Then again, people buy these thing on ebay motors for 6 - 9 K all day everyday. In sort of ok original condition.
It's a pretty rusty truck. WD-40 everything days before you touch it

Yeah PB Blaster has been a good friend. To my surprise, a lot of what looked like rust actually washed off. It’s still has surface rust on things but you can see that the old blue shocks looked rusty but actually wiped off after working with them. I’d still like to eventually pull the body and blast everything. I just want to have the big modifications done by then so I wouldn’t have to mess up a painted frame in the future.

Went out the other evening and ripped around some gravel roads out in the middle of nowhere. New Bilstiens have it riding a lot better but it still rides like a truck with the leaf springs in the rear.

Also put on the round headlights last night and gained a tremendous improvement in light output.

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Put my $50 soft top on. Figured out it is a canback so pretty stoked on that. I also cleaned out my AC/heater blower fan.

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Been awhile since I updated here since image uploading is such a hassle compared to ExPo.

Since I have owned it, I have noticed that there is a weird issue with the brake and battery light illuminating brighter as the RPMs increase. Normally, I would suspect the voltage regulator on the alternator being suspect, but this issue only happens when the head lights are on, and no other lights get brighter.

Last night, after sitting outside in the cold for 3 to 4 hours, those two lights were illuminating brighter than usual at lower RPMs, and when the turn signal would flash, they would also flash. I have't seen that before, but after driving home, the turn signals no longer interfered with it after switching the headlights off and back on several times.

Not really sure what could be causing all of that??? Maybe something in the stalk? Anyone dealt with anything similar?



Anyways, some of the things I have done recently include:

changing exhaust manifold gasket
blocked off air injection tube
powerwashed interior without carpet in place (cargo area)
new ac control panel
custom bike grip shift knob
2016 Ford Police Interceptor sedan seat install
-driver's has an electric 6 way adjustable base, lumbar, tilt
-passenger's is manual, and I have spent about 15 hours so far working
remounting the oem sliding base to this seat. A little bit more work to
get it sliding and tilting with just the side lever will be necessary.
RX300 head rests for rear seats
RX300 heated seat switches (Will install heating elements with new interior)


Overall, it has been a blast and I have barely driving my cruiser since getting this roadworthy. I just put the can back top back on the other day and left the hardtop at my dad's shop. That will be my next order of business. A couple of the sliding windows are scratched badly and all of the rubber seals are dried up and pointless. So I will be rebuilding those with as much new stuff as I can, patching the small amount of rust on the sliding windows, and probably tinting them in addition to painting the top black for now.

For whatever reason, none of my pictures will upload that show any work, but the pictures from a day trip with a friend and his 5th gen upload.

Edit: tried uploading pictures again and they worked. Different computer but exactly the same photos.

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Earlier gens were born SEXY! Others have to try harder.

loving the seats!

Sounds like you need a new alternator.

That was my original thought, but it is still charging within where it would be expected to be. It’s not like it’s spiking up to 16v or 18v which would indicate a faulty voltage regulator.

Hmm interesting. If it's the original alternator the brushes are seriously worn. If you have some downtime, I would try swapping in another one, even a used one and see what happens.

Well it has been an eventful year. Lots of little things done on the 4runner. I just hit 215k miles on it last week and it has only given me a couple minor issues.
The interior apart from the cracked dash and cracked arm rests is done with all new black carpet with mass backing, front seats from a 2016 Ford police interceptor sedan, and CNC cut rear cargo panels and tailgate panel.
Fresh cat back exhaust with side exit
Repainted hardtop with JD Blitz Black
Bhicks Machined B pillar badges
Upgraded Idler arm assembly and 4crawler brass bushings
Chevy 63 rear leaf spring conversion
3D printed center console lid with two cupholders and phone cubby
Claybar, paint correction, wax on paint (or what is left of the paint anyways)
Some maintenance etc
Front bumper - once I widen it to match fiberglass fenders, the frame and front section will be powdercoated black

Blazeland WIY kit is on the way...looking to pick up a 4th gen 4runner rear axle in the near future. Nitro LSD, 4.88s, advanced fiberglass concepts front fenders, hanneman rear, 14" King rear shocks, and so on.

I've also started building a new hybrid hardtop/soft top that may end up getting a poptop style RTT depending on how much time I have to complete all this stuff before this summer.

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Interior pictures with CNC cut cargo panels. These took about four revisions to get right.

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Picked up a 4th gen rear axle. 63.75” wide so ~6” over stock. I’ve shaved all the link mounts off it and have some nice Barnes 4wd perches ready for it. I’m currently debating if I want to run a Nitro lunchbox locker or LSD in it it’s going to get 4.88s anyways. I’ve got a lead on a 4.88 front diff too.

Hannemann Flares also showed up...and from the moment I opened the box, I have not been impressed. I asked them for the specs and how they installed and they told me they were 3” wider and go over the existing quarter panel. No s**t. They failed to mention they have a 2-3” rise and require cutting of the quarter panel. In addition to that, the fit is pretty trash and the rear of the flare hangs down unnecessarily far prohibiting the OEM rear bumper from fitting. What really got me was the $40 bubble wrap fee. Both flares were rubbing together and wrapped in a quick layer or two of bubble wrap and dropped into a large box with no filler other than the spent cardboard center from a roll of tape.

Anyone installed these before and have some insight? From my understanding, it seemed like they’d be more or less like 80 series flares and just extend out to protect from slinging stuff, but that was wrong.

Anyways, I’ve started a rear bumper build as well and refinished the old grille. I’ve also about got the tilt function of the new passenger seat to activate the slide forward function as well.

King closed their facility out in CA some the rear axle is kind of on hold until they open back up and I know I have shocks on the way.

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That's annoying with the flares. Did you contact them?

I haven’t yet. At first my immediate thought was to and return them but they’d likely not refund me the bubble wrap fee and I’d be out probably $200 for that and shipping both ways. I’ve decided I’m going to wait until my front fenders come in and see how they look. I know they have a rise in them so if they look high and the back end looks low, I’ll end up chopping the quarters and modifying and fixing everything that’s wrong with these flares.