87 4 Runner Build

[GonOvr]

dont worry man, mine was prestine until i caved the driver rear door, driver front window channel, and rear taillight/corner. Now i just say meh.

As for the beer, yea you're right. For the photo's sake it would have made it. I dont promote drinking and wheeling. Nor do i wheel with those that do.

 

[SV_Dude]

dont worry man, mine was prestine until i caved the driver rear door, driver front window channel, and rear taillight/corner. Now i just say meh.

As for the beer, yea you're right. For the photo's sake it would have made it. I dont promote drinking and wheeling. Nor do i wheel with those that do.

It's all good... I guess I wanted it to stay pretty for a little longer and not get destroyed on its first 30 minutes of its FIRST real 4wheeling trip.

Oh well, it happens!

 

[mytyeerinpie]

It's all good... I guess I wanted it to stay pretty for a little longer and not get destroyed on its first 30 minutes of its FIRST real 4wheeling trip.

Oh well, it happens!

Just do t get too used to it or after a while you won't care at all about the body damage. The first time I went out it was a little dent under the taillight. The Nothing notable the next few times, but last time it was really wet and we were doing some pretty decent rock crawling I took out a taillight, sidevoew mirror, got a nice tattoo from a rock and in the end I was like "meh I had fun whatever" but I haven't bothered to fix anything because I am just gointo do it again.

 

[SV_Dude]

Just do t get too used to it or after a while you won't care at all about the body damage. The first time I went out it was a little dent under the taillight. The Nothing notable the next few times, but last time it was really wet and we were doing some pretty decent rock crawling I took out a taillight, sidevoew mirror, got a nice tattoo from a rock and in the end I was like "meh I had fun whatever" but I haven't bothered to fix anything because I am just gointo do it again.

It will get fixed. I'll straighten out the core support as good as I can and replace the hood. I already have plans to rebuild the front grill and replace my headlights and turn signals. But, this whole thing just reinforces the importance of having armor. If I had a front bumper I wouldn't have had any damage. My buddy already has a trail gear rear bumper but he wanted to paint it before he puts it on. Due to the height of the impact, his rear bumper wouldn't have helped him anyway.

 

[Footofgod]

Hopefully I can learn from my mistakes and buy a front bumper!!

All I could think when I saw the pics was you getting a new bumper now. Didn't I just ask you about your bumper plans? Looks like fun either way.

Is your runner an automatic?

 

[SV_Dude]

It's a 5 speed manual.

As soon as I get to Colorado I'm going to go and bug scotty for some bumpers or buy a bender and build some.

 

[Footofgod]

It's a 5 speed manual.

As soon as I get to Colorado I'm going to go and bug scotty for some bumpers or buy a bender and build some.

Our little Colorado group has a trail ride on the 19th if you make it by then.

 

[SV_Dude]

I have been following that trail run and I don't think that I'll make it in time. I should be in Colorado by the 18th but I don't think that I'll go wheeling the day after I get there. I'll still need to un pack and stuff. But I'll have about 30 days off of work so there will be plenty of opportunities to go wheeling.

 

[SV_Dude]

I'm still working on repairing the front of my 4runner. I have a lot of free time now so I should be done in a day or two. Aside from the hood I have almost everything taken care of. I pulled off the front fenders and straightened them out. I also was able to straighten out the core support for the most part.

Today I was working on the grille a little bit. I could buy a new one but there's no fun in that! I decided to re-use the original but modify it a little bit.

Liquid motivation for the garage:

I pulled off the toyota badge and cut out the centers of the grille.

After everything was all sanded down and flush I realized that I also needed the back side of the centers to be level. The plan is to fiberglass over the whole grille to add structure to it and then glue in some expanded steel to the back side of it. It will look stock to someone who doesn't know any difference but I think it will look pretty good. To make the back side flush I just taped some card board to the back of it. This will give me a base that I can add fiberglass to so I can make everything flush for the expanded steel to sit on.

Here is one of the problem areas I ran into and why I needed to add the cardboard to the back of it:

The cardboard on the back:

I am out of resin so that's all for today. I should be able to get some tomorrow and get two layers of glass over the whole thing. Who knows, maybe I'll get some motivation to get the resin today

 

[drz400smoto]

Nice Build!! Just read through it all.
Let us know when you make it out to Colorado. I am up in Fort Collins and just started building my first gen back in the fall. I'm down in the springs every now and then since I have a friend at Carson though so I'm sure we can meet up sometime and play with the 4runners!

 

[SV_Dude]

I'm still waiting on my orders. As soon as I get them I will hopefully be heading towards Colorado within 10 days.

Thanks for the compliments on the runner. Do you have a build thread for yours?

I got my butt kicked by my grille today. I started laying the chop mat down on the grille today and it didn't want to stick around the edges. It kept lifting and I lost patience with it and pulled it all off. I think I need some thinner chop mat but I don't have any. I don't want to order things until I am in Colorado so I think I'm going to try some thinner woven mat that I have. I would like to use chop mat for this because it forms around tighter edges and curves better than the woven stuff. We'll see. If all else fails then I'll find another grill from a junk yard or something. We'll see. This 4runner is a learning process for me. I have never built or done anything like this before.

 

[drz400smoto]

I'm still waiting on my orders. As soon as I get them I will hopefully be heading towards Colorado within 10 days.

Thanks for the compliments on the runner. Do you have a build thread for yours?

I got my butt kicked by my grille today. I started laying the chop mat down on the grille today and it didn't want to stick around the edges. It kept lifting and I lost patience with it and pulled it all off. I think I need some thinner chop mat but I don't have any. I don't want to order things until I am in Colorado so I think I'm going to try some thinner woven mat that I have. I would like to use chop mat for this because it forms around tighter edges and curves better than the woven stuff. We'll see. If all else fails then I'll find another grill from a junk yard or something. We'll see. This 4runner is a learning process for me. I have never built or done anything like this before.

No build thread for me... I should probably make one now that I actually have a build!

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Very impressive work my friend. Sorry about the damage but like you said, its bound to happen. Very cool build so far, looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[SV_Dude]

So the grill idea didn't work out very well... mostly I think because I didn't want to put the effort into it. I laid a few pieces of glass down and I wasn't happy with how it was going down and even after sanding and drilling small holes the glass didn't adhere to the plastic very well. So I threw it away and decided to use my spare grill. It's a chrome grill so it will get sanded down and painted black when I get to Colorado. My half doors are on hold till I get to Colorado as well, I may even scrap them and buy some tube doors. Not sure on that one yet.

I went wheeling yesterday with a few friends and had a good time. We didn't get too many pics because we wanted to keep things moving. I did get a few videos though, nothing exciting.


These videos aren't too exciting. They were cool spots in the trails but the videos don't do these trails any justice. They were a lot steeper than the videos make them look.


This one is me getting owned by open diffs. These ledges were about 1.5-2 foot climbs. They didn't look too serious but on open diffs I didn't have a chance. Between the slope of the trail and the rock climbs I got my arse handed to me.


This one wasn't anything special but it does show why 4runners are superior to a full size vehicle. Gotta love the runners!!


Here's the bronco on the same run.


It was a good day with about 6 hours of wheeling. We did a lot of runs on different trails and I wish I had more videos of it because we had some pretty cool climbs that we went on. I did get a little body damage on the top right of the cab from a tree that was leaning over. I went on a descent and was already committed and really couldn't get out of the way of the tree. It's nothing serious but still some cool battle scars I'm half tempted to do a full exo when I get to Colorado... I'm still undecided on that one

 

[BucknutBob]

Thanks for the vids, SVD--always fun to see the rigs in action! Any plans for swapping out those open diffs before the Moab run (or are you going on that one?)? After running some pretty wild stuff with them, I can't imagine being without lockers now (I've been spoiled!). I know a lot of people are going to those full exo's, but even though I've taken on some damage, I wouldn't like one on mine--I like to see the lines of the truck. I think I might try some partial exo stuff like I've seen before, with a tube on each quarter, coming up from the sliders (when I get them), then doing a 90 about taillight height and curving around to join either the front or rear bumpers. I'll roll the dice on the rest of the body and live with whatever happens. Great work on your truck, in case I never said it before!

 

[SV_Dude]

I'm hoping that I can put the runner under the knife shortly after I get to Colorado and put the solid axle under it. Once that's done then I'll go for lockers... most likely detroits but if I can get a good score I would rather have e-lockers.

 

[Footofgod]

I'm hoping that I can put the runner under the knife shortly after I get to Colorado and put the solid axle under it. Once that's done then I'll go for lockers... most likely detroits but if I can get a good score I would rather have e-lockers.

Can't wait to have you out here!

 

[SV_Dude]

I'm leaving Tennessee on the 28th and should be in Fountain on the 30th. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be in a house and have my shop back up and going within a week or so after I get settled in.

I'll let you know when to help unload the truck I'll have beer and a bbq going for any volunteers! Plus free labor on the runners

 

[Footofgod]

I'll let you know when to help unload the truck I'll have beer and a bbq going for any volunteers!

I'm there!

Plus free labor on the runners

Careful what you offer. I have a list a mile long to get done before October.

 

[SV_Dude]

I'm there!



Careful what you offer. I have a list a mile long to get done before October.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! As for the garage work, it's all good. I enjoy wrenching just as much as I do driving.