[spenedwrds]

might as well go ahead and start a build thread..

about two years ago my dad bought me a 2wd 99 limited with 209,000 miles on it for 4500. shortly after i found this site and i have cought the mod bug. i cant stay off this thing or the internet looking for different things to do to my runner.

when we bought the runner the tires werent in the best shape, so for my bday and my first mod i removed the running boards and i got a set of mb wheels and some 265/75/16 falken A/T.




after rocking this look for a while my bumpers were looking a little rough, so i decided to paint them and my girll black. turned out great and loved the look.also tinted the tail lights.




next came the lift. after reading the lift FAQ multiple times i put my lift together. i went with tacoma 5100 with the toytec eibach coils up front, lc 8 wraps and lc bilstien hds in the rear.



i love searching craigslist, i could sit on it all day, i find so many deals and even make a buk or two every now and then. scanning the ads one day and found a guy selling a lightbar, a yakima rack, a roof basket and 6 KC lights for 150$. have a friend with a chevy 1500 wich is what the stuff was off of. we split it 75 a peice and i got the roof racks and 2 pairs of the lights. ended up selling the yakima rack for 180$ i didnt need it. so i just put 100 in my pocket and got a roof rack and lights for free. great deal id say.


after having the lights sit around in the garage for a while, one weekend dad and i got bored and said lets mount theses lights on the front bumper and try to flush mount them in the grill. this is what we ended up with.



road on the 265 for a while and wanted to move up to a 285. found a set of xd monsters on craiglist for 500 buks with some 33" bfg rugged terrains. the wheels were a little rough i just bought some rattle can paint and put a few coats on them. look just like new.



after searching craigslist again i found some nitto trail grapplers with 90% tread for 800 buks, picked them up and got them installed for 50$. i got 1300$ tires for 850$. i love craigslist!




after the lights in the grill i didnt really do anything to the runner, just drove it daily and loved every minute of it. my brother and i plus a few friends of ours started to want to hit up some trails went to our buddys farm and rode some 4 wheeler trails every now and then and went on a trip to a popular spot about 45 mins up the road from us. had a blast and me being the only 2wd id say the runner did very well only got stuck 2 times, one in about 2 feet of nasty red georgia clay and the other was a deep rut that i slid into and got into a 3 wheel stand. heres a pic from the trip and when i was on 3 wheels

[Wizzle]

Very nice! I hear you on the Craigslist deals. I spend way too much time on there looking for good deals. What kind of paint did you use on the bumpers? I am starting to get some rust spots on my chrome and need to do something about it soon.

[spenedwrds]

anyways on to the new build... Back Betty

getting into the wheeling thing and wanting 4wd, and plus miles on the limited hit 230,000. i decided to see if i could find me a 4wd. been searching craigslist for about the past 3 months looking for something. came across a 99 sr5 with only 132,000 on the clock and he was asking 4,999. wheeled and dealed with him and got him down to 4,100 and drove it home that day.





the weekend came along and started to swap all my parst over and orded a 2" body lift and a diff drop. didnt come in untill yesterday so havent had time to install them. here is how she sits today!











sorry for the novel! happy reading and looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say about my build. if u have any recomendations dont hesitate to tell me.
and if your located in north georgia and would like a 4runner buddy to going wheeling, wrench a little or just sit around and have a beer, feel free to pm me, id love to meet new people.

[spenedwrds]

Originally Posted by Wizzle

Very nice! I hear you on the Craigslist deals. I spend way too much time on there looking for good deals. What kind of paint did you use on the bumpers? I am starting to get some rust spots on my chrome and need to do something about it soon.

mine werent chrome so it may require a little different technique, but i just gave them a good sanding, primered them then rattle can from advanced auto. think it was a flat black semi gloss. cant remember right off the top of my head but yea it was pretty simple

[Hepar]

I was reading this thinking "his runner isn't even black!"

Lol. Great looking 4wd and also sounds like you got a great deal too!

[spenedwrds]

Originally Posted by Hepar

I was reading this thinking "his runner isn't even black!"

Lol. Great looking 4wd and also sounds like you got a great deal too!

Hahaha yea kinda confusing at first. Just showing off my first one since I never made a build thread for it. And I like to think I did considering I paid more for the limited with 90,000 more miles and not 4wd.

[spenedwrds]

installed my 2" body lift yesterday. and finally installed my subs back into the new runner. forgot how much i missed that bass! heres a few after pics. i also tried looking for how people fixed the gap between the bumper and body after a bl and had no luck so i took a few of how i did it just give a visual if someone needs it.





here is the bracket on the frame. you can see where i measured up 2" and drilled a hole


and here is the bracket on the bumper just did the same thing

[TRDteen]

Originally Posted by spenedwrds

after having the lights sit around in the garage for a while, one weekend dad and i got bored and said lets mount theses lights on the front bumper and try to flush mount them in the grill. this is what we ended up with.

Attachment 73775

How did you do the "flush mount"? Looking into trying this out on my runner, cause i have a pair of PIAA's laying around in my garage, but nothing to mount them to.

[spenedwrds]

[QUOTE=TRDteen;1212823]How did you do the "flush mount"? Looking into trying this out on my runner, cause i have a pair of PIAA's laying around in my garage, but nothing to mount them

I cut holes in the grill, then drilled a hole through the bumper just inside the grill for the stud to go trough. And just trimmed little by little until it sat flush and how I wanted them. Would show pics but I'm not gonna do that to my black one. Just gonna wire them up on my roof rack

[bak3rme]

looks good..and thats an awesome deal for that 4wd. lets wheel GA

[redrunner02]

I really like your wheel and tire combo,
are those 18's? I didn't see the size posted so sorry if i missed that

[spenedwrds]

Thanks bak3rme! And let's do it. I tried posting on the Georgia meet thread but no one else replied back.

And redrunner02. Yea they are 18" with 285/75/18" trail grapplers. Rub very little before the body lift. Now they don't rub at all.

[Notoyz]

Nice score, I was looking at this one on Clist and wondered what happened to it LOL

[spenedwrds]

Originally Posted by Notoyz

Nice score, I was looking at this one on Clist and wondered what happened to it LOL

Thanks! Yea I snatched it up about a month ago

[redrunner02]

I knew I should have gotten 18s blah! Good stuff man