Rubbertoe's GTA 98 runner

[rubbertoe]

Hello all,just wanted to share a few things and introduce myself to the group , my name is Robert ! I just wanted to say i have been enjoying lurking on T4R.org its kept me busy doing up grades to what was supposed to be my daughters first car,Doh! well a little insight on this situation is ,my daughter is 16 and is a good kid working hard in school focused on college so when i came across a clean 98 SR5 4x4 i thought this might be a good car for her when she is able to drive .so at the time of purchase the runner had some small issues that needed addressing ,but all in all was a really clean un-molested 98 .well fast forward to now ,my daughter still hasn't bothered to get her learners permit (which by no means am i in a hurry for)and this situation has put me in a bad spot ,as i have fallen in love with this truck !i currently own a 1st gen Tundra as my dd so it wasn't hard for me to see the beauty in the 3rd gen 4runner and the fact that is has rear seats for me is a bonus ! well after addressing the issues so far its been tire,front rotors ,all fluids,shocks front and rear,radiator,and a thorough up and down of little things that needed replacing this thing is "bad ass".so after both of us spending some time driving the truck wifey and i both agreed that the T4 might not be the best vehicle for a fist time driver .well me being a man of my word i promised i would get her a more practical little "car" for a first vehicle ,most likely wife will get a new car my daughter gets the wife's,this was a "tripple,win" deal of the century for me as now T4 is mine! Let the mods begin ! i have already done some things such as the 99 headlight upgrade ,also plasti-dipped my front grille ,new rims and tires,i removed the running boards also removed the monroe quick struts and replaced with some bilstein 5100 tundra shocks with new 4runner springs from napa and i am super pleased with its performance.this removed the stink bug stance from the truck and improved the handling.running the billie's on clip 4 gave me a 23 center of hub to fender distance around the truck since the back was already at 22.5.it raised the front another inch and a half from its 21.5 measurement i had with the monroe's. this upgrade cost me under $500 including top hardware and spring compressor i needed to do the job myself with all new parts .now just need an alignment fine tune.Thanks T4r.org for making the info available ,this is why i thought i would share ,enjoy

 

[Limbwalker]

My boy is 18, and i still dont let him drive mine haha.
Nope, kids that age no matter how responsible, dont know how to care for these things.
My boy was in 2 fender benders within 3 months of getting his first car. Neither were his fault,
but learning to AVOID other bad drivers is part of the process, and I woulda had to choke him if that had been my 4runner!
Nice clean rig you have there, and good call!

 

[bpowa]

congrats.

I got mines and planned on selling it. Then I drove it around and thought this is a great truck. The charm to me was that it is damn reliable, good gas milage for a truck and has enough cargo without being to big. I had a 4roor tundra I sold because it was too big and gas was worse. Worse of all I find myself having to fix the parking 2-3 times because of the length. With the 4runner it has a parking ability of a sedan.

Better. is I can take it anywhere, camping, grocey, haul, dirtbike.. So ita a do it all vehicle for me.. Given I put in an extra 2k in parts to be very happy with it.

 

[rubbertoe]

Limbwalker ,hahaha ! We definatly have some of the same views.i was picturing the truck in the high school parking lot or my daughter loading her friends in it ,OH man! It would probaly end up looking like her room ,not a pretty sight .as far as the fender benders at that age you could almost bet on it . Lol

 

[rubbertoe]

congrats.

I got mines and planned on selling it. Then I drove it around and thought this is a great truck. The charm to me was that it is damn reliable, good gas milage for a truck and has enough cargo without being to big. I had a 4roor tundra I sold because it was too big and gas was worse. Worse of all I find myself having to fix the parking 2-3 times because of the length. With the 4runner it has a parking ability of a sedan.

Better. is I can take it anywhere, camping, grocey, haul, dirtbike.. So ita a do it all vehicle for me.. Given I put in an extra 2k in parts to be very happy with it.

X2 ,agreed

 

[rubbertoe]

A little update on the truck.I ordered some front armor for the front,you know want my daughter to be safe when she drives this ,hahaha. CBI handled that task .the quality of their work is awesome .The piece came raw with no powder coat so you could really see the great quality of the fabrication and welds.So then it was off to Powder 1 here in San Diego they handled the powder coat ,and did some awesome work as well.there was a little welding involved in the install as the 98 doesn't have the front mounting plate on the front frame rails like the 99+ third gens have .so i bought some 1/4 x 8" flat stock and made my own drilled some 5/8 holes and was good to go .The fitment of this bumper was spot on ,it went on with little to no fight. all in all i am stoked on how it turned out .heres some pics to enjoy and future reference for others who may tackle this upgrade with CBI products .

 

[rubbertoe]

Heres some pics of the raw bumper ,i ordered it like this as it wasn't a big deal for me to get it painted.also i want to give huge props to my buddy and co-worker Brad for helping me with the welding ,super talented guy ! welding the tabs on my frame was easy for this dude ,as he has a background in building sand cars prior to getting in construction.the whole install was about three hours start to finish but i made sure had all the guess work out of what we had to do .I fabricated the mount plate the night before also pre wired the turn signals with deutsch connectors.prepped all the necessary tools needed for the task of the bumper install,as i didn't want to take up his whole saturday ,we work a lot .so off time is valuable.Thanks again Brad !

 

[Climber]

Great looking rig so far, looks a lot like mine but I envy your front bumper!

My boy is 18, and i still dont let him drive mine haha.
Nope, kids that age no matter how responsible, dont know how to care for these things.
My boy was in 2 fender benders within 3 months of getting his first car. Neither were his fault,
but learning to AVOID other bad drivers is part of the process, and I woulda had to choke him if that had been my 4runner!
Nice clean rig you have there, and good call!

Hey now I have to respectfully disagree! When I turned 18 I got a car loan with a ridiculously high rate because of my virtually non existent credit, im now 19 and have refinanced for a better rate and keep my truck in excellent shape cause its my baby. My room may be hideous but I truck and guns are always spotless and meticulously maintained, typical redneck? Yes I am

 

[rubbertoe]

Climber ,you are totally right sir.times have changed some with todays youth ,i guess i am guilty of being suspect of my crazy habits as a youth . my daughter has given me no reason not to trust her .i don't really care or judge her over a messy room ,as i had one for years . i just think a car is a better fit for a first driving experience . i think its awesome to see that young people today have raised the bar .props!

 

[Climber]

Climber ,you are totally right sir.times have changed some with todays youth ,i guess i am guilty of being suspect of my crazy habits as a youth . my daughter has given me no reason not to trust her .i don't really care or judge her over a messy room ,as i had one for years . i just think a car is a better fit for a first driving experience . i think its awesome to see that young people today have raised the bar .props!

Thank you sir, now all you can do is hope that your love of 4runners rubs off on your daughter so she buys her own! The more Toyotas per house hold the better.

 

[99 sr5 highlander]

My boy is 18, and i still dont let him drive mine haha.
Nope, kids that age no matter how responsible, dont know how to care for these things.
My boy was in 2 fender benders within 3 months of getting his first car. Neither were his fault,
but learning to AVOID other bad drivers is part of the process, and I woulda had to choke him if that had been my 4runner!

Excuse me! Haha. I'm 18 and and have never gotten in an accident or fender bender, I haven't even gotten a ticket! The only time my 4runner has been hit was when it was parked at Best Buy and an old lady didn't know how to park ran into the tire. There are also several other teenagers on this forum who take awesome care of their t4rs. :gun5:

By the way Rubbertoe, I love the white bumper! It looks sick!

 

[Hepar]

Nice ride. I really like that you went white with the front bumper. Really looks good!

 

[Limbwalker]

Excuse me! Haha. I'm 18 and and have never gotten in an accident or fender bender, I haven't even gotten a ticket! The only time my 4runner has been hit was when it was parked at Best Buy and an old lady didn't know how to park ran into the tire. There are also several other teenagers on this forum who take awesome care of their t4rs. :gun5:

By the way Rubbertoe, I love the white bumper! It looks sick![/QUO

Good for you, but its not typical. I was always mechanical too. Its a rare breed these days. I dont know you... wasnt talking about everyone on the planet

 

[Limbwalker]

Great looking rig so far, looks a lot like mine but I envy your front bumper!




Hey now I have to respectfully disagree! When I turned 18 I got a car loan with a ridiculously high rate because of my virtually non existent credit, im now 19 and have refinanced for a better rate and keep my truck in excellent shape cause its my baby. My room may be hideous but I truck and guns are always spotless and meticulously maintained, typical redneck? Yes I am

Fair enough. Like I told the other dude who took offense, its not typical so good for you for being above the curve. But I stand by what I said.

 

[rubbertoe]

Thanks for the props guys ! My bumper ,well Im feeling pretty good about it .to me thats all that matters at the end of the day ,cause shoot i'm just trying to have a little fun here is all. but hey check out these pics of my buddy Brad in action.this started its life as a 94 sr5 it will also have a tundra front clip so i guess technically theres still some Toyota DNA,Hahaha.

 

[rubbertoe]

Ok just a FYI in case you haven't already come to the conclusion ,i am terrible at this internet build thread stuff .as much as i try either time constraints or life in general gets in the way ,so my build threads are like a shotgun blast of an update,Lol.Just to bring things up to speed ,on some of the things i have been working on lately is really just familiarizing myself with this 4runner platform in general ,so my short term plans are that i would like to bring it back to its pristine stock form first, then start to mod the shit out of it ! haha so it will morf into the proper 4x4 beast that suits me !but for now so i can get a somewhat stock performance baseline to go off of .so heres what i did do .#1 changed out the plugs and wires ,when i bought the truck i had no idea what was in there or how many miles .this is what i found . some lame ass power robbing autolites were in there ,sheeesh removing these plugs was basically like removing a tumor (horrible choice for this vehicle) so i replaced them with some ngk's also replaced the wires when i did this work (sorry no pics of this but this has been covered many times here) also on my to do list last weekend i got around to changing the rear coil springs with some 890's(made a huge difference in its ride mannerism,happy)and new swaybar end linkage to restore some of its original good road manners again . but ,i don't really like the dust boot set up on these units (meh, ill run em temporarily ). But i think i might have to seal them a little better with a zip tie or some wire to help keep them sealed up .not an expensive wear item so i'm not to worried ,probably going to upgrade eventually to some better quality extended "quick release"ones as this project and the suspension needs progress, but for now this will restore my good street ride characteristics .also check out the bottom of my truck "no rock rash" love it ! if anyone is going to clap out my stuff i want it to be me .enjoy the pics

 

[rubbertoe]

Moving on to some other things that i have tried to restore in order to knock the cobwebs off her .I also did replace my air filter with a K&N drop in ,but noticed when i was changing my wires there was alot of dirt and soot around the Throttle body intake area which i already new these filters were notorious for but i guess when its your vehicle and you see it for yourself its a different story .i had purchased all the parts to do a deckplate mod but am not convinced that this is a good idea .i have a background with various engine types and am not convinced that this is viable option for performance gains vs the possible negatives (Ca smog issues,noise, ect) so heres what i did do and i feel it is performing nicely .I added some Uni brand filter foam in the air box in front of the K&N filter to give some added dirt protection ( note:it lines up perfectly with the stock breather intake).i lightly oiled in between the two sheets of foam ,the truck seems to like it ! not going to boast on any big performance gains from this set up ,but it has improved breathing over stock with a snappy throttle response combined with adequate engine protection for the longevity factor.also i changed out the fuel filter (fram)this also helped bring back some throttle response in my truck as i think it was original (16 yrs old)so all in all im happy with the direction things are going !

 

[rubbertoe]

Now for the good stuff ! i am pleased on the ground i'm gaining with this project truck without breaking the bank .yea i have thrown some money at her, but i feel its not in vein, as i have a strong and reliable platform to show for it (done 90% of the work myself so its just the cost of parts )and best of all no payments ! besides were in love !!! enjoy the pixels .

 

[rubbertoe]

Ok been hard at it the last two weeks .doing little tweaks here and there trying to get things the way i want them with the install of my front bumper.one thing i ended up adding is a winch fairlead ,to help motivate me so down the road when i do decide on the winch to use its already there .plus couldn't deny the bling factor (vanity).one other thing that i think completes the whole utility factor of having a bullet proof front end ,is new mounting locations for more lighting .so i called around to my local "go to" distributers get some pricing on some rigid products (which have gone up by the way since i last purchased anything )wow ! aye' curomba there spendy! wish i would have known back a few years that these things were going to jump up in price ,but its not all in vein, as their products have gotten better in the simple fact that the smaller units pack a good punch and after all they are benchmark for the off road lighting industry.also for their size,compact units such as the d2/d4,and the unit i ended up with for up front, the sr series 10"hybrid literally kicks ass ! though not UFO bright like the larger bars or the 30"E series i have on my personal off road weapon of choice (my SXS,this is the vehicle that i'm not afraid to run hard ,break shit or take in the rocks ,grind,flex ,jump,hammer whoops ect) but this light combo i feel will do well for the Runners purposes which i personally want set up for real time desert vehicle extractions , remote location camping missions, mild recreational trail wheeling ,and just overall off road fun, but realistically will probably spend most of its time pounding pavement and not in the rocks,because i enjoy driving it to much to F^&k it all up .Lol (Rubbertoe you 4runnin mall crawler poser) Jk. Trust me i have spent my fair share of time off roading in our local deserts and know what to expect ,But that being said after her 16 years of faithful service I just am not ready to run my 4runner full time thru "rocky cheese grader" that is our local desert, yet (prone to change my mind )...

 

[rubbertoe]

A little update on the 4runner progress ,i have my rear bumper on now .So operation protection mode is almost complete ,or is it ? Well i thought it would be cool to get a picture of the blood moon the other night with the 4Runner in the background, and kind of planned on doing this as a fun thing with my daughter (as she really enjoys photography) ,but was too tired from work this day and just few beers sent me into a exhausted tailspin and it was off to bed early. oh well ,still was a cool full moon ,even if i didn't get to see the eclipse .