1999 4runner build highschool/college edition

[Iron duke]

Wow, it's been over a month. Here's what I've done over break.

1.) Rebuilt the rear end.

2.) Sold my front bumper

3.) Got another drawer system

4.) Got a wleder

December was insane. It started off with what I thought would be a weekend project doing axle seals and wheel bearings. This turned into a 3 week saga of pain and gnashing of teeth. I grinded the retainers and abs rotors so the shop could pull the bearing. I then pounded the retainers, wheel bearings, and abs rotors in with an exhaust from my brothers previous vehicle (1981 el camino). After the torture, I rented the axle seal tool which obviously didn't work. I had to fabricate a tool from a wheel bearing puller to seat it correctly. I got a deal on the parts from Joe Joe on facebook for $340 shipped and the shop work was $110. I wasted about $100 worth of parts from breaking them, so all in all it was about $550, not bad, but very painful.

To pay for the repairs, I had to sell my front bumper. It was sad, but I also wanted something different. I sold that for $750 and now am getting on some plans for making my own. My plan is to make the highest clearance, lowest profile front bumper. I'll be cutting off the stock mounting brackets and mounting it to the top of the frame rails. It will be a hybrid bumper, so plated in the middle following the grill lines and then from there to the fender flares will be tube. I will have to fabricate the skid plate to extend up to the crossbar of the front two body mounts to protect the radiator. This will take some time, but I am very excited about it.

A friend who saw my Instagram page (4running_99) gave me their old lockable drawer system. I love putting it on top of the platform I made because it sits flush with the rear seat backs. No visibility loss and great lockable storage.

I got a welder for Christmas that I'm super stocked to use. It's just a harbor freight one, but is portable and only 15lbs so its great for me because I can take it to and from college.

I will try to be more diligent with my posting here, but it is far easier to post on Instagram (4running_99). I am doing a 17 hour semester so it will be kind of crazy, but lots of exciting things in the future as well.

 

[Iron duke]

Taking 5 classes and 2 labs does not help with trying to build a bumper. I decided to get an oem one for now and once school gets out build my own. Picked it up for 75 bucks...not terrible. Also had to replace the u-joint which took about 20 bucks and 3 hours with a crappy autozone rent-a-tool.

I will probably be spiffing this up a bit with a lightbar and pod lights...basically experimenting for the fabricated one.

Napa ftw...don't mind the gallons of pb blaster lol

 

[beefsix]

hell yeah dude as a college student to another college student i like your build! hope mine gets to the same level. had a lot of adventures so far and hope to get more. do you like that little welder you picked up or would you snag something different?

 

[Iron duke]

hell yeah dude as a college student to another college student i like your build! hope mine gets to the same level. had a lot of adventures so far and hope to get more. do you like that little welder you picked up or would you snag something different?

Thanks a lot! You don't need to do much to them to be adventure ready...and beware of doing too much to make it a pain driving lol. I honestly like the welder because its so small, but still has nice settings. I can only fit a 2lb spool though. For less than 200, it's definitely worth it. Check out my Instagram (4Running_99) because I post there more often than here.

 

[Chuckles89]

Nice build! Next time you're up in N GA or TN, hit me up!

 

[Iron duke]

Nice build! Next time you're up in N GA or TN, hit me up!

Thanks! I go wheeling in that area whenever I can so I definitely will!

 

[Iron duke]

I finally did probably the most worth while upgrade for the money...DIY retrofits! I bought $29 nilight 2.5" projectors with shrouds and customized my LED's to fit in the projectors. I painted my housing and shrouds satin black and here we are, under 35 bucks and 2 hours of my time!

 

[Chuckles89]

Nice headlights! I like the turn signals too. I bet they're bright!

 

[Iron duke]

Wow, sure has been a while. Redid my thermostat and went with a champion aluminum radiator. Also put the 4runner on a mandatory diet as my tire carrier gave out on me. It’s kind of grown on me though. I might also go back to 891’s because I don’t have so much weight back there anymore.

Another thing I’ve been doing is making custom HID retrofits for people. I know, I know…it’s HID’s. The point is to give people better and cooler retrofits at not such a premium price. I start out at $300, which comes with TYC housings, projectors, lights, ballasts, wiring harnesses, and everything else prebuilt and ready to go. I reduce the price to $225 for those who give me their housings. Overall it’s been a great way for me to help people and make some money on the side. Here’s a couple of retrofits I’ve made.

 

[Iron duke]

Got an internship that’s working me 9-10 hours a day 6 days a week so I haven’t been able to do too much to the 4runner unfortunately. I needed to replace the front calipers and rotors so I thought I might as well do the TBU and I really like it. I don’t love it because I didn’t replace the brake lines with braided ones so it’s a little spongy but when they engage it’s really nice. The biggest difference to me is in slowing down a bridge or mountain to a stop. I’m also trying to make a front and rear bumper, OSR kit with 12” shocks, and get a Yakima rack with 58” crossbars second hand. It seems with work all my plans are a pipe dream, but hopefully I’ll have time during school to accomplish my list

 

[RodrickHeffley]

great to see you back, I've been looking into the TBU for when I get my 4runner back.

 

[Iron duke]

So I did a thing…
For parts:
- Duralast extended cv axles
- Fox Performance 2.0x12” shocks w/resis
- 333Fabrications can eliminators
- Top hats

Upcoming Maintenance:
- Valve cover gaskets
- Oil change
- Alignment

Finally finished up my summer internship and with the extra dough I decided to get all the maintenance I’ve been pushing off done and then treat myself to some nice suspension. My buddy (HewIndustries) is making an osr kit for me in a couple weeks so that will be awesome. Decided to keep the 5100’s up front for now because after extensive research I found that they had the longest stroke length of any front shock/coilover for our rigs…besides fox’s 2.5 coilovers with the same stroke @5.49”. This means that the shock will not be the limiting factor in the travel, the cv axle binding would. Hence, the extended length cv’s. These are longer, designed for 2-4” lift. They also have 30% more angle to them. The shaft is also beefier than the stock cv’s. Finally, the boots are longer and designed not to rip. A lifetime warranty is nice too. So now that the cv’s and shocks aren’t the limiting factor for travel anymore, it’s literally down to the bumpstops. If I take those out or replace them with durobumps, I think the Uca would technically bind up before the LCA hit the frame, but it would be very close. I need to get UCA’s at some point, but that will be later. There is a 1” spacer on my front shocks that I’m getting rid of and my tops hats are cracking, so I thought I might as well get new ones and then get an alignment. And if I’m going to get an alignment (my alignment is already super bad, my tires have been suffering) I might as well get cam eliminators so it won’t get knocked out of alignment. Wow, diarrhea of the mouth…anyways, stay tuned for the crap ton of work before I have to go back to school.

 

[Iron duke]

Welp as I was trying to replace my top hats and remove the stupid spacers, I snapped the shaft of the shock. Everything was so rusty on it that I had to dremel and angle grind the top hat bolts to even remove the shock. Getting new B8 5100's now as I can't afford to drop 1500 on coilovers. Going to reuse the springs I have now and I already have the new top hats, just a pain with the first week of school to be out a car. At least I'll have new suspension in all 4 corners when I install the Fox's with the OSR kit. I don't think this had anything to do with the overall rust factor of the vehicle, rather the previous owner probably decided to leave the stock top hats from 211k miles in when he decided to switch out suspension and that area can pool with water. Anyways, all the new parts should be on the rig before too long.

 

[Iron duke]

Waiting on all new suspension to arrive but for now sheeeesh

 

[Iron duke]

Finally got front shocks in and new rear coils to lower the rear end now that I don't have so much junk in the trunk. Looks soo good.

 

[RodrickHeffley]

Finally got front shocks in and new rear coils to lower the rear end now that I don't have so much junk in the trunk. Looks soo good.

looking good dude! glad to see it all together

 

[89T4runner]

Love the look!

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[Storm01]

Finally got front shocks in and new rear coils to lower the rear end now that I don't have so much junk in the trunk. Looks soo good.

Looks awesome! Did you end up going with those 891s?

 

[Iron duke]

Looks awesome! Did you end up going with those 891s?

Yes, pretty sure 881/891 front/rear but not positive because they were from previous owner

 

[Iron duke]

Much overdue was a radiator skid plate. Just wanted to make one myself so after a couple hours of getting material, grinding, bending, and welding we have it. It's super basic and I will be doing a redesign, but for $60 I wanted to try it out and see if I like fabbing my own stuff. It was a lot of fun and I have better ideas for a better looking and higher clearance one. I did create new mounts to where the upper bolts go, but reused the stock mounting locations for the bottom. The reason I needed one is because the aftermarket Champion Radiator sit lower than the factory one, which made it impossible for the stock skid to mount. Anyways, just thought I'd share the little update.