Sweet pictures buddy! Looks that fire is covering you in smoke as well? I like that my tailgate and tire carrier are still living! Wheel on.

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Oh yeah, lots of smoke - only in the last week we've had a couple of clear days. Hey do you have a build thread for your 95?

 

No I don't.. I haven't done anything too it. I actually moved to Idaho to go to school and I left the runner back home.

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That sucks man.

 

If you're talking to me I am totally fine with it! I would be spending money on the truck and not eating. My priorities are not straight when there is a toyota in my presence..

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^^ I can totally relate to this lol

 

When I was younger I ate a lot of Mr Noodles.

The beer or vegetables debate was usually very one sided.

 

Alright... well last time I posted an update I was going to install some speakers into the front doors... and I did a couple weeks ago. Here's the writeup:

I have been very disappointed by the 4in speakers in my dash... tiny speakers which are aimed at the seats just don't do much - and so I had the idea to mount some larger ones in the doors. After pulling the panels off I realized that because of the little "wing" style windows I have, there is lots of space to work with in the front doors as the glass doesn't get in the way when rolled down. So I chose some 6x9 kenwoods and got to work with a sawzall on the doors...
passenger door cut and painted:


I drilled a hole in the front of the door, as well as one into the kick panel to run wire through:


Then I cut holes in my door panels:


Test fit before final cutting on drivers side:


I cut the grills which came with the kenwoods and glued them on the door panels because I wanted my panels to remain flat... the speakers are fully recessed after all

Here's the passenger door all finished and ready for the panel to go back on:


And the finished doors:

 

I also got my Blazeland idler arm brace and procomp steering stabilizer installed... thanks BlazeN8! I am not worried about breaking any more idler arms now

 

How do the speakers sound?

 

Pretty sweet - I had gotten used to just listening faded all the way to the rears because the 4in fronts I had in the dash had both been blown out - not sure why, they just became really crackely and sounded awful within a couple of months. (I had chalked it up to them being cheap - I never listened to them very loud. They never did sound all that great regardless.)

When I got these new ones in then, man what a world of difference! I could hear all this detail in the music which I haven't heard before in a car - or even through the studio monitors which sit on my desk in a couple of songs. I'm happy with them!

 

I did a couple of maintenance things this week... new upper and lower ball joints in the front as well as a good air filter cleaning - that thing was filthy! I have to say though, I can really recommend the intake and air filter I've got - that filter was dirty as could be on the outside but definitely doing it's job - the intake tube and VAFM were as clean as could be! I also installed some warn manual locking hubs so I can stop constantly tearing cv boots

I've been thinking recently about possibly selling my 4runner and getting a 3rd gen 4runner. My reasoning is that I really don't do as much offroading as I'd like - not really enough to justify daily driving this rig... and as much as I love it offroad I'd kinda like to get something a little more practical for the mix of daily driving / weekend wheeling I do. I can't decide - its a hard decision because I love this thing, it has never let me down. It will go pretty much anywhere, and still gets decent fuel economy for being lifted on 33s, and I love the look of it more than any other generation of 4runner (or any other vehicle period, 2nd gens are awesome!). Plus its cheap to insure, and relatively cheap to maintain. At the same time, every time I am in 3rd gear pulling a grade at 4k rpm and the poor little engine sounds like it is about to explode... or driving along in 95 degree weather in the summer, wishing I had a/c... I think to myself "I should sell this thing and get a decent car". Not to mention any time I try to accelerate...

What do you guys think?

 

More photos!

 

I haven't really taken many photos (or done much wheeling) since school began last fall Here's a couple from the last trip:



This is a pretty little lake, the trail to get to it is about 10 minutes from my house.







And a random one:

 

For some time now, the 4runner hasn't been running that great... the poor old 3vze is just getting worn out and tired I guess. Recently its gotten much worse though, to the point where its barely able to make some of the grades I commute over a couple times a week - the engine runs rough and just has no power. So today I replaced the sparkplugs, wires, and the distributor cap and rotor in hopes that its just getting a weak spark (or no spark) at one of the cylinders. Sadly, there was no real improvement when I took it for a test drive :'(

Next step will be a compression test, hopefully if compression is good then perhaps all I'm dealing with is some clogged injectors, or possibly a plugged up cat - I really don't want to have to tear down and rebuild the motor or heads. If it comes down to that, I'm either going to try and find a 5vzfe to swap in, or just sell the truck and get something with a good motor... its not worth it to me to try and rebuild my 3vze.

If anyone has any comments/advice, please chime in!

 

Oh yeah - went wheeling last weekend and found some mud ;-)