JZiggy's "Grown Up" 4Runner Build

JZiggy said:

Finished product

edit: forgot to mention, thanks to [MENTION=158595]xxJAMxx[/MENTION] for the seat frames! It was awesome of you to pack them up and ship them to me.

Click to expand...

I have a feeling I'll be doing this on my truck when we transition to a front-facing seat in a year and a half...

As another note, there is an upgraded center hinge that gets a top tether for the center position too.

-Charlie

phattyduck said:

I have a feeling I'll be doing this on my truck when we transition to a front-facing seat in a year and a half...

As another note, there is an upgraded center hinge that gets a top tether for the center position too.

-Charlie

Click to expand...

Thanks, Charlie. I didn't picture it but I have that new center hinge too. It has a ring welded onto it for an anchor point. :happy:

Seat upgrade time!

1" of memory foam added under the center section of the cloth cover. Big improvement:



3" extensions welded onto the four seat bracket feet. As a 6'4" guy I literally now have enough seat travel so that I can't operate the clutch pedal all the way back. This made a HUGE difference on long car rides. Some pictures on the welding and fabbing below. Drilling out the rivets is a major pain in the butt. Once that was done I just added some tabs and rewelded to move the feet back with respect to the rails.

3 years update edit: This has been by far the most functional mod on this truck as a tall person. I consistently prefer this vehicle for road trips due to the ability to have serious leg room. For day-to-day driving I find I keep the seat about 1-1.5" further back than the stock farthest location and it's a good compromise of legroom and being close enough to the controls to negotiate traffic.

Just thought I'd throw this out there... if someone is looking unsuccessfully for the SR5 front flaps and is interested in my "custom-hacked" version I'd be happy to sell them, just PM if you want. They worked quite well.

I found my doppleganger today!! Except it was a V6 Auto SR5 with moon roof and running boards. One of the cleanest I have seen, definitely a tick or two better than mine. The dark red color looks great washed & waxed.

So I'm not the only one who does this^
Don't know why it's so cool to see a twin, but it is.

Really cool truck! Just curious what you used for that rubber strip between the SR5 flares and the body to get that "Limited look". Would love to do that on mine.

Bonus update -- The old 1st gen finally left the bodyshop after it got in a rearend accident. Body work, paint, and a tiny frame tweak later and it's back in business. Now the question is: keep it or sell it?

Spotted this cool 3rd gen in Utah. I really dig the black graphics.

JZiggy said:

Bonus update -- The old 1st gen finally left the bodyshop after it got in a rearend accident. Body work, paint, and a tiny frame tweak later and it's back in business. Now the question is: keep it or sell it?

Click to expand...

Keep it. But if you're going to sell it, give me first crack at it.

mtbtim said:

Keep it. But if you're going to sell it, give me first crack at it.

Click to expand...

You got it, Tim. This was my "college truck" that I had for over 10 years. Short list of cool upgrades:

- Rebuilt 22RE with Engnbldr 268 cam (has about 60k on the rebuild now, did it in 2007 or so)
- Rebuilt W56 trans
- Trail gear 4.7 gears
- TrueTracs front and rear, 4.88 gears
- Chevy 63's in rear, makes it ride like a Cadillac
- New 33x10.5 BFG ATs
- Oldschool TJM front bumper with Warn 6000 winch (rebuilt/lubed recently)
- Rear square-tube bumper and square-tube sliders (sliders built by me back in welding school)
- Budbuilt crossmember

Only issue for a CA resident is the lack of some emissions systems, namely EGR and air injection stuff.

Trip Update:

The family and I took the 4Runner on a 3000 mile road trip to Casper Mtn to see the eclipse and spent some time in Yellowstone and Grand Teton afterwards. It was an awesome trip and it was fun to put the truck through it paces while camping and doing some light wheeling in WY.

Some of my recent upgrades really made the difference:

1) The maintenance updates including rear axle bearings/seals (thanks to [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] and [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] of course) gave me peace of mind taking the family on such a long trip in a nearly quarter-million mile rig. No issues cropped up barring a nice sunburst crack on the windshield courtesy of a tractor trailer.

2) The seat extensions were AWESOME. While on I-80 in cruise control I could kick off my shoes and get my legs completely straight. I usually get back pain on a long drive and it did not happen at all this time. The extra foam in the seats helped too.

3) We had a hitch carrier with a big, full cooler, 7gal of H2O, and 5 gal of gas. Not the mention the cargo area crammed with camping gear and food. The Airlift bags pumped up to 35 psi kept the ride level and the ride really smooth. That made a huge difference.

4) Tundra Brake Upgrade worked great controlling the heavy rig on steep, windy roads.

5) I installed a Raingler Ceiling Net which was a great help in keeping loose items out of the main cargo area. While camping it made it easy to reach up and grab little items like paper towels.

6) Finally, the 3RZ did amazing. On the long uphill mountain passes it had to rev to 4500 in 3rd gear to keep up sometimes (okay, more often than I want to admit). On the highway it was always between 70-75 mph and the average mileage on the 3000 mile trip was 22.4 mpg, woo hoo!

holy poop that 1st gen looks good!!

Water heater valve replacement with OEM Denso unit. Easy peasy!

How much did that run you? Mine is looking pretty darn brittle these days

Chuckles89 said:

How much did that run you? Mine is looking pretty darn brittle these days

Click to expand...

It was about $60 from a discount Toyota parts site. More than I wanted to pay but I didn't really want to use an aftermarket part for this, personal preference only.

With the help of a friend with welding skillz I got a set of Stubbs sliders installed this weekend. They are the 7.5* degree, "short" version of Stubbs's HD-SKO sliders. The fit and finish of this product is really excellent, and it fits just perfectly with the SR5 flares. Such a great vendor to deal with too.

I opted for glossy Rustoleum with a strip of grip tape to finish it off.

Painted only



Example of weld pre-painting





Fitment with flares



Grip tape installed

I completed a nifty project this weekend. I wanted to have a USB port on the rear of the console. Primarily it needed to be a high-ish amperage plug to handle things like hot water heaters and stuff, secondarily just for USB charging. I figured one port would be enough and simplify the process.

The metal ashtray rim unbends and come off the console without too much trouble, though you have to get the little metal tabs straight for them to come off. I fabbed up a little plastic plate that fit snugly into the hole.





Some 3M tape held it quite snugly.





I tapped into the power wire from the cigarette lighter and ran a separate ground. The CIG circuit is on a 15A fuse while the front and rear power outlets are on their own 15A fuse. Since I rarely ever use the actual cigarette lighter port I figured I should "borrow" this circuit for this mod. Looks pretty good underneath my bhicks 3D printed rear cup holder. Best thing is, it works!!

It's time for a mini-mod dump...

Mod #1 -- added 3 bonus bars to the roof rack. Looks kinda cool, would be helpful for extra protection if I stored something awkward up there.



Mod #2 -- Swapped out the button bar for one from an automatic. I wired up the ECT button to be the power antenna kill switch.

Mod #3 (And a new favorite!) -- I found a Panavise phone mount bracket on eBay, part 75137-397. It's cleverly designed to sneak back behind the bezel and share mounting bolts with the radio. Unfortunately the mounting portion of the bracket occupies a lot of passenger legroom and didn't put the phone right where I wanted it. So I bent it straight and trimmed the mount plate down to fit a Ram ball.



A shorty Ram strut grabs the mount ball at nearly a 90* angle and pushes the magnetic phone mount closer up to where it is natural for me to use it.





So far I have been super happy with this phone mount. It got the phone off my windshield and is rock solid with very little apparent vibrations.

It worked out so good that Tim made a video of the install!

Papabeach liked it so much he did it too!

JZiggy said:

Mod #3 (And a new favorite!) -- I found a Panavise phone mount bracket on eBay, part 75137-397. It's cleverly designed to sneak back behind the bezel and share mounting bolts with the radio. Unfortunately the mounting portion of the bracket occupies a lot of passenger legroom and didn't put the phone right where I wanted it. So I bent it straight and trimmed the mount plate down to fit a Ram ball.

A shorty Ram strut grabs the mount ball at nearly a 90* angle and pushes the magnetic phone mount closer up to where it is natural for me to use it.

So far I have been super happy with this phone mount. It got the phone off my windshield and is rock solid with very little apparent vibrations.

Click to expand...

I had the Panavise mount (I recall you messaging me about the one I sold), and my main beef with it was the placement so far away from the line of sight while driving and secondly with the encroachment on the passenger’s leg room. I think by you shortening this one, you minimized the vibrations that are nearly unavoidable from the thin gauge metal. The further out it is from the mounting location, the more a small vibration will be magnified at the phone end of things. Some people are content with the dash vent or windshield suction cup mounts, but the low profile solid mounts like this just seem less “out of place” and sturdy to me, especially while offroad. I’m also in the same boat with having a 5 speed that complicates this objective. Nice work on the modification!