Hi everybody, Im a new member and a first time poster. I just picked up my third 1st Gen 4Runner for $1700. (The other two are long gone). Its a 1987 with 200.000kms, and im the third owner. This thing is bone stock, just like I wanted. The first owner was absolutely anal about this truck, I have every piece of maintenance paperwork from the dealer he bought it from in Calgary since his first oil change. This truck starts up one turn every time and purrrs like a healthy 22R-E should.

The interior is in amazing condition, the back window works perfectly as does every switch and light, and the canopy has only been removed once in its 26 years of life. Unfortunately the body and under carriage of this beast are covered in rust, it looks bad, but after a close inspection I noticed that its all just scaling and there are actually no holes or soft spots anywhere on the frame or on any vital components.

This truck will be a trail driving truck foremost and sometimes my daily driver, I mostly wheel on tight technical trails and dont spend much time out in the mud or doing serious rock crawling. Because of the extent of the rust, I dont want to invest too much into this truck, so every mod will be done the most cost effective and 'redneck' way possible.
My plans...

I want reliability so im not going to mess around with any kind of lifts

-Cut out the body rust and do the quickest body panel repair possible, at the same time making the wheel wells a bit bigger.
-Paint job when the body work is done.
-Keep the stock ride height and put it on some 33 x 10.50's.
-Replace all of the shocks with bilsteins, put in a Zuk Mod, probably with some 12'' coils.
-Fab some bolt on rock sliders and low profile rear bumper kinda like the ones 4Crawler makes.
-Fab a new skid plate because mine is missing.
-Fab a low profile front bumper with a receiver for a removable winch plate.

 

Welcome to YT!

Sounds like a great project!

 

Sawsall + Truck = FUN

 

I bought a welder just for this truck and tried my hand at flux core tacking...

 

No location on your sig, you from canada??

 

Hahaha, Yes im from Canada... Was it the rust that gave me away?

 

This side was alot harder to match the bends in the metal...

 

I decided not to bother with stencils since I was removing and replacing so much of the body. Im just going to cut my replacement panel a bit big, take it to my sheet metal guy and get him to make that zig zag bend that goes across the length of the truck, then line up the bend and start tacking.
...remember, im going for fast, not perfect.

 

Here i have my new, deeper wheel well tacked in and primed.

 

Sometimes working outside is a lot nicer than being stuck in a garage all night...

 

Nice work, nice background.

 

Wow. Nice work. Had you ever welded before? It looks good. Is it a 120v flux core welder or 240v?

 

It's a Lincon 120V - 140amp, it does flux and mig... works great.
I've never welded before and I've never done body work before, I'm sure if a professional looked closely at my work they'd have a good laugh! I just need it to pass inspection for my insurance company... apparently they dont like to see basketball sized rust holes in the vehicles that they insure. If it lasts five years without falling apart, I'll be happy.

 

... this thread continued here...

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f88/...al-fab-275289/