Good grief, you're killin it, buddy! lol. NICE WORK!!!!

 

I understand the little hang ups cost time. You are getting that frame looking great. I like how the front brake/end is looking.

Those tire carriers get really bad. I take a wire brush on a drill and get all of the rust as much as possible then soak in PB Blaster. That can be a 3 or 4 day process. Just got to keep working at it. I have had them that bad before and it will work like new. You are on the right track. Clean then soak.

You are getting brake lines looking new again. So much easier to get to now then later. You are doing a great job.

 

Thanks for the kind words Terry and Chef.

I have a couple of updates. I went to the auto parts store and had them double check the part number on the flex line they'd got me for the rear brakes. It came up as the same number, but I showed them the original line, looks exactly the same except the original is at least 2 inches longer than the one they found me. They tried a different company and ordered a different one in to see if that one would be the right length.

I also still haven't seen my bushings so I called up National 4wd and now they're going to order me in a new set, which I'm sure will take another 4 years to get here.

Moving on.

I haven't had any luck finding a gas tank with a good fuel pump bracket and pump and sending unit at the wreckers. I did however find one on Kijiji. He wants 500 bucks for it. Seems pretty expensive until I show you the pics for it:



Its kinda hard to see the fuel tank because the truck it comes with blocks the view. He said the motor blew a rod. It seems like a no brainer for 500 bucks but I'll have to talk the wife, and more importantly the Mother in law into the idea because of the space I'll be taking up on the farm. Wish me luck!

 

Ok so I've made plans to go pick up that red truck on monday. 500 bucks is cheap for a parts truck and the body looks better than my daily driver so I might have to throw my working engine in that one and part out my DD. I"m really going to have to start moving on this project now because I'm taking up a lot of space at the inlaws.

 

"YOU DON'T WANT THAT TRUCK, YOU'RE SENDING ME THE PINK SLIP RIGHT NOW, ....... YOU'RE GOING TO LEAVE IT OUT BACK WITH THE KEYS IN IT AND A CLEAR SPACE SO I CAN GET A FLATBED TOW IN THERE!".....


Hey Dutch, howzit? hahaha. Anyway, sorry to hear about the hold ups, man! DANG, no other way to solve that quickly and charge them for having had to pick them up yourself?(probably not, just thought I'd ask, lol).

Have a good'n!

PS> Captain America was EPIC! lol. (stay till after the credits, don't forget!) lol

 

Your Jedi mind tricks will not work on me!!

 

"YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR DD AFTER THE TAKING THE ENGINE OUT"

lucky man. i want a 3rd runner

 

Your new truck looks nice. Seen where you said you might have to part out your DD as it is eaten up with rust. Maybe it will workout for you to fix this as your DD.

I would trade you mother in laws in a heart beat. That is cool of her to help you out.

The fuel brackets are hard to find. The metal lines on top are what tend to rust up and break from my experience. I would check the long "J" line, I think it is the fuel return. I have seen 2 plugged up. I couldnt get one unplugged and just cut it above the clog.

If you have to part one of them, I would suggest to strip it well. The one me and my friend parted, I had taken everything that was good or could be fixed. He was surprised at what all I took. There wasnt anything left. I got it in my little shed with some shelves and the body parts in the rafters.

Have used quite a bit helping my friend and on mine and my brothers truck the other day. Those odd ball parts come up quite often.

 

DAGNABBIT! Well, .... listen, Jaba,.... you can ONLY RESIST ME FOR SO LONG! I grow stronger every day! lol.

Seriously... I'm very happy for ya on that one, man! That thing looks to be in GR8 shape! <<< KILL IT!

 

What the heck would anyone need a 3rd one for? Wait... Oh yeah...

lol I see I'm not the only one excited about this new toy. I'm trying not to get my hopes up over the whole thing. Bird in hand- other sayings of the sort. I haven't actually seen the thing in person, either, and I'm bound to be disappointed.

I don't really have any build updates tonight, but I did have an interesting moment earlier today. I may have mentioned in other posts that I don't exactly live in 4runner country. I spend a lot of days working on the road, and I could probably count the amount of 1st gen runners I've seen within a 2hr driving radius on one hand. Most people I know don't understand my draw to these trucks at all, and drive 1/2 ton or bigger chev/ford/dodges.
With all that said, I was finishing up on a job site 2hrs north of where I live around noon and just as I put away the last tool I see someone drive up in this:

I found out later his name was Lyle. The driver, not the truck. As he walked by I simply said "I like your truck". He looked surprised, and I think he stopped walking to see if I was joking. I probably would have reacted the same surprised way so I said "I like your truck, I'm about to buy my third one of them on monday" and his face lit up. We talked about his truck and mine for probably 30-45 mins straight before I had to leave because I was still on the clock. He said he had an '85 as well that he was trying to sell, which made me laugh. There are times when I couldn't find a 1st gen for sale anywhere, and now suddenly it's raining 4runners. I wasted my lunch break talking, but it was just nice to actually speak to someone with the same interest in these trucks. He still had the original factory tape deck in the dash. Said toyota right on it. He gave me his card, and told me to shoot him an email saying if he's ever looking for a part he'll send me a message, and vice versa.

 

Wuts'he want for the 85? lol. Never see them much for less than 5500$ in GOOD condition out here... 3500$ sometimes, in TERRIBLE condition, and MAYBE 3g's, sometimes totally falling apart, but with ads that spout the same "RARE, you'll be hard pressed to find a SFA rig like this anymore... I know what I have, don't low ball", etc. THEY'RE HIGH! lol. What they have is a HUGE project, half the time, that would take 5G's just to get street worthy, let alone WHEEL-worthy! lol.

Best wishes on that, Dutch!

 

I really wanted to ask about the price of the '85, but I purposefully didn't. My luck he would have wanted like 500 bucks for it, and I would be kicking myself for not buying that one instead. It'll make me feel better to think he would have wanted thousands for it.

 

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyy :scratches head: hahahaha. NO, I hear ya, I do...but still, those are RARE to come along. Surely, he would have at least wanted blue book, I'll give ya that.

 

I know what you mean. I got enough irons in the fire. On Craigslist around here I seen a diesel in a pick up for sale around here. Found another 4runner for $500. No place to put it.

I know of a black 87 SR5 for $700 which is what I would like to have. If I just had the money and space.

 

Bushings for the rear suspension finally came in today. I've lost track of how long I've been waiting for them. I probably won't have time to work on the truck till sunday. Hoping to get all the bushings installed, and make some progress on the steel brake lines and also cleaning the transmission. Will be time to pull the engine I'll be using out of storage soon. I probably won't put very much energy into cleaning up the engine, though. I'm hoping to do a rebuild of a 22re at some point, and leaving the engine as an eyesore will give me a reminder every time I pop the hood.

 

I bought the red truck. He wouldn't budge on the price but i'm still happy with the purchase for 500 bucks. The tires are pretty worn and the body is more rough than the pictures show but the tailgate looks solid and the rad looks good. Fingers crossed for the gas tank. i'll try to post pics tonight when i get home

 

Just checking in glad to read you got the parts truck purchased, I'm sure you will be able to get enough off of it to offset the cost. Looks like your making really good progress man keep it up.

 

Thanks Jason. The parts truck was the right price. I should be able to salvage a ton of parts. It doesn't look as good in real person as it did in the pics. I tried to capture the worst of it:
Rusted out rockers:


Couple dents on the tailgate:

But there are some definite good points to it. The tailgate is actually pretty solid other than a few dings:

I don't know how keen I am on these flashy rims, but the tires are 33x12.5R15s which are really close to the same size I eventually wanted to buy for the project truck.

That means I can use these to get the project on the road, and replace them later when finances permit.
Also, the fuel tank looks pretty good.

Little bit of surface rust here and there, but the lines are all solid, which was what I was most worried about. Also the gas came out clear when I pulled the drain plug before dropping the tank, and I mean clear right to the last drop, I didn't see any rusty sediments come out. The po drove it up until last week when he blew up the engine, so I'll assume the fuel pump works. I decided not to pull the thing apart until I was given a good reason, and instead cleaned it up as best I could:

Primer:


I only had enough black to do one coat so I left it until I could finish the top of the tank. The bottom has had nothing done to it so far. I decided to use regular spray paint instead of undercoat, so that it would be more smooth, and dirt would hopefully slide off it easier.
I did more work on the project truck, but have to upload pics yet. I'll leave off for now with a pic of my daily driver the "4Ruster" with my new parts truck:

 

Congratz on the salvageable goodies, homie! GREAT buy, even if just for the dash, sensors in and out, panels, WHATEVER, .... those things add up to 500$ QUICKLY! Plus, ...is the igniter good? Another bonus that would be, they're pricey even used, lol.

Have a great week, man! I'm off to Havasu again, tomorrow,...... I should say FINALLY AGAIN! lol.

 

So as mentioned before my OME bushings finally arrived, which means after installing them my OME kit is officially complete.

At some point I'd like to put in greasable shackles, and possibly the OME steering stabilizer, but right now I just want to focus on necessities until the truck is on the road. I'll probably have to do some patching up on the 4Ruster I'm currently driving at that point anyway. I've really neglected it while working on the project truck.
I also started bending brake lines across the rear axle:

I won't know how well/badly I did on the double flares for the fittings until I actually have the body on and bleed all the lines. I felt good about it, though. I'll have to check in with my auto parts guy to see if he found me the right rear flex line yet, otherwise I'll throw an old one in there for now and hopefully finish up the rest of the steel lines tomorrow night. Hoping to make a good run of it this week, maybe I can have the tranny and engine back in next weekend if I push hard enough. I desperately want to get the body back on so my truck is more like a truck again.