Sharpie330
New member
Hey guys this is my build thread from a few months back.
My 4Runner is a 1995 model year 3.0 V6 SR5 5 speed. Pretty standard as far as that goes.
I bought the truck a few years ago from a guy in Hanford for $2000 big ones. It already had a 4" procomp lift kit that consisted of a bunch of bracket spacers, some bigger springs, some beefed up torsion bars and some stiffer sway bars. Not exactly ideal, but more than sufficient as I would find out.
Anywho the truck looked something like this when I first purchase it.
The above was taken on the first wheelin trip I took it on.
It had the stock 4.56 gears and 31/10.50/15 Firestone M/Ts. I didnt really know at the time what it was that I was wanting to do or even trying to do. So a 4" lift with 31's seemed fine to me. But I soon realized that other...better...more $$... stuff was around the corner.
Anywho, before I could start doing any modifications I needed to fix a few pesky issues it had. Bypassed leaky heater core got replaced, plugs, wires, cap, rotor etc etc. Rebuilt starter, rebuilt alternator, replaced axle seals and some other stuff.
When I finally finished with the annoying little maintenance issues I started to get to the meat of it.
I started with swapping out my 4.56 gears which are pictured below, and installing 5.29s front and rear with a spartan 4 pinion locker in the rear. The front center section in the picture is for sale, factory 4.56 open, just sayin.
I got to go wheeling a bit more with it set up with the 5.29 gears still on the 31/10.50s. I was impressed with the added pep in the step that the lower gears added, but was not happy with the lack of clearance and funny lack of symetry the small tires had. I had basically came to the conclusion that 31s were too small and I needed to go bigger. So as luck would have it a guy I work with had a brand new set of 35/12.5 Goodyear Wrangler MTRs with Kevlar he was looking to sell or trade for. He just so needed a set of newer 31s for an internatioaln scout 2 he was building. Needless to say I got the better end of that deal.
We mounted them up and proceeded to go get stuck in the snow.
Then to my next order of business. The tube steel thing thats attached to my grill. Same guy with the tires had recently retired his 90 toyota pickup, it had a marlin crawler front bumper. He sold it to me for a reasonable price. I bought me some rock sliders and the rear bumper to match and installed them at work a couple weekends ago.
I put the sliders out so far so my wife can use them as a step. She likes them
Sexy
Also, what makes my 4Runner different than all the rest, My 4Runner is eco friendly as you will see in the picture below. Some birds decided to make a nest on my upper control arm. It happened in the course of an 8 hour work day...
If you guys dont have a grill at work you need one, best idea I ever had, unoriginal as it may be.
Some seat covers, stereo and CB were installed on the interior, I dont have any pics of them as they arent really anything special. I like em though.
This truck has turned out to be a whole lot more than I first imagined it would be. I have less than $4,000 into it as it sits right now and could not be happier.
A solid axle and rear leaf springs, along with some transfer cases, are in its future I just dont know when I will get around to them.
And with that, I think that is most everything.
Thanks for reading and letting me share
-Jake
My 4Runner is a 1995 model year 3.0 V6 SR5 5 speed. Pretty standard as far as that goes.
I bought the truck a few years ago from a guy in Hanford for $2000 big ones. It already had a 4" procomp lift kit that consisted of a bunch of bracket spacers, some bigger springs, some beefed up torsion bars and some stiffer sway bars. Not exactly ideal, but more than sufficient as I would find out.
Anywho the truck looked something like this when I first purchase it.
The above was taken on the first wheelin trip I took it on.
It had the stock 4.56 gears and 31/10.50/15 Firestone M/Ts. I didnt really know at the time what it was that I was wanting to do or even trying to do. So a 4" lift with 31's seemed fine to me. But I soon realized that other...better...more $$... stuff was around the corner.
Anywho, before I could start doing any modifications I needed to fix a few pesky issues it had. Bypassed leaky heater core got replaced, plugs, wires, cap, rotor etc etc. Rebuilt starter, rebuilt alternator, replaced axle seals and some other stuff.
When I finally finished with the annoying little maintenance issues I started to get to the meat of it.
I started with swapping out my 4.56 gears which are pictured below, and installing 5.29s front and rear with a spartan 4 pinion locker in the rear. The front center section in the picture is for sale, factory 4.56 open, just sayin.
I got to go wheeling a bit more with it set up with the 5.29 gears still on the 31/10.50s. I was impressed with the added pep in the step that the lower gears added, but was not happy with the lack of clearance and funny lack of symetry the small tires had. I had basically came to the conclusion that 31s were too small and I needed to go bigger. So as luck would have it a guy I work with had a brand new set of 35/12.5 Goodyear Wrangler MTRs with Kevlar he was looking to sell or trade for. He just so needed a set of newer 31s for an internatioaln scout 2 he was building. Needless to say I got the better end of that deal.
We mounted them up and proceeded to go get stuck in the snow.
Then to my next order of business. The tube steel thing thats attached to my grill. Same guy with the tires had recently retired his 90 toyota pickup, it had a marlin crawler front bumper. He sold it to me for a reasonable price. I bought me some rock sliders and the rear bumper to match and installed them at work a couple weekends ago.
I put the sliders out so far so my wife can use them as a step. She likes them
Sexy
Also, what makes my 4Runner different than all the rest, My 4Runner is eco friendly as you will see in the picture below. Some birds decided to make a nest on my upper control arm. It happened in the course of an 8 hour work day...
If you guys dont have a grill at work you need one, best idea I ever had, unoriginal as it may be.
Some seat covers, stereo and CB were installed on the interior, I dont have any pics of them as they arent really anything special. I like em though.
This truck has turned out to be a whole lot more than I first imagined it would be. I have less than $4,000 into it as it sits right now and could not be happier.
A solid axle and rear leaf springs, along with some transfer cases, are in its future I just dont know when I will get around to them.
And with that, I think that is most everything.
Thanks for reading and letting me share
-Jake
