Dropzone's 1994 4Runner Expedition/Overland Build

[Dropzone]

Cut some holes in the fender today.
Winging a snorkel install with out a pattern sorta sucks
Another BS project that didn’t take much time and to try to get me motivated again to get it back in the garage and figure out reverse and stuff
I’ll get it hooked up under the hood later on.

 

[Ontime1969]

Been fighting an intermittent issue with the driver's side front electric door lock not cooperating. It finally died. Never realized how much I liked power door locks.
Traced it to a bad solenoid. Swapped it out with a good unit.
If you do any interior work spend $15 and grab a set of plastic interior tools off Amazon.

The stock license plate mount on the swing out partially blocked one of the back up lights. Made a new mount the puts it about 3/4" lower.

Cut some holes in the fender today.
Winging a snorkel install with out a pattern sorta sucks
Another BS project that didn’t take much time and to try to get me motivated again to get it back in the garage and figure out reverse and stuff
I’ll get it hooked up under the hood later on.

I have followed your thread a while. Just joined. I would like to try your paint job. and the snorkel looks killer as far as the most recent work. My truck is not as nice looking as yours. Perhaps in the future.

 

[Dropzone]

I have followed your thread a while. Just joined. I would like to try your paint job. and the snorkel looks killer as far as the most recent work. My truck is not as nice looking as yours. Perhaps in the future.

Thank you! But I bet your moves under it's own power..hopefully I can figure out what is going on with my transmission soon.
Good luck with your build

 

[Dropzone]

Had some time to mount some Diode Dynamic DOT/SAE compliant SS3 driving and SSR2 combo beam lights.
Didn’t have time to wire them up

 

[Dropzone]

Went down and picked up the custom BudBuilt skid plate from Don yesterday
Should protect both the duals and the A340h
And fubarred my knee again so not doing a lot of stuff for a little while

 

[Ontime1969]

Went down and picked up the custom BudBuilt skid plate from Don yesterday
Should protect both the duals and the A340h
And fubarred my knee again so not doing a lot of stuff for a little while

Skid plate looks great, will you paint that?

Sucks about the knee. I am no stranger to orthopedic injuries. Part of the lifestyle of champions I suppose.

 

[4Reak Show]

I am no stranger to orthopedic injuries. Part of the lifestyle of champions I suppose.

Ah dang. Does that mean if I don’t get injured I’m a loser? Shit.

 

[Ontime1969]

Ah dang. Does that mean if I don’t get injured I’m a loser? Shit.

Haha No it's just something I say so I don't feel like a dumb ass for getting my self hurt so often when my wife tells me to slow down on my mountain bike.

 

[Dropzone]

Skid plate looks great, will you paint that?

Sucks about the knee. I am no stranger to orthopedic injuries. Part of the lifestyle of champions I suppose.

I thought about clear coating it but I have 2-3 cans of paint that i have stashed. Just realized the sheet of plywood behind the skid plate is a 4x4' piece. thinking i may have to come up with a front crossmember since the plate is so long.

I tore the lateral meniscus last august and they took out half of it in september.

this time I think i may have torn the medial meniscus. I sound even more like rice krispies with every move of my knee. it ballooned up pretty good so the missus said to go get it check. We will see.
this knee has been through a bit over the years between being on jump status, rappelling out of helicopters, and just having a bad case of klutzitosis.

Ah dang. Does that mean if I don’t get injured I’m a loser? Shit.

nope, just smarter than us

Haha No it's just something I say so I don't feel like a dumb ass for getting my self hurt so often when my wife tells me to slow down on my mountain bike.

have fun on the mountain bike

 

[Dropzone]

Got a late start to working on the center console so I can get the seats installed down the road.
I scored a tuffy security console out of a samurai years ago. It lived in my old 81 Toyota Trekker for a long time.
Using it and an old rear heat console.
Busted out the POS harbor freight sheet metal brake to bend up some sheet metal.
Got a lot of fine tuning to get it looking good and fitting right but it should come out pretty decent with the triple sticks

 

[Dropzone]

Had some time this afternoon to button up the center console install.
Used some 1/8” high temp resistant rubber to make a gasket to cover most of the hole in the transmission tunnel.
Used a 2nd gen rear heat console and the Tuffy Security console I had in my old Trekker
I’ll need to find some interior spray that matches the interior better.
Overall happy with how it came out.
With the console in place I can knock out the seat mounts

 

[Dropzone]

Last spring when I pounded out the diamond plate rocker panels I used some bedliner that was supposedly desert sand.
It had a more orange tint to it than I liked so I finally ordered some desert sand monstaliner- should have done it the first time around.
UPS dropped it off this morning so decided to get to work.
I rolled the dice hoping it wasn’t going to rain. Of course it rained. I think it cured enough that I should be good to go.
Happy with how it turned out, same color as when the rest of the truck

 

[Dropzone]

When the driveway ornament was parked a couple of years ago the combo switch was acting up.
Dig into the parts stash and pulled out a spare column I had.
Forgot what a pain in the butt pulling the column apart was. Anyway I have signals and wipers again.
And since I got the center console figured out a few days ago I figured I would throw the junkyard seats in.
They don’t look have bad. I need to find tune the rear mounts but it’s starting to look decent again

And saw this cool Ex Fire truck, a Hi Ace 4x4 Diesel at the local ace Hardware store today..pretty cool, owner is gonna turn it into a camper

 

[Dropzone]

Since I can never make up my mind when it comes to lighting and I had a pretty good sized credit on Amazon I decided to try some Compact Baja Designs S1’s.
Looked at how small they are and decided to try mounting them to the mirrors.
Sure enough they will fit using one of the mounting screws, and with being mounted slightly lower I shouldn’t have that annoying light bleed over onto the hood like the old style

I just need to pick up a couple of grommets so I can run the wiring through the door.

Edit- went outside and added power to one light, huge amount of light from such a small package. 20w 2x2”

 

[Dropzone]

Decided to change up the wheels a little bit similar to what I had done on my old Trekker

 

[OzSurf]

That Tuffy console came up great! Wheels look good too, I like the colour matched look.

 

[Hyde802]

Those little ditch lights are awesome.

 

[Dropzone]

I have some rigid ignite LED’s I scored for a killer deal.
I decided to use a couple of flush mounts for turn signals by adding a piece of amber from a broken fog light I had
They are 10w so they won’t be overloading the flasher unit. These are much brighter than the little trail gear LED’s I was using for my signals that you can actually see them with the headlights on.

 

[Dropzone]

That Tuffy console came up great! Wheels look good too, I like the colour matched look.

Thanks appreciate it!

Those little ditch lights are awesome.

For a little tiny light their output is impressive

 

[Dropzone]

Had an hour or so today to play with so did some miscellaneous crap
so I keep going back and forth about roof mounted lights due to the glare on the hood
I scored a great but cheap 4wd king light bar off amazon that had been returned And in good condition for about half of retail
it turned out it was missing a couple of bolts and had some dings
gave it a quick paint job, cut the mounts down a little so it sat flush with the front crossbar




i bought a few pair of some knock off Baja Designs S2’s a couple of years ago.
for what I paid they work great for miscellaneous lights
Painted them desert sand and added a set of S2 amber covers
to use as rear chase lights





when I added the Baja Designs S1’s to the mirror mounts I didn’t realize when pulling the mirrors in I wouldn’t be able to put the mirror back .
found some nylon spacers to move the mount out, works like a charm.


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