Offroad-Express

Gidday all

I just got an offer that might see me up and running this side of christmas, I've been offered a mint Hilux double cab chassi aged somewhere round 89 (mines an 82 but its still got a bit of rust to removed! )

what I'd like to know is.... are the body mounts in the same place for my single cab and is it a longer wheelbase??

Oh and I'll have a complete set of running gear if anyones after some bits

Cheers Reece

Howsit? I don't think they changed the floor pan until '94. However the early ones (round headlight) had different floorpans, they had a smaller engine bay to I think Wouldn't be to hard to shift the cab mounts.
Also you don't need to be a certed welder to do that sort of stuff, as long as you are a compitant welder (which I don't doubt) you will be fine. Check out http://www.lvvta.co.nz might be .org or .govt cant remember.

Hi Reece - many of the single cabs (not all) are short wheel base, and all of the factory double cabs are long wheel base.

Also the cab mounts and deck mounts are different.

This said, moving the cab mounts should be no major problem, and deck mounts are a doddle... just buzz 'em where you want 'em.

All you'd need is a new rear driveshaft, new cab mounts and a bit of patience (read: several dozen beers, nice hot long weekends and a welder ) ... Well, you might need a bit more than that, but it is certainly do-able, and not as hard as you might think - the trick bit will be lifting the body high enough to roll the old chassis out, then the new one in...

Take photos, I'm sure we'd all love to see.

Oh, and do you have the front driveshaft and front axle in that running gear? I could use one of those...

regards

Steve

OH, the way to tell what the wheelbase is, is to look at the rear driveshaft. The long wheelbase models have a split 2-piece driveshaft with a big rubber-encased bearing in the middle bolted onto the chassis, and the shortys have a single-piece driveshaft.

Just for interests sake, all the surfs are short-wheelbase (well, 80's and early 90's anyway)

Steve

Thats what I wanted to hear.

Getting the cab on's not a problem my engine crane can get it high enough... just , as for the deck I swopped that for a couple of days labour so thats going to be a new one, the drive shaft and all that I've got already for a long wheelbase
As for moving the cab mounts thats not much of a big'ie thats going to be alot quicker than rebuilding the 40cm sections on the old chassi where the rear springs attatch!

Thanks for that tom, I'm going to have to put the hard word on my certifier for this chassi as she's been lifted! big time! its got a 100mm lift, and the front end has been welded solid with a piece of box section to drop the spring mounts all uncertified

Hmmmm I was just thinking I've just about got enough to build another truck if I finish the old chassi, get another body and do up the other 5m hmmmmm I think I need a bigger shed

Cheers Reece