[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

[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.

[Brian757]

Keep it going! Your off to a good start!

[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.

[kishanSR5]

Got everything JB welded together, just waiting on getting some 3m window sealant to seal them up. But I have a calculus 3 test on Tuesday so this will be put on hold till that night. I had to mount the shrouds and angel eyes in a back-asswards way, so I hope they hold up. If they don't guess I'll be baking them open again once I'm all said and done. But here is what they look like right now. I repainted the first shroud because it looked terrible compared to the second one I painted. Now they both look really good and have that perfect imperial jade mica color and flake

Close up of one of the shrouds.

[kishanSR5]

Finally finished my retrofit and installed the lights. I'm so happy with them. Amber angel eyes was a great idea. Here are the pics.

[kishanSR5]

Aimed my headlights to an acceptable low beam height. Also met up with another member up here and got a slightly used BF Goodrich All Terrain full size spare Trunk key barrel broke for the second time and this time i used JB weld to put it back together, it isn't going anywhere lol. Got a new sticker and also hit 120K miles. She still feels good, although the shocks definitely feel worn out, so a lift maybe in the works sometime soon.

Original space v.s New spare

New to me

Looking good under there


120K


Steekersss


Did I use enough JB Weld? lol



More pics of retrofit

mean looking




HDR pic

[kishanSR5]

So I went wheeling for the first time this past saturday. I met up with a buddy who has 2000 4runner 4wd and we went to Down South Offroad Park. I had a blast and was very proud of what my 2wd was capable of. I had to get pulled out 3 times, but other than that she did great. Foot the floor and steer was how I made it through pretty much everything. Here are some pics of the trip.

Me and my buddy at a shell station 5 mins outside the park.



Posing



Yeahh this was when I got stuck the first time.

pulling me out


More posing on top of a hill




Helping a guy air up his tire on his polaris


Favorite shot of the day


Headin out


Back at home driveway pics.




Reppin T4R!


I had a whole lot of fun but it would sure be nice to have a 4wd.... for now I'm going to look into an aussie locker for a rear or at least something that provides 100% lockup when there is slippage but behaves closely like an open diff on the street (no clicking, noise or tire chirping), suggestions are welcome! But I do want to eventually convert my truck to 4wd. After reading up on COB's build and looking into other people's threads the hardest part seems to be wiring and getting everything to work electronically. The diff, transmission, driveshaft, hubs, cv's seem to all go in just like they would on a 4wd but getting them to all function properly electronically is a whole nother story.

[kishanSR5]

So I pulled the trigger on a set of front leather seat covers off a limited wreck on eBay. They are definitely not in the best condition, they have tears and one of them has a burn mark which I have no idea how. The headrests are in perfect condition as well as the back of the seats where the pockets are. The driver side seat back is in great condition but the seat bottoms and the passenger side seat bottom isn't But I figure for the time being they will work and when I have the money I will get them reupholstered.

Before



After

They are pretty comfortable compared to the cloth ones that were there before and so I think it was worth the effort and money.

[kishanSR5]

So after much thinking I decided to remove my front bumper and just run the brush guard in the front. This is going to be temporary because I have plans for the front that should happen sometime soon I also wired up my toggle switches for the light bars. The lower light i tapped into the cigarette light wiring. I also wired in new turn signals that I love however they aren't working properly so I could use some help with those. They are supposed to flash sequentially like mustang tailights and yes they do but after they flash normally they do a little half flash. It's like they are malfunctioning but working right. These lights are meant for a trailer, they have 3 wires on them and I only have 2 of them hooked up. I also cleaned up my engine bay from the mudding trip. It isn't like show car quality but it is definitely cleaner. But anyway here are some pics.

Before


After




Here is a video of the turn signal. If anyone can help me with this id appreciate it.


Filthy engine bay


Clean




Light switches with dash lights only

Light switches with light bars on