ToyotaInTahoe
New member
Hello everyone, decided to join here at T4R after checking out the forums for some time now.
In my mid-30's and live in the Lake Tahoe area where there are tons of places to play.
Recently purchased a 1994 4Runner, 171k, 5-speed manual for $3600. I am the 3rd owner where the 2nd owner only owned for 8 months and was forced to sell after getting his 2nd DUI and already had 4 other cars and wanted to liquidate since he had an automatic 2 year suspension of his license. I looked into his story and a friend's mother who works in the Reno sheriff's department got the info and everything panned out.
From 1994 to 2011 it was owned by the original owner in Bishop, CA a beautiful mountain desert environment comparable to Arizona without the extreme heat.
This first owner was the uncle of the PO(2nd owner) and was one of those "I really want to buy that super clean 4Runner Uncle when you decide to sell it" types of deals.
By the looks of the undercarriage it has never been off-roaded beyond the standard southern sierra dirt road at most. The nephew(2nd owner) got it for $3000 and mainly used it to go to North Tahoe ski resorts as he was a ASE Ford mechanic and had a side business of restoring 60's and 80's mustangs and selling them, due to all the dry rust-free car parts available in the region.
From the time he had bought it he only put on about 4300 miles in just over 11 months.
I will now list pictures in order of the Modifications from start to present
This was about 2 weeks ago just after I bought the D*I*C*K Cepek Crushers. After 1 trip on some trails I decided to remove the running boards
The running boards are available for sale, PM me with an offer, I am shipping from 96150
I did a lot of research into the tires I wanted to get, and especially size with the amount of lift I was willing to work with.
Tirerack.com has a warehouse facility close to me about an hour away in MacCarran, Nevada just about 8 miles east of Reno on Interstate 80.
I went with the **** Cepek CRUSHER model in 33"x12.5"x15". Absolutely every review I found online was stellar, I did do a side by side comparison between the Crusher, the **** Cepek Fun Country 2(FC-2) and the standard BF Goodrich so many go with.
When the worker brought over the pallet with all 3 side by side it was a no brainer. The insane amount of width the Crushers have over the other 2 was impressive. Although all were 12.5 the design of road contact amount was different. I can only imagine how much tire contact I will get when I air-down< WOW.
With the DC Crushers
So today, September 8, 2012, after work at 2 pm I got the idea to go through with an earlier idea of painting my wheels as the original rims were losing their clear coat and had begun flaking probably about 2 years before I bought it. Over the last few weeks I have been hitting up the car wash after I had taken some sand paper to the rims to get them clean and smooth for a possible paint job.
So after work today I picked up some rust-oleum semi-gloss black, roll of duct tape and some old newspapers. Remember folks that especially new tires are quite slick on the outer-walls so duct tape is about the only thing that sticks, and even the Duct tape had to be massaged into place to stay in place. After I taped out the outer rim I taped newspaper to the duct tape and after I had 20" or more around the tire covered I put down about 4 coats with 10 minutes of drying in-between.
What do ya think?
Here is a Pic wheelin' on the Rubicon Trail after I got the new Tires and before the running board removal and wheel paint job
And here is a pic of doing the Strawberry trail yesterday Friday, Spet 7th, between Kyburz and Kirkwood next to the famous "Squeeze rock" painted rock.
In the next week or 2 I will be ordering the HD OME spring/coil set. With the HD coil that comes from the Landcruiser late 90's models I think.
Now with 2nd Gen famous rear sag. When a suspension lift is mentioned and says it provides 2-3.5" of lift, does that describe that amount of lift from it's factory lift?
If a suspension lift says 2.5/3" of lift, and I have a 3 inch sag, does that mean I should expect about 5" of lift? 2.5/3" of lift over factory or current height??
Please help me with this one, I think it means what the expected amount of lift to get on top of what the original factory height was, but I want to make sure.
After I do the rear I will then move onto the front and ask you guys what the best course of action is in lifting the front, but only until I see what I get out of the rear suspension lift then to know how much I need to closely level out the truck.
When I do the rear suspension I am looking into doing a rear brake job with maybe some upgrades that may be advised by you fine folks, maybe paint my rear brakes, who knows.
After the front and rear I am looking into getting a powder coated bumper with built-in tire swing and towing connection. thise allows for the spare tire to be removed from the rear bottom, and allows for the towing package and bumper to become one.
I want some feedback on what you guys think of bolt-on vs welding vs bolt-on and welded.
After those mods I will then venture into maybe getting rock sliders, but mainly want to get into the engine and doing a rebuild or having it gone over to avoid any future problems.
Any thoughts about which axel to add a locker onto first? Is the front axel as easy as adding manual hubs to the front or is it more complicated than that? Is it easy to throw on a 3rd gen rear diff onto a 2nd gen?
Any info on any of my questions would be awesome
In my mid-30's and live in the Lake Tahoe area where there are tons of places to play.
Recently purchased a 1994 4Runner, 171k, 5-speed manual for $3600. I am the 3rd owner where the 2nd owner only owned for 8 months and was forced to sell after getting his 2nd DUI and already had 4 other cars and wanted to liquidate since he had an automatic 2 year suspension of his license. I looked into his story and a friend's mother who works in the Reno sheriff's department got the info and everything panned out.
From 1994 to 2011 it was owned by the original owner in Bishop, CA a beautiful mountain desert environment comparable to Arizona without the extreme heat.
This first owner was the uncle of the PO(2nd owner) and was one of those "I really want to buy that super clean 4Runner Uncle when you decide to sell it" types of deals.
By the looks of the undercarriage it has never been off-roaded beyond the standard southern sierra dirt road at most. The nephew(2nd owner) got it for $3000 and mainly used it to go to North Tahoe ski resorts as he was a ASE Ford mechanic and had a side business of restoring 60's and 80's mustangs and selling them, due to all the dry rust-free car parts available in the region.
From the time he had bought it he only put on about 4300 miles in just over 11 months.
I will now list pictures in order of the Modifications from start to present
This was about 2 weeks ago just after I bought the D*I*C*K Cepek Crushers. After 1 trip on some trails I decided to remove the running boards
The running boards are available for sale, PM me with an offer, I am shipping from 96150
I did a lot of research into the tires I wanted to get, and especially size with the amount of lift I was willing to work with.
Tirerack.com has a warehouse facility close to me about an hour away in MacCarran, Nevada just about 8 miles east of Reno on Interstate 80.
I went with the **** Cepek CRUSHER model in 33"x12.5"x15". Absolutely every review I found online was stellar, I did do a side by side comparison between the Crusher, the **** Cepek Fun Country 2(FC-2) and the standard BF Goodrich so many go with.
When the worker brought over the pallet with all 3 side by side it was a no brainer. The insane amount of width the Crushers have over the other 2 was impressive. Although all were 12.5 the design of road contact amount was different. I can only imagine how much tire contact I will get when I air-down< WOW.
With the DC Crushers
So today, September 8, 2012, after work at 2 pm I got the idea to go through with an earlier idea of painting my wheels as the original rims were losing their clear coat and had begun flaking probably about 2 years before I bought it. Over the last few weeks I have been hitting up the car wash after I had taken some sand paper to the rims to get them clean and smooth for a possible paint job.
So after work today I picked up some rust-oleum semi-gloss black, roll of duct tape and some old newspapers. Remember folks that especially new tires are quite slick on the outer-walls so duct tape is about the only thing that sticks, and even the Duct tape had to be massaged into place to stay in place. After I taped out the outer rim I taped newspaper to the duct tape and after I had 20" or more around the tire covered I put down about 4 coats with 10 minutes of drying in-between.
What do ya think?
Here is a Pic wheelin' on the Rubicon Trail after I got the new Tires and before the running board removal and wheel paint job
And here is a pic of doing the Strawberry trail yesterday Friday, Spet 7th, between Kyburz and Kirkwood next to the famous "Squeeze rock" painted rock.
In the next week or 2 I will be ordering the HD OME spring/coil set. With the HD coil that comes from the Landcruiser late 90's models I think.
Now with 2nd Gen famous rear sag. When a suspension lift is mentioned and says it provides 2-3.5" of lift, does that describe that amount of lift from it's factory lift?
If a suspension lift says 2.5/3" of lift, and I have a 3 inch sag, does that mean I should expect about 5" of lift? 2.5/3" of lift over factory or current height??
Please help me with this one, I think it means what the expected amount of lift to get on top of what the original factory height was, but I want to make sure.
After I do the rear I will then move onto the front and ask you guys what the best course of action is in lifting the front, but only until I see what I get out of the rear suspension lift then to know how much I need to closely level out the truck.
When I do the rear suspension I am looking into doing a rear brake job with maybe some upgrades that may be advised by you fine folks, maybe paint my rear brakes, who knows.
After the front and rear I am looking into getting a powder coated bumper with built-in tire swing and towing connection. thise allows for the spare tire to be removed from the rear bottom, and allows for the towing package and bumper to become one.
I want some feedback on what you guys think of bolt-on vs welding vs bolt-on and welded.
After those mods I will then venture into maybe getting rock sliders, but mainly want to get into the engine and doing a rebuild or having it gone over to avoid any future problems.
Any thoughts about which axel to add a locker onto first? Is the front axel as easy as adding manual hubs to the front or is it more complicated than that? Is it easy to throw on a 3rd gen rear diff onto a 2nd gen?
Any info on any of my questions would be awesome
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