Building Red October

[Red October]

Well things have been movin slow with this thing. My machine shop has been crazy busy, and they have had my motor for 3 weeks longer than planned, and counting...

But... New shoes!

 

[Fishwerks]

Looks good so far!

 

[Red October]

I was excited so I put them on

 

[AZ4Running]

Rebuilding the motor, nice. Who do you have doing the machine work? Would have been a good time to polish and port match the head and manifolds to get that motor flowing a bit better.

 

[HiluxSurfGuy]

I also added some hatch lights,... ooooooo shiney...

[/IM/QUOTE]

Would Love to see how this looks in the day light. I wanna do this, but I am worried about making it look clean when cutting into the hatch paneling on the inside.

 

[Red October]

This is what the hatch panel looks like. These are LED 16mm bolts from Oznium.com. They mount thru the panel, in a 5/8" hole. These are the ones without a lens, so they sit very flush, less than 1/8" high above the panel.

Side view, pardon my brothers messy garage and the grainy cell phone pics

 

[Red October]

Rebuilding the motor, nice. Who do you have doing the machine work? Would have been a good time to polish and port match the head and manifolds to get that motor flowing a bit better.

Yeah, doin a lot of that stuff. I just decided that with all the effort of doing the whole head I would just go all the way and rebuild the whole thing. I use K and K auto machine in Prescott, great shop. They have built several motors for me in the past, and do good work. They have never been this busy before tho...:shrug:

 

[Red October]

Set up the front today. Good gravy, what a PITA 200k upper ball joints are! Everything I took off today was stock except the cheap KYB shocks.

But now with new brakes, UBJ, LBJ, OME 881s and Tundra 5100s I'm ready for the next 200k!

.

I did discover that my front brake lines are cracked, so I need those. And the TREs flop around like wet noodles, so they will need doin before I get her aligned (they are probably stock too, sheesh)

 

[Red October]

..... So Hawt....

 

[Red October]

Proof that my wife loves me and is more awesomer than any other wife; CBI ditch light brackets, just cuz.

 

[Red October]

My machine shop continues to drag this engine rebuild out, 5 weeks now ( and the 3rd time they have told me, 10 days more ) I'm starting to get annoyed here, honestly. I have basically built the entire rest of the truck over the last few weeks.

What I have done while waiting on my motor:
- Rear suspension, OME 890s, black tokicos, panhard drop, and extended brake line.
- Front suspension, new LBJs, UBJs, OME 881s and Tundra Billies ( 2nd perch )
- Steering, inner and outer TREs, and poly rack bushings
- Brakes, new rotors and Power Stop performance pads, Stop Tech stainless lines ( great deal on these from Rockauto ), And a complete brake system flush with new synthetic fluid to get rid of some seriously nasty lookin 18 year old brake fluid.
- New painted wheels, and new tires, contemplating wheel spacers up front, the lift sucked the tires in a bit
- New longer roof rails, and re-enforcement, sound deadening and insulation in the roof hatch and rear panels.
- Aux lighting in the hatch roof and front foot wells.
- Pre wired for back-up and perimeter lighting from the roof rack, and added a rear aux fuse block to run a couple future mods in the cargo area, also added trailer wiring.
- Got bored and started my roof rack, mostly done with that.
- Still planning how to mount some of the forward aux lighting, 20" single row LED bar and ditch lights. I'm thinkin behind the grille for a stealthy look.

Btw, where is a good place to pull power from for lights up front? I may run relays, but would like at least the relay feeds to be ignition hot only, so I can't kill the battery with the key off

Pretty quick here I'll be starting armor if my machine shop doesn't hurry the hell up! I really wanna drive this thing!

 

[Red October]

Roof rack taking shape. I'm going for super low profile, really close to the roof line. There won't be any side rails, and any mounts will be made to bolt on so they can be removed when not used. I want it to be pretty sleek.

So the second spare will be an optional thing, it probably won't ride up there very often. My Hi-Lift will sit next to the shovel, where the tape measure is, and I will probably mount a more man sized shovel.

 

[AirOlson]

Looks awesome! I hope the motor turns out great too....

 

[jeff88]

That's a long list of to-do's/to-done's!! Can't wait to see what it all ends up looking like!

How much of the clear coat fade is going to get covered up by the new roof rack?

 

[Red October]

Pretty much all of it, the rack is 7' 2" and will have a wind deflector that drops down in front of it, basically covers the entire roof.

I eventually plan getting the paint prettied up, but for now there are more important things to get done. It does look sad tho, doesn't it :yuck:

 

[jeff88]

I eventually plan getting the paint prettied up, but for now there are more important things to get done. It does look sad tho, doesn't it :yuck:

So many things to do, so little time! At least the rack will cover it up so you won't notice. Still want to see the final product! :reddance:

 

[Red October]

It's happened, I have turned into that customer. You know the one that calls every couple days to check on things. Yep I'm that guy now.

On a positive note tho, the short block is finished, and they are working the head over as we speak. I should be able to pick this SOB up middle of next week. And by the end of the weekend have a running, fire-breathing, mighty 4Runner once again.

Really tho, I have only called 3 times in 5 weeks, so I'm not that bad...

 

[Red October]

Sometimes I get a little ADD, and I gotta change gears a little. Today was one of those days. So I made some indestructible tools that i can bolt down.



I had found this axe head on a trail ride a while back and figured I would eventually get a handle. The shovel is new but, I hate splinters, wood or fiberglass. I'll never get a splinter from this one! :wink2:

And I dropped the hot axe on my arm, a minute after welding it, ouch!

 

[Red October]

:guitar3:Oh! It's done! I get to pick my motor up this afternoon! Holy crap yes! :guitar3:

 

[AirOlson]

How's it running?!