Built to last: A 3rd Gen 4runner Story.

[Konkordmusk]

Hey everyone, finally getting around to creating my build thread. I have been lurking here for a while, and have a build thread posted up on t4r.org. But, I plan on overlanding and doing long, extended trips with this truck, and have already done a few. I plan on more. Here's the story:

I owned a 2001 Jetta Vr6 for some years. I loved that car, but someone ran me off the road and the damage was irreversible. I'm not sure what made me decide to get a 4runner overall, but I purchased it early in January of 2014 with 211,291 miles on it. Here is a picture just hours after buying it.

Then, only a few days after, began the maintenance checklisting and general inspection. I have always worked in automotive service, and only about a year ago transferred to Heavy Equipment service.

I found the truck to be very capable in its stock form. I was able to dolly-tow a friends older corolla who's headgasket had gone bad. Brought it back to our school parking lot, and did a "field repair"

The first upgrade, was to transplant the double-din from the Jetta into the truck. It's an AVICD3. Great little unit, but it's showing its age recently. GPS signal is excellent on it however.

At the automotive repair shop I worked at before, my specialty was suspension and alignments. I've aligned everything from a 1972 Maserati Khamsin, to a 2016 TA Dodge Viper and everything in between. This knowledge has helped me to plan my suspension lift and related parts, in an effort to do it right and not twice. The truck went on the rack for an alignment after replacing the worn out steering rack bushings. Everything was made happy.

Then, began the collection and installation of suspension lift parts!

OME 861 springs, Bilstein 5100's, Toytec Eibach springs.

The only issue at the time...was it was a VERY tall lift for such teeny tiny tires (265's at the time.)
But oh well, all in due process.

After all the work, it was time to go out and play! Prairie City near Sacramento, CA. 02-08-2014

Fabbed up a nifty little mount for my Nexus 7 tablet. This has since been removed, I did not like the location. Couldn't fit my coffee cup in there anymore!

On 03-10-2014, a friend upgraded his wheels and tires on his FJ, and gave me his old setup for free. They were 275-70-17. Okay, still not as big as I wanted to go, but getting there! Can't beat free.

From 211k miles to 217k miles in about 3 months.

04-27-2014, installed ToyTec stainless extended front brake lines.

07-05-2014, truck turned 220k on the clock.

Picked up a used set of BFG AT's for 100, in 315-70-17, close to where I want to be size-wise, but BFGs tend to run small. They measured out a hair over 33".

 

[Konkordmusk]

Took her out to Hollister Hills on 07-20-2014. I was forced to remove the rear bumper, I really didn't check for tire clearance with the bigger tires before going out. Oh well, a great time nonetheless, and it's just more inspiration for me to build my rear bumper!

First lighting mod, I installed a 21.5" light bar behind the grille using L brackets bolted onto the bumper. I have since undone this mod.

A picture I think most of you enjoy, brewing beer with my dad! He makes REALLY good custom beers. I usually try to take some cases when I visit and share them with my friends, but somehow they always disappear before I can share.....

I decided, knowing my future plans, that I would need or at least would feel much more confident in my braking ability if I upgraded my calipers. So I installed some 231mm calipers, meant for a 1st generation Tundra. Blank rotors as well, I don't believe in drilled/slotted.

Annnnnnd my first armor! Stubbs welding SKO sliders.

Installed some little rock lights, they are on the dim side, but I have since upgraded.

Yet again, I pulled a car for another friend! This one actually was our brainchild. We almost completely shaved the engine bay, tucked all the wiring, installed fully automated air-ride suspension, this that and the next thing.

Got my sliders welded on! 7018AC Lincoln electrodes, stringer bead for the root pass and weave for the hot pass. Turned out great!
I have some pics, but more importantly, these cool time lapse videos

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Re-visited prairie city 12-01-2014

ISR Mod complete with dirty engine bay

A photo of the TA Dodge Viper I mentioned in the first post. Oh my god this thing was a fun drive.

Re-purposing a battery cover for a rider pallet jack into a mount for my Blue Sea fuse box.

 

[Konkordmusk]

Made some SERIOUSLY budget status ditch light mounts. But hey, they have held up through some hard abuse. I think I'll keep them

Adventure time, to Carmel CA:

Picked up a 1st generation 4runner Roll-bar:

Installed a new radiator, transmission cooler, all hoses, all belts and flushed coolant.

The goal and idea for the roll bar is to install a craftsman double wide, single drawer toolbox. Here is the mockup:

But the rollbar actually needed to be modified to fit perfectly onto the wheel well humps inside the truck. After some super precise measuring, I created an uber accurate jig accurate to 0.00000000001 degrees, seen here

Installed in the truck!

A little side note, the truck turned 227k somewhere during the toolbox installation. 02-23-2015

Got the toolbox mounted on the rollbar. If it can support my fat ***, it can support anything

Picked up some Sequoia wheels, swapped the 315 BFGs over........

And then like, 1 week later, bought some used 35" Procomps....hahaha

 

[Konkordmusk]

Got my secondary battery installed and setup:

Moved that little relay box forward to an unused hole in the fender:

Remember that battery cover from a rider pallet jack I said I repurposed to make my fuse box bracket? I used some more metal from that same cover in order to create a base plate for my secondary battery!

There was a harness that was under that bracket that needed to be extended and re-routed out of the way:

More battery parts:

I LOVE this tool for crimping my cable ends.

Using a very small inverter, I dissassembled it and wrote up a wiring diagram for it:

Went ahead and installed the 110v outlets forward of the gearshifter.

Working on mounting the inverter, cutting and extending the wiring and routing it and so on so forth.

Everything installed!

Bought all the tubing for my rear bumper! At the time of building this, I did not have overlanding and expeditions in mind. I plan on, in the future, either adding to the current bumper or completely redesigning it.

Beginning the bends:

Yes, I stick welded almost this entire thing except for a few mig welds when I ran out of 6013 rod.

Took a break from building the bumper to actually check my flex clearance this time!

Visited Lost Coast, CA. 04-20-2015

Only had one oopsie this trip....and it was nothing more than a motivator to re-gear!

Back to the rear bumper...I bought a dimpling die, and dimpled some of the filler plates.

Here is one of the very few mig welds I threw on this thing haha

Who test fits their custom bumper while their truck is insanely dirty? This guy! Check out that body line to bumper tube parallel-ness though!

 

[Konkordmusk]

More progress on the rear bumper, getting very close to completion:

Created, dimpled and welded the side filler plates:

I had a bit of a tough time deciding how to fill the corner piece. Sure, it was easy enough to bend a plate and fit it, but that wasn't enough for me. All the other plates are dimpled, why shouldn't this one be too?
My solution was to cut an old forklift steer tire in half (the rubber for industrial tires is bonded to a metal rim and I rid the ring of all rubber) and use it as a press jig. I then torched a hole larger than what the dimple would be in the bottom of the jig, and pressed the plate between the two halves of the ring.

Pre-paint, checking everything one last time, used black to help show any imperfections:

05-30-2015 Broken U-joint on rear driveshaft

I put it in 4wd, removed the rear driveshaft, and drove from Palmdale to a scrapyard in Hollywood who had a rear driveshaft, and slapped it on haha

06-06-2015 Hollister Hills again, getting a little tilted!

Stuffing that 35"

Totally chooched my rear diff on that trip, even MORE motivation for a re-gear

 

[Konkordmusk]

5.29's installed!

This couch totally would have fit inside the truck...if I didn't have a sweet 1st gen roll bar! Oh well, this totally beats all you guys with rooftop tents, I present to you, the RTC, or RoofTopCouch!

Time to get a sleeping platform, drawer thingie built. Let's get to it:

The front 5.29 gears showed up, I was finally able to use 4wd again haha

 

[Konkordmusk]

Didn't have time to get the platform covered with carpeting before I trekked to Big Sur, but it loads up nicely!

And so begins the front bumper build!

I wanted to be unique, I wanted to make sure my bumper was unlike any other bumper out there. Here is one of the facets that make it stand out. The front face plate, is NOT perpendicular to the ground. It is actually -10º.

Here's another example of uniqueness: very intricate angling on the plates:

Got all the tubes bent...remembering how much of a pain in the *** the side tubes were to do with only a 4.5" radius 1.5"tubing die at my disposal makes me not want to explain it here...just enjoy it haha

 

[Konkordmusk]

Picked up my new travel companion...2006 Rocky Mountain Slayer!

Installed a subwoofer under the seat. Nifty little thing:

Little more bumper progress, got the winch in.

Visited Big Sur again:

This is currently my sleeping setup, its a huge but comfortable mattress out of my dads old toy hauler trailer. I usually fold it in half, push it forward and load all my gear behind it. Then at camp, I unload, and unfold, and...ZZzzZZzzZZzzz

Note the mounted fan!

Alright, it got to be time for some REAL 35"s. So I guinea pig'd, I bought the brand brand new, probably still not very available, WildPeak MT01.

How do YOU lift your truck

 

[MandAtaco]

Lookin great! You've done some nice mods to that thing!

 

[Konkordmusk]

Reorganized my primary battery to allow fitment of my winch solenoid on a custom tray I fab'd.

Plug welded as well as on the outside.

Dipped into the Western end of the Rubicon, went as far as Miller Lake and backed out, I was solo and it was getting late.

Local 4runner meetup, 07-06-2016

Did my projector retrofit:

Bought some clear corners, just to bake them, take them apart and paint the backings black. I really just wanted to get rid of the orange blob the OEM ones had.

Picked up some SCS SR8's from the owner of SCS himself:

All black wasn't cutting it for me...

Maintenance is paramount!

 

[Konkordmusk]

And of course....I GOTTA align it, as always! I think this was my 6th alignment on my truck haha

Top of Sonora Pass after a downhill biking trip at Mammoth Mountain:

And then lastly, but not least, went out with some other members of ExPo (@v_man, @mtn4rnr, @rochmpr and others) to Slick Rock Road trail, Alpine Lakes, CA

Someone photoshopped my truck to look like Mr. T cause I had recovery chains on the front hahaha

And with that, we are all up to date! But stay tuned...it's due for more mods, more upgrades and more adventures!

 

[v_man]

Nice write up , looking forward to more....