Hey everyone. I've been lurking on here for a long time and have learned a lot from all the fine folks here so I finally decided to join and I figured I would post the slow progress of my 84 4runner.

I bought this truck back in 2016 with every intention of making it into a full blown crawler.. while working at a mountain bike shop and living paycheck to paycheck. Needless to say it didn't quite go that way. I took it out to the sand dunes with some friends on some brand new 37s, a spool, and factory steering. Plenty of beer and getting in way over my head didn't do it any favors and I limped it back to the flatbed, got it home, put a marlin crawler high steer on and knuckle rebuild, and there it sat until about two years ago when I finally started to work on it again (read. SLOWLY)

​​​​​​I hope to use this thread to post my progress, receive some feedback, and keep myself motivated to see it on the trails some day soon. I have a grown up job now, but much less free time. My wife and I just welcomed our first daughter into this world a week ago, so between that and work I won't have a ton of free time, but I'm hoping to make good use of the time I do have. Finally, if this is the wrong place to post this or I am violating any posting rules, please feel free to remove. I am a big time forum lurker but not a big poster so please bear with me.

Ok enough of all that, here's some pics of the rig.



The one and only dune trip above. Can't say we didn't have a good time though.


No shortage of rust. I decided to cut these out and weld in some sheet metal.



Wife helping make the pattern





Once I started I figured may as well fix some other spots while I'm at it


Ready to trim

Some Bondo glass to seal it up

 

Neat, any first gen runner makes me jelly!!!!!

 

Fenders turned out pretty good!

More body work. These corners were crushed and rusted out. Welded in some new sheet metal and then my stepfather did the Bondo. He's much better than I am.

More patchwork started

After lots of reading i decided it was time to upgrade the front suspension from the crappy blown out pro comp springs the previous owner had put on. I decided to do the RUF swap and went with some Old Man Emu CS009r springs, a Low Range Off Road front hanger, and some Sky's Off-road boomerang shackles.



Used the tow hook bolts to mock up the front hanger. Shackle angle is a little on the steep side but I think it will get better when the springs settle.



Also snagged some Sky's shock hoops. Top quality stuff

 

Got the hanger where I wanted and started to weld it up


Not so pretty but it'll hold. I also welded the bottom where I could.

I did short stitch welds on opposing sides to keep it from getting too hot. I haven't decided if I want to leave it stitched, or if I should weld it out the rest of the way. Open to feedback

Getting ready to mount the shock hoops.I bought some frame stiffeners from Trail Gear that I figured would give the shock hoops something to bite on and reinforce the frame a little. Started cutting off the old brackets.


Cleaned up

Tacked up

These took way longer than I anticipated. Again not the prettiest welds but not the worst 🤷‍♂️


How she sits currently. Hoping to get the shock hoops on this week.

 

Start welding the front hanger out


I tried to weld these wherever possible. Not the prettiest weld ever.

Stitch welded the front but debating on welding it out the rest of the way. Any feedback is welcome.

Cutting off the unnecessary brackets in prep to mount the shock hoops and some Trail Gear frame stiffeners


Prepped

Tacked up


These took way longer than I anticipated. Not the best not the worst but it'll hold 🤷‍♂️

How she sits currently

 

I have more to post but for some reason the mods haven't approved my last post. Once/if they approve it I will continue updating this thread
Edit - I have moved this to the build section