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first time poster on this forum. I'm also damion812 on the FJ cruisers forum. My plan is to use it for a daily over the course of a year. I got the idea from 365 Days of A, I followed a blog a few years back about this guy who daily drove a 1930 model A. At the time I was in the process of restoring a 1965 VW beetle, our project Herbie https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=336044&highlight=
at the time I came up with the idea of doing the daily thing with another beetle. I found a 1966 to use and it was a good time!
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538786&highlight=
This time I want to try it with my first favorite of makes, Toyota and with something that doesn't have anemic Heat Then the wife might join along with this one😁 I'll probably use this forum for a lot of the resources that it has and start a blog on the whole Adventure here as well. I realize people are already doing this right now as opposed to 50 year-old car but this seems to be more fun to me than brand new. just my opinion though. if the idea of driving one of these through the salt is a turn off to you, I totally agree. Just take a look at the pictures of the beetle before I drove it through the snow and a pictures of it currently to see how I maintained it through a season of salt . After the year I'll probably look into doing a restoration on the 4runner also.
Some other details about the truck:
22RE
manual transmission
not sure on the lift it happened a few owner's ago
ARB front bumper
lunch box locker in the rear
greaseable shackle pins
somewhere around 245000 miles currently
the only thing we've done to drive it so far is just register it .
Welcome Brent. What part of the country will you be driving it in?
I restored mine back to daily driver level. Start with a good inspection of everything and review previous owner records if you got any.
Check valve adjustment, do a comp test, inspect plugs, cap, rotor, water pump, belts, alternator, change oil and fluid in trans. Look for anything unusual.
improve the ground cable from battery to engine block if not already. With the valve cover off, check the timing chain to see if the guides are intact, plastic or metal(replaced, improved).
Welcome Brent. What part of the country will you be driving it in?
I restored mine back to daily driver level. Start with a good inspection of everything and review previous owner records if you got any.
Check valve adjustment, do a comp test, inspect plugs, cap, rotor, water pump, belts, alternator, change oil and fluid in trans. Look for anything unusual.
improve the ground cable from battery to engine block if not already. With the valve cover off, check the timing chain to see if the guides are intact, plastic or metal(replaced, improved).
Good luck with your 4Runner.
thanks for the welcome and replie! I unfortunately live in the salt belt ( CT) and the truck has been also for at least the last 12 years. It was originally from California. The body needs work to be ready for the daily driver status. The frame is in great shape . It has been covered in fluid film. Everything you mentioned I have checked but I have not pulled the valve cover off yet. I replaced the cap and rotor already. I've got new spark plugs to put in. I want to see what the current plugs look like after a little bit of driving. I think they are newer already.
The plan is to replace our 01 Toyota Echo with this in the next year. The WRECHO as we lovely call it is in its end if day's. By the time the next emmisons test is due that's gonna be time to stop driving it but I haven't totally given up on it just yet. Anyway the 4runner isn't on a daily basis yet. There's a list of things I'm going to be going through on it before it takes over. It has a rebuilt engine in it. The seller said has 40000 on. I don't see anything suggesting more but it was 10 years back. If it it does turn out to need anything major like a total rebuilt I would probably look into a whole other engine . I would take care of the timing chain though if it turns out to have the plastic guides . This last week we put on just about 60 miles to see if anything shakes loose. Everything seems to function properly , it shifts well up and down through the gears. Doesn't pop out of any gear. All elictical stuff works also.
a couple more photos. This is gonna be the replacement for my wife's car so we did some test driving last weekend. It's hard to get it back from her now😂
Happy New Year and Welcome to the forum!
Love the 1985. Just focus on getting her to be reliable; make her pretty later. Did that to my 1986, but she took me to many adventures since I got her in 2012, no time to make her pretty - LOL!
Wait a minute, I recognize your truck from Craigslist a while ago. It was in Gloucester. I liked the front bumper and stance of it. Now that I see the Cape Ann bumper sticker on it I realize it’s the same one.
Stop looking for more you adduct! Lol. Once I saw you were in MA I thought you would recognize it. Too funny. Yeah we also have a resident beach sticker for it. We're adding that one and leaving the others on it till I paint it. Since it came from a little seaside town we're gunna kinda go with a pirate theme. And we call it Blackbeard. My son refers to it as the flea runner though since it was such a mess inside. I think the biggest fear people have looking at it though is there worried that it was in that flood back in January. First thing I looked at was the see if body drain plugs were pulled from it. And the first thing I noticed was the front ones were pulled in the carpets yanked out of it. I did find that the front body drain plugs were pulled and the carpet was pulled out of it but it wasn't because of high water. It was because the windshield leaked and front quarter panels leaked onto the floor. I've got something on it until I can weld it in the meantime though. I also checked the sellers Facebook page for videos and pictures of it to see if it was ever in any of that flooding. I did find pictures and a video of it being used at one point though.
Happy New Year and Welcome to the forum!
Love the 1985. Just focus on getting her to be reliable; make her pretty later. Did that to my 1986, but she took me to many adventures since I got her in 2012, no time to make her pretty - LOL!
it may not be the right way to go about restoring a vehicle but it motivates you to keep going!
Yeah, guilty. I never stop looking at them on Craigslist and Ebay, coast to coast!
Kinda waiting for the values to take off. They seem to be the only thing with a removable top that hasn't gone crazy yet.
First upgrade of a new and bigger battery. I found through a little bit of internet research that the regular battery for an 01 Echo is an upgrade battery for this. How convenient , now the Echo is without a battery , ha, ha. Until we get the new one. I stole the battery tray for now also. This battery is about half of an inch taller. On the up side we can bring the old battery for core charge first thing .
Yeah, guilty. I never stop looking at them on Craigslist and Ebay, coast to coast!
Kinda waiting for the values to take off. They seem to be the only thing with a removable top that hasn't gone crazy yet.
not yet! But origanly I was planning on a 70s FJ 40 but 5 to 7 k for a similar project vehicle like this. I still want one one day but the values have gone up so much on them that I wouldn't enjoy driving it around as much.
funny this poped up the other day on my FB feed https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2010/12/10/class-of-85-toyota-4runner/
my vote is for the 4runner, we had a a Cherokee before and I'd own one again but more into Yotas!
not yet! But origanly I was planning on a 70s FJ 40 but 5 to 7 k for a similar project vehicle like this. I still want one one day but the values have gone up so much on them that I wouldn't enjoy driving it around as much.
my vote is for the 4runner, we had a a Cherokee before and I'd own one again but more into Yotas!
wow, that’s really funny because before I got my 4Runner I was trying to buy a 72 FJ40 with a 350 Chevy engine for $9,500 out in Vegas. The guy had owned it 36 years. Body was excellent. After a bunch of calls and even meeting his asking price, he decided he was not ready to sell. A year later he called me but I was already into the 4Runner at that time. I too I would have been in it for much more money and probably drove it much less.
One of the first official repairs to the 4runner. I started to have trouble with the back window coming out of the holder on one side. turns out it was rotted. One part still had a part number on it so a little research and I found these from a 90 4runner work.
I'm not a big fan of wheel spacers but turns out the 4runner has em and they have been on for a long time. But I snapped a lug nut stud taking the rear wheels off to put on some center caps I found. For some reason I have lug nut studs and nicer lug nuts that are the same size as the lug wrench that goes with the truck plus the press ! I guess having a Toyota of some kind since the late 80s paid off, with parts hanging around in the garage.
Happy New Year and Welcome to the forum!
Love the 1985. Just focus on getting her to be reliable; make her pretty later. Did that to my 1986, but she took me to many adventures since I got her in 2012, no time to make her pretty - LOL!
Hey Ray
You better hope she doesn't see this.......... Besides she's a fine looking 4runner.........
01-09-2019, 04:28 PM
Besides she's a fine looking 4runner.........
