This is more of a "hey, i'm new" post than anything, so bear with me.
I bought an white 04 V6 4x4 SR5 on the 17th. It's a high mileage ride at 135k, but I paid $9500 for it and am very, very happy with my purchase.
Since then, I've debadged it, plasti-dipped the wheels, touched up all of the rock chips, and ordered the daystar spacer lift that everybody on here seems to like. I also ordered a K&N Intake, and was throwing that on last night. I'm a decent mechanic, and figured this would be a quick easy job. I'm doing the lift, the map light, and fog light mods this weekend, with a fair amount more planned for the near future.
First things first, I go to remove the stock resonator/airbox. Gotta yank the old junk before you put in the new. The first bolt moans and groans (twoards the rear of the vehicle), but comes out without too much trouble. The front is groaning, and I feel it come loose. First thought is "aw crap, just stripped this thing out, or sheared the head off". Upon closer inspection, I managed to rip the threaded portion out of the body of the 4Runner.
I had to lay under the truck and hold the threaded insert with a set of vice grips while my wife finished backing the bolt out. I'll likely re-weld it in, but it turned the first "mechanical" project into one of those little heart dropping "awww man" ordeals.
I also managed to lose the second "finish" bolt from the v6 engine cover right at the last minute. It's either down in the front bash plate, and I'll find it this weekend, or I'll be finding out how much Toyota charges for a new one of those.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble, and I'll be posting up a build thread at some point in the near future when it's to a point that I have enough done to justify that.