AdmiralYoda

BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!!

Its been a little over a year since I decided to resurrect my 4Runner from the dead. I'll start a new build thread sooner or later but figured I'd post a teaser here since this is where it all started.

BODY + INTERIOR STRIPPED!




SANDBLASTED


RUSTPROOFED AND PRIMED


READY FOR PAINT!!! These 32" Duratracs are not mounted. I just rolled them in front of the wheels to see how they'd look. Pretty sweet! They went on my old mans 81 Chevy K20 which you can see in the background.


PAINT!!!!


Now the rebuilding begins. She is sitting kinda high but that is probably because there is about 1500lbs of parts missing. Once I put the interior back in and put the top on I'll end up needing the ZUK mod.

Its sitting on 31" Goodyear Wrangler SilentArmors and some steelies.

The brakes were frozen so I upgraded to T100 calipers, rotors, and 1" bore master cylinder. I also ditched the LSPV in favor of a manual proportioning valve. Since I had it all apart I went with a dual diaphragm booster too.

Something is fishy with the clutch/flywheel because the whole vehicle shakes when you let the clutch out. There is probably a ton of rust on the flywheel so I've got an Aisin clutch and Sachs flywheel ready to go in.

Next up.....
Bilstein Shocks
Swaybar endlink/frame bushings
Steering Stabilizer
OEM weatherstripping all around
Roger Brown 0" body mounts
4x Innovations rear bumper
12x125# ZUK mod

And best of all.....ONLY 88,000 MILES

I'm wondering if there is another restored 4Runner out there with such low miles. I've seen restored ones go for crazy money but the mileage was way up there.

4Runners don't exist up here in New England. The only ones left are 250k miles+ or rusted to hell. I wonder what this thing will be worth?



EDIT - Some douchebag out in Cali or the Southwest is going to say $5k. Please go screw yourself. Maybe out in the desert but anywhere west of the Mississippi or north of the Mason Dixon...these don't exist anymore. $3k will get you a project on wheels, $5k will get you a descent 4Runner that is drivable and will pass inspection....but it will have 200k miles.

Carry on.

wallytoo

iTrader: (1)

although you've had yours for far longer, mine has only 10,000 more miles on it. i bought it in May of this year, with 97,097 miles on it.

it spent its life in CT. the front fenders were replaced, as well as the rear quarters. the interior is in pretty decent shape, and i found some rear seats locally (it was one of the few "utility" trucks that didn't get seats at the dealer). I swapped in rear seat belts from my subaru legacy, and i'm waiting for the seat bottoms from a local auto upholsterer.

pics here https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f151/hello-269239/

oh, and i paid $5K for it.


wally

AdmiralYoda

Sweet Ride!! These are definitely rare gems in my opinion, especially in these parts. I think you got a great deal!

Redeth005

Oh wow that was a sweet trick you did there with the exterior panels. 4runner is looking great; Cant even tell you swapped in the new ones. Keep it up dude.

AdmiralYoda

Thanks! But UGH...body work sucks! The rear quarters are spot welded on....163 per side. (yes I counted) You have to drill out each weld with a spot weld cutter and then wrestle the panel off.

Then I EFFED UP! It is a typical "No good deed goes unpunished" thing. because I wanted it to be as rust proof as possible I primed all the surfaces with self etching weld-thru primer.

Then I learned. Spot welders don't weld through weld-thru primer....they need 100% bare metal.

So off came the quarter panels and then I had to punch about 150+ holes in each panel so we could plug weld them.

Let me tell you how bad it sucks to grind off a total of 300 plug welds!

wallytoo

iTrader: (1)

i'm sure mine was similar, since the rear quarters were replaced and spotwelded in. yours came out looking very nice. i plan to oil undercoat the inside of the body panels/doors and the entire underside. i'll need to replace the tailgate at some point, as the innards are so-so.

the underside and frame of mine has already been por-15d. we'll see how well it holds up.

AdmiralYoda

I still think you got more truck than you paid for. $5k for your truck is the cali/SW desert price. I'd imagine it would have been more than that. Either way, nice score.

Maybe since all the good 4Runners disappeared 10 years ago and the ones left deteriorating.....no one around here knows what they are worth?

I bought a couple cases of 3M Rubberized undercoater. I went through 3 quarts of por15 on the frame, front/rear suspension, and crossmembers. Then I went to town with the undercoater. If it is going to rust.....it wont be for a looooooooong time.

nothingbetter

Your spot welder shouldn't have had any issue with weld through primer. Did you have the outer and inner quarter connected together so electricity can pass through them both while being welded? In our shop we'll put a screw through both sheets beside our first weld, the screw is enough of a connection so we can weld it. After that first weld, you can take out the screw and go to town. As long as its bare metal on the outside where the welder electrodes touch it should have been fine. We weld through rustoleum spray bomb as it has better rust inhibitors than a self etch primer. We usually put a seam sealer between the panels as well, that way each weld is completly sealed off for everything. If you want pics check out my build thread.

Looks like a fun project! Did you paint it or outsource to a body shop?

AdmiralYoda

We're mechanics....not body people. So nope.....just tried the spot welder and then slapped our foreheads. The screw was a good idea, wish I had thought of that!

I primed everything...inside and out. So I basically shot myself in the foot before I even started. Oh well...next time.

I did put seam sealer on all the joints to help seal everything out. Then POR15'd the inside of the panels as well.

As far as the real body work goes....no thank you. That and sanding drywall are my nemesis's. The A pillars needed some repair so we had a shop we deal with often do the work for us. There was a spot on the bottom of door that needed some patching as well.

Redeth005

Oh gosh.... sounds like a pretty jacked up experience ha ha ha. In the end you got yourself one sexy looking rig. It was definitely worth it. I barely started welding this week. And I had a similar situation happen. I was almost 100% sure on how to install the tire swing latch on my tire swing bumper I'm building. And I did full welds on the latch and realized I had it all wrong after the welds were done of course lol. Do there I went with the cutter/grinder wheels trying to removee without damaging my finished bumper. Ooooo man lol I was mad too. I had to fill the cuts with new metal to make my bumper even again hahah. I'm glad us people out in CA don't have those problems with rust like you all do. I'd be so intimidated to do this job. Great work man

wallytoo

iTrader: (1)

i thought $5K was a fair price, so i bought it.

AdmiralYoda

If I were to do it all over again I would have gone with body panel adhesive instead of plug welding and grinding.

That stuff is super tenacious and fills every single void and seam. In the end you have the ultimate seam sealer too.

But there won't be a next time. It will probably be impossible to drill out the all the plug welds...so if this thing rots again (and it will)...it will become a trail rig.