Lol yeah that dog loves car rides so i take him with me as much as i can.

I cut the factory ends off the frame but happened to have some brackets that fit really nicely in the end so i’ll be using those to mount to the front and yeah probably the side brackets as an extra support as well depending on how wide i go.


These arent currently welded in just hammered into the rail and fit snug but i’ll weld them in and bolt to them.

We’ll see how it goes, if it doesnt work out i’ll actually buy some material and start over rather than using the scraps i currently have.




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The fog's look trick mounted like that.

Thanks hoping to get them actually mounted this weekend. Weather has been keeping me from working on the outside of the 4R but i’ve been tinkering on the insidey parts in the meantime.

Currently about halfway through my red LED conversion.
Couldnt find what the tiny bulbs are in some spots but was able to fake the look currently by removing bulb gels and green film on some.




The temp stripe looks a bit weird but I dont mind it so much. photo doesnt really show it well but the red looks pretty good. The clock is a bit dark as needed a few layers of red to actually get the color I wanted but that is with the lights on so its dimmed on top of that.


Hoping to wrap but the dash panel and ignition today and need to see about LEDs for the maps lights

If anyone local to the SLC area wants some, i have most of a roll of red film for changing the clock color. just come get some or all of it

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Didnt make as much progress as i would have liked but i got somewhere at least...

• got the under headlight panels remounted, its weird i had to drill new holes as the original mounting is over an inch off... maybe i wasnt as close as i thought on my core support rebuild but it matches side to side and drilling a new hole was easy enough

• pulled the grille off and prepped/painted it but think i might get a spare and build something different eventually

• dont have pics but replaced all of the door speakers with new fosgates, didnt get new tweeters but realize now that i should.

• cleaned the hell out of all the dash pieces and redid the clock with one less layer of film so it shows up a little brighter now but still has a good red tone

• all of the dash is now red LED which looks awesome compared to the pale green.(dont mind the airbag and ABS, i have the airbag off currently and the ABS was grabbing randomly so i pulled the fuse until i have the time to diagnose)


• the ignition ring wasnt showing up as much as i'd have liked so i sanded the inside edge a little to disperse the light around the corner better. worked a little.

• While i was at it i went ahead and pulled the cluster apart and realized the PO had scratched the cover pretty good, so i polished it out and got it looking great again.



• Was well on my way to gettting these mounted when i realized i was out of argon and cannot find the metal pieces i kept to make some brackets so mounting them is for another day











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Grille back on



Hoping for some quality time with the exterior, some metal and the welder soon. Tired of looking at the radiator and through the blinker holes where my fogs should be


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Got a little done

Swapped in the perfect taillights that @infamousRNR found for me
Thank you again man!


Dont mind the purple tint, its period correct

Also painted the back bumper black as i was really tired of looking at the chrome and i think im a ways out on a plate rear.



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Little update, making some progress

Decided to ditch the frame ends i had in there and start over not only in case i end up buying a bumper, but also so i can build a crossbeam and skid for now that will eventually replace the factory skid.

Tig welder is acting up and didnt want to waste the day diagnosing so i bought a harbor freight 100 dollar mig and i have to say, im pretty pleased with it. Slag is bad but it’ll run a bead




Hard to really tell but i built a crossbeam and start of a skid that currently just overlaps the factory. It’ll eventually get continued to replace the thinner stuff.
Crossbeam is thicker box tube that i notched for the frame ends to slide into then added the end caps. Shouldve taken more progress pics


Probably build upwards from there too eventually

Also removed the rickity factory roof bars in preparation something more substantial




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Check out Marlin for lots of upgrades and swaps. They’ve done the engeeniring and have the rep to back it up. They never underbuild anything. What is your end goal with this rig? Daily driver/ weekend warrior? Or dedicated off-road? The reason I ask is related to the Marlin suggestion. They have a transfer case called the “Taco box” that puts two transfer cases back to back lowering your crawl ratio and increasing the torque.

Can’t wait to see your progress. Good luck.

Finally got my Panhard bar correction kit from @eimkeith installed today. Hardest part being the access to weld the front but not too bad even using the new dirt cheap flux mig i picked up.


dont mind the ugly welds


Ahhh so much better



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Also got my fog light brackets built and installed. Still need to wire but pretty pleased with the turnout using the bumper mount studs.

I still need make small block offs for the inside of the inner lights




[on the fog brackets, i dont have any pics aside from the two i posted. Its a shame because i've had a lot of people ask about them but i cant guarantee mine would fint other people's bumpers as my front end is completely rebuilt and the bumper doesnt exactly fit like factory.


it was a bit of a rush job as the wife had made plans and i didnt want to wait until the following weekend. just used a piece of angle iron straight off the lower bumper stud. drill the hole in it and bolted it on making sure the fog brackets met the underside. One didn't, so had to make an extension for that one but before that i measured the angle and cut a piece of straight 1x to meet the angle iron and the upper bolt. marked the spots for the fogs to drill for mounts, pulled them out, tacked the pieces together in the bumper then pulled them out and welded them the rest of the way. drilled the other holes, painted and installed.


Here is a bad pic with some hopefully helpful sketching to show the layout



the fogs fit in the holes so tight that i was able to bascially build the bracket around them]

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Dude! Hat's off to the best implementation to the classic 4" amber fogs into the stock bumper I have ever seen. Looks awesome

thank ya sir! I'm pretty pumped with the turnout, wasn't certain i was going to be able to make the brackets work but i just kind of wedged the lights in and built the brackets around them and somehow it worked out really well.

Hi there! I just spent about an hour reading through your thread and I cannot thank you enough for the detail and effort and time! I have zero mechanical skills, so everything you've done is wicked cool to me and I'm impressed x9283487. I can't wait to see your next steps and again, thank you for blessing us all with these pictures and write-ups!

I need "Joelzy Fog Brackets"

TAKE MY MONEY!

lemme know if you wanna get rid of prototype brackets lol!

Glad to hear someone appreciates all my tinkering and complaining about it. You say you have no mech skills but ive learned all of the offroad/toyota stuff in this venture and this was my first motor rebuild so know that if you wanted you could get yourself in just as deep and still find your way out. Just research everything and triple check



Haha i could probably make another set if you really want the same thing. Need to replace my drill bits first as i broke a couple but they were surprisingly easy to make. I wanted to slot the holes but didnt have a good way to do so. Luckily the fog brackets were slotted instead.




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