88 4Runner Project! (Lots of Questions)

[Nervo19]

The only seat covers I've found that sell both front and back that fit well are Wet Okoles. They will cost in excess of $300 so upholsterer might be a better deal. I have used Wet Okoles on the front seats of my 1st gen and they are sweaty, wet suit material. Miserable in the humidity.

Back to the spectacular paint, did Maaco take the fiberglass cap off to paint? I've been planning to paint for about four years...

A local Maaco did a great job on my mother's Honda years ago. It was metallic gray. A neighbor bought it and it looked great for at least six more years. No clear coat peel.

 

[rusty904]

The only seat covers I've found that sell both front and back that fit well are Wet Okoles. They will cost in excess of $300 so upholsterer might be a better deal. I have used Wet Okoles on the front seats of my 1st gen and they are sweaty, wet suit material. Miserable in the humidity.

Back to the spectacular paint, did Maaco take the fiberglass cap off to paint? I've been planning to paint for about four years...

A local Maaco did a great job on my mother's Honda years ago. It was metallic gray. A neighbor bought it and it looked great for at least six more years. No clear coat peel.

Yeah, I may try to get quotes from a couple more upholsterers first.

Hopefully my Maaco paint lasts that long. They told me I had to wait 90 days to wax it and it's killing me that the truck has to live outside.

I'm pretty sure they did not remove the top for paint. I think they charged me about $120 to paint the top so it's really basic. Quality doesn't match the rest of the vehicle but in their defense, they were working with some old exposed fiberglass. I think a smoother bedliner like raptorliner or something might be the way to go. It would be heavy but it might at least get a consistent finish.

The rest of the job was very good for the money. The two big dents were removed very well and the finish seems pretty consistent. There was overspray especially underneath. I pointed some of the worst of it out to them and they repainted the chassis and some of the suspension components with underbody spray. Looked much better after that.

Overall I'm happy with the results but I got a pretty heavily discounted job. Not really sure what full price for all that would've been.

 

[rusty904]

So I ripped out that nasty carpet that came with the truck. It was incredibly satisfying while I was doing it but then looking at a bare tub I was definitely thinking "what have I done?!!" There is a little bubbling surface rust under there and I can tell from the nasty state of the carpet that it had absorbed an awful lot of moisture in it's day.

I wire wheeled some of the rust off then prepped it with some self-etching primer. I think I will use underbody spray to protect it.

I'm a bit worried about cutting out and installing the vinyl floor kit I bought. There is a lot of cutting and holes to make in it but the non-factory garbage carpet that was in there before did not leave me much of a template.

I am going to put down some "peal n' seal" for sound deadening/insulation as other people have done on here. Hopefully I can figure out how to get everything back together again.

 

[rusty904]

Quick, dumb question. Can anyone tell me the bolt size for the rear seat brackets? With my caliper I seem to be measuring 9,7 and 8mm on the bolt holes with my caliper. The hardware store only has even sized metric bolts just want to make sure I measured right.

 

[rusty904]

Anyone on those bolt sizes for the rear seat brackets??? Are they toyota specific? I'm stumped and could use some help.

 

[KidVermicious]

I can't get to my rig at the moment, but those should be 8x1.25? If they aren't 8 they're 10, but I think they're 8.

 

[rusty904]

So some updates.

I have the rear seats in but still no middle bracket. Not sure if my seats are dealer added or what but the bracket set I got for them on ebay is the wrong type. I either need to figure out a way to fab up a center bracket or adapt the factory brackets to my current seats. Seats aren't that nice to begin with so I don't want to devote much more time or money to them.

I fixed the horn as documented in another thread on here and I passed inspection, finally! Bad news is my intermittent idle problem has returned. Truck still idles rough or too low at times. Need to get on that.

Got the factory rear bumper on and restored the skid plate I bought from ajohnson with a wire wheel and some harbor freight spray on bedliner (love this stuff!) It looks great on the front of the truck.

My interior is rust treated and lined with peal n'seal but I am procrastinating on the vinyl flooring install because I suck at it!

I bit the bullet and ordered a softopper for summertime fun. It hurt the bank account for sure but it will hopefully be worth it. It will at least allow me to put off fixing the headliner.

Pics documenting this stuff on the way.

 

[ajohnson]

You will love the softopper!

Are your rear seats split, or full bench? Mine are split, I will try to remember to get some pics of how they latch if it will help.

 

[rusty904]

You will love the softopper!

Are your rear seats split, or full bench? Mine are split, I will try to remember to get some pics of how they latch if it will help.

They are spit fold. Here is a pic. Factory hinges have two bolts per hinge that attach to the seat frame. These do not work with the factory hinges I got off ebay!

 

[ajohnson]

My '85 came with a 1 piece rear bench, but no brackets/hinges. I got a set of factory hinges and drilled holes in the seat frame for bolts. I think I have read about 3rd gen rear seats fitting pretty well. You might consider that, since your seats don't seem like a direct fit anyway.

 

[rusty904]

Did some digging and found this. Looks like the install is a bit more involved than I'd like! I think the biggest obstacle is moving the striker mounting point up.
http://www.yotatech.com/f116/89-1st-gen-runner-rear-seat-swap-118423/index2.html

Hopefully I can make what I have work somehow because there doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there for replacements.

 

[rusty904]

Ok, so here are some pics of what I've been up to...

So I'm loving this harbor freight bed armor stuff. Cheap, seems to stick well and sprays on thick and consistent. My cargo area came with some DIY panels made of some kind of cutting board-like material. I used bed armor on them to make them black instead of dirty white. Yes, I need some new pop rivets. I think I may use this stuff for the rest of the cargo area floor and make some hard back panels for the seatbacks.

 

[rusty904]

I also installed a factory Skid wire wheeled, primed, and covered in more of the iron armor junk.

My passenger area is still covered in bare peal n' seal. I'm going to make one last attempt to install the vinyl flooring but I may give up and have the local upholstery shop do a proper job for $100. Cutting and trimming is not my strong suit.

I'm working on re-finishing this rusty old trailer hitch (another gem from ajohnson). I really want a bumper with an integrated hitch because I will only ever use it for hitch bike racks. I don't like the idea of hauling around 50lbs of trailer hitch all the time.

I'm not big on the trail gear one personally. I don't like the gap between the bottom of the tailgate and the bumper. Anyone have a good suggestion?

 

[rusty904]

Now some questions.

-How do you remove the bolts the hold the side mirrors on? Do you have to remove the door cards to get to the nuts on the inside of the door panel? Mine are covered in rust and it's dripping down on my new paint, it's an eyesore.

-My A/C works slightly but is very weak. It's just cold enough so that I know the system is doing something but can't keep up with a hot day. I was going to try a re-charge on it but I'm not sure if my system is the old refrigerant they no longer sell or if it's been converted to newer refrigerant (r-134?). Anyone know how to tell? Anyone even have working A/C anymore?

 

[ajohnson]

Your 4Runner SHOULD have R12 refrigerant, which Napa sells (according to their website). It is $62 for 12 oz though :jaw:. I would charge it and see how it does.

 

[KidVermicious]

Now some questions.

-How do you remove the bolts the hold the side mirrors on? Do you have to remove the door cards to get to the nuts on the inside of the door panel? Mine are covered in rust and it's dripping down on my new paint, it's an eyesore.

They're captured nuts. You don't have to pull the door panel.

 

[rusty904]

They're captured nuts. You don't have to pull the door panel.

Hmmm, mine just seem to keep spinning! Annoying b/c I have some nice stainless ones waiting to replace them.

 

[rusty904]

So softopper sent me a charcoal gray top instead of a black one! I doublechecked to make sure I ordered the black and sure enough, I did. I'll contact them when they open today and see if they can help me out. In the meantime my truck is sitting with a tarp on it and the fiberglass is at a friends storage unit. Went ahead and got the softopper framework in place. The instructions show fully boxed aluminum bed rails but mine came with stamped steel L-shaped ones. Kind of disappointing because it makes it look a bit more like a home depot project. A few other things have changed in the kit but the instructions are pretty vague and not up to date!

In other news, I got the roll bar in place finally but I will probably pull it back out again soon to re-finish it.

Hitch is prepped and re-sprayed, just waiting for the bedliner to fully harden before I put it on.

Finally, on a more negative note, my truck has developed some kind of short with the taillight/dash light circuit. I replaced the fuse a couple times and it blew a few seconds after starting the engine each time. I removed the pass side taillight bulb to see if I could isolate the short. It still shorted so I guess the short is in the driver's taillight or the dashboard light?

Man I hate electrical stuff. It's kind of sad when the two old British cars I've worked on extensively have had way fewer electrical issues!

The idle issue is the worst plague of all though. It returned with a vengeance yesterday and the truck would not idle at all. The problem always seems to return when I work with fuses and electrical stuff. Not sure if this is coincidence or not. Have heard many theories from alternator, to vacuum leaks and I'm totally baffled. None of the mechanics at work want to touch anything as old as my truck!

 

[rusty904]

Talked to softopper on the phone yesterday and they gave me the option of switching to the black or a $100 discount to keep the gray. I chose to keep the gray mostly because the hard top was already in storage and the truck was in front of my house with a tarp on it.

The gray is kind of growing on me though and $100 is a pretty decent discount. I think it now kind of looks like something a South American cartel would use to transport paramilitary troops. I already managed to get some scratches on the windows, man they scratch easily! Thanks to Softopper for the great customer service!

Also, anybody with one of these have any tips for working the wrinkle out of the rear windows?

 

[javendan]

Also, anybody with one of these have any tips for working the wrinkle out of the rear windows?

let the sun do the work for you... if you have it

also, i 'burned' one of my windows because i hadn't installed the foam insulation and on a hot socal day the vinyl window rested on one of the supports tubes and now has a nice mark on it

joel