“Your truck is in perfect condition....”
Jump back to early last year... My wife and I were trying to make it to a campsite on Mt. Rainier up a forest service road in our 2011 Prius – our only car (I bike to work). She was driving. We made it almost there when the craters finally took their toll on her Prius-love, and she forcefully and without uncertainty pointed out, and I paraphrase for decency's sake, “You need to get a truck.” I love this human.
Excellent...
She executed a flawless 43 point turn without depositing us in a crater or taking us on an exciting 3000 foot plunge, and we headed back down the mountain scheming on the truck requirements. The truck had to be 4WD, small, big, forest green or a nice shade of blue, used, in great condition, reliable, cheap, a potentially self-contained camping mobile, and fully capable of pulling a small used C-Dory around (another upcoming scheme).
After research, obsession, and wading through the crap on the internet (but generally more succinct and of higher quality than this post), we decided the truck was to be a 3rd gen, 3rd sub-gen, T4R. I decided that since we were targeting both old and used that I wanted one with all the options. It's a tedious story, isn't it?
I watched Craigslist awhile, one popped up, we pounced, we bought it, and it pretty much meets the requirements. That was January 7. I messed around with it for a bit doing basic eeky-eeky stuff and learning the 4WD system, finding and reading the owners manual and FSM (I RTFM), finding a car wash where I could hose mud off of it, etc. You know, getting to know the beastie before deciding anything needed to be done.
BTW, this forum is quite an awesome resource – loads of info, willingness to share ideas and experiences, with a self-moderating tone of general goodwill. Had to toss this in, because all the stuff I've been doing and planning for this truck uses this forum as general guidance with rare and somewhat icky excursions to other forums. It's actually pleasant to read info about grindy old trucks written by people who communicate well and find ways to get along with each other. So... thanks all and thanks moderators for your governance.
Back to it... I decided to take the truck to a locally owned service shop with high marks from the vast, wise, and knowledgeable Interwebs for their used car evaluation service. “Pay them a little money to run through their pretty exhaustive checklist and let me know the findings,” I thought lazily. I dropped it off February 3.
“...Or at least it was until my service technician rear-ended someone during the test drive.”
So, the shop owner is a stand-up guy. He told me the news in person and assured me that he would make it right. I could tell he was just sick about what happened and that he and his crew really liked the truck. He has an interlocal agreement (knows the dudes) with one of the best body shops around and was able to slide the truck to the front of their line (which is noticeably long). They went the extra mile to wrestle with the insurance company to get and install all Toyota OEM parts after the insurance company was pressuring them to use some after market parts. The end result is that it's like a new truck in the front bumpular region and the car shop just might have earned my business after a rather dubious start. We'll see.
With that, I think I've made it to square one. For the time being, I'm mostly going to follow the guidance you have all laid down on this forum for some stuff. Most of the things I would consider doing seem to be well documented and mostly “been there, done that” at this point. Should I have any useful improvements or unique mods, I'll stick them to this thread. Should I get fancy with a front bumper replacement, I'll have a complete new old stock millenium silver front bumpular region for sale that the body shop charged the auto shop's insurance company about $2400 to collect, prep, and bolt onto the truck.
The Road Ahead:- go exploring! drive that thang! wear a fatuous grin like the people in the contemporary cadillac commercial.
- hire some tommy-gun wielding henchmen to ride on my silly running boards and guard the catalytic converter (since I'm making stuff up – the future is unknown).
- replace the radiator with OEM. i think I've decided to skip the external ATF cooler for now and revisit when we start hauling an old used boat around.
- 120k service, merged with the New Owners items (3rd Gen 4Runner Buyer's Guide). and check them LBJs real often. (recall replaced at 53k, apparently driven and parked on rainbow-colored, lavendar-spritzed, memory-foam mattresses ever since then).
- climate control module lights... or replacement, whichever it turns out to be.
- make music go from varying smartphones to factory sound system, and maybe install hands-free phone-talk stuff at the same time.
- foldable, stowable sleeping platform / storage bin contraption, rendered in fancy light-weight materials.
- 265/70R16 Goodyear Duratracs on my existing coke-bottle and spare rims (might replace spare rim with coke-bottle if i can find one), blackwalls out!
- continue going to church occasionally (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/tag/cars/), because it's just too easy to backslide (to wit, this fine T4R in our lives).
- more to come...
Done:- found, snipped, and taped the DRL wire
- key fob remotes
- WeatherTech floor mats
- ScanGaugeII & coded xGauge for ATF temperature
- used car evaluation – “perfect condition...”
- new front bumper components, and then some.
- more to come...
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