Hey guys. I worked out the deal today, and this Thursday I'll be picking up a 1985 4Runner in El Paso, Texas. This is my first 4Runner, and first vehicle I've owned worth doing something to and I'm very excited. Here are the pictures I've got so far:





I'm missing a few parts at the moment, and from what I can see in the picture, the air chamber and throttle body are missing. I won't know until I get a good close up look at her.



I'm missing the rear seat as well, which if anyone in Texas has one (or the other parts I may need) feel free to send me a P.M. I'll be posting more pictures as I get them from the current owner, once I get the truck, and of course as I work on it.

Immediate plans are to get it running as soon as possible to have a daily driver and general cleanup and maintenance.

After that I'm looking to put in front and rear lockers, most likely ARB front and rear. I'm hoping to get that going by October or so... We'll see what happens!

 

Copied and pasted from ttora... with a few additions

So I rented a 2010 Tacoma for the trip, which I have to say is an amazing truck. The backup camera with the display in the mirror is brilliant! It made hooking up the trailer a breeze. My only complaints are that the seats were a bit hard (but it was a BRAND NEW truck), and the "max A/C" function on the temperature dial was just annoying for when we wanted to run the fan only.

OK, picture time! I'm posting medium sized pictures on here. If you want to see large versions, head to my flickr page HERE. They're all there.

Tow Rig:







Exterior of 4Runner:















The underside:













Now for the bad stuff... The interior for starters:











And the engine... :











So, first step will be to get some cheap used tires that hold air to move this thing AGAIN in a week or so. After that will be a major cleanup. The interior will be completely gutted, everything will be sanded, and coated with duplicolor truck liner. The underside will get the same treatment. After that, I'll finally start with the engine.

post your thoughts, suggestions, or let me know if there's anything you have a question about, or that I didn't take a picture of (though I think I got it pretty covered...)

OH! and I got an extra pair of seats from the seller, which are actually in great shape! These guys will go in once the cleanup is done:



I know I'm missing the throttle body, upper and lower intake parts, and injectors. I'm also missing the rear seat (bracket and seat).

The only rust is on the dent in the hood, and on the back right fender.

I'm worried that the floorboard under the driver's side may have rust. The entire thing has caked mud all over it. It's going to take me a month just to clean it out.

 

So far this girl has been a pretty mean bitch. Don't get me wrong, I love her, but she's not cooperating much.

The carpet interior has been mostly stripped. Whoever did this did a horrible job. The back was all glued down to a piece of plywood which was glued to the vehicle... I'm still scraping bits of wood off. I need to figure out how to raise and lower the rear window so I can remove the top. The roll bar will have to come off to get all the carpet off, and to properly paint her.

That has been put on the back burner for now though. I'm about to be moving to Houston, so my main concern is getting tires for this thing. Of the original tires, only one holds air for more than 2 days. I found a set of wheels and tires off a tacoma on craigslist, but they won't clear the front hub by the smallest margin. A friend of mine will be helping me grind down that tiny bit of metal soon, and the wheels should fit just fine. I'll have pictures once the wheels are on.

 

I am not 100% sure but you could probably run some power to the motor on the rear window and get the motor to spin the window down. reversing + and - should make it go up or down. I'd think standard car battery would work.

 

That interrior is terrible. Looks like a fun build up for sure.

 

Yeah... I know it's bad. The extra seats I got with it though are in really great shape at least. I haven't had much time to work on her since I've been in the middle of moving to Houston, but I'll have time to make some progress in the next couple of weeks. Most of the carpet is gone, but I need to go in there with a shop vac and lots of elbow grease.

I think I found how the previous owner had rigged it for exactly that... There are two random wires sticking out. I'll try this first chance I get and let you know the results. If I can't figure this out in the next 3 weeks, I'm seriously considering just smashing that glass and replacing it later... that's ONLY if I can't figure it out in 3 weeks. I'm pretty confident I can get it lowered by then though.

Thanks for the tip

 

HEY SHOOT ME A PM I HAVE A FEW random toyota parts, and some general guidence on the particulars of an 85 4runner, and hopefully soon ill have my front trailgear kit so ill have some 4inch procomps for the front for sale and the other steering bracketry, i also have a spare 85 rear end and intake, not the whole plenum but its a start lol, so ya if u wanted u could just email me on my yahoo which is LIVES4CRAWLIN@yahoo.com but looks like a good project good luck with the move

 

Well... thanks to an elderly man who misjudged my speed and distance, my only remaining vehicle at this point is the 4Runner. I haven't had much time to work on her, but now I've got lots of incentive and hopefully some insurance money that I can put toward it. I was thinking of trying to get the engine running, but now I'm thinking I'll just get a new engine. Any tips as to where I could get an entire engine?

 

Hey Banner just buy an LCE Engineering stroker long block... thatd be sick lol. oh and i still have those parts on standby for ya

 

That's a little pricey, but pretty awesome.

I think the new plan is to find a donor truck and swap everything... or keep the donor truck and sell this beauty.

Oh, and I am VERY interested in a 2JZ conversion, but that's way down the line. gotta get her running first!

 

good luck

 

i'm about to buy an 85 myself over in so. cal

 

I've seen a ton out in California... really nice ones too. I think I may have found a truck, but I'm still waiting on the insurance people to get everything together.

I've already got tons of parts picked out, that's pretty much all I've been doing while I wait. So hopefully this weekend I'll have a truck, and I'll get started on preventive maintenance/cleaning/painting the underside. Lets just hope I get my money already!

 

Thats a very unique color scheme you got there.

 

hahaha, i know. I have been debating on repainting it and keeping it original... but i really want to paint the bottom half of the body with bed liner, and I don't see how I could keep that look with that. Oh well, it'll look way prettier when I'm done painting it.

Then again... I might just be cleaning it up a bit and selling the body after I pull the motor or something

 

update:

So the project is on hold for a while. I've got a lot of school going on and my main concern should really be a good daily driver. However, come October I will probably be moving and I believe I'll finally have a garage to store this baby and actually do some work on her. The new plan is to strip her down pretty much completely... That engine has got to go, and I'll be rebuilding pretty much anything I can. I know what powerplant i want to go with, but I'm going to leave that a secret until it's in the truck. :-)

 

nice fixer upper

 

dude didnt know if you realized this but thats a rare truck. its called a GranVille edition. i have one too and yours is the only other one ive seen. know any info it?

 

So after buying this thing, storing it for a while and then trying to sell it, I said "screw it" and actually got to work.

 

I'm going to strip this thing down to pretty much nothing. The more I keep taking things apart, the more I find just horrible repair work. The previous owner must have been a carpenter because this thing is riddled with wood screws holding together everything.

Practically the entire front clip was held on by an assortment of wood screws and zip ties. Thankfully the wiring harness is nearly completely intact, though I did find chunk of wires that had been completely severed. I'll check that out during the rebuild stage. I'm kind of wanting to use this wiring harness as a guide to build a brand new one and just replace all the wiring altogether. I'm also debating on taking the body off the frame for a weekend to clean up the frame and make sure things look good.

The farther in I go, the more I want to strip out and redo. The goal is to make this thing able to drive around the block by March, then finish up the rest of the work. But, if I'm redoing all the wiring, I don't really see that happening.

Oh right, and to give you guys an idea of the awesome workmanship of the previous owner, the transmission was held on by 3 1/2 bolts. I say 1/2 because the 4th bolt was a little skinny guy with a nut and a washer to keep it in place... I'm excited to see what else is horribly rigged in this thing.