POS TOY, my $800 '98 SR5

My saga continues, and I should be able to drive this ***** soon! FJ wheels and new tires are on (I posted pics in a few other threads today, so I don't feel like the world need more just today.)

I started to make the wheel bearing tool, but while doing it, I decided to just jam some new seals into my current setup and drive it enough to get the inspection updated and do the bearings in a few weeks, when it isn't 40-degrees and windy.

So with that said, I should be able to get Skye inspected next week if the brake bleeding goes as planned. I also have to bolt on the smashed up bumper so that I have front turn signals, but plans are solidly in the works for a plate bumper. I have narrowed down my inspiration, so I have some pics to work with to make MY perfect bumper.

Lastly, thanks for the likes and positive comments. You're all a bunch of cool dudes and chicks.
 
Beaumont67;Also impressed with your powder coating skills - love to see a photo of your equipment said:
Larry, and everyone else interested, here are the main components of my powder coating setup:

The machine itself is a HyperSmooth 02 LED from Columbia Coatings. Also seen here is the Cup Gun attachment, which holds just over a half pound of powder, which is usually more than enough for the small jobs that I do. I also have 1-lb and 2-lb fluidizing hoppers, but the those have taken a back seat after getting the Cup, due to the time it takes to clean the hopper and hoses vs. just the cup. Makes things go way faster when doing multiple coats (base coat/top coat)



Next up is the oven. I built this out of metal framing studs, 16ga Galvanized sheet (inner panels) and 20ga Galvanized sheet (outer panels). It still needs some finishing work cosmetically, but it runs like a champ, so I keep forgetting to tidy it up a bit. Inside it has three elements, 1500-1800watts each, as well as a single light, a viewing window, and a high-temp fan that sucks from the top and blows down a channel to the bottom, making this a true convection oven. It is controlled by a PID and a K-type thermocouple. The PID drives a magnetic contactor with a 115VAC signal to keep things easy. The oven is 6'H x 4'W x 3'D to handle most things I can think of throwing in it as a home gamer. The Japanese katakana across the front says, "Gojira" (Godzilla)


Doing some sport bike wheels, and my Yeti cup in Pearl White.


The circulation fan.


Heat control is fairly accurate, given such a large oven, built by an amateur oven maker.


For very small jobs and test bottles, I use this old Hamilton Beach toaster oven. It's modest, but it gets the job done. (I actually used this little guy years go with an Eastwood HotCoat gun to do everything on my '78 Shovelhead except the wheels and frame!)


I have a heavily modified Harbor Freight sandblasting cabinet for blasting at home, but i usually use the large industrial blasters at work. My air system is an 80-gallon Kobalt compressor with a large copper condensing unit and a 2-stage filter/dryer at the end of that. I use this cyclone separator to clear the dust from the cabinet when I do use it. It keeps the fine dust out of my shop vac (and out of my shop)


There are other small devices and attachments that I use to get the job done, but that was the majority of it. I could say that I have over $2500 invested into all of it, but some things like the compressor and blast cabinet are not solely for coating, so it makes that cost easier to handle. I can also say that over the years, I have probably saved over $2500 in powder coating if I had sent out all of the stuff that I have coated for my trucks and bikes, not to mention when friends make donations for me to do their stuff. So it's worth the cost in the long run.
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Nice nice - honestly for $800 that is not that bad.

Out here in northern midwest I've seen worse 4Runner rusted out junkers on CL for 3K PLUS! With similar amount of miles.. so for $800 I think it isn't a bad deal :)

You are determined for sure. Congrats on that amazing outlook. :hatsoff:
 
Great work! Can't wait to see the finished product, the wheel should look great, it gives me some inspiration since I just picked up a 3rd gen for $600 looks almost identical to yours, also in va


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
unrealii said:
I'm totally digging the work you have done. Keep up the great progress :thumb3:
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Thank You! Now that it's almost ready to be on the road, it feels like I don't have much left to do, but that is so very wrong. I have a lot of cool ideas in the works.

Moonbandit said:
Nice nice - honestly for $800 that is not that bad.

Out here in northern midwest I've seen worse 4Runner rusted out junkers on CL for 3K PLUS! With similar amount of miles.. so for $800 I think it isn't a bad deal :)

You are determined for sure. Congrats on that amazing outlook. :hatsoff:
Click to expand...

Thank You. I almost bought a T4R that was in a little better shape, listed for $500, but didn't have a motor. I can get JDM 5VZs for about $800 not far from here, so I thought that was a good deal. I showed up to look at it (CL find) and it was a 2nd Gen! Dude listed the wrong year and didn't have pics. I was pissed!

But you're right, for $800, I got a decent deal.

jfoltz said:
Great work! Can't wait to see the finished product, the wheel should look great, it gives me some inspiration since I just picked up a 3rd gen for $600 looks almost identical to yours, also in va
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Right on, dude! I hope yours is as smooth of a transition as mine was.

cordoza said:
Really impressive work! Look forward to continuing to follow this build.
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Thank You. There is a lot more to come!

nwebb01 said:
Looks really good!
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Thanks nwebb!
 
So the reality of all my other projects set in, so I know that there is no way I'm going to get the plate bumpers made any time soon. So to make the truck look decent for the time being, I ordered a black painted front bumper and new lower valance from eBay last weekend. I figure I'll just powder coat the bumpers to match my wheels, like I was planning with the plate bumpers.

The bumper was supposed to get here yesterday (March 17) and the valence on Monday. Well, I got shipping notifications that the valence would be here early, on the 16th. I waited all day for it, and it never showed. I got an email later that night saying that it was damaged in transit and was being returned to sender. Ugh. So Friday night came and went, and I don't have a bumper either. Check eBay and it's still not listed as shipped. WTF!?!?!

I dragged my old smashed in bumper out of the back yard and proceeded to pound it somewhat back into shape with at 5lb sledge. I took off the busted valence and mounted it to the truck, just so that I can have the turn signals installed for Monday's inspection. Whatever, it's not the end of the world.
 
Well, I got the truck inspected on Monday, and it failed. A few things were wrong, but nothing hard to fix. I needed new headlights because one of them had broken adjusters, probably from when the PO smashed into whatever crumpled the bumper and fender. So, I ordered some replacements from Rock Auto. I ordered them for a 2002, which are not only an 'upgrade' from the '96-98 lights, but they were half the price of the '96-98 replacements! They fit perfect and look good.

I needed to replace one of the front rotors, because the PO's mechanic (who has no business working on cars from the looks of the repairs on this thing) had put on a 297mm rotor, when it should have been a 319mm. The pads were hanging over the rotor and gave it some cool wear marks.


The small rotor on top of the proper rotor. That 22mm is sizable difference for sure.


So since I was in there, I replaced both front rotors and pads because it's not a lot of cash to do so. The caliper pins were held in with goddamn bent-up ROOFING STAPLES, so I sourced a few new hairpin clips to go back in there. I also replaced the bleeder screws with the nifty little check-valve ones so that bleeding the brakes is a simple operation. Well...75% simple, because one of them on the rear didn't seat and blew brake fluid all over the damn place. At least it didn't suck any air back in. lol

Here's the fluid that I took out. I guess it needed changed.


While I was under the rear cleaning up the brake fluid, I decided to do a sanity check on the diff fluid since it had a leaky seal and was mildly moist anyway. I'm glad that I did, because the drain bolt was hardly finger tight and there was only about a PINT of fluid that came out. Diff holds 2.6 quarts, so I'd say it was a little desperate for some stinky life-blood.

Here's one more reason that I want to find an E-locked diff to swap: This one has been dragged on something pretty hard


The old drain bolt. I robbed a much cleaner one from a junk W5x transmission that I had out back from my Hilux.


Because of the rear diff fiasco, I thought it was a good idea to check the front diff and transfer case as well. They were both in good shape, but got a fluid change anyway.

That's about it from this week. Re-inspection tomorrow on the three things that failed, and I'll be in business. After three longish months, I'll FINALLY be able to drive Skye!!!

I have a couple other things in the works, which I'll post when I get them going.
 
I second that^^

Good work and progress on this restoration, got me a little motivated in the paint department, looks great!
 
Thank you for all your advice. I just had this truck 2 days ago

I have 5k budget to make this toy more fun. I have been reading several threads from this forum and here is my project.

- Paint job: 1k
- New front seats upholstery: 700
- Oil changes = $0 (I pay for it!)
- 3" lift? cost? what products and how much for parts and labor?
- New tires? (She is currently running 265/70/16)
- New running board?
- new Roof rack?
 
BryanV said:
Thank you for all your advice. I just had this truck 2 days ago

I have 5k budget to make this toy more fun. I have been reading several threads from this forum and here is my project.

- Paint job: 1k
- New front seats upholstery: 700
- Oil changes = $0 (I pay for it!)
- 3" lift? cost? what products and how much for parts and labor?
- New tires? (She is currently running 265/70/16)
- New running board?
- new Roof rack?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. Please do not clutter up other people's build threads with information about your own vehicle. Ask questions about their build, make comments, etc but do not hi-jack someone's thread or I will delete your posts.
-mod-
 
Mark_BC said:
How the H did you get that drain plug out?
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I though it was going to be a struggle, but as soon as I placed a wrench on it and almost kinda applied pressure, it twisted. It was barely finger tight, so it just needed a little touch, then came right out. It's in the trash now.

Serge627 said:
OP - Awesome build thread!! keep up the good work and hopefully everyone can keep unrelated clutter out of your thread.
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Thank you sir! Yeah, that dude needs to see his way out of my thread. lol
85straight said:
Good work and progress on this restoration, got me a little motivated in the paint department, looks great!
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Thanks! I dig your '85. I have an '87 Hilux as my other DD.
I'm looking forward to paint on mine as well. I'm not a 5th Gen owner, but I'm going with PlastiDip for the whole truck. They have an Anthracite Grey, so it should get to looking like normal again soon. People will talk trash about dipping cars, but I need to do a Matte Clear over two of my old trucks ('50 Ford and '57 Chevy) to keep the patina because regular automotive clear won't stick to old paint and rust, so I figure I"ll use the same equipment to do the T4R.
 
I got Skye re-inspected today and she passed! They pointed out a fault in one of my new headlights, but they excused it after I showed them the clip that they thought was missing. I just have to get in there and reattach it. No biggie.

But I drove her around a bit and she drives real good. Still had a misfire code, but it ran smooth, so I'll clear it and hope that after I run through this tank of bad gas it will be back to normal and run smooth every day. Hopefully.

Sometime this week I hope to powder coat the new front bumper that I got and install the new valance to it, and maybe install over the weekend or next week. I'm also going to be doing a hitch flip, add a little something else to the rear bumper, fix a rust hole on it, and powder coat it too. Once all of that is done, she should be looking good enough for a photo shoot. :)
 
MattJakobs said:
Have the wheels mounted yet? Super interested in seeing the color on your 4Runner
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Yeah dude, I've had the wheels on for a while. I guess I never posted the pic on my own thread!

Not a great pic, and it will look better once more pieces are coated the same, but here it is:
 
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