[kishanSR5]

Hi everyone. I've been a member of this forum for awhile and have read up about all the extensive builds that people have done, so i decided to write up what all i have done to my 2002 4runner sr5 model.

Here it is day one when i got the car from my dad about a month or so after i turned 16. It was his car for a long time before he handed it off to me.


the first mod i did, was the usual running board removal to make it look less like a family car and more like the rugged suv its supposed to be


then after a while i ordered the trd decals that most people put on their quarter panels


after that i had decided that the wheels needed some sort of focal point so i was bored and i painted the center caps black. i liked it for awhile


after reading up on a bunch of threads and online research i discovered plastidip and i blacked out almost every piece of chrome that i could find including my wheels. I also picked up a bull bar for about 90 bucks and threw on some autozone lights to give a tougher look to the front end.






As i read COB's build thread i saw how good a color matched grill looked on this paint code or any 4runner for that matter, and after long searching i decided to just make it myself with my own touch. I took off the grille and cut out the fin inserts with a hack saw. Then i sanded it down really good and scuffed up the chrome coating. After that i hit it with primer, wet sanding, duplicolor perfect match jade mica, gloss black and clear to seal it all up. I'm pretty satisfied with the results
( this is how it looked after i tried painting it with walmart paint. terrible.... i had to do something about it)

4runner missing something lol

and the result


I kept thinking about how all the plastic looked grey, not the black its supposed to be. Mothers back to black just wasn't cutting it for me so i scuffed up the plastics and gave it a few coats of rustoleum flat black and i really like the results. I still have to repaint the front wipers and that plastic piece under the wipers. Around this time i also tinted my bumper lenses and corner lights orange to give it that "JDM" car look. Sort of like an R32 skyline. Ive always digged it and so i wanted to try it out.
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final result with painted bumper plastic, tinted lights and ebay fog lights that i bought for about 80 bucks.

[kishanSR5]

I was really bothered about the red and green contrasting in the rear of the car. I hated the fact that it looked like a christmas tree so i bought the black led tail lights and smoked led 3rd brake light to clean that up a bit. Then i got all black trd decals to replace my red ones, to give it a more subtle look i guess.

led light installed
with led reverse bulbs and turn signal bulbs

[kishanSR5]

before led 3rd brake light

after smoked led 3rd brake light and repainted tow hitch

[Brian757]

Keep it going! Your off to a good start!

[kishanSR5]

There isnt much get up and go to these trucks and the sound of the stock engine and exhaust is like silent so decided to get a cherrybomb vortex installed by my local muffler shop. and to help that engine breathe even better i installed a K&N CAI which i have always wanted for this truck

[kishanSR5]

around this time is when i wanted to black out the rest of my car, give it a more menacing look. so did a few things.
-repainted the rear license plate valence in satin black because the plastidip was coming off
-tinted my taillights darker
-tinted my front turn signals and corner lights darker
-installed window visors off of ebay haha

after a good ole' wash
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The stock sound system in the 4runner is pretty weak so i decided to upgrade it over time. A while back i had a alpine CDE-122 head unit that was very nice (sorry no pics of it) and i upgraded the rear door speakers to some kicker ks400's which improved the sound drastically in the rear. The fronts i ended up upgrading to Kicker KS6.2's which are amazing! I also added a kicker VC12 sub in the cargo area powered by a kicker zx300.1 mono amp. I then wanted more features from my head unit so i upgraded to a Pioneer-X2500BT. Which had all the features i wanted including bluetooth and DVD capabilities. While i was in the dash doing electrical stuff i decided to hardwire my radar detector that my uncle gave me for my birthday. Ill upload pics about these upgrades really soon.

[kishanSR5]

Originally Posted by Brian757

Keep it going! Your off to a good start!

Thank! I appreciate it. Eventually i want to give this thing a 3" lift (even though its 2wd), bf goodrich All terrain's and i want to try to convert it to a limited trim. Gather all the wood trim pieces, manual leather seat swap etc.

[kishanSR5]

So here are the pics i promised about my upgraded audio system and radar detector as well as a bunch of little things that ill point out.

Kicker tweeters

Pioneer Headunit

Radar detector

My Kicker VC12 and my crate of tools/jumper cables/jump starter/stff

Before

after

sound deadening with peel n seal

[kishanSR5]

so i recently took a trip to galveston beach and the 4runner proved once again how it is such a versatile truck. I put a bunch of fold up chairs,snacks,drinks and a 6 foot long table in the rear as well as me and 2 of my buddies
here she is parked on the beach

and i got this pic just as the sun was rising. it just looks amazing
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Some models of the 4runner came with the rear cargo net and i scored the net for free from a buddy of mine but i kind of ghetto installed it using ace hardware hooks drilled in to the panels with nuts and washers. and i really didn't like that and i like everything on my truck to look as clean and oem as possible so i looked in my moms sienna and i noticed that she had the oem net tiedowns so i snagged those from her van and installed it using a washer and a nut threaded in from the back. ill post some more pics of that in a bit.

[Jedrattle]

Nice! I like what you have done so far. Where did you get the tail lights/3rd brake light? How much?

[kishanSR5]

Originally Posted by Jedrattle

Nice! I like what you have done so far. Where did you get the tail lights/3rd brake light? How much?

Thanks ! I actually bought the both on ebay. here are pics of the ones i bought.



For the tail lights search "2002 4runner black led tail lights" and for the 3rd brake light search " 2002 4runner smoked 3rd brake light" they should both pop up with the same ones as these.
The tails were 140 and the 3rd brake light was 40 bucks haha. and the only downside to the 3rd brakelight is that i couldnt reuse the gasket for the new one. in the near future i might get cut a piece of rubber with the outline of the brakelight to seal it up completely.

[kishanSR5]

So here are the pics of my install of the oem net hardware

[kishanSR5]

after that trip to the beach i realized two things.
1) my carpet got hella dirty with sand all sorts of dirt
2) i was tired of back passengers reaching to the front to use the 12v outlets to charge their phones and then leaving their phones on the armrest which i like to use lol. so i did a few things.

first the cheaper of the two. I installed 3 12'v outlets

and the second and more expensive fix, Weathertech floorliners




tell me what yall think about both of these things i would like some opinions on them haha

[kishanSR5]

Since I had an aftermarket audio system i figured i should do the big 3 upgrade. I dont have a winch or anything to suck the power down like most people on here do but i figured that if it makes the electrical system happier, why not?

I tried to make it look as clean as possible. so after soldering and heat shrinking the wires, I wrapped a plastic conduit around them as well and added the color coded guards that come with the terminals. The only problem i had with this setup was that i had to extend the wire that came off the fuse box in the engine bay. and i had to use an extra 0 gauge wire with a nut and bolt to connect the existing wiring harness to the positive lead of the battery.
here are the before pics

and after the upgrade.



i havent had a chance to read my voltage yet but i can tell that the electrical system is happier. the starter has a bit more kick to it and my sound system sounds a bit better, little bit more powerful. the only thing that i thing i didnt do correctly was grind off the paint to bare metal for the ground but i will do that in a bit. and also the tsunami terminals that i purchased i think are different sizes or something. because the one on my positive lead of my battery didnt fit all the way. and the one on the negative lead was too big. so i might have to swap the sides and see if it works. any info on this would be appreciated.

[kishanSR5]

So I have a few updates on the 4runner. First of all i did fix the issues that i had before regarding the battery terminals and i also grounded down the ground point to bare metal to ensure proper connection.
Also a couple days ago i was able to help out my friend with his moms car. She was at a walgreens and tried to come home but her car wouldn't start even with a jump. ( it was a bad starter which we fixed today) so i towed her accord back to his house.

Also i finally got one of these.

I have wanted to have one ever since i had the truck and i finally installed it. here is how i did it for those who would like to know.
I taped the area off with painters tape approximately where i thought the brackets would go. And then i assembled the air deflector and held it in place about where it would go using a bungee cord. i then traced the edges of the brackets with sharpie. then i took off one of the brackets and placed it where i had traced it before. then i marked the holes, removed the brackets, and drilled em through. After i had done both sides i installed the brackets using stainless steel sheet metal screws and painted and reinstalled the air deflector.
ill let the pics do some talking





which marks the start of the "limited" conversion that i would like to complete. this includes all wood grain trim pieces like the instrument cluster bezel. center console. shifter trim, door switches and leather door inserts and arm rests and leather seats ( possibly power seats? preferably not)