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This'll probably be one of the tamer and less updated build threads but I figured I'd start it a a means of collecting some pictures of the little things I do in one place.

In the beginning:

We bought this rig back in October of 2012. When it came time to make some vehicle changes due to some family growth, I took the opportunity to finally buy a 4Runner - a vehicle I've been a fan of for decades. The intention was to move my 2000 Tacoma Xtra Cab 4WD on a new owner and replace it with an 4Runner. I narrowed the selection down the Trail trim with KDSS and without navigation and was looking for a Magnetic Gray or Shoreline Blue.

I spent a bit of time looking around in the Houston area for a new or lightly used one that would fit the bill and had a really difficult time finding anything that checked all the boxes. The local dealer was less than helpful and wasn't real willing to track anything down so I widened the search area to nationwide and found the perfect truck in Colorado. Stuff happened, yada yada yada, two weeks later the truck rolled off a carrier in a parking lot near my house with 53 miles; 30 or so that we put on during the prior test drive.

Off the top of my head, it came with: all weather floor mats in front, back, and on the slide out, tow hitch and ball, chrome exhaust tip, and no running boards. Exactly what I was looking for (well, take it or leave it on the exhaust tip really), and the transaction couldn't have been smoother; I don't see why people are so hesitant to buy a car nationwide and have it shipped. Saved a bunch of money and an immeasurable amount of negotiation headache!

Here's how she sat *in* the dealer's showroom (not out in the cold like a homeless truck):

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Does it even count as a mod:

First up was a round of plastidip on the little chrome that was present on the vehicle. I really like how it turned out with the slightly textured black plastic of the Trail trim. Everyone does this, not much more to say...

>Imagine Pictures of PlastiDiped Trail Emblems Here<

Next I picked up a set of the gray wheels off a FJ Cruiser. Took them to Discount Tire and got the tires and sensors swapped over and sold off the stock wheels. All in, this was about a zero sum mod - just a few bucks out of pocket to swap the tires and I like the subtle change in appearance.

>Imagine a Stock Gray Truck but the Wheels are Slightly Darker Here<

Where it starts to get sort of good:

The first real thing I did was order up a set of BudBuilt sliders. I picked out the bump out version in the regular wall pipe without any plating. This was the primary reason I was looking for a truck without any side steps, because I knew they'd just come off in favor of a functional slider. Installation was straight forward and took me a couple hours of sweating in the driveway trying to wrangle everything into place. Ran into the usual problems and did the usual solutions. Everything buttoned up nicely and I tossed the grip of leftover hardware into my miscellaneous bolt bin. The wife was pretty happy since she could get in the truck now...

>Yep, Use Your Imagination Again - I'll Find the Pictures Eventually<

At this point, the truck just became the daily driver / people mover. Back and forth to work, slowly (well, maybe not particularly slowly) burning old dinosaur juice. In October 2013, we hit the road for a couple weeks, putting on about 4000 miles visiting family in the west/southwest. We left Texas and saw New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and California in what has now come to be known as "Epic Road Trip". The truck did it all without flinching, handling the smooth roads and the rough ones, some dirt but mostly pavement and the occasional grassy knoll that got in the way.

And it was on Epic Road Trip, in New Mexico, where we picked up the first unjustified door ding by some worthless piece of human garbage. It wasn't the first, and I know it won't be the last, but it's the one that pisses me off the most for some reason.

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And now for something real:

The most recent addition has been a long time coming. A while ago I started looking into adding a rooftop rack. While I was on Epic Road Trip, and was literally right down the road from Gobi, I tried to pop in on them to see if they might be able to hook me up while I was in town. Since we were just passing through and it was a Sunday or a holiday or something we just couldn't make it work. But shortly after drabbits first started making and selling his racks.

After a considerable amount of thinking about it and going over options, I pulled the trigger and got in queue. Stuff happened and then it arrived at the end of last month (Jan 2015). Since time is one of the things I have in short supply currently, it's taken me three weeks to get it installed.

I picked up the rack from the freight carrier's yard about 40 miles away from the house. In a fitting sendoff to the factory rack, I had them set it on top of the truck and I ratchet strapped it down snug as a bug. Hitting the road, it took all of about 5 minutes for an insane buzzing/vibration noise to start. I couldn't tell if it was the rack box wanting to fly off the roof because I secured it like a moron or if maybe the front edge came un-taped and the whole box was resonating like a harmonica, or what the heck?

So what to do? Obviously, the answer is put the pedal down and motor on home, right? Yup. So 40 miles later, after hitting upwards of 70 mph on the highway, I pull into the driveway and check things out. It was the shipping label that came un-taped and was flapping like mad.

Huzzah! No issues and all in one piece (the truck and the rack)!




The first thing I did was give the roof a good wash and wax since this would likely be the last time I'd have access to it for quite a while once the rack goes on. On the front part of the roof, in front of the sunroof, I added a strip of matte metallic gray 3M vinyl. I intend to add a rubber edge guard strip to the lower edge of the front wind deflector to protect the paint against any possible chatter or rubbing from the deflector. Taking it one step further, I figure the vinyl will offer just a little bit more protection from the rubber strip. Is it overly anal? Probably yes. Will it work? Yet to be seen. Was it cheap enough to do it anyway? Yep.



And that's where it stayed for about a week while life, particularly work and kiddo parties, happened.

But then last weekend the final step... Borrowed an extra set of hands to schlep the rack up onto the roof and got everything bolted down. Checked the fitment, double checked, and the LockTite'd every bolt in place.

Some miscellaneous pictures:

In place still wrapped in foam:



Bolted Down:



The rack came in with a couple little blemishes: some scrapes, dents, and dings like on the lower left bar here. I was sort of bummed for about a second until I realized this is a *utility* rack and it'll get beat up anyway. So not so bad.



All done:



Driving around this week and there is a mind numbing buzz coming from the wind deflector so that's a little project that'll need fixing in the near term. But for now she's done.

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I've been playing around with the wind deflector on the roof rack; mainly trying to get rid of a vibration at highway speeds. The first thing was adding some rubber edging along the bottom. I measured the plastic deflector as 5/32" or ~4mm which is an odd size for rubber edging. Tracked down some 3/16" edging on theBay and gave it a try - it fit pretty darn well.



Had to cut a little notch near the center bracket to take care of some interference when it's mounted. I also added some foam to the mounting brackets to provide some vibration isolation. Ended up using an old mouse pad, cut to size and Super 77'd to the aluminum brackets.

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After 37,829 miles, the old OEM Dunlop rubber had just about given up all its worth (some could argue that really happened about 37,829 miles ago, actually) and it was time to go our separate ways.

Picked up some new rubber from Discount Tire Direct; ordered on a Friday evening and had them on the doorstep Monday afternoon. Packed them into the back of the truck and brought them over to the local Discount Tire B&M to be installed. So far so good.

Cooper Discoverer A/T3 in OEM size 265/70R17. I did a lot of research and came around to these for a good trade off of value and performance especially since the truck doesn't see much more than mall-crawling these days, unfortunately.