I'm excited to see this build as it happens, your old rig was incredible. Too bad you're not in NM anymore. BTW, thanks for a recommendation you made for Micah over at karmakanic here in ABQ (back in '11 or something). Very happy to find a toyota mechanic who knows the runners, i'm going to see about meeting with him this week.

Micah is a super cool dude. He is currently swapping a 6BT into my dad's 80 series land cruiser. See if you can see it when you are at his shop.

Cool, will do

I want to see that!

I am very much looking forward to watching this build. I found your Build 1.0 soon after getting my Runner. Made me question my 4th gen decision. Your profile image of it is hands down my favorite Runner anywhere.
Thanks for the detailed writeups as well. Your electrical posts are the first one's on that topic that made this noob realize it was a doable project...one day.

It should be done in a few weeks. I will be back in ABQ next week and will take some photos of my own.

Thanks for saying so. I always enjoy hearing stories how my posts help out. The wiring upgrade was very doable, once the entirety of the mod is understood.


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|June 22, 2015|

Small Update, but I got some tint just in time for summer. I opted for the Ceramic Tint Upgrade. Ceramic tint resists radiative heat transfer much better than standard tint. According to a few sources, standard tint block 30%-40% of the heat coming through a window while ceramic tint blocks around 90%.

Ceramic tint is about double the cost of standard tint, my whole upgrade ran $580. I got the following tint levels:
Windshield: 70% Ceramic
Front windows: 20% Ceramic
All others: 70% Ceramic.

The difference in cab temperature is quite noticable, the A/C Stays on a lot less now.

Here is one before shot with a few afters:

BEFORE



AFTER






Did I mention I love this color?!

BTW there's a few bigger updates coming, so stay tuned!

Yummy!
Is that 3M?
I live in Az and it is 110° currently. Ceramic might be an option.

Very nice write up so far. That's impressive the amount of detail that you get into.

Ceramic makes a huge difference. I've got that in my MK3 and it stays noticeable cooler in there especially after I had the windshield done. I would do the 4Runner as well, but I got pulled over for the tint in it once already... It being black doesn't help. It looks great now though! I can't stand ridding in, let alone owning untinted cars. I feel like I'm in a fish bowl. Can't wait to see what is in store!

+1 on the ceramic tint. Im running formula one ceramic tint 20% on the front 2 windows and 70% on the windshield as well. Havent put anything on the rear windows yet...

Did you have the 70% placed on top of the factory tint for the rear windows?

My installer used the same brand. I have every window tinted now (except sunroof).
I wanted the ceramic coverage over the whole vehicle.

Nice. I too can't stand being in a car without tints, everybody's got a staring problem.

I can't believe you guys do the whole windshield, very uncommon to me. I always see the strip on the windshield but not the whole thing.

I want tints on mine, but anything on the front windows and windshield here in terrible NJ is illegal. I'll just wait till I move.

How much darker are your rear windows with the 70% on top of the factory tint compared to the 20% on the driver/passenger side windows?

Did your installer tell you what % tint the 70% combined with the factory tint would equal to?

Really like the last runner, interested to see what you do this go round.

Hmm . . . when you say "bigger updates", my mind is telling me tires or suspension, or both . I guess we'll find out shortly!