June of '02 rolls around, at 252,000 it blew a head gasket. I'd read that Toyota had issues with head gaskets, so I called my local dealer and they told me to drive it in (slowly) making sure it had plenty of coolant. They ran the VIN and this truck had not had the HG's replaced under the factory recall. So, they tore it down. A couple of days later, the Service Mgr. called and said I had some pitting in the cylinder walls from coolant infiltration as a result of the blown HG. Needed a new short block. BUT..........since it was a result of the HG blowing and not a maintenance issue on my part, Toyota would cover the cost of the short block. I didn't have to scream or threaten or anything. I'm now a Toyota customer for life. So, now the truck has 335,000 on it and still runs very well. I too have the ratty drivers seat. The ebay seatcovers - fit well? Well made? I don't know how many miles your truck has, but after the new short block, I started running Mobil 1 5w30 synthetic and either the Toyota factory oil filter or a Purolator Pure One. Doesn't burn a drop between changes - and thats every 8K. There's a website, I think it's called 4x4wire or something like that. It contains a lot of good maintainence info for 4x4 Toyotas. Good luck and enjoy your truck. Mine has become a project. I'm going to keep it until it clicks over a million! I think I'll make too!

Charlie Kansas City

Reply to
Lhead

That is an incredible story of customer service at its very best, Charlie. Glad to hear Toyota still stands behind their products. (I have owned a '69 Corona and a '91 Previa, in the past.)

I was treated very well by our local Toyota dealer, who (as I stated previously) replaced the timing belt, water pump, and accessory belt(s) quickly and (relatively) cheaply on my T100. They were BY FAR the cheapest quote in town on that job, which was really surprising to me.

By the way, here's a new webpage I put together about my T100:

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As you can see, itcleaned up *very* nicely! When I built my first "Mighty Grape", I heard from aircraft owners from all over the country -- and now I'm hearing from them all over again! The new "Grape" is a hit!

:-)

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination"

Reply to
Jay Honeck

Jay, Your T looks great. Green and tan interior. Same color as I have. You didn't specify if you have a 3.4 or not, so I'm going to assume you do. Some issues I've discovered. BTW, I do most of my own wrenching.

There will come a day when you turn the key and hear a "click" instead of an engine cranking. It's a common issue with Toy starters. The solenoid contacts get worn down over time. The good news is they're easily replaced and cheap. Less than $20 gets you back up and running. Again, look around on the web for a fix for this issue. It's out there.

When changing plugs, use the OEM Toyota plugs. They're special double electrode NGK plugs and my local dealer sells them for less than $2 each. Also, plug wires - ditto. The OEM wires are vastly superior and cheaper.

The MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor gets dirty with time and age. It's a hotwire type sensor that utilizes temperature drop coverted to a voltage to tell the ECM the volume of airflow through the intake snorkel. The MAF is easily removed and cleaned. Electronic cleaner is the juice to use. Again, websites can be found to tell you how.

Just a little advice from one who's been there. BTW, your facility looks great. Aside from being a gearhead, my second love is Aviation. How did you come up with a pitot tube from a Habu? That's very cool.

Charlie

Reply to
Lhead

Thanks for the tips, Charlie. Keeping a high-mile vehicle running right is always a bit of a challenge, but it's made a bit easier by being a Toyota. They really make things right.

Thanks. Bill Fox, a project coordinator at Lockheed for 32 years (and former head of Area 51), is an Iowa native who donated everything in our Blackbird Suite. He's an amazingly kind and generous guy -- who just happens to know more top-secret aviation stuff than anyone else on the planet!

You can read about him here:

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Thanks again!

-- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA '95 T100 4x4 Extended Cab

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"Your Aviation Destination"

Reply to
Jay Honeck

You have a smaller dealership in a smaller town, and they know all the other competition in town - hell, they sell parts to them all, and know they have to stay competitive. And if they try anything sneaky, word gets around. Fast.

And Toyota Corporate has gone above and beyond to cover stuff under warranty they really don't have to, but they want to retain customer goodwill so you'll come back again.

But try getting the same work done in a big town with a corporately owned dealership, and the outcome will be slightly different, as they have less incentive to keep the prices down - They don't have to worry about a few people going away mad, negative word of mouth can't dry up the work in a big town enough to matter to them...

They'll give you a good package deal on combo work like a water pump and timing belt together, and new drive belts while putting it back together - but only AFTER they try sliding it by you by simply adding together the full price of the three procedures as if they were being done separately. If you don't realize you're being charged to R&R it twice and balk, they just made an easy extra $250.

Hey, so did the inn. Just don't tell anyone that the new wing with the huge basement is named "Project Greek Island II", okay? ;-)

IMPORTANT: Go get a Flow-Through style RV Vent Topper of some sort (Maxx-Air or Ramble Vent) for the shell roof - with that gasoline tank in there, you need continuous ventilation, convection should be enough. Any little leak and fumes build up, and it doesn't take much of a spark to go BOOM!

Yabbut, how does the FAA feel about your running the plane on car gas? Is the engine authorized for it? I know there isn't that much difference (other than octane and price) but I also know the Feds get /really/ picky about certain things like that... (D'Oh!) ;-)

I've talked to a few helicopter pilots about the liberties taken in the movies - like the old "Land the Jet Ranger near the pumps at the desert crossroads gas station and saying "Fill 'Er Up!" to the wide-eyed attendant" gag.

Response being you are allowed to substitute #2 Diesel for Jet A in a pinch, it's the same basic stuff and will work fine, but the TBO on the jet engine just went down to 25 hours.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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