[JVC8790]

Small update!

Replaced the bent sway bar from the accident. Much better now that that connected, highway driving feel is improved although I will admit it wasn't awful without it, but sometimes it felt a little extra sway-y, especially on on-ramps and tight turns on throttle.



Also had a stubborn rear wiper arm that didn't want to come off so I could grind it down to make better contact with the rear wiper and window. Got creative and busted out the trusty Harbor Freight Fluxcore 90amp welder and splattered this together.



Ugly, but it worked!



Which leads me into the next thing... I've been talking about doing it, but just haven't pulled the trigger. Once I got the payout from the 4Runner accident, and the fact that all of my expenses had already been paid off. I found myself with some extra savings, and a decision to make.

I had been looking at a nicer welder for a while, looked all over the Titanium ones at HF, but ultimately a conversation with a friend of mine led me to spending about twice what I was thinking initially.

Insert Miller 211!



Once I got it all set up, I decided to make my first project, which was to get the fire extinguisher to stop rolling around on the floor.

Started with a rail bolted to the seat fastening bolts.



Added a few supports and a plate to mount the extinguisher.



It doesn't sit on the floor, and is quite strong. I placed it here because the seat can go most of the way forward without contacting it, and I believe it's the most "out of the way" it could be in the passengers footwell. 99% of my driving is done solo to and from work and on trails, so I don't anticipate any real issue with footspace.



Slapped some flat black on it, trimmed one of the plastic caps around it (still gotta do the other) and it's all done!



I've got some ideas for future plans, but nothing concrete yet. I'd like to get some weld-together sliders, but make them on a bracket that allows them to be bolted to the frame instead of welded. I'll be making a CB antenna mount at some point as well, and a friend has already asked about making a jerry-can carrying holder for his GOBI ladder on his x-terra! If you all have any ideas for small welding projects send them my way!

[JVC8790]

Started on another little project, I'll leave some pictures and let you all guess!

[montijo505]

Originally Posted by JVC8790

Started on another little project, I'll leave some pictures and let you all guess!

Jerry can mounts?


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[JVC8790]

Originally Posted by montijo505

Jerry can mounts?


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Close! I actually started making those clamps for that exactly, but then changed my mind on what I wanted to mount.















Also picked up this little buddy from Summit Racing they had on sale last week for $99. M12 tire inflator, I'll give it a go this week since the temps are dropping and I'm likely going to need to check tire pressures in my wifes car.

[hinmo24t]

i like the traction pad carrier...hopefully drag isnt too bad there for your mpg. i currently run 4 of them under my double decker cargo (xbull, fit perfect/tight, horizontally). you going to get a lock on them back there?

do you use Bauer power cordless tools??

diggin the little weld projects

[montijo505]

Looks good!


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[JVC8790]

Originally Posted by hinmo24t

i like the traction pad carrier...hopefully drag isnt too bad there for your mpg. i currently run 4 of them under my double decker cargo (xbull, fit perfect/tight, horizontally). you going to get a lock on them back there?

do you use Bauer power cordless tools??

diggin the little weld projects

Thanks! I'm having fun with these little welding projects, doing a lot of stuff that isn't horribly structural until I get the confidence/skills to tackle a harness bar or something for my Volvo.

Unsure on the drag portion, my goal was to make them sit under the roof line and inside the width of the truck so hopefully they wouldn't whistle/make noise. I suppose I'll report back when I finally bolt it all up and drive around.

The rod that secures them has a small hole in it. My plan is to mount a luggage lock through the rod so it cant be pulled out with the lock on there. I know this isn't a perfect solution. I also don't plan to mount this unless I'm headed offroad and in that case, I'm not typically too far from my vehicle, this isn't for daily mall crawling use and if someone really wanted to steal it, they could just unbolt it from the ladder.

In regards to your tool question, everything I own is Milwaukee (including this pump). I have seen the Bauer stuff and I have some of their drill bits which are worlds better than the HF store brand stuff, but I haven't strayed from the M12/M18 Milwaukee line since I got my first 3/8" impact. Keeping with one tool line makes it super easy to buy more tools since I don't have to buy the kit with batteries and a case, I can just buy the tool itself and use batteries I already have.

[hinmo24t]

Originally Posted by JVC8790

Thanks! I'm having fun with these little welding projects, doing a lot of stuff that isn't horribly structural until I get the confidence/skills to tackle a harness bar or something for my Volvo.

Unsure on the drag portion, my goal was to make them sit under the roof line and inside the width of the truck so hopefully they wouldn't whistle/make noise. I suppose I'll report back when I finally bolt it all up and drive around.

The rod that secures them has a small hole in it. My plan is to mount a luggage lock through the rod so it cant be pulled out with the lock on there. I know this isn't a perfect solution. I also don't plan to mount this unless I'm headed offroad and in that case, I'm not typically too far from my vehicle, this isn't for daily mall crawling use and if someone really wanted to steal it, they could just unbolt it from the ladder.

In regards to your tool question, everything I own is Milwaukee (including this pump). I have seen the Bauer stuff and I have some of their drill bits which are worlds better than the HF store brand stuff, but I haven't strayed from the M12/M18 Milwaukee line since I got my first 3/8" impact. Keeping with one tool line makes it super easy to buy more tools since I don't have to buy the kit with batteries and a case, I can just buy the tool itself and use batteries I already have.

very cool.

im thinking of doing that with all the Bauer stuff lol. somehow they have great reviews from what i can tell.

[JVC8790]

Originally Posted by hinmo24t

very cool.

im thinking of doing that with all the Bauer stuff lol. somehow they have great reviews from what i can tell.

Yeah, their stuff doesn't seem too bad! I figured I'd stick to a major name brand and tools that a bunch of friends have in case I need to borrow something or they need a charger etc.

[JVC8790]

Something else showed up this week. More pictures this weekend when I unpack it.

[JVC8790]

Guess I'll bring an update now that I'm working from home. I really havent done much with the 4Runner as my time has been spent putting my Volvo back together after its accident. I was focusing on that to get it ready for car show season that was supposed to start in 2 weekends, but that all got canceled so I've taken a step back from it to work on some other household and car projects.

First things first, I still haven't unpacked the RTT, that will wait til it gets warmer.

Bought an 06-09 Grille, also bought (not pictured) the headlight trim pieces and a can of color match spray paint. Still need to decide on which headlights to buy.



I do have this 03-05 Grille for sale as well, the sport hood I got came with a grille, so I have this in addition to what is on my car currently. If anyone is interested just PM me.



I used the 4Runner to jump start my Volvo to get it towed home to work on fixing it.



I washed it





and then I installed some rock lights. What you see on the frame is largely dirt that got stuck to the fluid film which I applied before the winter. It's pretty stuck in there so I'm not sure what I'll have to do to get it clean. Utilized holes left over from the running board removal, and the wiring that was already in place and made some small brackets.





and of course lit up!







and since I've been working from home, I've been periodically applying PB Blaster to the exhaust manifold bolts to hopefully make the install easier. I have a friend who has agreed to take on the install in a week or two at his shop, so I hope I can do him a favor and use enough PB blaster to make them easier to remove when the time comes.

These pics were before any PB blaster treatment, they're pretty crusty and I have the titanium hardware to replace them as long as they all come out of the block.







That's all for now! I'm sure there will be a few other projects along the next couple of weeks staying at home, but for now I'm just focused on working from home, keeping a job so I can keep my hobbies a float and taking everything day by day. Stay safe everyone!

[JVC8790]

Well, I went ahead and ordered 06-09 headlights on eBay and 06-09 taillights. I already have some LED headlight bulbs leftover from a previous car and I ordered the bulb adapters.

Hopefully they show up by the weekend and I can get to cracking on installing them as well as swapping out the damaged doors for the better doors I bought that have been taking up room in my garage.

[JVC8790]

Wild weekend of working on the 4Runner is finished! Here we go with some updates, might split into 2 posts so it's not too picture heavy.



Headlights, trim, bulb adapters, and taillights showed up Friday!



Looked at the sealing on the headlights and agreed with the internets suggestion of adding an extra bead of silicone over them.





Taped up just this edge next to the hood seal.



Laid down and smoothed out some silicone. Ended up putting a little bit too much in one of the corners and it can be seen from the outside of the truck a little bit. Good news is that it was clear so it doesn't look that bad.







Meanwhile I scuffed up my new headlight trim for paint



Wiped down with some alcohol



The cool part about the headlights is that they came with a small paint booth!



Primered first (no pics) then laid down some duplicolor color match paint from Advance Auto.



Followed with some duplicolor clear (that I think was old and yellowed pretty bad, more on that later)



Color match was pretty freaking terrible. I might pop them back out and see if I can use some different clear. End product isnt terrible because of where they're mounted, but you'll see that later!



Peeled back the tape to show my handiwork with the silicone.



That finished off my Friday evening! Next post will be the start of Saturday all day driveway festivities!

[Inv4drZm]

Originally Posted by JVC8790

Followed with some duplicolor clear (that I think was old and yellowed pretty bad, more on that later)

You know Toyota sells color matched trim pieces? Mine came white and matched the paint well.

[JVC8790]

Saturday I worked in the driveway from 8:30am-3:30pm when my wife got home. I must say, I didn't anticipate being there that long, but I hit a few snags and had to figure some stuff out that took way longer than I thought.

Back in November, my truck was sideswiped (look back a few posts/pages). I found some white doors and had them shipped from CA to OH. Since then, they've been sitting in my garage taking up space waiting for a decent weekend to swap it all over.

I figured I'd start with the rear door swap because that should be more simple than the front due to less electronics etc.

Door panel removed, speaker out, starting to fish out the wiring harness to swap it over to the other door.



I started to pull out the window, and while looking back and forth between the old and new door I noticed something peculiar. When I got the doors on a pallet the top of this door was a little bit bent. I wasn't familiar enough with the rest of the door to notice anything else out of place, until I started disassembling the one on the truck. Do you see what I now see?



So I decided to see if I could salvage the door that was on the car with just adding the trim from the new door.



This is the only real area of concern with the door on the truck currently. Under the trim it got a bit mangled, so I gave it a few whacks with a hammer (more adjustment likely needed when I get the trim clips)





So I slapped on some self etching primer to protect the rusty areas (after wire wheeling them clean). Don't worry, its behind the trim so this wont be noticeable once the trim goes on.



After this defeat, I moved onto the front door which was way worse off from the accident.



Added some sound deadening, approximately 4 sq/ft (2 2x1 tiles cut up)





And I started to transfer over things like door seals, window seals, etc





Old door off!





I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy as usual. At this time I also swapped over the new fender that I had. It was a little better than the last one and wasn't too hateful to swap.



Of course I wasn't going to put the factory headlight back in!





Closed the hood a bit to see what I was working with.



And of course swapped out the other headlight too with the trim I painted (that doesn't look awful, but certainly doesn't look good...)



Dropped in some OPT7 LED bulbs I had bought for my brother in laws Ford Focus. They didn't work right in his even with the bulb resistors, and I never returned them to Amazon, so this worked out! They were purchased as H11, but the cool part was that they mounted like an H11, but used a little adapter on the plug to go from 9006 to H11, so I popped off that adapter and they became plug and play to the H11 bulb seat, and the 9006 factory wiring! SCORE!



Next thing was the Grille. I put it on and started to look for where I would need to cut. I ended up cutting a lot out of this grille and it still doesn't close.Also I'm baffled with where the hood release portion mounts since there is no obvious mounting points. Does anyone know if the hood release lever is different on an 06 than an 04?



And that concludes my Saturday!Put the 04 grille back in until I have time to keep trimming on the 06 one.