The Mudrunner's build thread (HG Replacement coming soon)

[theking11863]

Well everyone, I think it's about time I start a build thread for my currently deceased Mudrunner, since it will return to the mud soon. In the meantime I decided this would be a good time to start the build thread, give some of the history of the car and put little updates in here and there that would otherwise be forgotten about.

For now a quick background of the Mudrunner.

It is a 1990 Toyota 4Runner SR5 with the 3.0 V6 with the manual 5 speed transmission and 4WD. It has 235 tires on stock rims with stock suspension. The tires I currently have on there are El Dorado Golden Fury GFTs but those are almost done so I have a set of used Goodyear Wranglers for when those are gone. For the winter, I have 2 studded Hankook Zovac HPW401s which will help on ice/snow. The Hankook's are on their own separate rims so I can switch between them as often as I want so they should last me years.

(Hankook, Goodyear, and El Dorado respectively)

Everything else on it is also pretty much stock, but that'll change one day. Right now it it beats too much money out of me on repairs to think about upgrades.

There are a few small upgrades however, like some randomly painted trim pieces (with a poorly choosen matte red which you can see on my mirrors :ybrick: ) My favorite upgrade so far are my LED light bars I mounted under my bumper. I installed them right after I joined the forum but due to being busy with fixing it up, packing, and then the HG blowing I never said a word about them.


The square one on the left is a spot light and the rectangle one on the right is a flood light

Installation was pretty easy. Bought a wiring harness with a fuse, relay, and button. Ran the button through the firewall and put the fuse and relay by the fuse box. For mounting I just used the holes for the plastic valance that my 4Runner never had.


Pic of all 4 lights attached and my messy work station lol. For anyone wondering what's up with my turn signals, I took out the housings and painted them a metallic silver to make them brighter


Pic at night with the lights turned on. The picture doesn't even come close to capturing how bright these are.

They were so bright that I would par in front of the garage and turn them on because the brightness was so much that the reflection off the garage door was enough to work with.


This pic was taken before I pointed the lights, but you can see the difference between the spots and the floods.

More mods are on the way though. I have one I'm working on now that'll I'll post about later. I'll eventually talk about history and all that but that is a story for another day!

 

[theking11863]

Chapter Select

1 History Part 1
2 History Part 2

 

[theking11863]

History Part 1

Alright so here's the back story on the MudRunner.

Many years ago (can't remember when) my mom bought this 4Runner from her friend's coworker when her 1990(could be wrong on the year) Mitsubishi Montero crapped out and she didn't want to deal with it anymore. Her friend swore the thing was in excellent condition and so she bought it, despite everyone else telling her not to. After a year or so of her using it, she got a 1994 Camry to replace it because the thing was such a pain in the ass. So, for the next few years it sat under an apple tree, with its only use being a ladder for me to get apples, and somewhere for me to sit in the shade. By the time it got moved, it had actually started sinking into the ground, leaving little crevices where the tires had been.

Finally after 3 or so years, it became my time to learn how to drive. So my stepdad got it fired up (didn't do anything to it that your supposed to do after a car has sat for years :redbrick: )and took me out into the forest to learn on it, and so began one of the biggest beating it ever took; me learning how to drive stick! :naughty:

The amount of times I stalled it was ridiculous. There were moments where it would take 10 minutes to move 2 inches. I was fine once I got going, could run through all the gears, had no problems finding third gear (this blew my mom away) but I could not get the car to move to save my life. This was really bad when I'd stall on a corner or something like that because other cars could smash into us so my parents had to move it for me. It didn't help that the starter was going out as I was learning so I had the extra pressure that I could be one stall away from stranding us in the middle of a forest with no service! :ybrick: It got bad enough to the point that we'd have to actively look for hills to back up when we parked so we could bump start it.

After awhile my stepdad finally tore the wheel off and began fixing the starter, which took him over a week. Once he finally got it all done the thing started right up! So, I got back to learning how to drive stick and eventually got it down. Then, about a month later, we moved, and the 4Runner sat again for another year and a half...

 

[theking11863]

History Part 2

So during that year and a half the 4Runner sat, I continued going off-road and learning about the finer mechanics of it, but in my step-dad's 2003 Toyota Tundra. For a long time it was pretty much my car, and I was really happy with it. It was comfortable, had a nice amount of power and torque. And then out of no where, my step-dad decided to kick me out of the Tundra and stick me in the 4Runner. I was pretty pissed. It felt like a down grade to me. The 4Runner has a lot less power, it's less comfortable, no stereo. I know all that stuff makes me sound spoiled but the thing I was most upset about was the fact he was kicking me out permanently from all his cars like he didn't trust me, a theory I still have to this day.

So after sitting for awhile again, all the tires had pretty much gone flat due to dry rotted valve stems. So instead of taking it to a tire shop to properly get the issue fixed, my stepdad decided to go backyard mechanic on it. Using some planks of wood and the Tundra, we were able to pop the beads on the tires and get the valve stems replaced. After that he recharged the battery and fired it up, again without doing anything you're supposed to do when a car sits! :ybrick:

Now after having barely gotten the hang of driving stick shift before and then not driving it for a solid year and a half, I lost all ability to drive sticks shift again! :redbrick: So once again I set about learning how to drive stick shift again, only this time it was harder! I spent a huge amount of time trying to remember and use the same methods I used before, something I still to this day can't remember. So after figuring out my old method wouldn't work I began learning again... Even while trying to learn an old method, I still had some old habits that just slowed me down. I eventually got it down, and this time my method was better! I could start on way steeper hills, accelerate way faster, and overall just way better at handling the car. In the end, forgetting and relearning became worth it.

So now the 4Runner was mine to do with as I pleased, which initially was a really bad thing...