JVC8790's Daily Duty Cruiser "Build" Thread

Went out and did some light exploring with a friend this past weekend. Had I known earlier, the T4R Experience was in Kentucky about 2.5hrs away, but I didn't see it til the night prior and didn't have the time to devote to the drive down. Maybe next year!

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Then went home and quick installed my Rigid Spot Pods and Ditch Light Brackets (not wired yet).

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

Then convinced my buddy to pick up a RTT from a friend. I would have bought it but I KNOW he'll get more use out of it than I would. It's the Smittybilt Overlander and it came with a brand new Annex for $700 from a friend locally who bought it basically new then took it on one trip out to the South West.

Untitled by John Van Cleave, on Flickr

All in all, a good weekend for the 4Runner! If you've managed to read this far, I ALSO bought a set of ARB skid plates. I don't anticipate any hard off roading so I think these will be just fine and do a good job of replacing the non-existent skids on my truck currently. Snagged em for $377 with a coupon code for Labor Day and free shipping. Should be here next week!

JVC8790 said:

All in all, a good weekend for the 4Runner! If you've managed to read this far, I ALSO bought a set of ARB skid plates. I don't anticipate any hard off roading so I think these will be just fine and do a good job of replacing the non-existent skids on my truck currently. Snagged em for $377 with a coupon code for Labor Day and free shipping. Should be here next week!

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keep us posted how that skid plate set fits...im curious about them for my v6 without anyone getting into how they function, just curious on fitment.

hinmo24t said:

keep us posted how that skid plate set fits...im curious about them for my v6 without anyone getting into how they function, just curious on fitment.

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Will do! They're less beefy than many other options, but my opinion is that even the cheapest option is going to be better than nothing on the trail. Based on the amount of true offroading this rig will see, these should be just fine for now. I've read there are some light fitment issues and some things require massaging so I'll be sure to take some pics and details of the install once they arrive!

The rig is looking great man. Im normally not crazy about the 03-05s and especially white ones, but I really like the look you have going with the tires and wheels. Plus that silver trim on the bumpers looks great too. Keep up the good work!

That_Titanium_4RNR said:

The rig is looking great man. Im normally not crazy about the 03-05s and especially white ones, but I really like the look you have going with the tires and wheels. Plus that silver trim on the bumpers looks great too. Keep up the good work!

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Thanks!

I'm also not a huge fan of 03-05 but it's growing on me enough that I don't want to 06-09 headlight swap it anymore and instead I'll retrofit the stock housings (or another set of them I'll buy) to retain the look.

I've been toying with color matching the silver bumper trim, but it does a good job of tying in the roof rack as well so I'm hesitant. I do think the silver/gray ARB Skids will go well with the silver on the bumpers/roof rack, so we'll see if I still want to color match once I get the ARB skids on!

JVC8790 said:

Thanks!

I'm also not a huge fan of 03-05 but it's growing on me enough that I don't want to 06-09 headlight swap it anymore and instead I'll retrofit the stock housings (or another set of them I'll buy) to retain the look.

I've been toying with color matching the silver bumper trim, but it does a good job of tying in the roof rack as well so I'm hesitant. I do think the silver/gray ARB Skids will go well with the silver on the bumpers/roof rack, so we'll see if I still want to color match once I get the ARB skids on!

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Yeah man its your vehicle but I would definitely leave the silver alone. Like you said, the rack ties in so well with it and the skids are going to look killer!

This is an awesome build! Definitely going to be buying that console org you put in right away to fill in the vast, dark hole below the armrest. Can't wait to see how your skids look on the rig! Definitely subbed for more updates. :rockon:

A Big box showed up yesterday!



The packaging job was pretty poor, the box had torn open in a few spots, and when I finally cut the bands (that were the only thing holding it together) the box basically fell open. Everything was just kinda in the box and each skid was wrapped in a bubble wrap pouch. They seem to have traveled fine with minimal damage. (only from Southern Indiana to Southern Ohio)









Might try to get these put on this weekend if the weather holds out!

Got a little bit of work done over this weekend!

Test fit some Traction Board brackets my buddy made for his XTerra ladder, still waiting for his ladder to show up, but he wanted to see what they'd look like on the 4Runner Ladder.







Then we got onto the fun stuff of mounting my ARB Skids!

Promptly ran into some of the midwest crust... I'll probably have a friend cut out this lower rad support and weld in a replacement beam this winter. This seems like one of the most common places to rot out on midwest trucks.



Scraped a bunch of shit from the inside of this support and it's definitely a bit mushy in a few spots.



After looking over the front, moved to the back of the first skid mount.





It now all makes sense why there was no factory skid on this. The passenger side rear bolt was snapped off. So after a quick trip to ACE, grabbed a bolt removal tool and went to town drilling it out then tapping it afterwards.





Finally got the front skid mounted up!



Fitment was pretty good, made a few adjustments to the front bolts since the threadserts in the lower rad support were stripped out. Ended up just through bolting it with a nut on top. Should hold just fine!

Moved onto the second skid, and once again... hit a snag.





This is where I called it for the day, College Football was starting and I was hungry. I'll get back in there with some heat and see if I can get that bolt out without having to cut the head off/drill/tap it out. Otherwise that's the gameplan for some day after work this week.

We have a trip at the end of the month down to do some of the Kentucky Adventure Tour so I've got some work to do before it's all ready to go!

sub'd. Build looks awesome man, cant wait to see what you do next!

WildBill1990 said:

sub'd. Build looks awesome man, cant wait to see what you do next!

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Thanks! Next thing will be to finish up the skids, install the 3rd Gen TRD Offroad fronts (little more lift), finish wiring up the lights, then figure out how I'm gonna sleep in it later this month!

Nice build. I have been looking at some mild skid plates to replace the factory ones on my 04. Where did you get the ARB skids from?

Styner89 said:

Nice build. I have been looking at some mild skid plates to replace the factory ones on my 04. Where did you get the ARB skids from?

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I ended up ordering from Morris 4x4 on Labor Day. The only reason is because they had a 15% off anything Labor Day coupon that brought the delivered total to $377 instead of $418+tax.

They arrived pretty much next day since they shipped from Jasper, IN and I'm just in Ohio. Google was my friend in finding the best deal out there at the time.

JVC8790 said:

I ended up ordering from Morris 4x4 on Labor Day. The only reason is because they had a 15% off anything Labor Day coupon that brought the delivered total to $377 instead of $418+tax.

They arrived pretty much next day since they shipped from Jasper, IN and I'm just in Ohio. Google was my friend in finding the best deal out there at the time.

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Thanks for the quick reply. I will look around.

Update!

Got the remainder of the skids installed yesterday after drilling out/tapping a few of the bolt holes.

Started by getting the one bolt out that had been rounded off. Used a grinder to re-shape the bolt head, pounded on a 10mm wrench, then heated it up and worked it loose. Glad to not have to drill this one out!





Got the 2nd skid mounted up!



3rd Skid Brace Bracket Mounted


Mounted up the 3rd skid and had some clearance issues with the Y pipe. After reading further, this seems like a common problem on 03-04 V8 models.



This spacer bar is supposed to sit against the frame there to retain clearance of the exhaust, however with this exhaust, the bracket doesn't help at all.



Instead I took a piece of 1" square tube, drilled 2 holes through it to use as a spacer and found some longer hardware from my spare stash.





This did angle the skid plate a little bit, but it provided the clearance I needed to fit. The angle looks more drastic because the truck is on ramps, it does sit at a little angle but nothing too wild once the truck is leveled out.





And here's the final product! I still haven't fit the little skid they gave for the transfer case, but I'll pop that on one of these days.





Overall pretty happy with the install from the fitment standpoint. The price point is definitely good and although these aren't the beefiest skids out there, they're certainly better than nothing and based on this price, I still have money to play with!

Unfortunately, it looks like this upcoming weekend will be spent doing brakes on the truck. It sounds like I have a dragging caliper in the rear and I'm pretty sure one of my fronts is seized (vibration when braking). So I'm looking into the Powerstop front and rear kit due to the price point mostly. I've used powerstop on a previous car and it seemed pretty good. The alternate option is RockAuto for pads/rotors and a local source for calipers so I can warranty if need be easily. Any insight or thoughts?

Well, it was only a matter of time until this post.

Front right caliper is sticking pretty bad now, and the rear left is starting to drag. So that's my weekend project!

Ordered Powerstop pads/rotors for front and rear along with Centric soft line replacements from Amazon for about $190 total.

Then I did a bunch of reading and research and determined that the NAPA calipers are the best option with the best warranty for replacement. I placed an order for all 4 and I'm hopeful their 2-5 day shipping is closer to 2 and not 5 since I'm hoping to get started working on it Friday after work and finish by end of day Sunday (with time on and off, not working straight).

Anyone have any suggestions besides to drench all the bolts and line fittings in PB Blaster as soon as possible?

I've been dousing the brake lines and bolts in PB blaster for a few days, and then yesterday my bottle of Seafoam Deep Creep showed up, so they've been getting that since.



That's everything going on! Napa calipers look great and are a nice black finish, pads are ceramic, rotors are blanks (not drilled/slotted), and the Centric boxes are new soft lines for front and rear (if needed).

Wish me luck tonight!

JVC8790 said:

I've been dousing the brake lines and bolts in PB blaster for a few days, and then yesterday my bottle of Seafoam Deep Creep showed up, so they've been getting that since.

That's everything going on! Napa calipers look great and are a nice black finish, pads are ceramic, rotors are blanks (not drilled/slotted), and the Centric boxes are new soft lines for front and rear (if needed).



Wish me luck tonight!

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You’ve got your hands full! Only (maybe obvious) recommendation is flare nut wrenches for the brake line fittings, especially since your truck seems to have some rust issues. Good luck!


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montijo505 said:

You’ve got your hands full! Only (maybe obvious) recommendation is flare nut wrenches for the brake line fittings, especially since your truck seems to have some rust issues. Good luck!


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Thanks! Luckily I'm here to report the brake job went well (for the most part). I had picked up a 10mm flare nut wrench which was a good choice, although the drivers rear line was still a bit rounded off and I ended up succeeding with vice grips.

No pics of the front, did those Friday night, but here are a few pics of the rear work!

Before




You could say it was time...



Reassembled with new brake lines as well



Wrapped up and cleaned up the wheels!





Gave the truck a wash afterwards!



Also popped in some super cheap LED headlights, we'll see how they hold up, but for $8 I can't complain.



First test drive impressions are amazing, the truck feels brand new and this change was overdue. I'm looking forward to seeing how this impacts my fuel mileage from having the seized caliper and getting pretty crappy mileage.

JVC8790 said:

Thanks! Next thing will be to finish up the skids, install the 3rd Gen TRD Offroad fronts (little more lift), finish wiring up the lights, then figure out how I'm gonna sleep in it later this month!

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Great build thread! Inspires me to do more with mine. I'm especially interested in the 3rd Gen TRD suspension build. My 07 has original shocks/springs so I'm looking to do a Tacoma swap to save some money, get a little lift and improve my ride. My dilemma is between 2nd Gen and 3rd gen. They're both pretty available so I can't decide which to go with. I'm not going big on wheels and tires like you. It's my daily driver and I'll probably always have street tires on it.