Saved from the Scrapyard: Ressurecting a 500$ 3rd Gen

[UnderFire]

The old faithful yards right around me had come up empty, so I ventured a little further from home and hit junkyard paydirt. Was able to scoop up everything I need all in one day.

Here's what I got:

Very nice leather door panels and matching light tan inner handles
Very nice factory leather rear seats with good front headrests (unfortunatly missing one of the headrest inserts on either side)
A 99+ console that's potentially better than mine
A 99+ Center dash complete swap. Black for now, still didn't find one in woodgrain.
Leather front seats from a 98 camry, oddly just a hair different color than the 4runner seats, but they should work perfect in theory as the overall width and track placement is identical, I'm gonna try to rig them in. They have way more padding than any 4runner seat for sure.

And last but certainly not least by any means, scored a 99+ rear hatch in black, complete and ready to go, a scrape or two and 2 tiny rust spots, but 100x better than my gaping rusty hole having falling apart internals hatch.

Oddly it's an SR5 hatch with wiper and heat, but it doesn't have the stock wind deflector.

I'm left with a decision to make, do I just slap it on as is, or do I wait and buy an 02 license plate surround and a burtman spoiler (at which point the hatch will have cost more than the whole 4runner when I bought it.)

I may also go ahead and replace the passenger area carpet, and will definitely get new oem carpet floor mats come spring/summer.

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[Road Bull]

The old faithful yards right around me had come up empty, so I ventured a little further from home and hit junkyard paydirt. Was able to scoop up everything I need all in one day.

Here's what I got:...


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Holy cow! Nice score man! Those leather seats look like they are in great condition. Congrats!

 

[smallfry]

I'm left with a decision to make, do I just slap it on as is, or do I wait and buy an 02 license plate surround and a burtman spoiler (at which point the hatch will have cost more than the whole 4runner when I bought it.)

I have a new surround just laying round, part number 76801-35260. If you want to buy it. :biggrin1:

 

[UnderFire]

Holy cow! Nice score man! Those leather seats look like they are in great condition. Congrats!

They're really nice, just one small scuff on the driver's seat bottom. I find the US made Toyota seats like the camry and avalon along with later model (98+) Lexus seats the leather holds up much better. My fingers are crossed that I can directly swap the 4Runner seat tracks onto the camry frames and have a direct bolt in swap with no welding required. Even though I could easily weld the brackets onto the camry tracks I know that's a hurdle for a lot of people wanting to swap seats.

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[UnderFire]

I have a new surround just laying round, part number 76801-35260. If you want to buy it. :biggrin1:

A chrome 2002 one? What's the price?

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[smallfry]

Not chrome, just the standard silver/gray color (the one on the plastic bag and no its not this one.).



$200 which includes shipping.

 

[UnderFire]

Not chrome, just the standard silver/gray color (the one on the plastic bag and no its not this one.).



$200 which includes shipping.

Dang they look a lot better when they're new for sure. If I change it out I'll be going with the chrome one from 2002 though.

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[brillo_76]

Very nice junk yard run [MENTION=90352]UnderFire[/MENTION]. Good Tailgates around here do not exist.

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[UnderFire]

Very nice junk yard run [MENTION=90352]UnderFire[/MENTION]. Good Tailgates around here do not exist.

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Black is always tough. Had to settle for minor flaws after about 10. White and silver are incredibly easy to find, but black shows every little imperfection so I was picky. Sucks every time I get a steal on a vehicle it's black, I'd prefer just about anything else.

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[UnderFire]

Little teaser shot, one down.

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[UnderFire]

Well, unfortunatly the camry seats weren't exactly the perfect swap I was hoping for to help out the 3rd gen community.

That being said, they're about as good as I've seen this far. Overall dimensions on the seat itself are near identical. Roughly 21" wide at the widest point, around 7" from bottom of the track to the top of the seat cushion. Didn't measure the depth of the seat, but it is almost the same as the 4runner seats. The seat backs are definitely taller by a few inches.

The camry's seat tracks are also centered on the seat the same way ours are, with an overall similar set of mounts on them, nowhere near a direct bolt on though. When I saw just how close the tracks were I went searching and had fingers crossed that I would be able to install the 4runner seat tracks onto the camry frames, but this didn't end up working, the camry uses a different latch system for the sliders and the rails are around 3/4" further apart than the 4Runner's.

With a welder a drill and no real special fabrication skills anyone can still do this swap though, all I did was drill out the rivets and spot welds and knock all the brackets off and weld the 4Runner brackets to the camry seat at the proper width (17" center of rivets) and dimensions (inboard 17" bolt hole to bolt hole, outboard 16 3/8 bolt hole to bolt hole) I also added a brace on the rear outboard leg as there wasnt quite full engagement on the tracks.

That's it, the belt buckles work, I wired in the 4Runner seat belt warning switch harness and it works, overall if you didn't know it didn't come that way it would be hard to tell. Once they're installed the slight difference in color is almost imperceptible.

There is some interference with one knob on the driver's side with the door pocket when the seat is forward, you also lose the ability to lean the seat forward, as the furthest the camry seats tilt is roughly 90 degrees. It is also important to note that even though the dimension are the same, the added padding in the camry seats make you sit taller since they don't compress as much. I am 6 feet tall and my head is roughly 3.5 inches from the roof in my NON-SUNROOF 4Runner. For those already struggling with headroom in a sunroof equipped 4Runner this is not a viable option.

Part of what's great about this is that this information is not only applicable to people wanting tan leather, the camry was also available with oak cloth, gray cloth and gray leather.

Mine were out of a 1998 LE model, they are oak leather, manual sliders, lumbar and adjustable height on the driver's side. 1997-2001 camrys will have this same seat in Gray/Oak. Generally look for LE and XLE trims for leather, CE will and LE can have cloth. ES300 seats should have the same brackets, I haven't seen any but they may be power and should all be tan leather.

Hopefully this information will help anyone looking for an easy inexpensive replacement for their seats.

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[UnderFire]

Nice little shipment all for the runner today. Pretty confident she's not gonna blow up at this point so I'm ready to commit some time and money into shining her up.

01-02 OEM tails all ready to go with LED bulbs, a little cheaper than aftermarket LED ones, but not by a whole lot, probably should've went with those. Hindsight 20/20.

Waiting for the bumper to be at least closer to done before I swap the tailgate and lights just so I don't mess em up in the process.

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[UnderFire]

For those interested in keeping track, at this point the 4Runner has cost me roughly $3800 including the parts not yet installed. It may sound high but that does include the set of 5 wheels and tires which are nearly $1600. (currently level 8 MK6 as placeholders until I find the wheels I really want)

There are also more than a handful of things that I haven't included in the calculation as they technically didn't cost me out of pocket through whatever means, that includes the headlights, grille, current subwoofer setup, dashboard, I'd say roughly $500 in value cost between the lot.

Little stuff adds up quick so you've got to account for every dollar when building on a budget.

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[SnowLizard]

fun thread! keep up the fun!

 

[4Tuitous]

Fantastic thread...especially these last posts on the seat swap. Very cool...

 

[UnderFire]

Time for another quick write up as I finished up a relatively small mod.

As far as I'm concerned this is the best way to handle losing your signals on the front bumper.

What I'm doing is installing switchback LED lights into the corner lamps.

Here's what I used:

Parts:
3157 Switchback LED bulbs (mine are amber/amber, many color combos available.)
3157 pigtail
Clear depo corner lights (not 100% necessary)
Electronic EP35 flasher relay to cure hyperflash

Tools/supplies:
10MM socket w/6-8" extension
Wire stripper/crimper
Torch
Utility knife
Black RTV silicone
Butt connectors x6 (pink/red)
Electrical tape

This mod is super simple to accomplish. Using the knife you'll grab your corner light and open up the hole just enough to get the larger switchback bulb to fit into the hole snugly. This basically means removing the locking tabs. You will get bits of plastic inside the light, if you have compressed air a quick shot through the vent tube shoots it all back out of the bulb hole. Once you've got all of the plastic out, get the bulbs fully seated and run a bead of RTV around the back to seal them.

There are multiple ways to accomplish the wiring, to me the quickest and simplest is to order new pigtails and splice it in inside the fender well. You'll note by the broken tab that the sockets I bought didn't quite fit past the core support, so get a different style. It's as simple as 3 wires. Hot for the marker (green in that harness) ground from the marker (white in marker harness) and hot from the signal (also green but in the signal harness. I spliced using heat shrink butt connections and wrapped everything with tape.

At this point you're done and ready to install them, then just replace your flasher (you'll want to make sure that you get one that says LED on it, I forgot that step this time around and had to reorder the right one.) Simply unbolt the lower dash trim by your knees in the driver's seat (x4 10mm bolts), the flasher is on the back side of the interior fusebox, it's easiest to also unbolt it to get to the flasher, it just pulls out and plugs in, direct swap.

That's it all done. This mod including the new corners and pigtails is a more expensive way to do it, but is still around 75$ all said and done. Not terrible at all. I chose the Amber/amber because it doesn't look out of place next to halogen lights like a white or colored LED would.

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[UnderFire]

I'm down to only needing a couple of things to be able to tear down and rebuild the entire front end of the 4Runner.

My pile of parts is getting fairly formidable. She'll be getting the following:

LCA's with whiteline bushings
UCA bushings
New balljoints upper and lower
New tie rod ends
A complete conversion to 15" wheel front brakes with all new parts
Tundra 5100's with YY/YB's
Manual hub conversion using all OEM parts

These "front-cuts" are getting increasingly common as more and more people start to build serious trail rigs off of the Tacoma chassis. This is the second I've bought, paying only $100 for it. While it is unwieldy, this is by far the best way to gather good used suspension parts. It may not look like a lot fully assembled but when you break it down it becomes obvious how good of a deal it is.

Out of my $100 front cut I get the following value:

Aisin hub set - 150$
Manual hub spindles - 100$ ea.
Manual hub stub shaft 120$
Front diff clamshell (3.58 gears) - 100$
OEM CV axles - 50$ ea
Front sway bar - 80$
Steering Rack - 50$
Caliper cores - 80$
Rebuildable LCA's - 50$
diff drop kit - 40$

If you're keeping count that's almost $1000

Crazy isn't it? All together it's too unwieldy and bulky for a lot of people on the market for those parts so someone willing to make it work gets to capatilize.

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[mmw0k7o]

I love the steering wheel you installed way back at the beginning of the thread. I only saw one side view pic of it after the install. Any chance you could post a pic showing it better?

 

[UnderFire]

I love the steering wheel you installed way back at the beginning of the thread. I only saw one side view pic of it after the install. Any chance you could post a pic showing it better?

I must've forgot to. I have a Pic of the same wheel installed in my Tacoma before. It's a little small for these trucks but I couldn't beat the price.

It's a Nardi classic brushed spokes and leather wrapped. Sitting on a Nrg SRK120 and gen 2.0 quick release. And a checkerd sports horn delete.

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[UnderFire]

Temporary placeholder setup I should've used in the first place. 5th gen trail black/machined with 315/70r17. Got some wheels that aren't gonna work trying to figure out what to do next.

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