What's up everyone! I know this is a topic covered again and again but I was looking to see if anyone had any thoughts on what would be good for mods for my 4runner. My spring break is coming around here in a few days and I want to play around with mods. I'm a college student so budget is tight. I'm in the search for some front mud flaps so I can take off my running boards.

Some mods I want to do:
Deck plate mod
muffler (maybe magnaflow or flowmaster)
clear corner and bumper lights up front
the corner light mod to make it a signal light
Tail lights from a 01-02 or the same style with led
cheap used spacer lift for the time being (until I can save up for a REAL lift)

I also want to take off the plastic parts on the front and rear bumpers as well as the license plate holder in the rear so I can paint them black. My front bumper is all jacked up from highway chips. I'm wondering if anyone has a write up on how to do this (remove the plastic parts from the bumpers) and if anyone knows where to buy factory matched paint in an aerosol can. My paint code is 6Q7.

Any other cheap and good mod ideas?

Pretty good list so far.

Add some tint too.

yea my spring break starts next week...and boy do i need it. i gotta catch up on some courses also. took too many credit hours this semester

-mudflaps should run you like 30ish i believe for one

-you can do an interior LED swap..prob cost you 20-40 bucks for all the bulbs , and it looks cool,
heres the link for that :
LED lighting

-you can also do a deep clean on it: just started that today..takes forever and im still not done,
-wash
-clay
-wash
-polish
-wax
trust me it looks really good if you havn't done it in a while

-just took off my running boards about a week ago, and i dont recommend taking it off unless you have the mudflaps or some sort of mudflap, because i got a whole bunch of scratches on the door panel from rocks hitting it.

-you can paint your rims or the chrome on your rig, if you got any also

-you can buy a can of TB cleaner from any auto part store and clean your Throttle body, it improves gas and throttle response.

- you can also do this mod right here: How to get better throttle response FOR FREE!

-you can also do a seafoam on your rig , look at this: The hose to seafoam?

Tint is definitely in my plans as well. I just don't know how much I would expect to pay for a full tint job all the way around. I want something DARK.

Those look like really good mods! thanks. I definitely wanna do the interior lights. the TB tightening, and cleaning, and the seafoam all look like good budget projects. I know the seafoam is like 10 bucks a can at autozone. Thanks alot for the ideas.

You're best bet on the plastic parts is to use a black plastic paint that's designed to adhere to weathered plastic and I'd stick with black since I don't think you'll find a factory color plastic paint and you can't use regular paint on those parts.

I want to paint/dye my plastic eventually but in the warmer months I just use a trim detailer every few months and for 11 year old plastic it comes out pretty decent.

I paid $80 for my windshield, $20 for my banner, $60 for my fronts the first time, $70 the second time, and $100 for the rear windows I believe.

So your looking at somewhere between $150-250.

ya i paid a guy $150 to do my tint and its awesome... got 20% all the way around except windshield of course.

I guess if you want to take a look, here's a link to my mod page on CarDomain.

It's not everything I've done but it's what I've bought. It may help you to get a few ideas.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3045612/3

My favorite thing was to change from the 99 stuff to 02, like grille and tail lights. Hope this helps!

Hey RON, your ride looks like its lifted but I dont see anything in your sig about it. Is that just the effect of not having running boards? I love that look. I painted my flares the 2nd week I got my runner. I'm not too satisfied with the finish so I think I'm going to paint them semi-gloss black. I used a flat black but it still came out like really dark grey instead of black. Do you know how to remove the bumper plastics?

Thanks for the tint prices guys, I guess it's more than I thought. I would do this myself, but I don't want a messy finish.

Thanks for the link!

he probally just removed the running boards, i did the same to mine, and it looked like i had a 2'' lift on it.

and as for removing the flares, you have to look inside the wheel well, there should be bolts that you can remove from there. let me know if that helps

It's mostly the running boards not on there but most of us with '99s also have the taller coils. I have 36" from ground to fender all around with the taller tires.
Not all '99s had the taller coils but all the Highlander models did get them.

Bak3me, thanks for the info but I already knew how to take te flares off... I did paint it a couple weeks ago. I was wondering if anyone knew how to take off the plastic parts on the bumper? I have color keyed bumpers that was standard for highlander editions, but there's a few plastic panels on te bumpers that I would like to take off and paint.

Ron, do u have anything in the cargo area? I'm sure I have the taller coils too but it looks like it's also starting to sag!! I'm looking into a cheap alternative for a lift, a few local shops said they have some parts laying around like fj80 springs! I might throw on a self made lift kit.

if they got rears for you all you need to do is order somne coils for the front from ome and get some new shocks to go with and your good to go, that's my plan, also most people don't know this but the springs from the fj80 one will be longer then other due to where teh engine sits in the bay...at least thats what i was told when i was given my 2 sets of coils for free, you hooked them saying here's 2 sets so you can have it sit level.. i could be wrong on this and it's something to watch for just to be sure

Hey so this guy at a shop has 97 land cruiser that he's using as parts. He said as soon as most of the parts are gone he can give me the coils since it's whats holding the truck up for now. Can I still use the stock shocks with the LC coils? I want to eventually get adjustable Bilstein's or EMU shocks. For the front, I think i'm going to go with ome 890's with the emu nitro shocks, since i don't plan on putting a winch/bumper up front. What's a good diff drop kit and pan hard thing. (do I need the pan hard thing, I'm not sure what it even does) With the LC coils and 890 coils how much lift will that give me?

890s are used as rear coils for a 3rd gen 4runner, it sounds like you were intending on running them on the front which won't work. If you use LC coils on the rear, you aren't going to necessarily "need" a panhard bar, but your axle will be shifted over to one side. Same goes for extended rear shocks - you don't "need" them, but stock shocks won't allow you to use all the travel you'll get from the LC coils.

I'm not sure what coils you're going to run in the front so the diff drop really depends on that. I would certainly do a diff drop on anything over 2". The LCs in the rear will give you 3-4". I'm not even sure if this is what you mean, but what you wrote definitely isn't an option.