aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

after doing the flex test last night and seeing how much these new bumpstops compress before limiting my up-travel I'm a little upset about spending the money I did on them.. They seem to probably work really well under a heavy dynamic loading situation at slowing the axle travel down to a stop (ie: going through fast sections of whooops on trails maybe?) but for my intensive purposes I think I could have gotten away with using the factory stops just relocated slightly... Lesson learned.. lol.

May be what I need to do is spend even MORE money and do hydro-bumps and just go ahead and take this thing off of a jump:lol:

 

[aemravan]

I took the bumper covers off both my trucks years ago. So I could trim your glass fender to fit, or fab something to fit on the bumper.

that may be a valid point...how many guys would really be looking to go wide rear quarters that do not already have an aftermarket rear bumper? lol .

I'll let you know man.. I was looking at various angels of my rig last night as well as taking a look at a couple of custom wide rear glass quarters on a 4th gen and there certainly isn't a lot out there. And the couple that I found are way more rounded than I would like for mine to be. My plan is to fairly closely mimic the style of the McNeil racing front fenders I have with fairly hard body lines and maybe a 2" build-out from the factory that would more or less swoop down the door trim and pretty quickly fade into it near the bottom.

The clay is on the way, so we'll see, i'll start playing with it and see how I like it. First time taking on a project like this so it will be interesting.. I think getting them perfectly symmetric will be one of the bigger challenges but I have a fairly good idea from seeing a few custom glass kits built over the last few months of searching around.

I'm undecided on whether or not I was to raise the line of the wheel arch up any or just leave it as is and build out a 2" bulge. Raising it would be quite a pain since I would then need to modify the existing trim piece so I think I'll just leave it as is.. it won't be as high as my 2" rise fenders, but I think anything more aggressive in the rear will be a significant improvement over the factory look.

 

[awhitney1]

Glad to hear the recent additions are working out for you! Always a joy to see the progress you're making!

 

[aemravan]

Glad to hear the recent additions are working out for you! Always a joy to see the progress you're making!

Thanks man! I'm like a runaway freight train when it comes to modifications... I'm fully ready to admit that I have a serious problem.. lol. Just not willing to do anything about it just quite yet.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

Thanks man! I'm like a runaway freight train when it comes to modifications... I'm fully ready to admit that I have a serious problem.. lol. Just not willing to do anything about it just quite yet.

I wrote this as a joke when I first bought my 5th gen, but it pretty much describes all of us 4Runner kooks:

Help!
I have been having health issues lately. Symptoms: numbness in the wrists, arms and neck, bleeding eyes, followed by fits of jealousy and anguish.

I can't keep a thought in my head without looking at, sitting in, or reading about my 4Runner and pulling up T4R.org on an minute by minute basis. (I broke into a cold sweat after seeing Jicko's Shrock Works Group buy the other day, signed up for a Front Bumper 2 minutes later).
All I have done for the last 2 weeks is drive off road, work on, clean, or plan modifications on my 4Runner.
The only constructive chores I have done around the house is that I have cleaned out the disaster area know as my single car garage so that I can park said T4R out of the brutal FLA sunshine.
I think I may be addicted and I know that admitting I have a problem is the first step, but I don't think it will help. Not without being cast into an alternative universe where they have never seen an SUV and use Teleportation.

Is there any cure? Or should I stop fighting it and just go broke with a Stage 7, supercharger, and full Armor? I know what ever set up I go with, eventually the envelope will be busted wide open, and the next stage of modifications will start all over again.

Now, I have owned and wheeled, and got stuck, plenty of 4x4 full size Chevys and Fords, with a couple S10 Blazers thrown in, but none of them have ever dominated my every waking moment like this T4R.

The first time I took this thing on a deep sand atv/dirt bike trail (with Yokohama streets), I was hooked like a Jack Russell on a rubber ball.

I think I'm addicted, Help!

 

[aemravan]

I wrote this as a joke when I first bought my 5th gen, but it pretty much describes all of us 4Runner kooks:

Help!
I have been having health issues lately. Symptoms: numbness in the wrists, arms and neck, bleeding eyes, followed by fits of jealousy and anguish.

I can't keep a thought in my head without looking at, sitting in, or reading about my 4Runner and pulling up T4R.org on an minute by minute basis. (I broke into a cold sweat after seeing Jicko's Shrock Works Group buy the other day, signed up for a Front Bumper 2 minutes later).
All I have done for the last 2 weeks is drive off road, work on, clean, or plan modifications on my 4Runner.
The only constructive chores I have done around the house is that I have cleaned out the disaster area know as my single car garage so that I can park said T4R out of the brutal FLA sunshine.
I think I may be addicted and I know that admitting I have a problem is the first step, but I don't think it will help. Not without being cast into an alternative universe where they have never seen an SUV and use Teleportation.

Is there any cure? Or should I stop fighting it and just go broke with a Stage 7, supercharger, and full Armor? I know what ever set up I go with, eventually the envelope will be busted wide open, and the next stage of modifications will start all over again.

Now, I have owned and wheeled, and got stuck, plenty of 4x4 full size Chevys and Fords, with a couple S10 Blazers thrown in, but none of them have ever dominated my every waking moment like this T4R.

The first time I took this thing on a deep sand atv/dirt bike trail (with Yokohama streets), I was hooked like a Jack Russell on a rubber ball.

I think I'm addicted, Help!

That is amazingly accurate. I love it! haha :lookout:

 

[aemravan]

Making it a bit more wife-friendly.. flow master super 44 is now in place and not going to lie.. cleaned up the sound quite a bit. I put in a 45 degree turn down as well and pushed the exhaust back just before the rear axle. Much nicer inside now. Made quick work of it.. 1.5 hours start to finish.

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[aemravan]

man... what a difference with the exhaust. I don't know what I was thinking originally.. lol.

For those that missed it.. I actually bought this same exact muffler a year ago, and paid $150 to a local exhaust shop to install it in place of the factory muffler, the welds were HORRIFIC at best after I looked at it later.. The sound wasn't increased for $200 worth of upgrades like I wanted.. so a few months later when I got access to a welder and started welding myself I cut out the exhaust and just used the resonator aimed 90 degrees down mid-way through the original run.

I threw away the flowmaster because nobody wanted to buy it for 20 bucks locally.... so much wasted money.... lol.

The sound of the V8 was awesome, but at full throttle it was really loud and raspy and not pleasant... that, combined with the fact that the dump-point was literally under the passenger seat and along with the newly cut hole in the tunnel for the FJ transfer case it REALLY increased the sound inside the cab. Nothing crazy for me, but with a passenger on the highway it made it really unpleasant to try to talk..

Now that I installed the flow master in-between the resonator and pushed the 45 degree kick out back toward the back axle the in-cab sound is amazing. It still sounds phenomenal at start up and idling, but i can actually hear the motor sound at full throttle now, vs the raspy exhaust. Overall, super happy with 70 bucks and less than 2 hours of work.


This morning I also installed some sticky-back heat shield material I had from Amazon above the muffler since the parking brake cable passes right over it and it doesn't have any factory heat shields above. Hopefully it's enough, it doesn't generate a TON of heat, but ever since I had the factory heat shield above the rear axle catch fire after a 3 hour drive I am super paranoid about not replicating that occurrence.




The next step to the noise-reduction is to finally close up the twin-stick fj-trasnfer case cutout in the console. The only barrier right now is a 3/16" rubber piece that covers the cutout in the tunnel with a slit cut for the shifter pass-through. It doesn't do a good job in keeping out the noise or smell.. This will probably be a bit out of the left field and unconventional way to go about the fix... but aside from sewing together 2 shift boots to slide over the shifters I am also looking to pack the area under them with some cotton stuffing to allow the shifter to freely move, but to help in catching some of the noise and smell underneath the shift boots. Once this is in place I should be in a really good place with noise reduction.

 

[aemravan]

Hood struts showed up unexpectedly.. I got tired of propping the Tacoma hood with my make shift prop.. minute install with some Tacoma struts and I’m a happy camper. Got right in and hold the hood up perfectly.

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[aemravan]

Let’s see if this works ..

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[aemravan]

After giving it some more thought and research.. it seems I went with the wrong material than originally planned.. I was originally after wool, not cotton :doh: lol. Not a huge deal, and I don't think there is any risk of it catching fire.. but just for peace of mind , I have wool on the way with some fire retardant spray treatment for it so really put my mind at ease. With the amount of plastic and wires that run through there obviously the heat doesnt get anywhere near hot enough, but because it is partially exposed to the exterior and with the exhaust being right there not all that far away I figured it couldn't hurt. At least this way if something does short out and ignites it it will be a much slower burn giving me a chance to address the situation.

Typing this out really makes me feel like I'm going completely overboard :frog: haha

 

[awhitney1]

So working on the tk1 say bar and I have to modify the arm a bit since I have king resivours in the way lol

Thanks man! I'm like a runaway freight train when it comes to modifications... I'm fully ready to admit that I have a serious problem.. lol. Just not willing to do anything about it just quite yet.

 

[aemravan]

So working on the tk1 say bar and I have to modify the arm a bit since I have king resivours in the way lol

Ahh.. definitely did not think about that... that's a solid point... i got rid of my Icon 2.5's with the extended reservoirs not long ago... they certainly were mounted literally where I cut my hole... that was actually one of the threaded holes I plug with my cover plate... interesting to see how that works out man.. what are you have to do modify exactly?

 

[awhitney1]

Drilling the holes just a smidge back and will hopefully have plenty of room for the arm to move up and down. I'll send some pics later today hopefully.

Ahh.. definitely did not think about that... that's a solid point... i got rid of my Icon 2.5's with the extended reservoirs not long ago... they certainly were mounted literally where I cut my hole... that was actually one of the threaded holes I plug with my cover plate... interesting to see how that works out man.. what are you have to do modify exactly?

 

[aemravan]

I’ve never scrapped a project as fast as project clay wide fenders.. holy hell.. far from what I expected. 15 minutes after starting the clay is in the trash.

I turned back to my know foam method which originally didn’t work because I was trying to do it vertically on the car… pull the panels off, stupid ! So much easier to work with. The first prototype is foamed and underway.. we’ll see what this shapes out like. I have a decent idea of what I want it to look like in my mind .. but we’ll see if what it actually turns out like.

I think what I’m leaning towards is cutting the door trim panel where it transitions from the arch to the horizontal flat piece and making them separate. That way I can pull off just the door flare and leave the other piece on. I’m also kind of leaning towards combining the the smaller rear piece and the upper arch so that I don’t have to make a separate small piece just for the rear bumper trim.. but we’ll see

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[aemravan]

Project wide booty is in full swing

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[aemravan]

A little progress

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[riceandpho]

beats buying the fender flares from burtman industries
not sure what happened to that guy, i never had any troubles.

Burtman Industries

 

[aemravan]

beats buying the fender flares from burtman industries
not sure what happened to that guy, i never had any troubles.

Burtman Industries

I just wasn’t thrilled about $800 and a 12 week lead time lol. They are also more bubbly than I envisioned for my build. A readily available off the shelf flare for like 5-600 bucks I could get behind .. but unfortunately we don’t have that option.


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[awhitney1]

Thanks to you, I got the TK1 racing rear sway bar installed and it's a HUGE improvement compared to having no rear sway bar. I can definitely take corners at highway speeds with better stability and less body roll!