goro
New member
Figured might as well make a thread before I throw too much more money at my rig. Little bit of story time first, though.
Started out my driving days in a 94 Ranger that I inherited from my great grandpa. It was fine and dandy, but slow and got crappy mileage. Carried me through 3 years of high school without a hiccup, though.
The day before Thanksgiving 2012, I had a fun little time. Hopping back onto I-80 in Reno, I got straight up smoked in the Ranger by a lady doing about 45(in another Ranger, too) who wrapped her truck around a streetlight after nailing me. Luckily nobody was really injured, just the normal tweaked neck that still hasn't gone away completely.
Truck got mangled pretty good(tailgate in the tire, frame got straight up crushed), but it did its job in keeping me safe-ish.
Anyways, fast forward to the end of January. Been looking at cars, jumping between a Cherokee or a 4runner, when a few good candidates surfaced, a couple 3rd gens and a 1st gen. Went for the 1st gen first, but on the call, the guy had already sold it. Checked out one of the 3rd's and sorta loved it. Engine sounded perfect, torn drivers seat, but fairly clean other than that with 183k. Ended up buying this for 4300 bucks.
99 Limited, with e-locker, Millennium Silver Metallic/Tan oak leather
With my wonderful luck and intuition, about a month later, I was driving to work on icy roads and neglected to toss it into 4wd. Bad call, Alek..bad call.
Lost grip out back, started fishtailing, then shot off an embankment, snapped a tree in half, and landed on my side. After crawling out the sunroof, screaming at the forest for a minute, and getting a ride back to my house from a neighbor, I called the tow truck. 3 hours and one chainsaw later, I had a $300 bill and a crunchy 4runner. Ended up killing 2 fenders, the bumper, bending the frame, toasting the steering rack and a tie rod, and bending a steering knuckle.
So after straightening the frame, me and my pops started fixing everything I broke. Bought the fenders off Amazon(with prime shipping, even!) and the steering knuckle off the forums here. While getting all that replaced, we threw on a 2.5 daystar kit I had bought pre-crash.
Left it in that state for a while. Then, earlier this month, I ordered up an AOR front bumper, since I figured I should do that sooner than later. Pulled my running boards off shortly after since the ground wasn't covered in snow anymore.
Now we're up to 5/23. The bumper showed up while I was in Sac, so I started the paint on Friday. Cleaned with acetone, 2 layers of primer, and a few layers of some hammered finish paint, then let it dry for about 12 hours or so.
Got a bug up my ass today(5/25) and decided to throw the bumper on. With my dads help, a small amount of cursing, and a Sawzall, got it put on in about an hour or so. Don't mind the nasty front end, drove through the rice patties in Sac a couple days prior.
And now we're caught up! This'll probably be a pretty slow build due to me starting college soon, so trying not to spend too much money. Further plans so far are to swap the Daystar kit with actual lift springs(still undecided on the height), paint(match the fenders, blend doors, black hood), and probably a roof rack.
Started out my driving days in a 94 Ranger that I inherited from my great grandpa. It was fine and dandy, but slow and got crappy mileage. Carried me through 3 years of high school without a hiccup, though.
The day before Thanksgiving 2012, I had a fun little time. Hopping back onto I-80 in Reno, I got straight up smoked in the Ranger by a lady doing about 45(in another Ranger, too) who wrapped her truck around a streetlight after nailing me. Luckily nobody was really injured, just the normal tweaked neck that still hasn't gone away completely.
Truck got mangled pretty good(tailgate in the tire, frame got straight up crushed), but it did its job in keeping me safe-ish.
Anyways, fast forward to the end of January. Been looking at cars, jumping between a Cherokee or a 4runner, when a few good candidates surfaced, a couple 3rd gens and a 1st gen. Went for the 1st gen first, but on the call, the guy had already sold it. Checked out one of the 3rd's and sorta loved it. Engine sounded perfect, torn drivers seat, but fairly clean other than that with 183k. Ended up buying this for 4300 bucks.
99 Limited, with e-locker, Millennium Silver Metallic/Tan oak leather
With my wonderful luck and intuition, about a month later, I was driving to work on icy roads and neglected to toss it into 4wd. Bad call, Alek..bad call.
Lost grip out back, started fishtailing, then shot off an embankment, snapped a tree in half, and landed on my side. After crawling out the sunroof, screaming at the forest for a minute, and getting a ride back to my house from a neighbor, I called the tow truck. 3 hours and one chainsaw later, I had a $300 bill and a crunchy 4runner. Ended up killing 2 fenders, the bumper, bending the frame, toasting the steering rack and a tie rod, and bending a steering knuckle.
So after straightening the frame, me and my pops started fixing everything I broke. Bought the fenders off Amazon(with prime shipping, even!) and the steering knuckle off the forums here. While getting all that replaced, we threw on a 2.5 daystar kit I had bought pre-crash.
Left it in that state for a while. Then, earlier this month, I ordered up an AOR front bumper, since I figured I should do that sooner than later. Pulled my running boards off shortly after since the ground wasn't covered in snow anymore.
Now we're up to 5/23. The bumper showed up while I was in Sac, so I started the paint on Friday. Cleaned with acetone, 2 layers of primer, and a few layers of some hammered finish paint, then let it dry for about 12 hours or so.
Got a bug up my ass today(5/25) and decided to throw the bumper on. With my dads help, a small amount of cursing, and a Sawzall, got it put on in about an hour or so. Don't mind the nasty front end, drove through the rice patties in Sac a couple days prior.
And now we're caught up! This'll probably be a pretty slow build due to me starting college soon, so trying not to spend too much money. Further plans so far are to swap the Daystar kit with actual lift springs(still undecided on the height), paint(match the fenders, blend doors, black hood), and probably a roof rack.
