First, thanks to all the active members on this forum. I have been reading threads for months now across every topic out there from electrical through to interior trim and have appreciated them all greatly. I enjoy building up and restoring old Toyotas as a hobby and have for many years now. Forums like this make that such an infinitely more enjoyable process than when I first started spinning a wrench.

Meet El Segundo, a 1988 SR5 w/ 5-speed manual tranny.

Pros:
Clean body, zero rust
Straight body, no damage
Strong tranny, diff and geared drivetrain through to the axles

Cons:
More miles on it than Sputnik
Engine shot
"other stuff" shot along with engine (its sort of a list... a long boring one)
interior rough, the usual but rough.. torn seats, cracked dash - the usual

Project:
Full rebuild of the truck to stock standards with a little tiny dash of a lift and tires thrown on top:
- Gut the interior and engine compartment completely, clean and scour all surfaces inside, out and undercarriage
- Install new motor (22RE, new/not rebuild) along with all new ancillary components (all new: h20 & vacuum hoses, belts, water/oil/ps pumps, a/c compressor, radiator, starter etc etc etc... if it is under the hood it will be new - not rebuilt)
- Rebuild interior from scratch: carpets, seats, clean and reinstall dash, shoulder harnesses in rear, all new rubber in windows, gaskets, etc - even tackle the dreaded "gasp" dashboard cracks....
- Repack springs in rear and add 2" of suspension lift all around, install 33x10.50's on existing rims
TBD:
- Chopped hard top modification (I may try to buy an old hard top to do this - it looks so cool on these Gen1's I think)
- Soft top options... (do I run a roof rack with soft top or not is the question..)
- front bumper... To ARB or not to ARB... that is the question
- rear bumper... swing out?

Attached Images

         

So I have started by immediately ripping the interior out. I was curious to first see if there really was no rust anywhere, and also to get a sense of just what I was dealing with under the skin of this rig.

Everything came out piece of cake in the back of the truck. Panels popped right out with no cracking and I yanked the carpet out completely. I vacuumed about 7 pounds of Texas dust out of the nooks and crannies but was happy to find no rust at all. Just clean painted metal everywhere I shined my flashlight.

I have the new carpet ready to go in along with a lot of other trim and interior pieces I have been collecting/hoarding off of craigslist, ebay, salvage yards and toyota parts specialists that seem to have those hard to find pieces...

Attached Images

     

I found this dashboard removal PDF invaluable... as my pile of interior parts grew...

Attached Images

 

Next up: interior rebuild continued... "new" seats

Like most old toyotas... the driver seat in my truck is shot to hell and torn like a dog ate it while my passenger upholstery seat is pristine and in near new condition.

So, I am using another full set of grey seats I picked up to create a "new" driver seat combining the cushions, hardware and covers from both seats in the set to make a single good new one.

I will posting those pictures and process later today hopefully. Stay tuned.

Ok... just finished rebuilding a set of front seats into a single nice new driver seat!

here is the thread:
Gen1 4Runner Seat Rebuild (demoed by an 8 year old)

Attached Images

 

Nice! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Alright - I am going to break "build thread timeline protocols" here and skip forward through nearly 12 months of build to the finished truck.

I can say the past year has been a real bear in a lot of ways, but I kept my head down and worked on the 4Runner whenever I could... slowly chipping away at the list and rebuild. Now, I am happy to say, this should be last weekend of build on it as she is D-O-N-E.

The pics below show the finished product. I will work backwards from here to go through the various build components and rebuild pieces such as the interior but I figure why not "cut to the chase" and show you how old El Segundo is looking now.

This is not a "mega build" beast - the goal was to rebuild a classic T4R to "super stock" condition - mild lift, perfect interior (including dash!), perfect exterior, perfect mechanical but otherwise bone stock...

Attached Images

               

She is as pretty as she looks in the pictures... literally like it came off of the lot (with a little bit of a lift...) The wheels are off a Gen2 as I couldn't find a decent set of Gen 1 wheels.

I worked on her myself and also with Edwin and his crew up at LandCruiser Specialists here in town (Best place to get a Toyota worked on in Austin btw...). It is mechanically perfect, aesthetically almost perfect (hence this weekend's final projects) and drives like a creampuff...

I have her up for sale as this was always a "short term love affair"... I love to rebuild old Toyotas and it is kinda an addiction I guess... after 26 years of doing it what else would you call it....

Needless to say as soon as she is done I will try to get her out of the driveway so I can move on to the next project - a 2006 GX470 expo build... (if you doubt then just google "adventure driven Lexy" and get a drool cup...

I see you're still working on that perfect dash haaha

Looks awesome man! Few questions

1. Where did you find all of the small bits for the restore? Like fender well trim? And other misc trim parts. Also is that the stock grill?

2. What lift is that?

Part hunting ended up being most of the work and I used the usual suspects in this order:
New Parts
1st) Toyota parts guy at the local dealership (hit or miss - mostly miss)
2nd) RockAuto.com (usually successful for mechanical parts and big pieces)
3rd) Amazon.com (not a big fan but sometimes it's all that worked...)
Used Parts (for discontinued items no longer being made "new")
4th) The4RunnerHouse (Joey is awesome and is never wrong about fitment or quality - very fair pricing and fast shipping.
5th) Ebay.com (used parts in questionable condition that required reconditioning - also, literally 1/2 the time I was sent a part for Gen2 that was listed as Gen1 - eBay listings are often sloppy in this regard)
6th) Junkyards... errr... I mean "auto recyclers"

Those wheels were a stock option on Gen 1 4runners, and are the best looking..good choice (solid steel wheels look good too, in a different way)

Why didn't you just buy Lexy? It was for sale.

Beautiful truck!

Great work


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk