66 Double Cab Restoration

[heli-easy]

I bought this Double Cab up in Tacoma Washington. It was in really bad condition. I don't have tons of money but really wanted a DCab so this was the best I could find for the amount I have. I figured it would be a learning experience at least. I have no professional experience with this stuff, this is the project I'll be learning on so forgive me if my work isn't perfect. This being said though I have restored a few bugs, but nothing this extensively damaged.

This project took about a year and a half to complete. I took a lot of pics but never posted them till now. Hope this give someone else some encouragement on their own project. I did all of this in my garage.



















































After stripping a lot of the old paint and bondo, it was time to push into the garage. This is going to take some power tools.

[heli-easy]

Pulled engine



and tranny



built a rotisserie

























removing the beam to attach the rotisserie and to rebuild it.









Rotisserie attached and ready to go

[heli-easy]

removing rusty bed panels













drilled tons of spot welds.




special tool to split the welds








All the bed panels removed


A view of the floor below,


Measured the bed supports before removing them










The rotisserie has a gearbox that holds it at whatever angle its set at


Engine on the stand to begin stripping it

[heli-easy]

Started work on the drop gates. Good on the outside. Inside, not so good.

The gates are just about scrap. That's why I started on these. Figured I couldn't mess up any worse. Plus if I can do these the rest should be possible.

[heli-easy]

The edge was a pain, had to rebuild it.

[heli-easy]

After all the work on the gates I decided to work on something a little easier. This is the inside panel of the rear valence. It was worn through where the exhaust must have been rubbing on it.
Cut out the damaged spot.




Trying this punch/ seaming tool from Harbor Freights

[heli-easy]

Had a cut out from a previous owner putting a big after market stereo in the dash.
Another small project that I can finish easily. Tired of finding rust on the car.


Used this bar to bend my repair in a large radius.

[heli-easy]

More rust removal.
Bed supports and cargo floor.












Bed support with the gas tank separation panel frame.

[mountainkowboy]

I WANT ONE!

[heli-easy]

This rocker is a common rust area. Mine was not even usable.




This bed support was rusted bad on the inside.


Cut it open and sand blasted it.










Cut spare tire area. Rust as heck
Blasted the floor members and primed.






More rust inside the C pillar


Started installing the inner rocker support.








Sand Blasting the underside of everything

[heli-easy]

Fabricating the hat sections for bed supports and the floor supports.






Replaced the forward bulkhead and hat suport.




Replacing the rocker and door frame.








Replaced the back floor bulkheads

[heli-easy]

Made a repair for the bottom of the inner back door sill.

[heli-easy]

Fabbed a new bed cross support. Looked like is made to take a lot of weight so made it out of .090 steel.


Fixing the lengthwise bed supports that I cut out earlier. They were rusted through on the bottom and top. They are a boxed channel.










Installed them

[stealth67vw]

Damn Rob, I had no idea you had that much work into your double cab. I thought you just replaced the floors and rockers. I've cut up better buses LOL. I applaud your effort, you gots mad skills for sure. I remember you bringing a section of your fabbed section of bed ribs over when you bought the trans from my bug when you started this project. I can't imagine how much you've spent of cut off wheels, grinding discs, mig wire and gas. Good job man.

[heli-easy]

Thanks,
ya I used a lot of supplies!
I had all this on my own website but apple discontinued their web app, so I lost my website.
I recently organized all my photos. So figured I'd share it all. Its a lot to go through tho.