Red Runner 88

Alright well this is my first post on this site, i think. Im 16 years old and i do quite a lot of dealing on craiglist and this just happens to be one of my "lucky" finds.

To start off, i bought a Yamaha IT490 dirtbike for 300 dollars and got it fixed up pretty well, than i put it back up on craigslist and 20 minutes later i got a guy who wanted to trade a toyota pickup for it, so the story (addiction) begins,... again. Last year i used to own an 88 4runner, hence the name, and thats what got me hooked on toyotas.

I guess you could say i bought the truck for 300 dollars even though i traded but by anyones standards i think this is considered an amazing deal. I showed up at the guys house traded the bike and drove the pickup home. While i was at the guys house he told me that after the engine warmed up that you could hear a slight knocking noise coming from what he thought was the timing chain. I never did hear the knock till a week or so later and i decided to replace the timing chain because thats what i thought it was. Turned out the timing chain and timing chain sprockets were brand spankin new. And thats when i thought...... FML . So i got a friend to help me and with my backhoe we pulled the engine out with the intentions of doing a rebuild. Turns out the engine sat under a tarp for about a month before i got it taken apart and put back together. But none the less i got it back together. Turned out the knocking was a bad rod bearing. So while i had the engine apart i replaced just about everything i could, including rings, rod bearing, crank bearings, gaskets, etc. Than it took me another week or so to put the engine in the pickup, by myself. I think i had to take it out 2 or 3 times in the process due to clumsy mistakes. Right after i got all the hoses hooked up and all the fun stuff i just couldnt wait to get in and try firing er up. So i tried and what do i get? Absolutely nothing. So i pull the starter back out and clean it up a little and now it works fine. Annnnndddd than..... i couldnt get my fuel line to prime to save my life, turns out my fuel hoses were switched around where they hook up by the engine. Than i got in and it started right up, to my amazement. I was pretty sure i had probably done something else terribly wrong but it turned out fine. That was all about a week or so ago.

As of the last week i've replaced my clutch master cylinder, release cylinder and all of my lines due to my clutch not wanting to bleed. I would highly suggest getting a MityVac for bleeding clutch and brake lines, it works great, thats what i ended up doing after replacing all the parts. Thats about all i've done with the engine and drive train.

As for the body, it was pretty decent. Just a few rust spots on the bed which i cut out and filled with bondo. The frame is perfect in terms of rust. The paint when i got it was metallic grey on the cab and slightly lighter shade of grey on the bed. After sanding and prepping i painted it primer black with two yellow racing stripes .

My interior is absolute crap so that is what im mainly going to be focusing on in the next few weeks. The carpet and seats are crap and im planning on stripping the whole interior and rhino lining it or something similiar. As for the seats, im planning on replacing them with some bucket seats from a 90s honda accord. That shouldnt be too hard as it already has bucket seats. The dash is alright except for one crack right in the center, im not too sure what im going to do with that.

My door panels are the worst part of the whole pickup, they've been abused by somebody with a really bad cutting hand and some speakers, and the bottom part of the door panels are completely missing. I plan on incorporating diamond plating somewhere in the interior as it looks super awesome. I used diamond plate on my Jeeps interior and it turned out great.

Here are some pics of how it sits at the moment. Ya i know they arent very good because its dark, if you can even see them, But i will have better, more detailed pics tomorrow.

creswellhick

dude that suck just save some money give it some time and have the motor built

Red Runner 88

Ya it blows! Im just pissed at it right now, tomorrow ill probably take it all apart again and see whats wrong. Im thinking its something to do with my rod bearings, even though they are brand new. Hopefully its nothing incredibly bad thats going to cause me to have to get a new engine/block. If thats the case i have a nice built 383 engine sitting around and some chevy leaf springs. It could make a wicked crawler. The only problem is the cost of bigger tires and i would definitely need to gear down. Im thinkin 5.29s.

creswellhick

ya tires are spendy and i love my 529s u can find some good deals on craigs maybe not now that u want them at least with me before i had my truck i would find 36s and 35s swamps and bogs in good condition for 300 now i cant find nothing close to that just the way she goes ..... but dont give up on the truck