JZiggy's "Grown Up" 4Runner Build

octanejunkie · Mar 24, 2023

JZiggy said:
Toyota discontinued the white plastic lock rod protecto-majiggies so I got one on eBay. Popped right in. Guess I can feel better about that now.

A friend (you know who you are!) randomly gifted me with a Scarab underhood lighting kit! Woo!

Nice, share links, pls!

Where did you put the switch?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

JZiggy · Apr 4, 2023

Noticed the upper hinge on my rear passenger door was really worn. None of the others seemed to have much wear. I got a new one from Toyota, it came in a basic black color. I had some sunfire red spray paint so it I hit and put on a little basic clearcoat too.

Here it is

Gotta take off the plastic panel under the seatbelt to get to these nuts

Old vs new

New boi popped in

In the future I may use this old hinge to experiment with rebuilding them. There are kits with new bushings and stuff and I want to see how they work.

Unner · Apr 5, 2023

What made you realize the hinge was worn? Rear passenger door is probably the least used door so that's odd.

JZiggy · Apr 6, 2023

Unner said:
What made you realize the hinge was worn? Rear passenger door is probably the least used door so that's odd.

I just felt it shift up and down a bit and it was noticeable enough that I checked it out. It’s the rear driver side actually, sorry if I typoed that.

JZiggy · Apr 18, 2023

Body mount swap!!

A big thanks to [MENTION=116877]fourfive[/MENTION] for again sharing his knowledge, time, and sweat equity in helping me swap out all my body mounts with new OEM ones.

I already had the interior apart for sound deadening... more on that later.

First I started with a decoder. Based on my VIN I have the "early style" center body mount (position 5)

The box from Amayama

Location #1

Location #2 (bottom mount)

Location #5

Location #3

Location #4 (rear)

The original mounts were a little compressed, had some light cracking, and the centers were a bit wallowed out. I'm happy with the outcome after swapping them out. There's a noticeable reduction in vibration transfer from the frame to the body. Especially when driving on bumpy, cracked asphalt where there's usually some medium-frequency vibrations (the buzzy kind you feel but dont hear) the situation is improved.

162435 · Apr 18, 2023

Very nice. I did the same thing about a year ago using all new bushings/washers/bolts from Toyota. Quite uneventful considering the originals had around 500,000 miles on them.

But I agree that the change was noticeable.

Andreas

Rushthezeppelin · Apr 20, 2023

How much did those run you?

JZiggy · Apr 20, 2023

Rushthezeppelin said:
How much did those run you?

I think it was around $400 shipped. More than I would usually want to spend but since more and more parts are getting discontinued on these trucks (and prices seem to be going up) I thought I'd just go for it.

JZiggy · Apr 20, 2023

More sound deadening!

Took the seats and carpet out. First time I've gotten this deep into the interior.

Some of that factory sound deadening/insulation on the floor is apparent.

Holy crap! The front seat bolts have been repaired for some reason. Weird!

And the seat mount on the transmission tunnel is cracked! WTF!

I'll have to get a pro to help me weld these up sometime soon.

I had a little extra basic sound deadening so I put that down in a few places to use it up

I used the Siless 3-in-1 product on Amazon. Mastic + foam combination that does the vibration isolation, sound absorption, and thermal insulation. I had a bit of the Siless acoustic foam left too so I used that up.

Shampoo'ed the carpet while it was out and then reinstalled it when dry

And put the interior back together

Feedback: this stuff really helps. Especially with sound deadening on the roof and in the doors there's a nice isolation from the road noise. The speakers sound better. It will be interesting to see how it helps to insulate thermally once I get more time to experience it in the hot and cold.

162435 · Apr 20, 2023

JZiggy said:
I think it was around $400 shipped. More than I would usually want to spend but since more and more parts are getting discontinued on these trucks (and prices seem to be going up) I thought I'd just go for it.

Agree on buying factory parts while we still can. I tend to order most everything through McGeorge Toyota and seem to remember that it was quite a healthy number.

Andreas

JZiggy · Apr 20, 2023

And a small bonus! After adding my Scarab lights I realized I had one too many lugs bolted onto the positive terminal. It looked messy. Scarab lights + headlights + e-fan + factory fuse box.

So I used a chunk of brass to make a little busbar of sorts. Turned out pretty good.

Pyral · Apr 20, 2023

The seat mounts on these were not strong, it's really thin metal they go into. I'm not surprised yours are broken, the design was barely adequate 25 years ago so it's not adequate now after all these years.

All it took for me to break my seat mount off was setting my torque wrench to 32 ft lbs instead of 27 ft lbs. If you do that and then ride around with the wobbly seat for a while you'll weaken and break the other mounts too.

phattyduck · Apr 20, 2023

JZiggy said:
And a small bonus! After adding my Scarab lights I realized I had one too many lugs bolted onto the positive terminal. It looked messy. Scarab lights + headlights + e-fan + factory fuse box.

So I used a chunk of brass to make a little busbar of sorts. Turned out pretty good.

I got an 1/8" copper bar from McMaster and bent it to run down the side of battery as my buss bar - runs trailer power/brakes and winch. Similar idea though - Also gave me room to run circuit breakers right at the battery.

Fresh clean carpet (and seats) is the best feeling! No big poof of dust when you get in.

-Charlie

Unner · Apr 21, 2023

Thanks for posting the amount on those body mounts. I've been thinking about doing mine also. With 300k they're probably pretty worn. There may be a big amayama type order in my near future.

I'm really surprised your seat mounts were in bad shape. I didn't notice any issues with mine when I pulled mine last year.

JZiggy · Apr 21, 2023

Unner said:
Thanks for posting the amount on those body mounts. I've been thinking about doing mine also. With 300k they're probably pretty worn. There may be a big amayama type order in my near future.

I'm really surprised your seat mounts were in bad shape. I didn't notice any issues with mine when I pulled mine last year.

The front seat mounts seem to have been damaged & poorly repaired in the distant past.

The rear seat mount may have been affected by the seat track lengthening mod I did. It increases the amount of torque applied to the mount.

habanero · Apr 22, 2023

There are a lot of us with repaired seat mounts. I ran a bolt through the body and used large washers to repair the left front mount. The passenger side has a small crack at one of the front seat mounts currently.

brillo_76 · Apr 23, 2023

Yes, I weld the nut to a large washer. Then plug weld the washer to the mount. Fixes the design flaw in the front sears bracket.

I have several this way. Very common issue.

Sent from my SM-A536V using Tapatalk

chapolito · Apr 23, 2023

That siles 3 in 1 seems nice—I think I'll use that to keep install simple when I get there. How many square feet total have you used of deadener?

JZiggy · Apr 24, 2023

chapolito said:
That siles 3 in 1 seems nice—I think I'll use that to keep install simple when I get there. How many square feet total have you used of deadener?

36 sqft of Siless 80mil sound deadener: mostly on roof, hood, rear hatch, some door panels
36 sqft of Siless 157mil PE foam: same as above, but not on hood
25 sqft of Siless 3-in-1 200mil: Cabin area only. It was enough for about 95% coverage

jross20 · Apr 24, 2023

JZiggy said:
Body mount swap!!

A big thanks to [MENTION=116877]fourfive[/MENTION] for again sharing his knowledge, time, and sweat equity in helping me swap out all my body mounts with new OEM ones.

I already had the interior apart for sound deadening... more on that later.

First I started with a decoder. Based on my VIN I have the "early style" center body mount (position 5)

The box from Amayama

Location #1

Location #2 (bottom mount)

Location #5

Location #3

Location #4 (rear)

The original mounts were a little compressed, had some light cracking, and the centers were a bit wallowed out. I'm happy with the outcome after swapping them out. There's a noticeable reduction in vibration transfer from the frame to the body. Especially when driving on bumpy, cracked asphalt where there's usually some medium-frequency vibrations (the buzzy kind you feel but dont hear) the situation is improved.

Hey Ziggy, so you're saying that the new body mounts improve the ride quality? I've actually been thinking about this for a while; my ride is pretty stiff and I was starting to wonder if it might not just be the shocks but also maybe the body mounts are just letting all the force go right through.

Seems like every bump and imperfection on the road translates right through into the cab is very harsh...

JZiggy's &quot;Grown Up&quot; 4Runner Build

Elite Member

Senior Member

New member

Senior Member

Senior Member

New member

New member

Senior Member

Senior Member

New member

Senior Member

Member

Elite Member

New member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Elite Member

New member

Senior Member

New member

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Share this page

Trending content

JZiggy's "Grown Up" 4Runner Build