Yes! Thanks for the reply, I'll go respond when I'm done typing here. Haven't been on the forum in a bit.

Curious what your daily is?

I should send you some of the prototype renders of our new bumper. Very OEM+ and along the lines of what you seem to like building. I'd love to get your feedback on it!

Sounds good! Just checking, it didnt show up in my sent box so i wanted to make sure.
I’d love to see what you’re working on, might help me get going on mine as well

I usually daily the 4runner but have an e39 540 as well. It stayed in texas with a close friend who needed a car while waiting on his gladiator but with covid the cost to ship it here was super cheap. i brought it here and quickly realized the timing guides were shot so i had to rebuild all the timing and vanos BS which took like 3 months with only working an hour or so at a time. The babies take up majority of the time and the bmw has had the rest for a bit but now im hoping to get back into the 4runner.




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Love this thread!

What wheels are you running? Looked back where you got them but didnt see if there was a brand on there, I'd love to find a set of these too! $40 what a steal

Appreciate that!

They are old American Racing AR26, i’ve looked like crazy to find a matching spare but apparently the 16s are more rare than the 15s i can still find here and there. I think Enkei made something almost identical as well.


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So I did some looking last night and couldn't find them at all. But I did find these , which are pretty similiar.

I'm doing a "classic" build so these will be great I think, would just have to matte clear or paint them gunmetal(??) them because chrome is gonna look very weird.

You can always just sell me yours =]

haha sorry they aren't for sale unless i find something in a 16 that i like more.
I'd seen those in your link in a non-chrome finish before so they are out there.

I just keep my eye on facebook marketplace and craigslist at all times just in case. Never know when someone is going to just try to get rid of something that is worthless to them and just what you want
same thing happened with my seats and rock sliders

Got my Course Motorsports phone holder on.

Direct Fit Magnetic Phone Mount - Toyota 4Runner (1996-2002) — CourseMS

Fit wasn’t perfect but i was able to make it work. Not sure if its an early vs late 3rd gen bezel difference or what but it was just a touch short. All sorted and working now. Im used to these bolting in but the doubled sided tape and pressure from the bezel snapping and screwing in seems to hold it pretty tight and firm. The little bushing helps as well.
Install is ridiculously easy if you’ve ever popped your bezel out.

So far i love having the phone in that position but tbd how it does offroad. My phone case was slick but i sanded it a bit to hopefully keep it from slipping off on big bumps.




I know the plate should be lower on the phone but i need wireless charging capability and seemed to lose it when the plate was centered.
With it higher and i have a second on the bottom for my other car, it still charges wirelessly without issue.








Also a wheel update.
I used these stupid grade 8 bolts to replace the rivets thinking they’d hold up but they rusted already this winter. Soooo i threw together a design and 3D printed a shield that will allow me to spray paint each bolt head individually without removing them.




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That phone mount is awesome, nice build!

Welp, time for an update. Wasnt planning on it but it happened no less.

So long story long, i was repainting the front end of my bmw and couldnt for the life of me get the clear to layout like i wanted. So i sanded it smooth and had the local maaco(i know) reshoot clear only. I did all prep and removed parts so all they did was wipe, tape and spray. Came out great for 200 bucks and saved the color blend job that i was very happy with. Very few imperfections to wetsand out but the rest of the car needs a polish anyway so its all good.





So i had to drive the 4runner to drop off/pick up the bumper and they had a raptorlined deuce and a half out front which led me to inquire about it for the 4runner. Mostly because it had zero clear coat left on all horizontal surfaces and small patches that were starting to get surface rust. It looked good in pics from a distance but the paint was beat.

Key gouges on both sides that had unmatched green paint, dings all over, missing paint from door edges and terrible, terrible clear coat everywhere.

I didnt love the idea of raptorlining but nothing else really seemed feasible without more work than its worth and after POR15ing the frame i didnt want to have rust on the body.
Talked to companies in the past and they wanted sooo much but this was affordable with colormatch and its close enough to my house that i was able to take everything off myself(like i did with the bmw)

I also had a few minutes the morning i dropped it off to make some blanks to weld into the holes i dont use for the rear wiper, wiper catch, rear emblem and antenna.





You may ask why i didnt change color, mostly because mismatched door jambs and i knew i was getting a maaco job so if they missed anything the correct color would still be around.
That being said, they did a great enough job for this old beater. I didnt want the license plate bezel done but they did it anyway, luckily it hides pretty good behind everything.
There are some uneven patches that he seemed to think would even out but we’ll see. Not terribly concerned as it looked much more rough before.

I have to say all this to reco Maaco as long as you know what you’re getting. If you do prep or at least disassembly yourself, its pretty good

Im still not the biggest fan of raptorliner but its growing on me and its better than my beat ass paint with patches of rust inhibitor spray painted on.

Awesome, I've seen a couple in person, and after watching Austin Nimela on YouTube paint his Toyota Pickup in an army green raptorline, it's grown on me. Looks like it laid out really well on yours, and now it won't scratch nearly as easy, you can be pretty rough with the paint.

i was already pretty rough on it but man the paint was junk before. looking forward to worrying even less

How did you install those pods on your front bumper. I am thinking on doing it?

Go back to post #160 that was where i did it.

Basically wedged the pods in where i wanted them and built the brackets around that using the bumper mount studs.

This is a sort of sketch to show how they sit on the mounts i made.






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Been a bit without an update but the other car has been getting all the love while the 4runner just runs without issue all the time.

Realized last time i checked my plugs for tightness that there was oil in the tube of the plug that socially distanced itself from the head in a previous adventure. After looking closer i realized that the tube seal wasnt seated on the valve cover and mustve been forced down the tube when the plug was MIA and compression was coming out there.

Lo and behold



So i swapped out all 3, new VCG and added a catch can while i was at it




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Saw your listing on KSL, what are you building next?