Hello, gents. New here w/a black/burgundy 1987 22RE auto.

[flagbasher]

Flagbasher's black/burgundy 1987 22RE auto/manual swap!

Long story short, I like old cars. My grandfather had a 1979 2wd SR5 pickup, and I'm a bit nostalgic for it, so I got the 4Runner.

I've got a kid to tow around, and I don't need a truck bed often, so the 4Runner seemed like the perfect thing to feel like the '79, but still being usable as a daily driver for me.

I believe the previous owner was the 2nd. He had it for ~13y and took great care of it. Body and paint about 4 years ago. I'm not sure this truck has ever even left the state. ~250K on the 22RE. It recently had a new head and gasket and various other things.

He sent me packing with an extra automatic trans+case, 2 flywheels, 1 torque converter, a front diff + front shaft, an extra roll bar, and a metal box for the roof rack that has some tow straps in it. Pretty decent haul!

It's got power windows, the little vent wing windows, the rear window still goes up and down with the key, power mirrors, all the gauges work too. Aussie locker rear. I think the only issues are with the passenger window and rear window sometimes having to go up and down an extra time to fully close, a few bulbs are out, the power lock switch is backward, and the A/C seems to want to work but might need a recharge.

My plans? 5 speed swap first and foremost. I love driving stick. I only bought this 4Runner due to the condition and location, and the fact that a 5 speed swap doesn't seem too difficult or expensive. I just want to make sure everything I put in is either brand new or recently rebuilt so I don't have to worry about it ever again.

I might also want to swap from burgundy interior to gray. That might take some doing since doing it piece-by-piece eBay style would probably be very expensive. I might have to wait on a nearby 4Runner part out with a nice interior to start with.

It's lifted 2" on 32" tires. I drive on the street and occasionally in snow on the street, so I plan to drop the lift back down and do 30" tires when these wear out. The leaf springs were replaced some time ago by the 2nd owner.

I also plan to ditch the ~10y old Smittybilt front bumper and custom rear bumper in favor of the weak-but-original chrome SR5 style Toyota bumpers. Fresh OEM replacements look EXPENSIVE and Chinese reproductions look like they might be trash.

I've been creeping here and Yotatech for months now, soaking up the info from you guys.

My first Toyota, but my 2nd old vehicle (I have a '71 Plymouth 'Cuda 7.2L/440-6 4 speed). My daily drivers are a 2004 Acura and a 2008 Honda.

Anyway, without further ado, the truck.

Two days in and it isn't leaking yet. So I guess that's good.

I'll try not to ask too many questions without looking around first. I've already dug up a few things on the 5 speed swap. I'll have to do some more digging about how to identify the different W56 iterations on sight so I can track down what I need on Craigslist when I need it.

So, yeah, hi. :keyboard:

 

[KidVermicious]

Hi!

Good looking truck. Sorry about the interior. :moon:

 

[Chuckles89]

Hi!

Good looking truck. Sorry about the interior. :moon:

I think you mean congrats on the interior :hiding:

 

[Cartzo]

Give me more body shots!! Wanna see that paint

 

[maco33]

Interior shots also, and congrats on the purchase of the 4runner, it looks really good. welcome to T4R forums.

 

[airdreams1]

your Smittybilt bumper looks to be in really good condition..... If I were closer, I buy it... (Guess Im weird, because I like the look of them)
Cant blame you for not liking the burgundy interior. IMO: Gray is the only way!

 

[flagbasher]

Give me more body shots!! Wanna see that paint

I'll probably take a few more soon. It's got a few scratches here and there, but overall it's straight and clean. I don't think I've seen a dent on the body anywhere.

Interior shots also, and congrats on the purchase of the 4runner, it looks really good. welcome to T4R forums.

Thanks!

I'll probably take some interior shots. The interior is rougher than the exterior, but still in good shape. Inclinometer package and a dash with a tiny crack about 1/4" long.

your Smittybilt bumper looks to be in really good condition..... If I were closer, I buy it... (Guess Im weird, because I like the look of them)
Cant blame you for not liking the burgundy interior. IMO: Gray is the only way!

Like the body, the Smitty is really solid. A few minor paint scrapes, and no dents as far as I see. It's the one designed to take a winch. I think the previous owner added it ~10y ago. The info is in my file somewhere.


I'll probably take stock of it some time later tomorrow. Today was spent going to Ikea and back... not in the 4Runner. Tomorrow will probably be spent putting crap together with allen wrenches before I can get a better look at the truck.

I think the first step is to look at a few burnt out bulbs and maybe inverting the power lock switch which is hooked up backwards.

I'm also going to look into making a temporary sunroof cover. Why pay for a red replacement if I want to go gray later? Still, I don't want the sun baking me or my interior all day long.

 

[flagbasher]

Okay, here are some more images. It's hard to get the quality of the paint in pictures.

There are a few rippled areas, some small chips, and some areas that aren't entirely smooth (hood in particular). Overall it looks really nice though.

Headliner has a few tears, but is clean overall.

Some of the red plastic inside is disintegrating. The rear wiper motor cover and the panels near the front seat belt shoulder hangers in particular. Overall it's pretty nice though.

Radiator is fairly new. Throttle sensor and many of the cables/hoses look like they came out of a box last week. He said the exhaust header is new-ish. The head was replaced not too long ago.

The list is pretty extensive and I can't remember it all.

I think my first order of business is going to be to power wash the undercarriage. It looks like surface rust only, but there are a few areas with caked mud that need to be blasted away.

Without delving into POR-15/undercoat territory, is there anything people spray underneath as a simple rust preventive?

This is the worst of it. Scrape. Smitty bumper has a small dent and scrape on this side as well.

[edit] Found out the scrape is just paint from something else. I'll try to remove it later.

The hood has some splotchy areas that aren't very reflective. Heat from under the hood cooking the paint maybe?

Driver's seat and the console armrest are a bit thrashed, but the rest of the seats and carpet look good. Tailgate carpet is pretty worn. A couple of panels in the back are from a blue truck. But the jack is there.

Radio isn't working correctly. Wheel has no splits.

The only dash crack.

He HAD a CB radio hooked up at one point, so the horn is still there.

 

[Chuckles89]

Nice Truck :thumb3:

 

[hecubus]

looks good...I'd consider keeping the lift & just upgrading the suspension to augment it; new shocks, bushings, 1.25" wheel spacers (that will cure a lot of what you probably don't like about it currently) Those tires are probably close to $900+ alone.

 

[maco33]

Interior looks nice and clean.

 

[flagbasher]

looks good...I'd consider keeping the lift & just upgrading the suspension to augment it; new shocks, bushings, 1.25" wheel spacers (that will cure a lot of what you probably don't like about it currently) Those tires are probably close to $900+ alone.

I'm torn on the lift. I do like the way it looks, but I'm not offroading. I assume the lift and larger tires make the truck slower and get less MPG, which seems like quite a sacrifice for something, which in my case, "just looks cool."

Interior looks nice and clean.

The rear seats are in really good condition. The back 1/3 of the truck, driver seat, and B pillar plastic covers (shredded) are the worst of it.

I'm sure if I decide to go gray, I can offload many of the red parts for a decent price.

 

[Hyde802]

Truck looks great from the outside! Dam that frame is clean! Welcome to the forum!

 

[KidVermicious]

The lift and bigger tires certainly put a hit on the mileage. I dunno if it's enough of a hit to be worth returning the truck to stock?

I don't normally advocate running a lift and big tires just because it looks cool, but in this case I say run with it. If the mileage sucks too bad you can always deal with it later.

 

[flagbasher]

The lift and bigger tires certainly put a hit on the mileage. I dunno if it's enough of a hit to be worth returning the truck to stock?

I don't normally advocate running a lift and big tires just because it looks cool, but in this case I say run with it. If the mileage sucks too bad you can always deal with it later.

Got my first fill up today. I'll track a few tanks worth to see what my MPG really is. If it's far worse than the low 20s these things should get, I'll start thinking about what I'll do when these tires wear out.

So, I also bought an under bed storage tub so I can take the lid and make a sunroof cover out of it. I don't want my interior or my head to get baked all the time.

Better than buying a red cover that I might just get rid of later.

 

[flagbasher]

The latest, mostly boring stuff.

The little thin plastic panels where the front shoulder belts attach were turning to dust. My FIL and I tore them out the other day and it looks a lot better, strangely enough. I'll probably wait a while to see if I want to go gray before doing anything here.

The radio was not working. We discovered a rat's nest of twisted wires under that Jensen radio. We cut the crap out and crimped new connectors on. I also got heavier gauge speaker wire for the rear and soldered the ends so they don't fray like the 3 wire fibers that connected the rear speakers before. Now it works and I can plug in my phone for music. Whee. I actually worked with my FIL to run them under the carpet this time.

Found a seatbelt under the seat and reattached it.

That Radio Shack speaker horn under the hood was torn out and promptly thrown in the trash.

Various little CB radio mounts were removed and trashed. Still a couple more to do.

I realized there is a missing hinge between the backs of the rear seats. Looks like #71305A from this site. Right in the center of the image. SEAT & SEAT TRACK. Fits: TOYOTA 4RUNNER | ToyotaPartsOverstock.com Anyone use them before? Looks like they have a lot of hard to find odds and ends in stock.

My rear seats also have pins on the shoulders that look like they're for latching to the roll bar, but there are no latches there. Strange.

I bought a gauge cluster on eBay from a manual that matches the 1987 vintage. If/when I do the 5 speed swap, I'll swap out that ECT panel for the one with the battery meter. I figure if I do the 5 speed swap, I'll take reasonable measures to make it look like it was always a manual truck.

Rear wiper arm on the way via eBay. Will remove all the wipers and refinish them.

Rear window lock switch on the way via eBay. Mine was broken off.

Hood prop rod clip on the way via eBay. Was also broken.

I also found a front shift W56c tranny semi-local. $100. Has the T case too. Seems easy to swap to top shift. Any thoughts there? I haven't purchased it, just thinking I might if it seems worthwhile.

 

[Nervo19]

You tossed a rare vintage Radio Shack horn? I was looking for one!

JK. Nice 4Runner. I have ordered a couple of things for my 08 from them and they came very quickly and much cheaper than my local dealer. I was excited to see all the parts for the 1st gen on their site and placed a small order for something I had heard was no longer sold. I think it was rear quarter guards (gravel guards) or hardtop weather stripping. I can't remember but I ordered it late at night and the next morning they notified me that the part was not available. I feel that was excellent customer service. I would definitely order from them again.

Your hard plastic interior parts can be recolored easily. My gray factory 1989 ashtray was black but sprayed gray by Toyota. There were scratches so I sprayed it with Duplicolor gray. I've recently learned that SEM vinyl dye is a better match. I'm going to be painting a black double decker console I just got and will probably post a thread.

 

[flagbasher]

You tossed a rare vintage Radio Shack horn? I was looking for one!

JK. Nice 4Runner. I have ordered a couple of things for my 08 from them and they came very quickly and much cheaper than my local dealer. I was excited to see all the parts for the 1st gen on their site and placed a small order for something I had heard was no longer sold. I think it was rear quarter guards (gravel guards) or hardtop weather stripping. I can't remember but I ordered it late at night and the next morning they notified me that the part was not available. I feel that was excellent customer service. I would definitely order from them again.

Your hard plastic interior parts can be recolored easily. My gray factory 1989 ashtray was black but sprayed gray by Toyota. There were scratches so I sprayed it with Duplicolor gray. I've recently learned that SEM vinyl dye is a better match. I'm going to be painting a black double decker console I just got and will probably post a thread. Your hard plastic interior parts can be recolored easily.

Thanks for the tip on the site. I may grab the hard to find odds and ends (such as the rear seat back center hinge) from them.

As for paint VS buying new parts, it seems like at least some of the parts would have to be replaced.

Those door trim rubber pieces seem like they wouldn't take paint well. The headliner has a few tears that don't seem to make sense to repair and refinish if they aren't going to look nice enough. Some of the panels need to be replaced since they have broken chips and such. Some could probably be repaired. The seats have a few tears and such already.

But, yeah, an interior color swap seems like either an expensive or a time consuming endeavor. Probably both.

I bet by the time I get the A/C fixed and a 5 speed in the car I'll be so happy that I'll forget what color the interior is.

 

[flagbasher]

So, my rear wiper came in today. They refinished it before sending it, which is nice.

The downside? My rear wiper post snapped off when I tried to remove the nut.

I bought a replacement motor assembly on eBay since it seems I am also missing some sort of switch that gets tapped every time the wiper moves. That wire was just cut and the switch removed. No idea why.

Also, the wiper arm seemed like it might be too long (1/4"). It came from a 2nd Gen 4Runner, but some sites say the part number is identical. Not sure what's going on there. Still I'm not entirely sure it's too long, since the post snapped and I didn't feel like sticking it on there if I wasn't going to secure it.

The plastic cover for the rear wiper motor, like the shoulder belt plastic, was absolutely destroyed. Just a flaky mess. Flaky is great for a biscuit, bad for interior plastic. I ordered a red one on eBay. It will look nice and red until I decide to paint everything else (there wasn't a nice gray one cheap on eBay ).

I've taken the interior painting idea as a consideration and decided, either way, some of the parts will be a pain to paint or will be impossible to paint, so I'm going to secure those parts in gray.

I bought A/C vents and rear cubby cups (mine are gone) in gray today. I'll probably end up getting carpet, belts, door panels, headliner, seats, and well-worn parts like door handles or rubbery parts in gray while painting the rest. I looked at my ash tray today and noticed, like stated earlier in this thread, that it's simply black painted red. If Toyota can paint, I can paint I guess.

I think I'll do a search to see which SEM paint matches the gray most closely. :keyboard:

 

[1st Gener]

Great buy and welcome!

I am just wrapping up a re-color of my interior and plan on doing a better write up when complete. I HIGHLY recommend SEM coatings. I cannot tell you how impressive the finish is if done correctly. The third image here is of a 29 year old shifter trim piece completed. My 85 came from AZ and the interior pieces were very rough. It's absolutely fair to say that I could put them in front of anyone and they would think they are new now. Time consuming... yep, but I somehow found myself enjoying it.

My dash had a couple cracks in it as well and you can easily fill with dash filler, re-texture and paint it back. I had a brown interior and can say that "Bluebird Brown" is almost a direct match... not sure about the grey.

Follow each step of the recommended process. I used the SEM Soap, adhesion promotor, prep spray and color coat. My pics are large so you can see some of the item #'s. You do not need the satin clear coat and in fact, my can was bad and spayed inconsistently so I didn't use it at all. For the entire interior, I only used (3) cans of Color coast and (1) of the other products. I ordered everything from Summit Racing and did not spend a lot actually on it. More pricey was the carpet and seat upholstery.

Enjoy you 4Runner.