MTD's ForeRunner Build - Narrated by Morgan Freeman

[MTD]

MTD's ForeRunner
1999 Toyota 4Runner
Imperial Jade​

This build stems from the sale of my 05' Tacoma to pay for school among other things. The Runner was at one time my Dad's who picked it up from an older women in Michigan. She kept it very clean. It will never be the same again..... The plan is to build a capable overland vehicle, just enough to get my girlfriend (soon to be fiance) and I to where we want to go. It's going to be a long ride so please enjoy!

Current Photo

Mods List:

Lighting:
FX-R Retrofit Kit 55W with Apollo Shrouds
4X China 18W LED Lights
Homebrew Light Bar
Depo Clear Marker Lights
18W China LED Reverse Light
Custom Revers Light Braket (works with hatch open)
LED Dome lights
COB LED Map Lights (Super bright)
35W 3000K HID Blazer Fog Lights
120W 22 in LED Spot Light Bar
120W 22 in LED Flood Light Bar
Rigid Industries LED Lightbar Mounting Brackets
Fog Light Anytime
55W Hella 700FF

Suspension:
Rough Country Nitro Rear Shocks
Rough Country Nitro Front Struts
OME 880 Front Springs
OME 906 Rear Springs
OME 881 Front Springs
OME 891 Rear Springs
Icon Coilovers

Electronics:
Sony XAV601BT Headunit
Alpine SWE-12S4 12 Inch Sub
GB SPST Rocker Switches
12V Socket Behind Dash (permanent phone charger)
Zune - Permanent Mount
Ultra Gauge
Midland 13-882B CB (1975)
Blue Sea Systems 5029 12 circuit Fuse Block
50 Amp Circuit Breaker
Wilson 2 ft. Black Fiberglass Antenna
Blue Sea systems 5028 6 Circuit Fuse Block
50 Amp Circuit Breaker
Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compact Subwoofer

Performance:
ISR Mod

Interior:
Weather Tech Digital Fit Floor Mats

Exterior:
Dee Zee Mud Flaps
CBI Antenna Mount

Armor:
4xInnovations Front Bumper
RAT Products Full Coverage Skid Plates
4xInnovations Rear Tire Carrier Bumper
4xInnovations Sliders

Recovery:
XRC8 Comp Winch
20k Snatch Block
20K Tree Saver
Walmart strap
2x 3/4 Shackles

Wheels and Tires:
Painted Stock Alloys
General Grabber AT2 LT265/75/R16


Overland Gear:
Tepui Autana Roof Top Tent
Custom Built Storage/Battery Box
Blue Sea Systems Dual Battery System with Odyssey 31M AGM Battery
5050 LED RTT Tent Lights
​

 

[MTD]

The beginning:

I can't find any bone stock pictures of the truck so we are starting at the first mod which was my 55w FX-R retrofit. Notice there are no corner lamps? The oven got a little too warm while I was putting them back together after painting

Next came the sound system, this Sony head unit is probably the best one I have put into any of my vehicles. The Alpine subwoofer and amp are great too, you can really tell what quality gives you.




The Chinese 18W led spot lights, they worked pretty well for what I had paid for them. I think I picked them up for a little over $80 from a kmotoring on eBay. The "light bar" they are on was just an aluminum tube from Fleet Farm and a pair of comer braces cut down so that they sat lower on the bumper the total with hardware came to like $15.50 or something like that. :whoo:

Got new Depo corners to replace the ones I melted. :happens:

Next came my OME lift Rough Country shocks. I did all the work myself in the parking lot seen in most of my pictures. If I had to do it again I would have went with Bilstien 5100's versus the RC struts, but the rears I would not have changed at all they are great. Note that there is not much noticeable lift because 880 and 906 springs were used.

Apparently this is the only picture I have after the lift...

I couldn't see what I was doing when loading/unloading the boat for bow fishing so I made myself a mount and got an 18W Chinese led flood. This sucker is bright! I also really like it because my mount that I fabricated, allows me to use the hatch and have the light still be effective.

Next came the HID's in the stock fog housings. I read several threads that told me that it was impossible to do it so that the housings would be water tight after the conversion, I deiced to prove them wrong. You can look at my write up here:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/146978-[how-]-sealed-hid-factory-fog-lights.html

I painted my wheels to match my headlights. A lot of time with prep and paint and did a 2 part clear on them the look sharp!

Then my younger brother didn't look back while backing up and it was time for a new bumper. The best picture I have of before the bumper replacement was this one next to a super clean 4th gen.

 

[MTD]

Went up to 4xInnovations and hung out with Adam and Ben for a while, a week later I was back up there and we were working on this. I went with the full hoops in the hope of keeping my retrofit in one piece.

I must say though, 4x does a great job with their products and would definitely recommend them! Plus their parts generally look awesome!

Got it all painted and the 4inch round fog lights installed. I also took just a little time to convert the lights to HID for that added punch. Halogen just doesn't cut it

I also had got my new tires, General Grabber AT2's, the same weekend. The shop that put them on though deiced that I would be ok to just destroy the paint on my wheels when they did it. The tires are great though and have a pretty aggressive tread pattern.

I got my LED Light bar with the improved lenses from China then, it looked sweet and was super excited to get it on the truck. Unfortunately when I powered it up I got a nasty surprise. They are sending replacement parts to fix it and since I have a lot of experience with LED systems for my bow fishing boat I can do it. It just stinks I couldn't put it on right away...

I got my tube mounts so I said screw it and put it on with the three burnt out. No sense in not using it if it works... Some output pics are bellow, keep in mind they were taken with a camera phone so they are not the best.

Got some Weather Tech floor mats yesterday Just in time for winter too, I had just began to snow as I was putting this puppies in.

Removed the 906 springs to put into my dad's 97 T4R so he can pull his boat... I got a set of 891's to replace them though arty:

Got my replacement light bar for my favorite price

Fab'ed up a quick bracket out of a 1 in aluminum flat bar :becky:

Output pics!!!

55W FX-R Retrofit Low

55W FX-R Retrofit High

See next post for rest of pics

 

[MTD]

The Light Bars :faint2:

Finally got the rear light pics all updated. Works great and the best part is it works with the hatch up!!!

Installed the Midland CB radio that my dad gave me. It is really great I love the vintage look but it is old so it will end up being replaced by a new more powerful modern unit.

As funny as it is I think the fuse block is one of my favorite mods yet. It really cleans up the engine bay and simplifies any future wiring. It is really nice to be able to have all the fuses in one place as well and if I needed can shut off all the accessories attached to it. I used 4 GA battery wire with solder on terminal nuts so that I could get the exact length that I needed.

So this was a heck of a weekend! I had Ryan, [MENTION=101896]isu2014[/MENTION], come up from Iowa to build his headlights and have a mini mod day. I personally was too busy to take any pics but here are some that Ryan took! Here is the list:

• FX-R Headlight for the Tacoma
• Hella 700FF's Covert to HID
• My Icon's
• Toytec Panhard Drop
• RAT Skid plates (too cold to do
• Ryan's Satoshi Grille

Test Fit

Done! That was easy lol!

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http://www.tacomaworld.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/388373/cat/500

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[MTD]

Turns out that the Retrofit Source screwed up and sent us a RHD projector and a LHD projector... Luckily they are sending us one for free of charge now

 

[MTD]

Winch installed but the clutch won't stay engaged after all that work.... It may be because I had to grind off some of the clutch lever to get it to fit into the bumper. The bumper must have been designed for a winch that did not have a handle on the side. It would not engage all of the way so I added some clearance, but I think it may have cooked something inside the gear box from the heat made while grinding.

 

[MTD]

Just waiting to go somewhere...

In other news I don't fit in the garage any more so I will be picking up a thule Tracker system to mount the tent too. That way it can come off quick and go back on really quick.

 

[MTD]

Couple days ago I added some turn buckles to hold down my Cargo box so that It wont hit the ceiling while wheeling or if I (knock on wood) roll it. I will need to get some thru bolt eylets though to put into the box because the screw in ones I used will probably rip out if I tighten the turnbuckle too much... I also took some "nice" pictures of it for the Carbo box thread so I figured I would post them here too.

 

[MTD]

I also installed my new sub (Kenwood KSC-SW11)! It's just a little guy, its outside dimensions are only 11x7.5x3 I think. It fits my application perfectly and first impressions to sound quality is that it is amazing. I will have a full review later tonight after I play with it a little more.

Test fit went well I couldn't believe how perfectly it fit there, worst case scenario was that It would float around in the cubby, but it was able to just tuck up under there!!

I need to do wire management, but I was at my grandmothers house (on an internship and I am living with her) so I don't have my wiring kit with me so It is what it is until saturday when I get down to my shop in platteville.

The power leads, which were included, every thing for install was included actually!

The drawer maxes out just before it gets to the sub! The picture doesn't show it well but there is a very small space there!

 

[MTD]

Update time! It's been a while so I have quite a bit.

First things first, I ended up installing some 5050 led's in the tent so that we don't have to bring up the lantern into it anymore. I also put some on the bottom for the annex. It was a pretty simple mod but a really good one if you are going to be camping in the dark :facepalm:

Write up here: [HOW-TO]: LED Strip Lighting For Roof Top Tent (RTT) - Tacoma World Forums

Next I got a bug up my butt to do a dual battery setup so I built a box out of some scrap would and upholstered it in Mossy Oak! It was not my first choice of carpeting, but it was what they had in stock lol, its growing on me though!

 

[MTD]

Here are just a few pics of my dual battery setup. This project came together very nicely i think :whoo:

Some hi_res photos of the stuff from yesterday:

My BAG aka big ***** ground lol

 

[MTD]

Well, Cassidy and I took a short camping trip to tower hill state park along the Wisconsin river a few weekends back. It was a beautiful park, no wheeling but that's okay, here are some pics and RTT fun lol:

 

[MTD]

So my Thule roof rack that I have had my RTT attached to for the past couple of months has caused a terrible rattle in the roof of the 4runner. The front half of the roof is not supported because of the sunroof so this is what has been causing the rattle. there have been several post where people have stiffened the roof using flat bar from the inside, but I didn't want to pull my headliner and risk damaging it. I decide that I would take a different approach and build a flat rack that will more evenly distribute the load on the roof. I built this with basic materials that can be found at your local hardware store and used a harbor freight welder to assemble it. Now I have no more rattles that tent is secure and it sits lower on the roof. :ylsmoke:

This is what it looked like on the top side before I welded it. Nice and flush, so that the tent sits even on the rack.

 

[MTD]

Yesterday I added some turn buckles to hold down my Cargo box so that It wont hit the ceiling while wheeling or if it (knock on wood) roll it. I will need to get some thru bolt eylets though to put into the box because the screw in ones I used will probably rip out if I tighten the turnbuckle too much... I also took some "nice" pictures of it for the Carbo box thread so I figured I would post them here too.

I also installed my new sub (Kenwood KSC-SW11)! It's just a little guy, its outside dimensions are only 11x7.5x3 I think. It fits my application perfectly and first impressions to sound quality is that it is amazing. I will have a full review later tonight after I play with it a little more.

Test fit went well I couldn't believe how perfectly it fit there, worst case scenario was that It would float around in the cubby, but it was able to just tuck up under there!!

I need to do wire management, but I was at my grandmothers house (on an internship and I am living with her) so I don't have my wiring kit with me so It is what it is until saturday when I get down to my shop in platteville.

The power leads, which were included, every thing for install was included actually!

The drawer maxes out just before it gets to the sub! The picture doesn't show it well but there is a very small space there!