Well,
My wife's 289k daily driver SR5, 4x4, 3rd gen runner has been sitting on the side of our house since July 2019, that's seven months-ish from today.
She was hit by a fool who ran a light. He got cited/ticketed by the police, but his insurance (gainsco, which I don't even think is a real insurance company) denied the claim. After multiple appeals and reporting the other driver's insurance to the state, seven months later we get nothing. We finally got the letter from the state on Thursday saying they couldn't do anything since the cop that issued the ticket didn't show up during the other drivers court date. I guess we could sue the driver now, but I highly doubt it's worth it for a few grand... Guy was telling my wife he just spent the last of his paycheck paying off his verizon cell phone bill after he hit her.
We were going to buy a another Toyota anyhow since my wife had been wanting a Highlander ever since our daughter was born. So we bought a Highlander a week after the accident. All along I was going to make this my weekend off roader since I don't want to beat up my daily driver Tacoma. So, the accident actually didn't ruin our plans, it just kind of progressed the timetables.
Side Note: We only had liability on the t4r since its been paid off for years. We actually bought it used with cash like 8 years ago. Had we kept full coverage on the vehicle instead of liability, our insurance (Allstate) would have chased them down for compensation and everything would be right as rain. Moral of the long winded story, if the difference in insurance premiums is only $7 a month between full coverage and just liability, for god sakes just pay the extra $7 bucks a month and keep full coverage.
So, this morning I went to pick up a battery since the one in 4r died, I think we left a cabin light on a couple of months ago. Our 2.5 yro daughter and I used to play in there for some reason. She likes to sit in the drivers seat and pretend she's driving. It been on the side of the house behind the RV gate. To a 2.5 yro it's like a little playground inside.
Back to today... I Plopped in the new battery and the sucker started right up. 289k miles, sitting un-started for seven whole months with old gas, but there are no leaks, no weird sounds, and no check engine light illuminated. I checked to make sure that 4 wheel drive engaged and everything seems fine (relatively speaking). Mind you I am not a car mechanic. I worked on planes in the AF and know just enough to get into trouble with cars.
So I turned it off and proceeded to rip off everything that would inhibit steering or rub on the front tires and cause more damage. The bumper and front right fender were mangled, so they were the first to go. Some other random crap was sitting on the front passenger tire, so I removed it. I also snipped the wires going from the radio antenna to I guess the radio. I didn't feel like chasing wires to a stock 2000 cd/radio deck. I salvaged two fog lights, and one blinker. I kept the antenna and what I'm guessing is a motor. It was wrapped in some pretty thick weather protecting plastic bag thing. Maybe I'll sell it if its worth anything.
I knew my wife's registration had expired back in December so I went online to renew it and couldn't since the car required emissions testing. So, I paid for and printed out a 30 day general use paper tag and tapped it to the back of the 4r. Since it was been sitting for 7 months we knocked the insurance down to just fire and theft. Since I got it to start and I now had a 30 day tag, I knew I was going to drive it. So, I called my friend who is also our Allstate insurance agent and asked him to update our insurance so I could drive. Mind you, this is a Saturday morning and the local Allstate office is closed. He pulled out his laptop and a few keystrokes later I had an email with proof of insurance. Allstate is awesome, even better when your friend owns a local Allstate office.
Now I had a running vehicle, a 30 day registration paper license plate and proof of insurance. What I didn't have was one headlight, one bumper, two front blinkers, two fog lights and one right front fender. No, problem...
I took the 4r to the gas station and filled up the tank. The gas gauge was always kind of broken even when my wife drove it daily so I figured it had a 1/4 tank of old crappy gas and figured I should just fill it up to dilute the old stuff.
Using hand signals I drove it on the freeway at 70 to 80 mph to my brother's house. It drove okay... Tons of bump steer, but it kind of did that before the accident anyhow. Plus I figured, I'm never going to use this for a daily driver anyhow. Its going to eventually be a weekend off road knock around. So, 70 to 80 mphs won't be the norm anyhow.
I got to my brother's house and we did the time immortal thing that brothers do around broken vehicles... We walked around it, pointed things out, laughed, bs'd, laughed more, popped the hood, started it, reeved it, shut it off, tinkered with unimportant things, and then bs'd some more. Keep in mind he is actually a certified mechanic and has done body work, I'm just an idiot who drove this mess 80 mphs on the freeway. He also made fun of my Lowes blue light special 200+ kobalt tool set I had in the cargo bay. I suppose certified mechanics have the right to be tool snobs, but that kobalt set has gotten me out many a jams.
We had previously talked about pulling/straightening out the core support after the insurance thing was figured out. He said the frame is straight from what he could eyeball and that we should be able to straighten everything out enough. We talked about scheduling next Saturday for me to take the 4r to his shop to start straightening the core support. He also suggested I get another radiator tank as a just incase. The current radiator doesn't leak, but is a tad twisted. So, when we do start straightening the core support it makes sense to have another radiator tank handy incase the current one cracks during the process. He can get me a new radiator tank with dealer pricing, and wanted to schedule next Saturday at his shop to start the whole process. I told him to hold off until I can find out if this thing will pass emissions. No point in trying to fix anything if I can't pass emissions.
I googled an emissions testing station that was open on Saturdays and found one near my house. So I left my brother's and headed toward the testing station. About 20 mins later the check engine light turned on. I was like aw man, I know they won't even test for emissions if the check engine light is on. However, this wasn't my first Toyota in AZ. I once had a 4r that always had the check engine light on for the 8+ years I owned it. I always did the tried and true method of disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting it right before emissions testing every two years. So, as you can probably guess... I get to about two miles down the road from the testing station, pull over, shut off the 4r, proceed to retrieve my (based on my brother's input) subpar kobalt tools and then disconnect one battery cable. I then reconnected the battery cable, pack up my subpar wrench and started the 4r. Viola, no more check engine light.
Needless to say, I went through the emissions testing station and passed. Though the tester did look at me odd for a multitude of reasons. I rolled through there with more than half the face of my 4r missing, it was 4:50pm and they close at 5pm, and he just got done mopping the bay that I pulled through for testing. I kind of felt bad. Though, when I got the passing result and then forked over the $17 bucks for the test, I didn't feel bad anymore.
I then drove home and knew I could officially register permanent tags online. So did just that a few moments ago. In the process I actually requested new plates that are personalized. This was my wife's daily driver, but will now be my weekend off roader. My Tacoma has personalized veteran plates so I decided to put personalized veteran plates on my new weekend toy. I chose BLRPY as my tag since this 4r is that weird ugly blue and purple color.
I just realised that by doing all of this today, resurrecting the 4runner has been done on a leap year day. I can only celebrate this anniversary every 4 years...
Next Saturday the core support will be straightened out as best as possible and then the fun begins making this a fun and capable overlander. I'm thinking about starting a thread on the build I have planned. A tad of a lift (probably suspension since the consensus seems to berate body lifts) to fit 33s or 35s under it, some type of off road bumper, a used wench, skid plates, side rails, a light kit/setup, and other random stuff.
Also, if all works out well and I manage this process correctly, I want to do MOAB in the fall. So, maybe more to come...
Pics thus far...
After sitting for seven months with no start:
20200226-173535 — ImgBB
Our little Elsa wannabe helping me (who says girls in dresses can't wrench on cars, cause they're wrong):
ell — ImgBB
Maiden Voyage and first thirst quenched:
Circle-K — ImgBB
Not bad for a day that only comes around every four years...
Also, if anyone has any pointers on how I should go about making this a capable overlander on the cheap, I am open to suggestions.
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