pb4ugotobed

Luckily for me, I am a toyota tech so most of the work I've done here is more inconvenient crap to do than scratch my head and say 'what the hell' kind of thing... But I've made a whole lotta progress in the last couple months since I bought it. here's a readers digest versiou... Bought it, $800, AC didn't do anything, rear window wouldn't work, key wouldn't come out of the ignition switch, wipers were inop, alternator was dead, sunroof was broken, suspension was shot, a couple windows didn't work too well, half the light bulbs were burnt out, it didn't run for crap... lots of stuff. I Started digging into it, 0 compression cyl 6. pulled it apart, the (if i'm remembering correctly, might be vice versa of this) intake valve on 6 and exhaust valve right next to it had the valve seats completely beat out of the head, and the cam was wiped out. Head was useless. Got lucky, found a head in a local junkyard for $80 bucks. Cleaned everything up, lapped all the valves, replaced valve seals, lots of other stuff. threw a new alternator on it, fired right up. Have been driving it daily ever since then. Step one was taking off those awful running boards. They left trails of rust everywhere i went and looked like crap.


http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...unguzeng/1.jpg

This wasn't long after I got it. Those wheels sucked, and the BFG All Terrains the previous owner had on it also sucked. Running boards removed (creatively i might add...). what you see in the back half of the truck is what the whole thing looked like. As i said, neglected. the clearcoat is completely gone... but that's a later project. for now make it not look like total ass, so I took some polish from our detail department by the lead detailer's recommendations. With minimal work it started shining up pretty good (see front half of truck).

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...unguzeng/2.jpg

After a quick trip out to the woods with my daughter. She likes to see things go splash

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...unguzeng/3.jpg

Did a lot more work to it, ditched those crappy BFG's for the Kumho's that were on my nissan and got a new set of wheels for it from the service manager. Thanks a lot!!!! Way nicer than the old crappy ones, and balance a lot easier as well!

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...unguzeng/4.jpg

Got a set of real tires for it finally, same aluminum wheels as before. Went with 33's, because the 3 liter wouldn't turn anything better on a daily basis worth the crap. More to come

Next up... Suspension. In the back of the truck I have LC coils, BJ spacers, track bar bracket, and some other stuff. I'm just waiting on my shocks to show up (decided on pro comp) so I can put the lift on. I am hoping it will be here at some point this week... I have saturday off and that would be perfect!

I still have to fix the sunroof... for now it doesn't leak, I just don't use it. The rear bumper is rusted through and will need to be replaced. The 2 doors on the pass side have some rust at the bottom, and one of the doors above the window. A little rust in a few spots here and there elsewhere, but the doors are the worst. That's all aesthetics though, so that's at the end of the list, just before repainting it. With Everything into it so far, including tires, I'm still well under $1500 and selling my old tires and some other stuff will take a few hundred bucks off of that. Call it a budget project I'm just looking forward to finally fixing the saggy ass syndrome.

LITLRED

Great job! Looks great, especially for 1500. How do you plan to use the rig?

pb4ugotobed

Will be daily driver / weekend warrior. I miss having my jeep, but it's not practical with kids, and My kids like to go out and play in the woods. Since i work at toyota, a 4runner seemed like a good fit. Happened to find this in craigslist and sorta rolled with it. It was R-O-U-G-H when I got it. Hell, it was only running on 4 cyl's though... and had sat for god knows how long. I looked in the history of the vehicle... V06 campaign (headgasket recall) was performed at 154k on 2002. I bought it with 172k in 2009... 18k miles in 7 years... something tells me it sat for at least a few of those years and didn't move.

So far it's been a real good truck though. Needs starter contacts too... But kinda been procrastinating on that because I don't particularly enjoy even entertaining the thought of digging for that sumunabitch... 3vz + auto + 4wd = not happy me

pb4ugotobed

Oh, and that's not a huge oil leak under it in the last pic... That's the water that dripped out of the evap (from the AC that blows ICE cold that I fixed... necessary in florida) The only oil leak left now is the rear main seal... which isn't leaking real bad, and again, I'll wait until it's either pissing out oil or I have to remove the tranny for some other reason to fix that. Another one of those tasks that I just don't intend on attacking anytime soon. I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment... buying a 3vz truck was bad enough

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Nice Runner. Ill take your crappy old BFG's

iamsuperbleeder

my contribution to the thread


great looking runner man!

kiyobrown

Man I am slow, I just looked at your screen name...... good advice!

OutlawMike

My '89 V6 dropped an intake valve seat on the #6 cyclinder. As a Toyota Tech, do you see #6 doing that often on the 3.0?

Good looking rig, what polish did you use? Did is clean up the clear at all?

pb4ugotobed

Actually the BFG's that came on it were in really good shape. Probably 85% tread or so, 32x11.50x15. I took them off road once, and immediately decided they suck. I sold them cheaply to a buddy of mine for his dune buggy.

Thanks for the complments. It's come a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG ways since I got it. It still has quite a ways to go, but for only having the thing about 2 months, and with what little I've spent on it, I really can't complain. It certainly has its 'quirks' but nothing I can't work out when I get the motivation to actually work on it. I just want my shocks to show up so I can put on my springs and bj spacers and finally get the thing to ride worth a ####. Faded springs and blown shocks aren't a lot of fun

The 3vz is sorta notorious for valve issues... You really need to stay on top of that. It can easily be prevented with maintenence, however that maintenence isn't necessarily gonna be cheap. I'd say every 60-75k the valve clearances need to be adjusted back to spec. Basically do it when you do your timing belt changes. When the valve last gets too far out of adjustment, they tend to start slamming into the head, and eventually start wiping out the seats. At that point, you really have no choice but to replace the head.

And honestly, I have absolutely no idea what polish I used. It's pink and smells bad is about all i really know. One of the guys in detail said "here... use this stuff. it's badass". I still haven't even actually taken a buffer to it yet... I just used the pink stuff on a rag and just sorta went over it quickly. I still need to buff it real good, but just don't really have the time. The last thing I really want to do on my day off is work on my own truck I'm just tryin to make it look decent enough until I get the body work done on it. Then I plan to get everything set up, blocked off, and prepped for paint. Then I'll drive it up to maaco and let them do their $149 paint job. Hell, anything's gonna look better than it does now, and honestly as much as i do like the truck, it really ain't worth a thousand dollar paint job. Chances are, it's just gonna get f'd up out in the woods anyways.

I still gotta get all the chrome off of there though. one step at a time

yoterr

pffft paint it urself and good looking rig, im diggin the skinny swampers!!

pb4ugotobed

pffft thanks and for what it would cost me for paint, somewhere to spray it, etc it would be gettin close enough to what maaco would charge for me to feel that it's worth it to pay an extra 30 or 40 bucks and have someone else mess with it Not lookin for perfection, but I've actually seen some pretty nice work come out of maaco. You just have to do all the prep work and sanding before you bring it in because all they're gonna do literally is tape it off, point and spray.

camo31_10.50

i just got back from wally world and bought some Rustoleum Gloss white(4cans to start)..and a can of spray on bedliner(GOOD stuff if you apply it just right..i perfected the technique on my front skidplate..lol)..

tomorrow when i get back from college im going to start sanding it down(all by hand..lol)..i'll tape it off and shoot the bedliner on the bottom half(where the line is on the 84-88 trucks)..give it a few coats of that(about 3 or 4 to help protect it from rock chips)..and then i'll finish sanding and hopefully be done by thursday afternoon..

now remember this is only temporary..im gonna use spray paint to find the color i want..as im not sure exactly what color i want to paint it..and spray paint is WAYYY cheap..lol.(less than $25 for 4 cans of paint and a can of bedliner)

if i decide i like it white..then i'll get a gallon of the rustoleum gloss white..a decent spray gun, air compressor, some bondo to smooth out a few places(a VERY small amount of bondo)..and i'll go about doing it the right way(well...a better way than just a spray can..lmao)..might try out Dupli-color's Paint Shop stuff to see how it is..

and also when i paint it FOR GOOD i'll put a few coats of clear on it..

pb4ugotobed

Well, mine's gonna take a little welding art for the only body work necessary. There's really no dents or dings anywhere on the truck. Just a few rust spots. I may hit up the junkyard and just replace both the passenger side doors, but the spot below the rear glass in the back will have to be fixed right. I wouldnt trust the druraglass thing there because there's really nothing to support it... it's just that thin piece of sheet metal. The worst part will be pulling the window out. I really would like to not break interior panels... Old plastic is brittle plastic, and the interior of the truck is actually in really, really good shape (after a half a day with a shampoo'er). It's a totally different color interior now than it was when i got it though. Now it's grey again, like it was supposed to be initially

mattaway

it'll cost you a little less than $100 and a couple hours work if you sand, and spray it yourself.

i sprayed my truck a couple of months ago, took just under 8 cans. it turned out pretty good.


EDIT: just saw the thing about maaco.... my buddy's dad took his old jeep to maaco for a paint job, and on the way home sheets of paint peeled off from the doors and hood

pb4ugotobed

Well, that's a ways down the road anyways. This weekend I think we're gonna take it out and "check out these new TSL's" and do the DIY mud color scheme I wish florida had something a little more fun to play in... a rock garden or something, but hey I'll work with what I got until we can move.

I'll take a couple pics of the aftermath

pb4ugotobed

Got the paint job done with the son screaming "weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! more!!! more!!! " the whole time

Keep in mind, that in florida we don't really have mud like you do everywhere else in the country. It's more of a dark sand with a super nasty smell as soon as hit hits the exhaust kind of thing. And yeah, the new tires work well

yoterr

hahhaha i know what you mean, glade to see shes workin good !! heres my dodge, that randomly got stuck for 2 days...lmfao it was an accident

pb4ugotobed

Hell, mine didn't even get stuck (yet). We were just out playing making big splashes in 2 foot deep holes. (and one deeper one that didn't 'look' that deep... pulled right up and out of it though) I don't wanna go through the 'big' holes with the kids in the truck... but when I get an opportunity to go out without them, we'll see what it'll really do (hopefully my f'n shocks show up soon so I can lift it before then. That's all I'm really waiting on at this point...) I know I'll stuck it real good, but so does everyone else out there. However, I do know that before I even try some of those holes (let alone the BIG pit that's down the trail a little further) I absolutely must lift the truck... considerably. When you see a truck that you KNOW the bottom of the door is at eye level go half way up the doors in mud/water that you don't have a chance in hell....... yet

yoterr

lol also a good word of advice bring a buddy thats what happened to me, and also the dodge weighs 7500lbs and slickery toyo terras lmao, i was just trying to LEAVE the mud hole, and found a soft spot, but by the time i was leavin every 1 els left that could pull me out

pb4ugotobed

Well, I usually will go out with a buddy, or at least I have a few friends that live near the area if it came down to it. But (especially in the 7 lakes / black hole area of canaveral groves) there's usually quite a few people out there running around that all seem to be pretty nice and willing to help. I know if i were driving past someone buried I wouldn't hesitate to help gank 'em outta their stuck.

And luckily (with as heavy of a pig as the 4runner is) it isn't 7500 lbs, and the TSL's seem to pull like a sumabeitch. Because they're kinda skinny, they aren't the greatest in the sugar sand, but once it gets wet they really begin to shine if you aren't careful they'll dig a hole quick and in a hurry in that damned sugar sand though!

Still keepin an eye out for just the right CJ for me to build as a dedicated trail rig though... I know it'll come when the time is right. I already have a few parts stashed away for it... there will be no stopping that rig