[Dropzone]

Originally Posted by Dirtco

Speaking of lights, I installed some Rigid A-Series knock off light pods I got off Amazon above the rear seats. I wired them into the factory door switches so when you open the door the corresponding light turns on.

I have several of those knock offs. Their output is pretty dang good.
when my dome light failed I used one. Like you I added a door light. Works great

Truck progress is great!

[Road Bull]

I dig that you went back and got your headrest and visited the site of the accident.

And, it reminded me of a concept that has been kicking around in my head for a few weeks...

So I work a lot over the summer. I have crazy hours and one weekend I worked two, back-to-back 12 hour days. At that point, I think I was on week five of working every day with some 16 hour days peppered in there. One morning, I was leaving for work at 3:45 am. I forgot something inside and went back in quickly to grab it. I left for work to return 15 or so hours later. I was tired. I unlocked my door, stepped inside, dropped my bags to the ground and turned on the lights. Then it hit me... GAS. I could smell lots of gas!! I started to back out, and turned the lights off. Strike TWO! I realized stepping back outside that turning lights on and off could potentially cause a spark and chain of unfortunate events. I backed out, and called the gas company. They said that they'd send someone out. I went back into open up doors and windows. I passed through the kitchen hearing a loud HISS. I looked over and saw a burner had been set to high for like, 15 hours... ( I must have bumped it during the morning rush back inside.) Without thinking, I turned the unignited burner to off. Well, between HI and off, is "ignite". Strike three, still not dead.

Afterwords, it got my imagination going. I died the first time I hit the light switch. I was blown across the street into my neighbor's house and there was nothing left of my house but a crater. Everything after, was / is my imagination, the afterlife. I stopped being "Ryder" and now I am "Ghost Ryder". Still going to work though. Even though I am dead. I am highly functional. LOL.

Anyway. I am digging the steady progress. What do you see as your upcoming large hurdles to overcome as you proceed?

[Dirtco]

Originally Posted by Dropzone

I have several of those knock offs. Their output is pretty dang good.
when my dome light failed I used one. Like you I added a door light. Works great

Truck progress is great!

They seem pretty good for the price. I also bought two of the Rigid Lights, one as the main dome light in the truck and the other as the center/middle rock light under the truck. The Rigid lights are brighter, but they are also like 10 times the price!

[Dirtco]

Originally Posted by Road Bull

Anyway. I am digging the steady progress. What do you see as your upcoming large hurdles to overcome as you proceed?

The biggest hurdle right now is time, or should I say the lack of. The other issue is my perfectionism, I have a hard time just half assing stuff and throwing it together. I've thrown rigs together in the past just to make them drivable, and then had to go back several times to redo stuff and add things that should've been done the first time around. I will still have a large list of stuff to complete when I take it on it's first test drive, but I also don't want to back track to finish stuff.

My goal, and the deadline I'm shooting for, is to have the 4Runner drivable (not done by any means) by this fall. Every year I take my daughter out to see the fall leaves in the 4Runner and it's very important for me to try and do that this year.

[theesotericone]

Originally Posted by Dirtco

The biggest hurdle right now is time, or should I say the lack of. The other issue is my perfectionism, I have a hard time just half assing stuff and throwing it together. I've thrown rigs together in the past just to make them drivable, and then had to go back several times to redo stuff and add things that should've been done the first time around. I will still have a large list of stuff to complete when I take it on it's first test drive, but I also don't want to back track to finish stuff.

My goal, and the deadline I'm shooting for, is to have the 4Runner drivable (not done by any means) by this fall. Every year I take my daughter out to see the fall leaves in the 4Runner and it's very important for me to try and do that this year.

Do it once and do it right. Looks like we're on the same page there. I hope you squeeze in the time to get it driveable before the leaves change. I also hope you have a late summer so you get a few extra weeks to get it done. lol

It's impressive what you've done so far with the rig, I'm sure it will be more then capable when you're finished.

[Dirtco]

My old rear axle housing is up for sale if anyone is interested!

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/for-sale-t4r-items/277310-fs-3rd-gen-trail-gear-rock-assault-rear-axle-housing-$800-silverthorne-co.html

[Big-B1975]

I will take it, just sent you a PM. Thanks Brian

[Dirtco]

Okay, time for an update. As usual I’ve been working on the 4Runner every chance I get, and as usual I’ve done a pretty lame job of keeping this thread up to date. So here we go, I’m going to do my best to get things caught up.

When we left off I was in the process of figuring out the rear windows and rear bulkhead. Here is the last picture I took of the tube work before I started to close it all in.



And a close up of the spare tire mount, after my tire carrier failure I had a couple years ago I decided to build it right the first time. I don’t see this going anywhere!



First I installed the driver side rear windows (back and side), it was a little messy cutting the acrylic sheet but it wasn’t hard. I used windshield urethane to glue the windows in place. Windshield urethane is super strong (to the point of being structural) but it’s also flexible. With the window in place I could mount my license plate, this was the best place I could find where it wouldn’t get damaged but it was also super visible.



Then I moved on to the rear bulkhead, I used some aluminum diamond plate because it was light and free (it was the lid to an old tool box). Before I installed it I added some off brand Dynamat to the back side for sound and climate control.



Here you can see the back side, along with the low profile subwoofer, some wiring, and the spot I found for my Hi-Lift jack.





The jack barely fits there, I actually had to trim a small section out of the seat back to make it work. But, I was able to make it work and have the jack be in a safe spot out of the elements and taking up room that otherwise would have been wasted space.

[Dirtco]

As most of you guys know, I’ve been running the FROR full float kit for years on my truck. For the the most part it’s been a great kit and I’m happy with the results and strength of it. But, I have found two downsides to the kit. The first is the axle seals like to leak, I don’t know how many times I’ve replaced the seals but every time I take it apart there is gear oil in the rear wheel bearings. Anyone that’s been around old solid axle Toyota’s know that this was pretty common on the old trucks, and I’ve just gotten to the point where I know it’s going to leak a little.

The other issue I had was gear oil slowing leaking between the adapter and axle housing. I tried several different brands of RTV and still after a season of wheeling there would be the signs of gear oil seeping out. Now, I wasn’t that concerned about a couple drops of oil, the bigger issue was that the adapter was flexing enough to partially break the silicone bound. And that had me thinking about the possibility of a catastrophic failure, loosing the entire wheel and hub/axle assembly while flying down a dirt road would not be fun!

So I decided to go past the point of return and weld the adapters to the housing!

[APhelps]

By god man, awesome effing work.

[owyheerat]

I always check in to see if you've updated your thread, and all I can say is, this was SO WORTH THE WAIT! Great workmanship and attention to detail!

Looking forward to seeing this project completed!

Durwin

[crazydubman]

Love the update man. every bit of work that gets chipped off your to do list is always well thought out and executed very clean.

Keep up the great work and stay with it. All the effort will be worth it in the end to basically have a buggy with full interior amenities and comfort of a regular driver.

[Black798]

Man seeing those full float flanges welded on really gets me excited to start designing and building my axle housings for mine haha. I've already got a 9.5 rear diff, hp 8", and ruffstuff weld on full float flanges in the garage ready to go. Just need the time to draw it all out in solidworks and get it put together.

I was thinking to maybe help mitigate the issue you have had with the oil getting to the wheel bearings since I'll be using modified 80 series rear shafts that I could bore out the spindle slightly at the end to add a seal in the end of the spindle like the 80s have. I think having two seals on it may eliminate that issue or at least prolong it from happening.

The fitment on that high lift is tits! Really love you attention to detail on this

[Dirtco]

So far I’ve been pretty lucky and the check the insurance company gave me has covered all the new parts for the 4Runner, but I’m now to the point where there’s not much left. Luckily when I sold the old rear axle it boosted my balance back up enough to buy my rear coilover shocks.

Like I’ve said before this is not going to be strictly a rock crawler, I want to be able to go fast and have it be reliable/comfortable enough to take on multi-day camping trips. With these goals in mind I’ve decided I’m going to reinstall the old 150lb front upper coil springs that came with the front coilovers when I bought them. That upper spring gave me 5” of up travel (not including the built in 1” bumpstop). While I like the lower stance, having more up travel and a slightly stiffer spring rate will help the handling of the vehicle.

With the front coilover spring rates determined (14” total, 6” up-travel w/ bumper, 8” down-travel), I was able to call Accutune and figure out what to do with the rear coilovers. After going over the front suspension, estimated vehicle weights and what I plan to use the vehicle for we decided that a 16” Fox 2.0 DSC coilover would be the best option. With the spring rates they chose I should have 8” of up-travel w/ bumper and 8” of down-travel.

For those of you wondering how big a 16” coilover shock is, here is my daughter standing in front of my 37” tire holding the shock up!

[Dirtco]

After a bunch of time mocking up the rear shocks I was finally able to start making some mounts. Due to the back seat I wasn’t able to mount them with the top facing forward like normal, so I leaned the top backwards like the newer Jeeps are mounted. This gives me the clearance I need, and allows the shocks to travel through out their range of motion without anything binding (for both high speed and rock crawling).







Upper mount (there will be another gusset or two)



Lower mount