nihkon's 4Runner

[infamousRNR]

thanks for posting the info on your detail job! i don't think i fully understand all the fancy words and terms but it looks like you:

wash car
dry car
claybar car
compound car
polish car
glaze car
wax car

any ol' rotary buffer will work I'm sure or some good old fashion elbow grease...

love your truck buddy!!

 

[Lil_Gravey]

any ol' rotary buffer will work I'm sure or some good old fashion elbow grease...

A rotary is a great tool...if you know how to use it. I haven't tried it, but will some day. They can be dangerous if you don't know how to properly use one.
A Dual Action orbital buffer is preferred as it's safer. Harbor Freight has one for damn cheap.

 

[nihkon]

Here are some more offroading photos from this past year....
These were from back in November, at Hungry Valley SRVA in Gorman, CA:

 

[nihkon]

 

[Unner]

Thanks!
Other than popping the bead on the tire, the Tacoma also went home with a few scratches along the side of the truck that was against the dirt, along with a bit of a dent in the rocker panel and lose front fender flare/much guard. Nothing too bad considering what he got himself into.

I'd vote for keeping it black and stealthy. The ones on the Tacoma above area actually white. They really stand out in real life.

Yeah I think I am gonna paint them black as well. I didn't realize until that last set of pictures that the ones on the Tacoma are actually painted on, not metal letters like mine will be. I want them to show up already... I've been waiting since October for them to come in...

Your truck is so awesome! I love that you actually go out and use it too. There are some really good pictures that you took there. You've got me looking for a black sport hood now and black bumpers if possible too haha. I love the all black look on these.

 

[nihkon]

lol I was the same way. When my buddy first showed me pics of the grill letter on his Tacoma, I also assumed they were the metal ones that you're getting. It kinda took me by surprise when I saw them in real life and realized they were painted on. Yours should look killer in all black. Subtle.

Thanks man! Yeah, if you build 'em, you gotta use 'em! :rockon:

 

[BltByKrmn]

Apologize if I missed it, but did you have to trim the inner fenders or body mount at all?

 

[4Running Daily]

Apologize if I missed it, but did you have to trim the inner fenders or body mount at all?

Body mounts don't need to be trimmed on 3rd generation 4Runners.

 

[Charles_M]

Thanks! I can't wait to get them installed and put them to good use.


Thanks man! Yellow CRX's are sweet! And you don't see them too often. They're just about as rare as Tahhitian Green.


Thanks dude! That means a lot coming from you. You're 4Runner is usually on my desktop background. It's definitely inspiration for my "clean and simple" mentality. :thumb3: And thanks for the compliment on the photos. :artist2:

The nice FedEx man dropped of a box from Toytec today.
I ordered their "Ultimate" kit with the Bilstein 5100's up front with 600lb springs (although, it looks like they accidentally shipped me 650lb springs, oh well.) I opted for the Bilstein 5125's in the rear with OME 890's. Here are a few pics:

I also ordered the diff. drop kit:

And here are all the parts together:

I couldn't find the 5125 option on the ultimate lift... ( I'm hugely interested in this by the way! ) so is the 5100 pretty much the same?

 

[nihkon]

Apologize if I missed it, but did you have to trim the inner fenders or body mount at all?

Sorry, I just saw this now.
But nope, I've done no trimming....other than the rear fender flares (which was just to clear the sliders.)

I couldn't find the 5125 option on the ultimate lift... ( I'm hugely interested in this by the way! ) so is the 5100 pretty much the same?

Hmm. Weird. It was over 2 years ago when I ordered all those parts. I wanna say that the 5125's were the standard rear shock at that time. I see that they offer Fox shocks as an option now. That definitely wasn't the case when I placed my order. So I'm guessing they just changed their options since I bought mine. I'd probably opt for their Boss kit if I were to do it over again?

As for the difference between the 5125 and 5100....I really have no idea. lol!

By the way.....it's crazy to see that picture of my parts when I first bought them. They were so clean and shiny!

 

[4Running Daily]

Sorry, I just saw this now.
But nope, I've done no trimming....other than the rear fender flares (which was just to clear the sliders.)


Hmm. Weird. It was over 2 years ago when I ordered all those parts. I wanna say that the 5125's were the standard rear shock at that time. I see that they offer Fox shocks as an option now. That definitely wasn't the case when I placed my order. So I'm guessing they just changed their options since I bought mine. I'd probably opt for their Boss kit if I were to do it over again?

As for the difference between the 5125 and 5100....I really have no idea. lol!

By the way.....it's crazy to see that picture of my parts when I first bought them. They were so clean and shiny!

The coilovers actually clean up quite well with a sponge and some car soap, just FYI if you're ever bored haha

 

[SoSoJeff]

Thanks Jeff!
I can't wait to see my old wheels and coils on your 4Runner!

sorry it took forever to finally get your coils on, but here are the coils with billies and your old 5 stars

 

[nihkon]

The coilovers actually clean up quite well with a sponge and some car soap, just FYI if you're ever bored haha

Lol! Thanks for the tip! I have a list a mile long of other things that need to be taken care of on my 4Runner before I can even think about being bored with it.

sorry it took forever to finally get your coils on, but here are the coils with billies and your old 5 stars

Oh wow! You finally got those installed! Your 4Runner looks good with them!
Good job man!

 

[nihkon]

Since I haven't posted any updates in a while.....

I've had a nasty vibration/shaking from the front end that's been getting worse over the past couple of months. I did some diagnosing recently and found out that my steering rack was toast. So I ordered a new one from Safari. My brother and I installed that a few days ago, and it did not resolve the issue. The steering definitely feels better now though! lol

I also rotated my tires front to back. No change. One of the outer tie rod ends is leaking a little, but it's still solid. The wheel bearings feel solid when trying to shake the wheels vertically. My next step is to exchange my Napa axles for new ones to see if that helps.

In other news....
I had ordered a 1.5" body lift kit from shootmymime at the end of 2014. I finally installed that a few weeks ago. It was a straight forward install.

I had been running a set of VisionX fog lights in my front bumper, but I was never that happy with them. A while back, I got a good deal on a pair of PIAA 510's. They sat in the garage forever, until I finally installed those recently. Much better quality and light output! I'm thinking of doing an HID conversion to them, since it looks fairly simple and cheap.

I also jumped on the Shrockworks group buy in December, and I ordered a front bumper. It showed up last week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to install that sometime soon. Then my Outdoor Logic front bumper will be up for sale.

I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon.

 

[SIKHILUXSURF]

I had been running a set of VisionX fog lights in my front bumper, but I was never that happy with them. A while back, I got a good deal on a pair of PIAA 510's. They sat in the garage forever, until I finally installed those recently. Much better quality and light output! I'm thinking of doing an HID conversion to them, since it looks fairly simple and cheap.

I also jumped on the Shrockworks group buy in December, and I ordered a front bumper. It showed up last week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to install that sometime soon. Then my Outdoor Logic front bumper will be up for sale.

I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon.

i actually went from the Piaa 510's to the Vision X fogs because i coudnt get them to fit right with the Piaa covers on the lights. did you use the Piaa Covers? Pics?

 

[nihkon]

i actually went from the Piaa 510's to the Vision X fogs because i coudnt get them to fit right with the Piaa covers on the lights. did you use the Piaa Covers? Pics?

I know just what you mean. I couldn't get the PIAA 510's to fit with the covers either. Actually, even without the covers, the don't sit quite centered in the holes. They sit juuuuuust slightly too high in there.
I wasn't too worried about it though, since I knew the Shrockworks bumper was on it's way...and they advertise the 510's as fitting with their bumper (even with the covers.) We'll see about that once I get some time to install the new bumper. I'll snap some pics of the 510's in the Outdoor Logic bumper tomorrow.

As for the VisionX's....which model did you go with? The ones I had were (I think) kind of an entry level model for them. The housings were fairly cheaply made and the lenses never stayed solid and the lights rattled within the assembly. I don't even see them on VisionX's website anymore. lol

 

[nihkon]

Here are a couple pictures of the Safari steering rack:

This is after un-boxing. I also picked up the Energy Suspension busteering rack bushing set.
You'll notice the indented plug, indicating that they utilize the "updated" steering rack guide.

And here is the rack after my brother and I installed it:

The installation went pretty smooth. I had read tons of threads about it before doing it. I was worried that I'd run into troubles with removing the high-pressure line. It seems that many people have had issues with it, and some have had to go so far as to cut the line off and replace it. But after removing all the other bolts and disconnecting the outer tie rod ends, we had a bit more room to get the 17mm line wrench in there and get that sucker loose.

Beyond that, it was straight forward. For bleeding of the ATF fluid, we left the outer tie rod end off at first....this allowed us to fill the reservoir and turn the steering wheel left/right to bleed it without having to lift the front wheels off the ground. (We actually did the entire job with the truck on the ground on all 4 wheels.) After bleeding, we installed my old outer tie rod ends, which were still in decent shape (though, the driver side is leaking a little, and will need to be replaced eventually.)

We discovered that we didn't get the new rack quite centered before installing it. We had used the method were you manually turn it all the way to one side, then count the turns the other way....then center it from there. Once everything was buttoned up, it was an easy fix by simply rotating the rag joint a spline or 2. Now my steering feels great!

 

[SIKHILUXSURF]

I know just what you mean. I couldn't get the PIAA 510's to fit with the covers either. Actually, even without the covers, the don't sit quite centered in the holes. They sit juuuuuust slightly too high in there.
I wasn't too worried about it though, since I knew the Shrockworks bumper was on it's way...and they advertise the 510's as fitting with their bumper (even with the covers.) We'll see about that once I get some time to install the new bumper. I'll snap some pics of the 510's in the Outdoor Logic bumper tomorrow.

As for the VisionX's....which model did you go with? The ones I had were (I think) kind of an entry level model for them. The housings were fairly cheaply made and the lenses never stayed solid and the lights rattled within the assembly. I don't even see them on VisionX's website anymore. lol

i used the Vision X VX-F55's and modified an hid kit to work wit the lights.
i didnt get the standrd fogs and are sold with the bumper from ODL when i got the bumper but i wasnt worried. i had used the Piaas first

[/QUOTE]

 

[nihkon]

Oh gotcha. Yeah your VisionX's look like they're better quality than the ones I had. And yeah, mine were the ones that they had as part of the package with the bumper. Yours fill up the hole quite nicely. And I like that they actually sit mid-way in the hole, rather than all the way in the back like mine do. I'm sure the hole is cutting off all kinds of light to the sides on mine.

How was the hid conversion with the VisonX's? The thread that I read made it look fairly easy. Did you use the DDM 35w 3000k kit?

Your 4Runner looks freakin' sweet dude!

 

[Unner]

If you don't mind me asking, how much was the steering rack and where did you order from? How did you diagnose that it was your steering rack as well and not the tie rods or another part?

Mine has about 167k miles on it and needs tie rod ends, but I was wondering if it might just be worth it to replace the whole rack since they come with inner tie rod ends. I think the rack is still in good shape though so I don't know if that makes sense to do so... I've got a little play in the steering, but I'm pretty certain that is the slip joint in the steering column...