Labrum777
New member
It's time I finally started a build thread. Not very impressive, but my runner has definitely been a labor of love.
Picked up my 1999 Limited in September of 2009. She has a branded title, but after having her checked out by the mechanic, frame is straight and with only 120k I bought her.
Right after I made the buy:
Like Most, the first thing I did was take off the running boards:
After this I picked up a Yakima Load Warrior. It's amazing what that thing does to your gas mileage.:bash:
I LOVE that it has the locker! When I first bought my runner, I had been looking around for quite a while when this one came up. I had no idea that only the limited's had the locker.
Few of my other hobbies included my bike (now sold
) and brewing beer:
Couple great shots up on the old scenic highway in the gorge (Oregon):
Had a 97 limited runner that my work owned that ended up getting totaled. Sad to see it on it's side. Nice part was I was able to take a ton of parts off it before it went to the yard. Would have loved to part it out for some folks on here, but with a kiddo and one on the way, there just wasn't time.
Things were going great until one day up in Olympia Washington (near Black Lake) I hit some standing water. Like any self respecting 4Runner enthusiast, I aimed for the puddle. Well... not such a great idea. I hydro planed and ended up on what I thought was the shoulder. Turned out it was a four foot ditch full of water with grass growing through it.
Heh heh. That was a surprise! :wow2: Would've tried to get out myself but my air intake is on that side and had to shut off the engine real quick to ensure I didn't get water sucked into the engine. Hanging by my seatbelt I sat there contemplating how to get out of this mess while I watched water seep through my floor board and passenger door.
With no real options, I called a tow company and a few cops stopped to keep me company. They were great sports. After they showed up (on a motorcycle) I asked if they were here to pull me out. They were amused... and then cuffed me for reckless driving.
Okay maybe not, but I work with a bunch of Youth Pastors and they got a good kick out of the pic.
Tow truck pulled me out:
That line on the door (just below the window) is how high the water went. Granted it was at an angle so it never made it more than half way up my passenger seat. Insurance totaled the car... again.
Once she was out of the ditch, I immediately went to work.
Bummer that it was totaled, but I had full coverage which paid out well. I bought the car back for $1700 with the ABS and Airbag light on. After pulling the ABS computer apart and blowing it out with an air compressor and putting it back together, it worked! Thank you Lord! I emptied the standing water in my air intake and bought a new air filter and she started right up.
In the pic above you'll notice I had standing water in my headlights and corner lenses. I bought new glass headlights on ebay (as per recommendation by one of the guys here on the forum) which have been great.
Went with the clear corner lenses and then gave the old headlights away for someone on the forum to do a custom build.
Bought a retrieval hitch and shackle. Painted the hitch portion with truck bed liner (also a recommendation I went with). Wish I remembered all the guys' names I heard about this stuff on T4R.org from so I could give credit.
Bought new carpet from Stock Interiors which came molded to the floor pan. Was a beast to install, but the quality was great. I'm really satisfied with it. Thought about insulating more, but just didn't have the time (and in Oregon, there's not a lot of dry days to be had).
Now that I have brand new carpet, i bought weather tech digital fit mats to keep my 2 year old from spilling anything and everything on it:
Picked up my 1999 Limited in September of 2009. She has a branded title, but after having her checked out by the mechanic, frame is straight and with only 120k I bought her.
Right after I made the buy:
Like Most, the first thing I did was take off the running boards:
After this I picked up a Yakima Load Warrior. It's amazing what that thing does to your gas mileage.:bash:
I LOVE that it has the locker! When I first bought my runner, I had been looking around for quite a while when this one came up. I had no idea that only the limited's had the locker.
Few of my other hobbies included my bike (now sold
) and brewing beer:
Couple great shots up on the old scenic highway in the gorge (Oregon):
Had a 97 limited runner that my work owned that ended up getting totaled. Sad to see it on it's side. Nice part was I was able to take a ton of parts off it before it went to the yard. Would have loved to part it out for some folks on here, but with a kiddo and one on the way, there just wasn't time.
Things were going great until one day up in Olympia Washington (near Black Lake) I hit some standing water. Like any self respecting 4Runner enthusiast, I aimed for the puddle. Well... not such a great idea. I hydro planed and ended up on what I thought was the shoulder. Turned out it was a four foot ditch full of water with grass growing through it.
Heh heh. That was a surprise! :wow2: Would've tried to get out myself but my air intake is on that side and had to shut off the engine real quick to ensure I didn't get water sucked into the engine. Hanging by my seatbelt I sat there contemplating how to get out of this mess while I watched water seep through my floor board and passenger door.
With no real options, I called a tow company and a few cops stopped to keep me company. They were great sports. After they showed up (on a motorcycle) I asked if they were here to pull me out. They were amused... and then cuffed me for reckless driving.
Okay maybe not, but I work with a bunch of Youth Pastors and they got a good kick out of the pic.
Tow truck pulled me out:
That line on the door (just below the window) is how high the water went. Granted it was at an angle so it never made it more than half way up my passenger seat. Insurance totaled the car... again.
Once she was out of the ditch, I immediately went to work.
Bummer that it was totaled, but I had full coverage which paid out well. I bought the car back for $1700 with the ABS and Airbag light on. After pulling the ABS computer apart and blowing it out with an air compressor and putting it back together, it worked! Thank you Lord! I emptied the standing water in my air intake and bought a new air filter and she started right up.
In the pic above you'll notice I had standing water in my headlights and corner lenses. I bought new glass headlights on ebay (as per recommendation by one of the guys here on the forum) which have been great.
Went with the clear corner lenses and then gave the old headlights away for someone on the forum to do a custom build.
Bought a retrieval hitch and shackle. Painted the hitch portion with truck bed liner (also a recommendation I went with). Wish I remembered all the guys' names I heard about this stuff on T4R.org from so I could give credit.
Bought new carpet from Stock Interiors which came molded to the floor pan. Was a beast to install, but the quality was great. I'm really satisfied with it. Thought about insulating more, but just didn't have the time (and in Oregon, there's not a lot of dry days to be had).
Now that I have brand new carpet, i bought weather tech digital fit mats to keep my 2 year old from spilling anything and everything on it:
