I'm a little behind in starting the build thread but at least now i'll have a few things to add. I tried to go through the last two years of photos and include anything I could find. This is my only vehicle and DD so the mods are slow to come but I am slowly building it into the truck I want!
After wanting one of these trucks for years I finally got super lucky and found this one on Kijiji in July of 2016. It is a 2007 Toyota 4Runner V8 Sport Edition and when I purchased it it had 89,000km on it. Not bad for being a 9 year old vehicle! 7 months earlier it had been written off in an accident and the current owner had bought it at auction, fixed it up to keep but stated he needed the money for a down payment on a house. Lots of red flags went up on my end:
1) Has a rebuild title
2) Guy fixed it to only sell it immediately for a fairly low price (Had me thinking he found something really bad and wanted to dump it, ie. bent frame etc.)
3) No paper trail of vehicle as it was sold at auction so lots of unknowns there
The person selling the 4runner turned out to be an awesome guy and since I was the first to respond to the ad (luckily saw it posted 15 minutes after it was listed) he kept it for me and even put up with me getting it checked out by my mechanic. Well 6 days later I had the keys and a big smile on my face. My previous vehicle was a 2005 Subaru Outback. Great vehicle but it was gutless with its little 4 speed 4 cylinder. So stepping up to the V8 was a beautiful change.
Here is the vehicle the day I bought it. 100% stock:
I immediately began researching everything I could about this vehicle and any mods and upgrades I could do. And two years later I'm just as bad. I've got a giant list of things I want to do to this vehicle and slowly getting around to them. Been tackling the more inexpensive mods first but the little things are also quite big in my mind.
Lift Kit
First mod I got around to doing on my vehicle was a lift. If money was no option I would have thrown $8k at it and been happy. But thats not the case and at the time the Daystar 2.5/1.5 Spacer Lift was an inexpensive way to achieve a lifted look without breaking the bank. I have never done any of my own work on previous vehicles but I was committed to learning on this one.
I decided to tackle the lift myself (don't even think I had changed the oil yet.)
All in all it was successful and a learning experience. The only hiccup belonged to those dang front swaybar bushing bolts. I had one of the internal nuts on the passenger side break loose. And the actually sheered a bolt in half on the drivers side while trying to remove them.
I ended up cutting the passenger one out and hammering the drivers side nut/half bolt loose. I left the front sway bar off for a few weeks and went on a nice roadtrip to BC. Hardly even noticed much difference but I was paranoid of having to do a high speed maneuver and it not reacting how I would need.
I ended up fishing a new nut and lock washer into the frame and was able to apply enough down pressure to tighten a bolt on and secure the bushings again. Not looking forward to touching that bit again but I have found a solution involving a carriage bolt and a small bracket to prevent twisting. Might go ahead and install the relocation brackets so I don't have to fish around in their more than once.
Mid Install (Thanks to this forum I had a rough idea what I was doing. A few trips back and forth to the store and it was all buttoned up.)
Here is the bolt that sheered off for the swaybar bushing:
And the other side where the welded nut broke loose. Unfortunately it was on the side of the bracket that did not have a cutout:
And the after shot! Much better!!
This simple lift gave me the stance I was after for an affordable price. Fairly easy to install as I did the LCA removal instead of doing the ball joint. Read enough saying I was going to require an alignment anyways so loosening the LCA Caster bolt was no issue.
PlastiDip
My next mod was plastidipping. Another inexpensive mod that made some noticeable changes for me. I did the Toyota wheels, Grille, Emblems and Rear Tailgate piece. Piece of cake and looked pretty good.
Wheels:
Grille:
Running Board Delete
Next up was removing the factory running boards. One it gives the vehicle a slightly taller lifted look and two they just get my pants dirty getting in and out of the truck.
Before:
After:
100,000km mark
Shortly after that I rolled over 100,000km. For my job I drive roughly 30,000km a year so it didn't take long to get those km up. And yes it hurts watching those km rise.
Amber Grille Lights
I decided to add some Amber Grille lights (Raptor Light Mod.) I purchased the led's on amazon and the instal was pretty easy. Wired them up with an add-a-circuit to come on with ignition. Apologies for the pictures. Winter here in Alberta is not nice to us:
Air Filter
This forum lead me to the AFE Pro Dry S air filter for my truck. Easy to clean and reuse along with the HCF delete I must have quite a bit more HP...
VSC Off Mod
I did the quick VSC Off Mod and put in a custom switch. This is perfect for winter driving when I don't want to lock my center diff. Only problem is because it is a push style switch it is sort of wired backwards. When it's pushed in the VSC is on (stock). If I click it out then the VSC disengages and the fun begins.
Not a big deal but it bothers me it's backwards. Maybe I'm just blanking but is there not anyway to rewire?
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Whytey's 07 V8 Build Thread
2007 Toyota 4Runner Sport Edition V8, Elka 2.5 Suspension, Total Chaos UCA w/ Delta Uniball, Dobinsins C59-677V Rear Coils, Timbren Bumpstops, Prinsu Design Roof Rack, Baja Designs Squadron Sport Fogs, 285/70R17 BFG KO2, Blacked Out TE Rims, Spidertrax 1.25" Wheel Spacers, Satoshi Grill