Magnusian

Why would you put rust paint on a boot? Oh, you mean boat, which would require special marine paint. There's lots of brands up here that go by different names from their American counterparts, like Marlboro cigarettes. In Canada, Philip Morris can't license the Marlboro name from the guy who owns it, so they just use the same packaging as the US without the name and they get called "rooftops." Then again, we do have named Marlboro cigarettes, but they're made by a different company and somehow manage to taste even more foul.

cody_brush

i agree wouldve looked 100 times better if you would have left the chrome/silver strip on the grill

Reaper5

Thanks for all the feedback!

The last picture I posted yesterday shows how it looked after I washed it. As you can see, they are gloss, but it's not AS shiny. Still, in the future I might go semi-gloss or a nice flat black.

As for the emblem, I think I'm gonna mix the charcoal with some white to give it a nice lighter metallic charcoal grey. Same with the back emblem and badges.

In the future I want my truck to be full black and white. That's why I didn't keep the emblem chrome. So, new tint, black rims, all my bumpers (aftermarket or not) black, mirrors, etc... I plan on removing the blue stripe on the side too. I'm just a little worried about the paint underneath being such a huge difference.

Has anyone with a '91 4Runner or so ever did this? And how did it turn out?

peckinpah

I took the TOYOTA decal letters off the tailgate of my '91 PU tailgate about 10 years ago.

Huge mistake, because the paint underneath the decals was way darker, and you could easily make out where the decals used to be.. My truck was a metallic blue, FWIW. It's possible that not all colors fade as badly as mine did, but this ought to be food for thought anyway.

NYChopshop

I say color match those areas to the rest of your paint, an ditch the lower bumper valance. Color matching to the rest of your paintwork really makes the truck look a lot newer. I like that look a lot personally. Especially if you have a pickup / 90-91 runner, because your signal lights are surrounded by metal and look about 2 million times better than mine would. I'm rolling around the idea of fitting a pickup front bumper to my 94 'runner because the lights are recessed into the metal and the bumper wraps around both sides without extra bolt on pieces. If you can't afford the off road bumper, you definitely cant afford the winch that goes on it... consider getting a light bar, even if for just the time being. Pro comp makes one for our trucks thats a hundred and change new, so if you can find one used or somesuch it should be DIRT cheap. It'll let you put some more lights on and give you a meaner look.

Go to your local auto parts store and get some color match paint, here is a list of the factory paints per years: http://www.toyotareference.com/4runner#4R

Jay351

I always liked the lower valance and stock bumper look!



I was kinda sad when I put my tube bumper on, but the stocker is NOT very strong I bent it pretty bad...

NYChopshop

nice look! the main problem with loosing the lower valance is the world of ugly under there. The frame and the radiator? not too purdy. I'd go sonoran steel myself, they have a 'high clearance filler plate' or somesuch. I'm tacking that on to my IFS brace order

Reaper5

I completely agree. That's the main reason I never removed it. I'm probably gonna go the same route as you.

And I'm always keeping my eyes open for a crazy deal on a used light bar or even better, a nice used brush guard.

So much stuff I want and not enough money!

thedanned

That looks killer. I wanted to see a before and after like this before I do mine.

Dan

NYChopshop

I love the blacked out look on the 1st gens. I think the color matching is a better move for 2nd gen owners. Its how all the more recent models of the 4runner look. Not that you have to look like the newer ones per se, but I do indeed like that look personally.