You've been quiet- just too busy to work on the 4Runner?
I hope everything is okay.

 

Thanks for the concern, i have been ok. Just working alot. 12 to 14 hour days at work in a plant with no ac and I've been beat. A couple of birthday parties for the kids and work around the house has kept me busy.

I just cleaned up the garage and am prepared to get back into it.

I did finish the roof line for the most part right before i disappeared.

 

Good to hear.
It's really hard to find time for fun this time of year especially.

 

And we have an update.

Here is the drivers side roof line where the gutter was removed. I am super happy that is done with for the most part. I still have to sand a little and finish up some filler work but it's respectable.

I'll seam seal the door jamb side prior to painting it.





And i painted the firewall so i can start putting the engine back in. Maybe I'll get it bolted back in next weekend. The first picture without flash the second is with flash. The second is fuzzy from the paint fumes/particles still floating around.

 

More pictures in better light. And a Crank pulley holder tool. The bolts are one time use as they bend. Oh well it worked for the pulley bolt.

 

So i moved the truck a bit for more access to the passenger side, it was way to close to the wall for comfortable work environment.

I then cut out the rusty panel. I did it differently this time. The plan is to repair the panel off the truck then simply weld it back.

There is one spot of the inner fender well that has rusted through and will need a patch put in but will not need to be perfect as its not cosmetic so it should be easy.

 

Smoothed gutter looks good, and nice job on the engine bay too. That rear cubby area and wheel arch don't look too bad. Shouldn't be horrible to fix.

 

i just logged into the forum for the first time on my PC rather than my phone and realized two things.

my pictures are huge and blurry as crap

 

I notice that too when I log in from my pc and look at my thread, but it looks good from my phone and tablet.

Your 4runner is looking good, nice color match on the firewall, it blends in nicely, I like how the shaved drip rails turned out too!

 

So i cut the bad out of the rear fender well and put the good back in place.



Then started making the pieces to put back in.

 

Ha, I see you're still using the old washing machine metal. A little "ring around the collar" print will be a nice touch on the inside of your quarter! Somehow reminds me of leaving empty beer cans inside the walls of a house while hanging drywall...

 

One of my panels had the whirlpool logo still on it on the inside. I'm not removing the paint from the inside portion as it can only help to protect the inside. I'm still going to coat the inside with por15 though.

I ran out of that whirlpool metal, it's thicker than the ge metal. I finished most of the passenger side but ran into a wall in the rear with blow throughs and getting the panel welded in to far forward. I had to cut a slit and beat it back, which only caused more warping.

A little imagination needed

Looks good

80 grit flap discs really help make those tough shapes

Done

The slit i had to make in the rear, it didn't look bad before but the plastic bumper trim didn't look right against it

 

50 bucks scored me some very nice condition honda prelude seats. The guy told me they were integra buy being a Honda guy and thinking about it, integra seats all have holes in the headrests.

 

So today i put the new seats in, it was not easy. Took 8 hours to do.

Very comfy seats, the passenger slides way forward like factory, has a spring to pull it forward for you and has a rear accessible lever for moving the seat.

Drivers side has a control for bottom cushion height and tilt adjustment.

They sit slightly higher than factory

I did the drivers seat first. I left the outside front tab on the prelude seat as it was pretty close to prefect. I then drilled out the spot welds and rivets from both the 4runner seat and the prelude seat tabs and attached the stock seat tabs on the prelude seat. So the drivers seat bolts up to the factory location.

the passenger seat was a different story completely. The factory bolts are super close from the front to the rear on the 4 runner and really far away on the prelude seats.

I once again left the outside front tab from the prelude and removed and swapped the inside front from the 4 runner. On the rear outside i found that the 4 runner chassis has two welded nuts and i was able to utilize the one further back, i still had to move the prelude tab forward a half inch to fit.

On the inside rear i had to drill a hole in the floorboard and use a nut and bolt combo from underneath. There was no way to put the toyota tabs on the prelude seats without interfering with the sliding mechanism.

Here are the random pictures i took while doing the job.

In better light

Test fit with blocks in the rear

Front inner tab removed

Tacked in for test fit

Plug welded, i had my welder in to low and had to redo this one as i was afraid of it being weak

Bolted in to the factory location

Notice how far these legs are compared to the factory holes

Front inner tacked in for test fit

Rear outer all welded up, half inch closer to the front from the factory prelude mount

Same

Hole in the right is factory, left is another factory welded nut

Both bolted in

She didn't want to get in the picture, caught her.

 

Well i had to work last weekend. 12 straight 10 hour days. Good paycheck but didn't do good for time to work. Back at it this week i hope

 

Good build!

 

Well a small update. Time has been short. I've been working odd schedules. I was 10a to 830p. Then pulled a few 4p to 4a. Now I'm working 5a to 430p.

Crazy

Anyways i finished all my metal work this weekend and have it ready for filler work. From this point the body is pure filler and sanding until paint.

 

Picked up an engine hoist today from tractor supply. They had them in sale for 180. i am going to work on getting it running at this point since I'm pretty close on the body work. I know the updates have slowed down but slowly its coming together.

 

Motor is bolted back into the truck! Obviously still a ways to go but in she is.

New aisin clutch, throwout and pilot bearing. I replaced the input shaft seal as preventative and used fipg on the bearing cover since no one has the paper seal in stock.

I only scratched one small spot in my engine bay right under the heater core inlet pipe but it won't be seen.

I'm going to continue on this route for now and get this thing running and driving so i can move it at will and get it to my buddies paint booth once the body work is finished.

 

Whoohoo! Looks great, man!
Merry Christmas, that's a heck of present having that thing back in.