Small amount of grease on stop buttress works well, and makes them last longer.

The truck did not come with a spare wheel. The spare tire lift mechanism has just been dangling and clanking around under there. I have a matching TRD spare rim with a 265/70/16. Tried to fit it under the truck, but it wouldn’t fit between the panhard bar and hitch receiver. Surprised that a 31” was too big for the spare location. Seems the hitch receiver is too intrusive. Debating removing the hitch, unsure about that one right now. Might try to grab an old Marlin tube bumper. Good to know that the spare mechanism is all fully functional at least.




Vacuumed interior, 303 interior protectant all around, and new Dash Designs dash cover installed.

IMG_2390 by James Harb, on Flickr




Trimmed exhaust tailpipe

Before




After








Also cut off the chewed up trailer wiring harness. There were some damaged wires already. It will have to be redone at a later point, or just removed altogether depending on if the hitch stays.

A while back, the city came to repave our street. After a game of Toyota Tetris, this truck sat tucked inches away from my turbo 87 4Runner until the manual swap was completed. As a result, the passenger side was inaccessible. While the rest of the truck got a polishing, the passenger side was left unpolished.




Since becoming functional again, the most it’s had is a wash with soap. It’s time to give it attention.









After clay







Polish round 1. Meguiars 205 Ultra finishing polish on a red foam pad, then again with yellow foam pad








Meguiars Gold Class wax

The Toyota dealership that did the steering recall accepted responsibility for the damaged valance and told me to come by. This is what they had waiting:






A brand new OEM valance, free of charge. They’re around $300 new. Shocking to think these are not discontinued.




The original plan was to change to a set of DEPO clear corners, bumper signals, plus a 92-95 bumper. I have already purchased the bumper and 92-95 clear bumper signals, but it’s not every day that a brand new OEM valance comes along for a 35 year old truck. Seems like a solid excuse to keep the 1990 bumper and clean up the front end. The 92-95 stuff can be used on the 89 pickup instead.

One of the sealed beam headlights has a good amount of condensation inside. I decided a few months ago to throw away the 10 or so sealed beams piled up from projects over the years, but kept one Sylvania just in case. It’s no contest, the H4 conversion headlamps are a better option, but I plan to steal the ones from my 89 pickup after the 92-95 4Runner front end conversion. The extra Sylvania will do for the time being.




Taped the grill off and painted the center and headlight buckets with SEM bumper coater. Removed the V6 emblem for good.




Masked off TOYOTA emblem.




Everything installed. Clear corners, bumper signals, new OEM valance, painted grill and emblem.








I might pull the bumper back off to push out that dent in the chrome, and it needs a little adjusting to straighten it, but overall a great improvement.








OC Yota Nights. She’s really coming around. Solid 20 footer.