Cjtapp
New member
So this whole expensive hobby started out with my first vehicle, 1996 SR5 4Runner.
Learned to drive in this thing and made every high school memory in it. Lotta beach trips, snowboarding trips, and pretty much every stupid thing me and my friends decided to do. Spent every dime I made detailing cars on my 3rd gen and it turned out as a very capable rig. Had a lotta fun out at Uwharrie National Forest with it too.
Damn near washed the clear coat off that truck practically. I guess detailing cars makes you anal about that kinda stuff. But anyways, during the summer of this year. Made a trip town to Holden Beach, NC, same trip we make every year. Well long story short, had some bad misfiring due to a bad coilpack. Replaced the coil pack and made it home after a week on vacation safe and sound. Started the truck the next morning, CEL light came on again with the misfire. So made a short trip to autozone and broke down before I got there. The misfiring had damaged a spark plug so severe that the tip broke off into the cyclinder. So im sitting here with a awesome clean truck, but a engine with low compression, crappy steering (needed a some front end loving, bad bushings everywhere), and gets 14mpg driving like an old person with an eye patch at night..
So needing a vehicle that I could finish out college with, something reliable, and something I wouldn't be fixing stuff on every 3 weeks, I sold it to get a nice dependent prius. :suspicious:
Nahhhhhhh, just kidding. I bought a v8. Definitely excited to do another stormtrooper build. :dance:
So luckily, I got to strip a bunch of the cool stuff off my 3rd gen before I sold it. :bolt:
>30" Light Bar
>Audio Stuff (Appradio, JL amp, and Alpine Type-S Subwoofer)
>OTRATTW Switches
>Snowboard Racks
>And a couple other small things
So at least I had a couple small things I could do for free right off the bat to keep my time occupied while not at work.
So first things first, got the front windows tinted, 20% on front, 50% on windshield, and 10% eyebrow. Would post pictures but ime sure yaw know what window tint looks like.
Next thing was to get the radio put in. These are the times where I miss my 3rd gen. Where I could pull my whole center console out in less than 5 minutes, 4th gen's.....yeahhh not as easy. Got my PAC convertor box thing and got my touchscreen in. Took a lot longer than I hoped, everything was a real tight fit.
But it turned out really clean and I was pleased.
But of course, me not knowing to much about 4th gens....one week later I had sweet dash crack over the trim piece above my radio. :ybrick:
Luckly the crack went down to the trim so that it couldn't spread any further, and I have been using aerospace UV protectant on the dash so I believe im in good shape.
Lots more to come, got my lightbar mounted behind the grill and around $800 dollars in parts sitting in my garage. Time to turn some wrenches....again. :boink:
Learned to drive in this thing and made every high school memory in it. Lotta beach trips, snowboarding trips, and pretty much every stupid thing me and my friends decided to do. Spent every dime I made detailing cars on my 3rd gen and it turned out as a very capable rig. Had a lotta fun out at Uwharrie National Forest with it too.
Damn near washed the clear coat off that truck practically. I guess detailing cars makes you anal about that kinda stuff. But anyways, during the summer of this year. Made a trip town to Holden Beach, NC, same trip we make every year. Well long story short, had some bad misfiring due to a bad coilpack. Replaced the coil pack and made it home after a week on vacation safe and sound. Started the truck the next morning, CEL light came on again with the misfire. So made a short trip to autozone and broke down before I got there. The misfiring had damaged a spark plug so severe that the tip broke off into the cyclinder. So im sitting here with a awesome clean truck, but a engine with low compression, crappy steering (needed a some front end loving, bad bushings everywhere), and gets 14mpg driving like an old person with an eye patch at night..
So needing a vehicle that I could finish out college with, something reliable, and something I wouldn't be fixing stuff on every 3 weeks, I sold it to get a nice dependent prius. :suspicious:
Nahhhhhhh, just kidding. I bought a v8. Definitely excited to do another stormtrooper build. :dance:
So luckily, I got to strip a bunch of the cool stuff off my 3rd gen before I sold it. :bolt:
>30" Light Bar
>Audio Stuff (Appradio, JL amp, and Alpine Type-S Subwoofer)
>OTRATTW Switches
>Snowboard Racks
>And a couple other small things
So at least I had a couple small things I could do for free right off the bat to keep my time occupied while not at work.
So first things first, got the front windows tinted, 20% on front, 50% on windshield, and 10% eyebrow. Would post pictures but ime sure yaw know what window tint looks like.
Next thing was to get the radio put in. These are the times where I miss my 3rd gen. Where I could pull my whole center console out in less than 5 minutes, 4th gen's.....yeahhh not as easy. Got my PAC convertor box thing and got my touchscreen in. Took a lot longer than I hoped, everything was a real tight fit.
But it turned out really clean and I was pleased.
But of course, me not knowing to much about 4th gens....one week later I had sweet dash crack over the trim piece above my radio. :ybrick:
Luckly the crack went down to the trim so that it couldn't spread any further, and I have been using aerospace UV protectant on the dash so I believe im in good shape.
Lots more to come, got my lightbar mounted behind the grill and around $800 dollars in parts sitting in my garage. Time to turn some wrenches....again. :boink:
Last edited:
