Dropzone's 1994 4Runner Expedition/Overland Build

[T4RShaun]

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

What did you use to paint them?

 

[Dropzone]

What did you use to paint them?

I had originally painted them with black monstaliner. I just used a desert sand rattle can over the top of the monstaliner

My grandminion was asking if he could help work on the truck.
He helped me to flip one of the rear fog/dust light lens around that had been installed backwards.
And reminded me of one of the view advantages of a 2nd gen over newer 4Runners. The tailgate makes a great place to stand

 

[Dropzone]

Finally found an a340h that wasn’t honing to be an 800 mile round trip . Found this one about 20 minutes away.
Got to see the 4Runner it came out of, 162k on the clock. Looks fairly clean considering it came out of another 94
Started putting it on a diet to get it die to the component parts I will need.
Filled 3 buckets with about a 100 lbs of extra gears and chains.
The shop that helped me to sorta get the conversion done has offered to help figure out what was wrong if I found another transmission if I help with the labor so might be dragging the truck down south again.

And our family is growing again. We are picking up this 3 month old husky Shepard mix that was rescued along with a bunch of other pups when an illegal pot farm was raided.

 

[Dropzone]

Our new pup Luke is fitting in well with the family. Our husky Kenai is happy to have a playmate

And since I have a thing for lights I mounted a set of side facing floods. I had a set of forward mounted rear facing floods on the Trekker that came in handy for backing up in tight quarters so the 4Runner got a set too

 

[Dropzone]

Closest thing to being off-road in 2.5 years was this thing sitting in the yard while I cleaned out the garage so it could go from being a driveway ornament to being a garage ornament
And a pic of Kenai teaching Luke the Joys of watching life from the front window

 

[Dropzone]

Hit the local pick and pull today, actually had a decent selection of 2nd and 3rd Gen 4Runners.
I was hoping to find some seats I could pull the seat mounts from but no luck.
I did score the stuff I need for my 3rd Gen storage cubby in a 2nd gen experiment.
Grand total so far is $30.

 

[Dropzone]

I was able to cram the 3rd Gen cubby into the dead space where the rear speaker used to go.
Now I have a spot where the Jack tools will fit. I did end up cutting a couple of inches off the 3rd Gen cubby off the narrow end because it was just too long to fit with the seat belt mechanism.
I might make a locking door for the back sometime but that is down the road with the other 500 ideas I have floating around on top of getting the transmission fixed

 

[Dropzone]

Had a day of vacation left from our camping trip so decided to hit @picknpullusedautoparts to see what miscellaneous crap I could find to waste money on.
I found a #2ndgen4runner that had been picked over pretty good. Decided to see what was available for decent seats. I found a set of unknown (maybe RAV4) seats a few months ago that were going to take a bit of work figuring out rear mounting brackets.
Forgot my tape measure so random thought to use a window channel I found on the ground to get measurements for the mounting holes for the #4runner .
Some seats that would have been great had the side airbags deploy. I almost grabbed a set of seats out of a 2 door #Toyota Solara to keep it brand specific but they seemed a little two wide.
I found a set of seats that were pretty clean land didn’t smell like a 200 year old ashtray out of a 2006 Civic. These things appear to be heated so I was able to find the wiring diagram online.
Using the improvised window channel tape measure I knew I would need to offset the inside mount by drilling a hole an inch or so over.
The two rear mounting holes were doing to be pretty dang close.
Got them home, cleaned them up and did a test fit.
Ended up elongating the two rear mounting holes in the bracket. Doing this I was able to use the four factory threaded seat mounting.
Didn’t have enough time to get the driver’s seat mounted but it should be pretty easy this weekend.
Nice thing is these seats appear to be heated and I was able to find the wiring diagram online.

 

[Dannyw]

I really enjoy your thread

 

[SurlyJohn]

The seat swap is great

Have a 1994 4runner and the seats aren't great. Always have tried to figure out seats that would fit the stock mounting points.

I like your thread also.

 

[Dropzone]

haven't really done much with the truck, working on work, life and home projects
i tried a layout like this on the roof but was thinking it took up most of the real estate:

decided to see what is available that would have a little more internal volume:
i looked at the pelican professional and other deeper case but thought for how much this thing
will actually get used this would be a good option
found this thing with good ratings and at a price point with in the budget:
Amazon.com: Durabox All Weather Travel Hard Case with Wheels and Customizable Foam for Rifles, Shotguns, Gear and Supplies (Large 46 x 21 x 8) : Sports & Outdoors



I may take a couple of hours and see how about dropping the cross rails again. i think i can get them down about an additional 1.25" which would help a little bit heightwise.
i should be able to get basic recovery gear and other odds & ends up there and have space left over on one side for misc crap

this case has 6 latches, one on each end and 4 down the side. spots to put 4 locks on it.
i'll use some 1/4-20 security bolts to mount on the inside.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Closest thing to being off-road in 2.5 years was this thing sitting in the yard while I cleaned out the garage so it could go from being a driveway ornament to being a garage ornament
And a pic of Kenai teaching Luke the Joys of watching life from the front window

Love that rig Airborne!:cheers:

 

[Dropzone]

Love that rig Airborne!:cheers:

Thanks!

 

[Dropzone]

finished mounting the 06 Civic seats in my 94. Only had to drill out the inside front bracket an inch or so over and elongate the two rear holes.
This allowed me to use the 4 factory 4runner mounting holes

 

[Dropzone]

found an old coffee cup from a forum i sort of moderate for

 

[Dropzone]

Started draining ATF so I could see what is fubar on the transmission.

 

[Dropzone]

So the case I settled on for roof top storage is 8” thick.
Had a couple of hours today so decided to lower the roof rack cross rails about an inch or so by redoing the mounting brackets. The hitch mounted vice comes handy for cutting down the brackets
I should now have half an inch of clearance to get out of the garbage

 

[4RunnerSafari]

Looking good [emoji846]

Sent fra min WAS-LX1 via Tapatalk

 

[Dropzone]

Been wanting a pintle hitch for a long time for awhile for a few reasons
-rear recovery- used the on humvee recoveries a few times and they are strong and quick, just remember to put the lock pin to keep the top from coming up
-sort of as a rear hitch skid plate to prevent the spare from dragging if I ever get this on a trail
-main reason: if I get rear ended this should keep the car behind me from hitting the tire and drive their hood under the rear bumper with out hitting the tire and shattering the rear window
Might work, it it was cheap as a used return on Amazon .. looks in pretty dang good shape and it works as it should.
Only disadvantage is I will have to open the rear swing out to open the pintle for a recovery rope

 

[Dropzone]

Our garage fridge took a dump so the garage ornament got shoved out into the cold so I could get the fridge out .
Apparently I am not as good of a mathmagician as I thought.
I am a 1/4 too tall, didn’t have a 1/4” of clearance like I thought I would. Oops.