Picked up an 89 4runner SR5 a couple weeks ago. It's currently parked at the truck shop at my work waiting for some brake work to be done before I can "safely" drive it home. I had been spot checking CL for 1st gen 4runners, Monteros, Troopers and even Cherokees to try and find a project car. The 4runner was my first choice but used prices seem to be getting higher and higher. A couple Friday's ago I was checking CL on my phone while at lunch with some coworkers and an ad popped up with a 89 4runner only 2 miles from my office for $975 that had been only posted for 10 minutes. I excused myself from the table, called the ad and went to look at the truck 30 minutes later. I wound up getting it for $900 bucks, time will tell whether I got a good deal or not...











In the 3rd picture you can see the pile of bumpers I ran into when the brakes failed.

Short term plans

Get the brakes sorted and get the truck home. Park it in the garage and begin tear-down and cleaning. Take care of the most serious body rust issues, new front fenders, new tailgate, new trim pieces, bondo/body work etc. The frame has a decent amount of rust so I'm sure I'll be spending weeks under the truck with a wire wheel, cleaning priming and POR15ing.

There also seems to be a bit of oil leaking around the valve covers, need to get that figured out.

Long term plans

All the typical stuff, Lift, wheels/tires, bumpers/armor, softop, either an enginer rebuild (3vz with 200k) or possibly a swap. My plan is to make this a reliable expedition/camping/adventuring/roadtrip vehicle.

 

Welcome. It looks like a good deal. My '89 rusted in all the same places. Not too bad to fix. It's lucky you found a 4Runner rather than the others on your list. There isn't as much on line support for some of your other choices. It looks like most other MD residents get historic plates to avoid exhaust inspections.

 

It will take some work but one step at a time and you can get it to where you want it to be. Welcome to Yotatech.

 

Yea, the following behind first gen 4runners is great. Anything I want to do with it someone as already done and probably has a 10 page thread giving step by step directions. That's the only reason I was also considering a Cherokee, also you can find decently priced cherokees falling out of bed.

I already picked up Historic tags so I don't have to worry about emissions or inspections.


I cleaned out my garage this weekend in preparation of the 4runner coming home, unfortunately garage time will be taken up by my ridgeline next weekend. It needs new front brakes before a road trip next month.

 

I know it's been a long time since my original post. I was finally able to bring the 4runner home a few weeks ago. He made the 100+ mile trip without incident, there was a little bit of a shimmy in the steering right around 65mph but I attributed that to the car likely having all the original (dry rotted) bushings.

After a week of rain I finally got some sun and time to start evaluating the truck better and formulating a game plan. Unfortunately, I think I should have done this hard evaluating before buying the truck. Granted I bought the truck for less than half of what I paid for my last mountain bike frame but I'm starting to think I still may have overpaid.

I knew there was going to be a lot of rust repair and I was prepared for that given the price I paid, but I'm starting to think it may be a lost cause. I need some opinions if it's even worth it to start the project or if I should cut my losses and find a project in a little better conditions.

These are pics of the worst areas

 

That rust looks pretty bad. However for the price you paid you may be able to work with it.

Possibly find a rolled runner and take the frame from it and any other usable parts as well

 

Unfortunately, I don't have the tools/skill/patience to do a complete frame swap. I don't plan on making the car a rock crawler, I just wanted a road trip/camping/expo vehicle that could handle mild offroad trails. When I bought the truck I planned on spending 5k+ to make it how I wanted but now I'm second guessing putting any money into it...

 

What ever happened to it?

 

Oh what fun rust is.

 

I ended up selling it (for more than I bought it for) and I bought an 89 Land cruiser which I still have. It was a California cruiser for it's first 15 years of life so it has 1/100th the rust that the 4runner had. Here it is a couple days ago.

 

#1 I'm surprised that people actually responded to me on this thread 🤣
#2 awesome land cruise, I'd love one but they're hard to come by#3 there's a guy selling an 87 4runner that looks decentHe says it's from california but he lives in Florida, 5k sound decent?