[Silver.T4R]

Hey all,

I've been a long time lurker on here and this will be my first time starting a build thread. There won't be much different here from most of the other builds on here but I figured this would be a great place to document progress and keep track of maintenance as I go. Hopefully something in here will be helpful to someone else working on their 3rd gen as this sites community and wealth of knowledge has proved invaluable to me over the years.

Backstory time:
Now I'm sure you all are wondering... "if you don't even have a silver truck why is your name silver.t4r?" So here's why... I used to have a silver 98' 4Runner for about 5 years that I got as my first car back in highschool. It was a great truck and never let me down and I planned on doing a pretty extensive build with it one day. I learned a ton of things working on that truck, and definitely made my fair share of mistakes along the way though I began correctly them last year. Unforunately, over last Christmas break I hit some ice and rolled it 3 and a half times down an 80ft embankment doing some snow wheeling with my buddy.

Here's a couple pic's of the rolled truck:

Before:
DSC05880 by on Flickr

Wrecked4Runner-05549 by on Flickr

Wrecked4Runner-05559 by on Flickr

4Runner-05361 by on Flickr


After Roll:
PXL_20211227_211611120 by on Flickr

PXL_20220103_192309253 by on Flickr

PXL_20220103_192326638 by on Flickr

PXL_20220110_180926872 by on Flickr

Needless to say I am beyond grateful to still be alive and thank God for sparing my life and that I am still able to build another truck. It could have been so much worse, but I walked away with only a scar on my finger (wasn't sore or anything the next day!) despite having a camera and a bunch of gear in the truck that could have hurt me pretty badly during the rollover. The truck survived surprisingly well all things considered, and after rightfully named "Tender Loving Care towing" (I still have no idea how they were able to pull it up the embankment) towed it back to a local body shop it was declared a total loss as the roof and drivers side A pillar were damaged pretty badly. Went back a couple days later as I was out of town when they towed it out, to find that it started up instantly and drove home like nothing happened. Thankfully I was able to salvage my headlights and quite a few other parts off of it, though it felt wrong stripping it apart after owning it for five years and investing countless hours into it.

Fast forward a couple months, I new I wanted another 3rd gen after how well the last one held up and I think Toyota nailed it during the late 90's with the simplicity and creature comforts that the 3rd gen's to offer without being overly complicated to work on. After browsing craigslist, cars and bids and a few other sites, I found a 1 Owner Black 99' with 175k on the clock on eBay with everything I was looking for other than a locker out in Salinas California. I admittedly paid more than I would have liked, though I am very grateful that my insurance was willing to pay 4k more than I originally paid for the 98' I rolled which is unheard of and was a major help in the inflated car market. Me and my dad flew out that weekend to check it out and it was in even better condition than I had thought minus some minor paint damage and was night and day better than my previous 98' was when I bought it. Drove it home that night and into the next day (I live in Oregon) and have been working on building it up ever since.

Now onto what you've all been waiting for, a couple pictures of the new truck:
1999 4Runner-06881 by on Flickr

1999 4Runner-06871 by on Flickr

1999 4Runner-06870 by on Flickr

1999 4Runner-06866 by on Flickr

And Currently:

1999 4Runner--2 by on Flickr

1999 4Runner- by on Flickr

4Runner (108 of 114) by on Flickr

Mods to Date:

BXBuilt headlights w/ RGB Halos
16' FN 5 Stars in Matte Bronze
33" Falken Wildpeak AT3W
SPC Adjustable Upper Control Arms
Total Chaos Diff Drop
Bilstein 5100's
OME 883 Front
OME 891 Rear
Eimkeith Panhard Correction Kit
Sherpa Matterhorn Full Length Roof Rack
Infinity Reference 6.5" front and 5.5" Rear
Sony XAV AX7000 Headunit Android Auto/Carplay w/ 45W RMS Built in Amp
Skar Audio 8" Sub
Sound Deadened Doors
(I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, will update later)

Maintenance:
Currently at 185k

Fixed Limited Climate Control (can't recommend @JRZEE2000TR4LTD 's services enough to those with the auto climate control!)
Front Lower Control Arm Bushings (Whiteline)
Steering Rack Bushings (Energy Suspension)
Front Sway Bar Bushings (Energy)
New Denso Radiator
Toyota Red Long Life Antifreeze
Switched to Mobil 1 Full Synth with 5k Intervals
NAPA CV's
Pressure washed Carpet

I tend to get pretty focused on what I'm doing and am admittedly not the best at taking pictures as I do mods and maintenance, but will do my best to update this thread as I have time with any tricks I find along the way. Thanks again to everyone that's contributed to this site over the years, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this and most likely wouldn't have the interest I have in cars today without you guys.

[Silver.T4R]

Been a busy year, been meaning to update this thread for a while but its taken the back burner. Time for some long overdue updates and to try and get this thread up to date with where the 4R is currently...

One of my first upgrades was putting in a Sony XAV AX-7000 headunit that I got a good deal on off ebay along with some Infinity Reference 6.5" components in the front and 5.5" coaxials in the rear with a 8" scar sub. I bought this unit in hopes of ditching adding an external amp into my system this time around as it puts out 45w RMS versus the typical 15-18w peak RMS on most headunits. The interface is also super sleek compared with most touchscreen headunits which look kind of tacky IMO. Also added full sound dampening to all the doors (didn't take pictures of this or the speaker install unfortunately).

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Wanted to figure out a "OEM" way to run the amp power wire and other wires in future without cutting into the rubber grommet below the cowl on the drivers side fender. Did some searching, and found that there's another hole from the factory with a rubber plug left of the brake master cylinder. Had some difficulty finding it at first, but later discovered that its directly behind some dampening material. Cut a hole in the material, and picked up a rubber boot off Amazon and ran the power wire through there which worked out great. Not sure when the dampening (or fireproofing?) material was added, as the threads I saw on here don't show it as being there, might have been added to 99+ models?

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The grommet enters the cabin directly above the gas pedal, and I then ran the power wire to the amp under the drivers seat.

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Added a remote bass knob to control the sub level below where the 12V outlet would have been, which I also switched out with a dual USB outlet for charging / android auto

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Have had this setup for about a year and a half at this point and it sounds pretty good, though if I were to do it over again I would've gone with an Alpine unit + Power Pack like I had in my old 98' that I rolled. The Sony sounds good, but has had some weird quirks, like when I hit the home button it will occasionally restart the song I'm listening too and some other weird bugs with bluetooth not reconnecting or cutting out when listening to music. Also haven't been able to get much midbass out of the Infinities no matter how I EQ the HU, which I know is related to the Sony HU as I had pretty solid midbass out of them when they were in the 98' with an Alpine HU and Power pack. Sony's interface while it looks fantastic (IMO) lacks several features that other HU's in its price range have which is another draw back. These may be issues just related to my specific unit as I have a couple friends who've been pretty happy with their Sony units, though I've seen quite a few threads online with other people experiencing similar bugs with sony head units.

Also sound dampened the rear cargo area fall of last year, thought I took some photo's but haven't been able to find them unfortunately. This probably made the biggest difference out of all the sound deadening I added as there is hardly any sound deadening in the cargo area from the factory and nothing on the wheel wells. I did several layers and followed @gamefreakgc 's audio thread for the most part, using a couple layers of dampening, ensolite, and then MLV to top it off. One thing I'd recommend if you plan on doing several layers like I did, is making sure you leave a small portion of the floor with either a single layer or uncovered near the bottom of where the plastic cargo side panels clip on. I at first had to force the panels on and ended up going back a couple weeks later and removed some deadening in order to get them to fit back in place like they did from the factory. (YMMV)

It's not pretty but here's what I'm referring to in terms of leaving out sound deadening on the sides along the edge where the plastic panels clip in (I still may go back at some point and remove a little more as the panels still don't fit quite right though I've been putting it off):

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Last thing I recently changed a couple months ago, was swapping out the scar audio sub for a JBL basspro nano underseat sub. The JBL is nothing crazy, but it adds some nice low end and sounds fantastic for how small it is and I was able to regain the space in the cargo area where the scar sub was which is nice. Never was able to get the scar sub tuned to a point where it sounded balanced which very well could be inexperience on my part lol, but it always was either hardly noticeable or overpowered the rest of the speakers when I adjusted the gain or level on the HU at all. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this setup now, though I recently pulled a wood grain radio trim surround out of a 00' Limited I sold and might swap out the Sony unit with something else whenever I replace my black trim with the wood grain trim.

I think that pretty well covers the audio setup, more updates to come...

[Silver.T4R]

Paint Correction:
One thing that bothered me from day one of getting this truck was how bad of condition the paint was in. I did a bunch of research to try and figure out how to bring the faded, oxidized, and water spotted black paint back to life and ultimately ended up going with a two step compound and polish from Griots Garage. I really like these products as they don't dust significantly and become less abrasive as you polish (i.e. the compound initially starts as a compound and slowly turns to more of a polish as you use it.) I picked up a Griots G9 random orbital polisher off Amazon (strongly recommend a random orbital if you do this yourself over a standard rotary as its significantly safer to use and makes polishing easier). I then ceramic coated it with some gtechniq Crystal Serum Lite. Overall, I think the tired paint came out looking great! Heres some pics of the products I used and after shots.

This is the best before photo I could find. Notice how the back quarter panel looks like someone took steel wool to it with all the scratches:


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And the afters:

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Overall, I'm really happy with how the paint came back to life and IMO looks great compared with what it did when I bought it. One thing I would do differently if I were to do it over again, is using a different coating or following up the crystal serum lite with Gtechniq EXO. The Exo helps to repel water, whereas the light is more of a gloss enhancer / protector. The downfall of using just light (like i did) is that it doesn't repel water real well which leads to waterspotting which I now have... I plan to do a one step polish again soon to hopefully remove the water spots and try out cerakotes new ceramic coating as its an all in one and see how it performs.

I've bought and sold a couple 4rs and have also polished them out and had great results on those aswell in reviving the old paint and its super satisfying to bring these old beasts back to their former glory. Some pointers for anyone wanting to try this: Our trucks have a very soft paint from the factory, which is suceptible to scratching easily. If your paint is in really rough condition, you'll want to start with a cutting pad followed up with a finer polish and finishing pad on your buffer to achieve the best result. If you only compound, itll lead cause the paint to have somewhat of a chalkly look to it and won't have as full of a shine. Think of compound similarly to using 400 grit sandpaper. It removes the major defects and scratches, but to really smooth the paint and make it shine you want to use a polish (similar to say 1500-2000grit sandpaper). Scratches and swirls in paint are caused by minor "valleys" in the paint which cause the light to refract unevenly back at your eye which is why you see the scratch. When you compound and polish paint, you are removing a very, very, very fine layer of the surface of the paint, which removes the "valleys" and levels the paint causing it to refract evenly to your eye. There are several youtube channels that show good techniques for polishing and do a much better job of explaining this then I did. I'd recommend pantheorganizer, ammonyc, or diydetail's channels on youtube if you'd like to learn more.

[Silver.T4R]

After all of this I just enjoyed driving the truck and didn't change much on it for a while. I was also working a job about an hour away from me and didn't have much free time to enjoy it other than highway drives. I did take it on some adventures though:

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Me and a buddy did a spur of the moment roadtrip to BC Canada. Saw this rad hilux surf in downtown BC:

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And not t4r related but I guess Candas kinda cool too

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[Silver.T4R]

A few months before the trip above, I purchased this 00' with a rear locker for a deal I couldn't pass up. It definitely started out pretty clapped, and I ended up doing a TB job (first time), new steering rack, shocks all around, reupholstered the seats, lbjs and several other things I'm forgetting right now. Heres some pics:

The I brought it home:

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Needless to say, it was rough... interior was soiled, paint was faded and in need of some serious mechanical work. Whenever I hit a pot hole it felt like it was trying to move in 5 directions and once, and it had been riding on the bump stops for so long that they had rubbed off the paint from the frame where they contact. Bottom shock bushings were non-existant. This project challenged me pretty significantly in tackling some more serious mechanical jobs and ended up being a bigger and longer lasting job than I expected. It cleaned up nicely though after some elbow greasing buffing the paint and cleaning up the interior.

[Unner]

Nice 4Runners. Sorry to see what happened to the old one, but black 3rd gens are the best . She looks super clean. What are the remaining plans for it?

[JoeT4R]

Dude, this is a beautiful new beginning. Glad to see you’re creating a build thread right away. It took me 9 years of owning my rig before I created my build thread, lol.

It’s a great way to log maintenance and mods, and much like you said, share knowledge and inspire others. It’s never fun losing your first 4Runner. That happened to me over 10 years ago. I had graduated high school, bought my first 3rd gen (3RZ base model!) and totaled it 6 months later. Heartbroken to say the least. But this will give you more appreciation, I think, for your new rig. Can’t wait to see more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[octanejunkie]

Nice rig. Good find. Welcome back!

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[second2none]

New truck looks great and welcome 👍🏻

[Iron duke]

Looks awesome man! I am on 3rd gen number 2 myself lol

[alexperrucci]

Nice truck! Look forward to seeing the rest of the build. I also have a '99 Limited same color combo.

[cblock406]

Looks great, love the FN wheels!

[Silver.T4R]

Thanks guys! Sorry for the late reply's, was on vacation with fam over the weekend and haven't had time to catch up on here. I know this probably sounds corny, but its pretty cool getting replies from so many peoples builds on here that have inspired me along the way but I never posted on, I really need to get tapatalk set up on my phone so that I can comment on threads without having to use my computer everytime...

Hoping to get caught up on posting some of the mods and other pics later this weekend as I won't have time until then unfortunately and would like to get some pictures and things I've learned along the way up for future reference.

@Unner Thanks! Read through your thread a couple weeks ago and love both your 3rd gen and what you've been doing with your 4th gen aswell, cool to get a reply from a fellow t4r'r with a black rig! Not to many major plans in the near future other an aftermarket skid plate as I didn't realize when I purchased the diff drop kit that the stock skid plate wouldn't fit. Would also like to get a supercharger (or gears), still need to do some research on both of these options as I definitely noticed the lack of power going over some mountains last weekend with the 33's; would also like to swap an elocker into the rear at some point. Other than that, planning on enjoying it for the next few months and taking care of a couple maintenance items.

@JoeT4R Appreciate it man! Sorry to hear about your first runner, it's always tough losing your first car and all the memories that go along with it. I love this new rig but my old one definitely has a special place in my heart with all the memories I had in it, even though it was in quite a bit worse shape then this one.

@octanejunkie Thanks! Happy to be back too, definitely missed my 3rd gen for the month I didn't have one after rolling the other one.

@Iron duke Appreciate it! Love your build and how capable you've made your truck on a budget, definitely jealous of the stick too!

@AlexP erucci Looks like you have my rigs twin! I like the OEM+ route you've gone with on your truck, looking good!

@cblock406 Thanks! Your rig and @nihkon 's rig (not sure if hes still active on here) are what convinced me to go with the FN's. I've read through your thread a couple times and love what you've done with your build. Super clean truck, and looks like the way Toyota would have made a built 3rd gen from the factory.

[Silver.T4R]

My first ever TB and WP job:
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Heads had some sludge, but were in decent shape for the 250k the truck had on it:
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Roached lower shock bushings:
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And some photos after reupholstering the seats and detailing:
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I guess I'm a sucker for punishment but theres something super satisfying to me about restoring these rigs. I also was shocked with how great desert dune looks when its polished out. I've never seen one prior to polishing this that was taken care of, and the color looks pretty mid IMO when it isn't taken care of but it has a deep metallic flake you can see once its buffed.

[Silver.T4R]

I never was quite happy with the way the OME springs road and it felt kinda like riding in a brick on a pogo stick on gravel and washboard roads. I did some research on here, and ended up swapping coils with LC 7.5 wraps and Trd Tundra Coils. This left the truck with some rake but overall I'm much more happy with how it rides. Some pics of install:

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Unfortunately one my buddies lost traction in his 96' limited in heavy rain and totaled it. Bit of a long story, but I had first bought this truck in 2021 from copart with a minor front end accident and clean title as a project to learn on. Fixed the damage with the help of a shop, cleaned up the heavily smoked in interior and removed the odor, and sold it to him in August of that year. He had it until October of 22' when he got in the accident.

He did a ton of stuff, TBU, all fluids, OE suspension, plugs, coils, lbjs, new K02's... list goes on. It ended up at copart and I won it. Me and another buddy were initially going to attempt the repair as it was a super super clean and good driving truck, but neither of us had done any body work and it was on borrowed time with 3 weeks before leaving the country to go to Serbia on a mission trip with my church. Ended up selling the truck instead to someone who didn't care about the damage as a wheeler.


Bringing it to my buddies house:

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The Damage:
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Last photos of it the day it sold:
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