Utah KJ
Free State of Florida
Next month marks four years of ownership of my 1997 4Runner. I worked as a manager at a car dealership in SLC when we took this truck in on a new KIA for $1,800.00. I quickly bought it before it went to recon for that price and chanced that there was nothing major wrong with it. The front rotors were warped, at 197k miles, it was due for a new timing belt, the valve cover gaskets were leaking and the rear latch was sketch. According to CarFax, I was the 8th owner so true maintenance history cannot be known. Here's what it looked like after I made the lot techs wash and vacuum it for me:
Patafari 2011 was 30 days out at this point and I had my Jeep all ready to go to The Maze District with friends from all over who made plans for this for more than a year. Tragically, one of my friend's from IL had her Jeep go down with a catastrophic failure and was going to miss the event after all the planning. I decided to lend her my Jeep and fix the untested 4Runner up to go to one of the most isolated areas in the US, but it was a Toyota so I figured the risk was small.
Thanks to the likes of Kurt @ Cruiser Outfitters, I was able to get some Land Cruiser springs for the back and locate a Tacoma front spacer and I was ready to go with my $100 lift and 235/85R16 tires. I don't have many pictures of what it looked like at this point, but here's one:
During the 4 days in The Maze, both CV boots tore spewing grease all over the place and chunks of metal came flying out of the rear drive shaft double cardan joint, despite the terrible racket, I got though the desert and back home to SLC. I replaced the front CV axles and had the rear drive shaft rebuilt and have been relatively trouble free since.
Over the years, I added OME struts/ springs in the front and shocks in the rear. I have plans to add an ARB bumper, some kind of traction device (locker or LSD) and CBI bumper. My truck now has 250K miles on the ODO and over-all, it's been the best $1,800.00 vehicle I've ever owned.
Patafari 2011 was 30 days out at this point and I had my Jeep all ready to go to The Maze District with friends from all over who made plans for this for more than a year. Tragically, one of my friend's from IL had her Jeep go down with a catastrophic failure and was going to miss the event after all the planning. I decided to lend her my Jeep and fix the untested 4Runner up to go to one of the most isolated areas in the US, but it was a Toyota so I figured the risk was small.
Thanks to the likes of Kurt @ Cruiser Outfitters, I was able to get some Land Cruiser springs for the back and locate a Tacoma front spacer and I was ready to go with my $100 lift and 235/85R16 tires. I don't have many pictures of what it looked like at this point, but here's one:
During the 4 days in The Maze, both CV boots tore spewing grease all over the place and chunks of metal came flying out of the rear drive shaft double cardan joint, despite the terrible racket, I got though the desert and back home to SLC. I replaced the front CV axles and had the rear drive shaft rebuilt and have been relatively trouble free since.
Over the years, I added OME struts/ springs in the front and shocks in the rear. I have plans to add an ARB bumper, some kind of traction device (locker or LSD) and CBI bumper. My truck now has 250K miles on the ODO and over-all, it's been the best $1,800.00 vehicle I've ever owned.