I am buying my 1st Runner back that I sold 1 1/2yrs ago tomorrow. Im pretty excited. I figured I would give you guys the story. I know you guys like 4Runner build threads. Its been through alot.


So the back history of this truck is as follows.

I purchased this truck 2 years ago. I paid $800.00 for it of off the list.The guy delivered it to me for an additional $150. $950 total! He lived about 175miles away. Hell yes, I didn't want to go get it. The guy’s name was Cletus and he only had one pic in the ad. Its the first one I posted. He only sent me the pics I have posted here, but I was sold

All I knew was that it was red, had a saggy rear end and had swirly wheels with 31's. He used it as a farm truck and told me that he spun a bearing in the motor one day. He pulled apart the motor and put all the pieces in the rear cargo compartment. I mean, short block, upper/lower intake, wires, hoses. Anunbelievable greasy terrible mess. After he spun the bearing and pulled the motor, he put it in a shed/barn (cant remember) on his parents property. It sat there for at least 3 years that I can recall. They ended up selling the property and he was forced to sell it in its sad delapadated state.

So I didn’t have any idea what other kind of problems it may have. But it was totally rust free and I loved it!

This is what she looked like the day I got her. It was covered in a thick grimy layer. It had no carpet and the interior was COVERED in mud from muddyboots and general farm romping. It was the filthiest vehicle I’ve ever purchased. She’s been abused on a farm, but miraculously has 0% rust. I found beer caps and multiple differen tshell casings in it.

Here are the CL pics. They were even blurry






The next few chapters will take some more posts. I need to try to find some pictures to go along with it.

 

So here it is when I got her home. I didnt even know what color interior it had! I was hoping for grey honestly. I knew from day one I didn't want to keep the red top. This is before I cleaned it up at all.

The rear passenger 1/4 panel and tailgate are faded completley to purple. I think it was parked covered with the rear exposed to sunlight for years with no protection.

Pictures tell the better story






It has Brown interior! I had no idea I would love it smuch. No way I will change the color. I will be on the hunt to restore it to new in the future. Check out my awesome plaid front seats! They are in great shape. The only bad spot is on the driver side lower bolster. But the plaid is in perfect condition. I should be able to have a upholstry shop patch just the brown bolster piece. I have since come to the concluson that my truck is one of the ones that came to the country as a "truck" and had the dealer installed after market rear seat. What are you guys opinions on that? It doesnt match the brown perfectly, but I can't imagine someone got one that fit this well that wasnt for this truck.









I had to take the top off!!!!!




So there she was as I got her. I can't find any under hood pictures right now. The tranny was still installed and the manifold was still attached to the exhaust and was removed from the block.

 

The next thing I got to do was some clean up to see what I had. I fell more in love with it the more I got it cleaned up.




The door panels cleaned up great! I pulled them off, and deep cleaned them. I also let vinyl conditioner sit on them and the seats overnight and it really softened them up.

 

Truck looks great cleaned up, and who can beat rust free..!! Theres NO such thing as a "rust free" first gen 4runner here in Mass, so consider yourself lucky..!! lol Good luck with the re-build.

 

Thought I'd posted here but most of forgot to.

Really like that cream colored vinyl on the doors, has a nice look with the red. The tthird picture of the motor in the rear bed, looks like it crawled back there and vomitted to death. That faded fusia pinkes purpley stuff would make an interesting paint job if it was all over but it'd definatly take somegetting used to and get you ribbed pretty hard at the bar or construction site

 

Are you coming to get this turd out of my garage tonight?
You locate that linkage piece?
Hup hup!

 

Update, I had two days off work last sun/mon. I was planning on having it running in those two days. I work 10hr days at my job and finding time to work on the truck (which is at highluxs house) is hard if I'm not off.

So with the help of highlux, we have her running perfectly.

We had many things to diagnose along the way. New tps, adjust timing, replacing the 80amp fuse because I was tired the first night and put it in backwards! What an idiot. Much of the interior was disassembled. Changed the oil, checked out the brakes and greased the caliper slides. Fixed some vacuum leaks, adjust the idle yada yada.

Long story short, the truck is daily driveable again! It's been a long time since it was totally dialed in. She has a new life and a great rust free truck isn't getting parted out because a redneck blew the motor up.

I want to do these sr5 wheels badly. I rolled one up by it too see how it would look. I also want to paint the red top white in short order. I'll post pics when I'm on the computer. I'm on my phone now. Pics and updates on its first 60 mile round trip tomorrow.

 

truck looks great!really cool story very similar to mine except my engine was in the passengers seat: looking forward to see where its at now!!

 

Nice start! no rust...(napoleon voice...) lucky!!! Plus i like the black trim package compared to the chrome.

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

Today was a minor setback. I drove it to work (30miles) and it did great, as well as the 15 miles or so I drove it last night.

On my way home, shortly after I left, it was bucking on me. It feels like a fuel/ignition issue. After about 5 minutes of driving it was bucking every couple seconds. it would be accelerating fine for a second and then all power would cut out, Id loose 1-2mph and then the gas was back in it. It wasn't changed a whole lot by more or less throttle. It does it in every gear at all speeds.

It was in the 20's and I didnt mess with it tonight. Ill look at it thursday when I am off. Im sure its a small issue. Just gotta find the answer.

Here are a couple pics for now....

Engine shot currently


I really want to do the SR5 wheels


My buddy painted my surface rusty ugly shifterboot plate. I need an actual shift boot. I think Im going to make one myself.

 

I found more pictures from when I got it and through putting the motor together. I wont waste the time labling the pics, you guys know what a 22re is all about

 

Jealous of the Rust free rig you have there. I wish I could say the same about my Rig.

 

Wow great looking truck. Your rear seat is definitely not factory, mine wasn't either. Good luck with the running issue I'm sure its not much, I'm have issues with mine at the moment to need to get busy and dig into mine.