1st gen 4Runner Wind Wings

[CorkOrangutan]

So my last truck, an 87 Xtra cab had the wind wings in the doors and I really loved how much air they got you. Now my 85 4Runner has the one piece glass and they leave me feeling empty inside... and hot. So, some doors came up on Craigslist that have said wind wings. Has anybody torn apart the doors on our early pickups/Runners and can tell me how the insides are different? Will the mechanisms for the two doors interchange or are there different mouting points for all the mechanical bits? I've read on other forums and can't find anyone who's swapped single windows to wind wings. And no, I don't care that they "all" make that annoying whistle or leak or look dumb or anything. Thanks for any help

 

[Willie Hardigan]

I feel the same about the ''wind wings'' and have just changed the whole doors,I have torn apart the doors on many older toyota ( my father owns a shop that restores old toyota trucks and 4runners) but to be honest I don't remember if its easy to switch out the insides( it was ten years ago...) I'm guessing that if I painted and switched the whole door then that was the easiest solution.

 

[4Rescue]

I think my Wind-wings are one of the biggest things I'm gonna miss with the move to the 95/2nd Gen. I'd just swap the doors...

Cheers

Dave

 

[AxleIke]

The wing window's are mounted to the front slide of the main window. They mount with bolts in the door, this is easy to drill but I'm pretty sure your doors will already have the holes. My 87 had the hole for the bolts for the "full window" in the door, even though I had wings. There is also a one or two screws (I can't remember exactly) under the door weather strip which mount the window slide to the top of the door. You just pull the strip out of the slot and should see 2 (or one) holes up there. If you have those, and the lower holes, it will bolt in easily.

The trick is that Toyota used 3 separate glass's for these trucks and even though they are very close, they have slight differences, so you need to swap over the regulator, the glass, and the slides (front and back) from the donor truck doors. They were delineated by the color of the glass, so, if you had a grey tint, and tried to put in a gold tint, the window would jam in the slides and cause all sorts of issues.

 

[bkg]

Definitely easiest to change doors. Even if you do the glass/frame swap, you may still have to move mirrors as well.

 

[NorthernWoodsman]

I think my Wind-wings are one of the biggest things I'm gonna miss with the move to the 95/2nd Gen. I'd just swap the doors...

Cheers

Dave

You know you can get doors with the wings for this body style, right? I have them on my '94. Poor man's A/C...

 

[CorkOrangutan]

Thanks for the advice. If I could find good doors in my paint color, that would be an option, but I'm handy and can swap mechanicals around sooo...
Either way the doors that I did find were electric and I don't want power windows, so back to looking...