zgensler31's Build Thread-1996 Limited

zgensler31

Senior Member
so ive been here on t4r.org since december of 2011, shortly after buying a 96 2wd sr5 4runner. just like everyone else i fell in love with modifying my 4runner and here i am...


2011-12-21_15-50-38_78 by zgensler31, on Flickr

so only about 6 months after buying my first 4runner, i wake up at 2am and find it smashed up in front of my house....long story short, drunk chick...took off...found her a few days later...new 4 runner...

for those with more time, the details and more pics can be found here

couple quick pics...


2012-04-27_12-14-23_243 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-04-27_12-58-09_880 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-05-02_15-20-11_132 by zgensler31, on Flickr

so..after haggling with the insurance company...i get my check and i get my new 4runner. this time a 96 limited 4wd with elocker...


2012-05-12_17-38-03_823 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-05-12_17-38-17_305 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-05-16_17-35-11_601 by zgensler31, on Flickr

of course the first thing i did was some maintenance, oil change, wash it, detail it, some lucas injector cleaner, cleaned the throttle body out new air filter....probably missing some stuff.


2012-05-16_17-34-08_307 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-05-20_19-19-34_92 by zgensler31, on Flickr

during one of my oil changes, i noticed some decent rust on the skid plates...so i decided to pull them off and get rid of as much of that as i could. also gave them a quick paint of coat to finish it off.

what it looked like when i started.

2012-07-08_19-01-47_108 by zgensler31, on Flickr

and after hitting them with the wire wheel.

2012-07-08_19-02-15_812 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-07-08_19-14-38_553 by zgensler31, on Flickr

it wasnt my best work, but it definitely prepared me for cleaning up the rest of my under carriage later down the line.

painted. rust-oleum primer and gloss protective enamel used for this.

2012-07-08_20-11-31_218 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-07-08_20-11-36_602 by zgensler31, on Flickr

and mounted back up.

2012-07-10_18-58-37_96 by zgensler31, on Flickr

at first i thought it was a bit over the top with the red, espcially because it was till pretty stock at this point, but i love it now, and so do most of the people i talk to, i also plan to incorporate more red into my truck later on as well.

as you could see in the above pictures of my truck, the center caps on my wheels were in sore shapes. so that night i also painted them.

started with a white primer made for plastics made by rust-oleum, then a black gloss enamel by r-o. and i also painted the toyota t logo silver with some testors model paint that i had lying around. r-o clear coat to finish it off.


2012-07-08_20-11-52_66 by zgensler31, on Flickr

never did get a finished photo, but can be seen here from further down the line.

2012-10-12_18-23-01_559 by zgensler31, on Flickr

i added in an auxiliary plug and took care of an old alarm and stereo system that was installed in the truck when i got it. some pics here, and i have more if anyone is interested.


DSC02066 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-08-20_23-09-29_687 by zgensler31, on Flickr

rats nest that i inherited... all gone now.

DSC02024 by zgensler31, on Flickr
 
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i installed a new battery around this time as well, went to the local battery wearhouse, its a local place that spcializes in, you bethca, batteries! the old one was old..like 7 or 8 years i think. and was giving my random fits with starting my truck. replaced with a deka brand stock sized with a great waranty.


2012-10-10_21-39-47_175 by zgensler31, on Flickr

had been driving around since i bought the 4runner with a screw in the sidewall of the michelin ltx that were on it. never really gave me trouble and held air just fine, until i was doing some light offroading and disrupted the screw..


2012-10-08_18-28-24_65 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-08_18-28-14_173 by zgensler31, on Flickr

hadnt saved up enough yet for new tires, so to craiglists i went. i found a set of 265/75/16 yokohama geolander ats for a good deal, and picked them up the next day for $175. $24 mounting cost later i was all set with some new shoes.


2012-10-10_16-41-57_127 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-10_16-49-10_969 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-12_17-53-31_277 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-12_17-53-46_569 by zgensler31, on Flickr

these tires are awesome for anyone looking for a highway friendly all terrain. they hooked up great in rain, in light and heavy snow, dirt, and werent horrible in mud even. they look pretty good as well.

right around this same time last fall i attacked the under carriage of my t4r. i spent a lot of time underneath it wire a grinder with my wire wheel, a steel brush and some rust-oleum cans. i didnt have any major rust issues at all, especially for the salt filled winters it has seen, but i wanted to clean up and eliminate any surface rust there was down there. i plan on doing this to some degree each fall. i dont have a lot of pictures, as it was a lot of work and its hard to get pictures under there. but i wire wheeled and brushed off any rust i could get to, and spryed with r-o self etching primer, and the rubberized undercoat they make. started in the back and made it the whole way forward.

keep in mind these pictures the paint is still wet, and it is the rubberized unbdercoat, so it does have a texture to it, any metal was smooth before priming and painting.

2012-10-12_18-27-42_515 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-12_18-27-52_215 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-10-12_18-28-15_770 by zgensler31, on Flickr

and i did in the process of this remove my running boards. never to be reinstalled. i love it, and every chick that has ever been in it hates it...


2012-11-11_15-50-33_440 by zgensler31, on Flickr


2012-11-11_15-50-43_661 by zgensler31, on Flickr

just last week i replaced all of the sway bar endlink bushings...except for the drivers side front. apparently the endlink was replaced with an aftermarket one that is a tad bigger in diameter as i could not get the bushings to go on.
so i dont have any pictures of that just yet, as exciting as they are, but i will once i get it finished up.
 
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This will be my Current Stats and future plans list..
As far as future plans for this truck, well I don't know really. Its gonna be a slow build as money comes in. Obviously on the wish list is a super charger. Though I doubt I'll ever be able to afford one. Possibly a lift. I'd like to buy a welder and build some bumpers. I don't have a desired purpose for it, I just love working on my truck and as it becomes more capable I will start venturing into some wheeling and such.

For the immediate future-
-MOTOR AND 5-SPEED SWAP!
-going to be adding a black strip across the front of my hood. About an inch wide so that I can eliminate some chipping and rusty spots on it. If I don't like the look I'll get a bug shield.-Currently Plasti-dipped it to see how I like it. will probably paint it once weather clears.
-looking into stereos lately.
-and I also want a remote start for the winters and to have a remote lock/unlock feature. Possible alarm with it?
-general maintenance will all be taken care of this summer. All oils bushings and hopefully lbjs. Along with fuel filter.
-wanting to paint the valve covers while they're off to change seals.


The rest...who knows...
 
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An ad popped up in one of my save searches on craiglsit, for some bfg tires and wheels. turned out to be for three BFG AT KOs and one RUGGED TRAIL TA, all on 4 Tundra 17" wheels, all for $300! the guy got them from another tundra owner that plowed with them so the wheels were of course in real rough shape. paint flaking off, corrosion..all visible from the photos, he planned on painting them black but underestimated how much work it would take, so is getting out from them. fortunately enough, i have some connections, and these wheels were scaring me off..

my brother and i go up to meet the guy that night, we get there and were looking at the wheels. theyre in pretty rough shape, paint flaking off all over them, some corrosion in the bare spots, minor pitting, only one center cap...

so i offered the guy $250. he thought about it and said how bout $300 and you take those four other tires there too. i take a look at them. its 4 more bfg rugged trail ta tires. all about 1/4 inch or more of evenly worn tread. one had some dry rot but seemed very usable still.

so i took them.

so in recap, i got 4 corroded 17" tundra wheels. 3 265'7-'17 BFG AT KOs at about 1/2-3/4 tread. and 5 BFG Rugged trail of about half tread. and one center cap...
i was loving the deal...

heres the tires and wheels when i got them home...


DSC02715 by zgensler31, on Flickr


DSC02717 by zgensler31, on Flickr


DSC02722 by zgensler31, on Flickr


DSC02719 by zgensler31, on Flickr


DSC02720 by zgensler31, on Flickr



so i get them home and go to town on them.
i picked up a 3M brand paint stripper wheel, its basically a plasticy steel wool thing on a drill bit. it was like 8 bucks used two of them to do all four wheels. and it worked awesome.

got them down to this...


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr

had them dismounted...

Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr

and now my brother has them at work(conveniently enough, he works in a metal fab/welding/machine shop making diesel motor parts for ge locomotives) to glass bead blast them...pics to come...

so my brother sent me a couple messages after work today...:whoo:

1. hes working on the wheels and sent me some pics... and 2. he got the boss man to powder coat them black once he is finished for a pretty good price....a case of beer..:wow:

heres the pics of where theyre at...


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr

this last one shows where they were when he got them(back) and how they are when hes done with them(front)


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr

ohhh, and i sold the four extra tires i got, last night, for $225 so im now only about $75 and a case of beer into this project right now.... :confused: how did i stumble onto this deal???
 
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I went ahead and painted the flares today. Gloss black. I sanded with 100, taped it all off, and wiped them down with acetone. Then sprayed 6 maybe 7 light coats with rust-o-leum automotive enamel for plastics. Followed instructions on the can and let it all dry. Peeled the tape off and im a happy camper.


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


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I will be painting the bumpers soon to match. Along with a grill mod. Wheels are at thepaint shop. Hpping to have them this week. Cant wait til its all together.
 
Tire wise ive got the three c load bfg ats on the front porch. Along with an e load range rugged trail. Slight cupping but good tread. Pics can be seen above.

I came across a craigslist deal. 4 bfg mud terrains off a rubicon. So 255-75-17. All evenly worn. 2 with little more treadthen the others. $100.


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr


Untitled by zgensler31, on Flickr

Thinking of picking these up and running them until I can find another used bfg at?
Ive also considered picking up one or two tread wright at clones in c load to run with the ones that I have?

Are the km1's worth it? What would you do? Your $.02 is needed. Im kinda lost and ive smelled alot of spray paint fumes today.
 
I'd probably run the KM1's for the time being till you can afford a new set or run into a better deal. Those should last 10-15k at least and look to be in good shape.

Nice work so far and I feel your pain about the spray paint fumes. I was out of it after doing my cladding and bumpers. Looks good though!
 
Alright so ive made some prettybig updates in the last month, just havent had time to update the thread. So bere it goes.


First off I painted my flares and bumpers gloss black.just gonna copy and paste this post from another thread to save some time...

[MENTION=78000]zgensler31[/MENTION] post some pictures here

In progress...











Once I got the bumpers and satoshi type grill mode completed...badge to come soon











And my wheels.. not perfect by any means, but they got powdered for free and I got them practically free. Should be mounted friday.





Thats all i got for now. Just got my fourth tire and it should be here thursday so ill be mounting these friday.
 
Then in the mean time, I got a cel, P0302.
i got new ngk plugs and wires...no fix.
Moved the coil packs around...didnt follow.
Got a used oem fuel injector on ebay for $20
Installed it...was running good, then I saw the puddle of gas on the ground.
The other two injectors that I pulled began leaking. So new seals and o rings...all good.

So far so good. And while I had it all apart I painted the intake plenum with vht engine enamel and baked them in the oven. Also got new felpro gaskets for them as mine were trash.







Whenever i get around to doing the valve cover gaskets I plan on painting the covers the same red also.

Will also be using random tinkering time to pull some of the smallerbrackets that are all rusted up out, sand them and refinish them in black to clean up the engine bay a bit.
 
I got a fourth bfg at finally as well. Stumpled upon an ebay deal. Got one about half tread, for 72.99 shipped to my door. So I got my wheels mounted up.

No real story there so.....picture time!







Actuslly tnere is a story. Ive only ever had one center cap for these wheels. Well taking picures of my old wheels I noticed that my caps from the split 3 spoke wheels were similar. So I triedthem out. And they fit! Who knew? I didnt! And look pretty good, so planning on painting them and then running those, cuz getting the tundra ones are like $100.

 
Upcoming mods/to do list

Find a way to mount my badge for my satoshi type grill mode.
Repaint my center caps
Find bumper fender flare, starting to annoy me.
Tundra brake upgrade along with rear brake shoes


And ive been looking into nead units lately. My dad got 2010 Tundra crew max a couple weeks ago and I am totally jealous of his bluetooth technology. And the 5.7 holy crap is that a beast or what?


Anyways I think ive found the one I want, based simply on price appearance and options, idont really know much about the audio capabilities and such so comment appreciated on this or comparable units you might feel are better.

Kenwood DPX500BT

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113DPX...N&nvpair=FFBluetooth_Audio_Streaming|Built-in
 
Sold my old wheels and tires. Wheels went to a buddy who has two tacomaswho loved the split three spokes. I dont get it, never really liked them myself. He gave me 155 bucks for them. I sold the 4 yokohamas for 100 bucks to some random cragslist stranger...

So the running total on my wheels,
-300 for 4 tundra wheels and 8 bfgs.
+225 for four of the bfgs
-75 for a matchong bfg
+155 for my original alloys
+100 for the yokos


=+105

I love this forum. I got pad 105 bucks tl getsome sweet new rim and way better tires!
 
Also ive been kicking an idea around. I found a 98 sr5, v6 five speed about 2 hours away, that has a minor front end collision. Guy has it listed at 800 obo. Ive been thinking of picking it up, swapping in the motor and trans and transfer case, and then parting it out.

Unfortuntely I cant find a ton of info on 5 speed swaps. Although I would think that this aould be the simplest, and almost idiot proof way to do it...just swap all of the computers, wiring harnesses and such directly from 4runner to 4runner...

What do you guys think?
Also if you have any links to swaps please pass them on, ive really only found one thats similar, and its incomplete.

The ad...
http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pts/4133814745.html

Only thread ive really found...
http://www.ttora.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159482
 
Ha, I've been thinking about that picking up that wrecked 4runner as well. From what I've read, the auto-manual swap is quite the pain in the ass. Nice ride.

Edit: Why would you want to swap the higher mileage motor into your 4runner?
 
Ha, I've been thinking about that picking up that wrecked 4runner as well. From what I've read, the auto-manual swap is quite the pain in the ass. Nice ride.

Edit: Why would you want to swap the higher mileage motor into your 4runner?

Ive been getting fits with the mine. Ive been dealing with excessive blow by since a few months after I bought it. I believe it to be a bad valve seal...

And over the past few months its developed a missfire, p0302 which basnt turned out to be an easy fix (tried plugs, wires, moved the coil packs around, replacing the injector helped but srill misses) starting to fear low compression.

Im just over 141k miles now so its not too much higher. Idk...

Have you spoken to the owner yet? Im just curious as to the condition of the interior and options it has for when it would come to parting it out.
 

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