Hi All,

Brand new Toyota owner and new Yota Tech as well. Thanks Red Wagon for reminding me to put my build up here.

A lot of the work I have done was more or less undocumented photo wise, however, it has all been done before elsewhere and I will site where I got the info.

I hope this helps people figure out costs and ideas on how to do things with their Toy. I know Yota Tech has been instrumental in giving me the confidence to do what I did and continue doing what I want and need to do, so thank you guys for being awesome.

A little about my background.

I am 24 years old from the Bay Area, lived in LA for a couple of years, and now live in Lake Tahoe. I will be moving to LA May 2014 to be closer to the surf which is my first passion (Toys my second!). I surf almost every weekend in the Bay Area, driving down from Tahoe when I can.

One of my first jobs was at Jiffy Lube 15 years old. Did everything there. Advice, don't take your car to Jiffy Lube, Period. HA!

I had one of the best Auto Teachers in High School at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA. His name was Mr. Camicia. He is a racing legend and overall bad ass. We had a killer shop, 4 lifts, welding tools, air everything, you name it we had it. A privilege from living in that area. We also had some sick drag racers, race cars, old trucks, model Ts and As the works. That is where I learned a lot of my skills besides tinkering on various craigslist junk I bought in my garage over the years.

I then got a job as a mechanic at a Porsche Shop in Mountain View CA. Moddermans Porsche. I learned a lot there also.

Anyways its been years since I have touched a car. It has always been a dream of mine to own one of these 1st gen 4runners. In high school when a few buddys of mine got into wheeling I seriously considered getting one and studied everything I could about building one up. I love the convertible!
Well that never happened. So now I am living that dream.

I got the 4Runner primarily because I will be doing a lot of Baja Trips to surf. Driving all the way to Cabo San Lucas from LA and back this June 2014. It is the perfect truck for that.

Enough with me, now on to my 4runner!

 

Alright on to my 4Runner.

I bought it about 2 weeks ago end of February 2014 from a kid 5 miles from me in Truckee CA. I was cruising craigslist not really in the market yet and saw this gem.

I bought it for $5000.00

It had no major body damage. Paint looked brand new. Interior was flawless with the exception of the front seats, I mean it is in great shape. Came with smitty built bumper and sliders. Also came with new master craft 31 x 10.5 tires and american steel? rims black. Everything was in working order no issues. He was the second owner, he had all the records EVEN THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE RECEIPT FROM THE DEALER! All service records and what not. Drove like a top and was just great.

The bad: Broken windshield, rear lenses were faded, front blinkers had been painted black (stupid), missing passenger side mirror, rear window seal clips had broken and seal was bent and annoying and it was leaking oil and coolant somewhere, not inside the engine no evidence in checking oil or coolant showed bad stuff just leaks (You will find out soon where they were coming from) thats it.

Guess how many miles were on it? 135,000 SCORE! Barely broken in.
To say the least I was ecstatic.

Around here on craigslist and Ebay 4runners of all years with big dents and over 250,000 miles some minor tech issues also were consistently going for $4000 - $4500. So I consider myself lucky, I didn't drive around looking at a bunch of different ones so no time or gas money wasted, let me know what you think of the price.

It is a White 1989 4Runner DLX 4x4 22RE 2.4gas 5 spd manual 2whl hi & 4 hi/low with manual locking hubs. No mods except the tires rims and bumper. All original, you'll soon find out everything I pulled off was original. Must have been garaged or something!

Pics are when I picked it up.

Now on to the build.

 

For $5000, you could've done a LOT worse.. Especially the further East you go. I'd love to find a runner in that condition someday. Until then, I'll admire those of YT. Keep up the posting!

 

First thing was first. Well this shouldn't of been the first thing but its what I did.

Made an appointment with Safelite Auto Glass to replace the windshield. I did it online it was quick simple and the tech came out the next day!

I got a new windshield: $178.95
New wipers: $22.98
Disposal Fee: $9.95
Had the guy come to my house Mobile Service Fee: $39.95
Total Price: $251.83

Deal in my book, he was professional quick (1 hour) and awesome. His name was Jessie from Reno Safelite.
(Note, less than a week later when driving it I got impacted with a rock and a huge crack showed up again!!!! I didn't hear or see the impact happen the crack just appeared, it got nailed on the bottom of the windshield right above the metal trim. It was like a tiny chip not a spider web and it grew into the crack Noooooo, what did I do? I called up Safelite and complained about the quality of the glass and how its been like 4 days! The next day they sent over the same guy. He installed a new one for free! Safelite is the bomb in my book!

Now,
I should have done this before first but I gave the car a look over on my back in a parking lot with a flashlight when I bought it and nothing was alarming.

I got it smogged and took it to a mechanic to have it put on a lift (to get a good look underneath), greased up, fluids topped off and have a look over to see what is wrong and what needs to be done.

I took it to Tahoe City Chevron for you local folks who are curious and Brandon the lead mechanic is awesome there.

It passed smog no problem (no headgasket issues!) Smog cost: $80 out the door.

The inspection and fluid top off base price is $15 dollars (so cheap compared to Palo Alto mechanics)

This is what they found wrong:

Recommend: Tire Rotation, Front Brake Pads 10% left (rears most likely need to go also but drums they didnt check) Replace all drive belts (they looked original and were falling apart) coolant drain and refill, battery service (terminal corrosion), has oil leak and coolant leak, start with Valve cover and work your way down. Power steering lines are leaking. Needs new air filter. Power steering cap stick broken off. Front right headlight high beam
not working, low ok.

This was great. Nothing major reported and now I have an idea of what I need to do, SCORE! for $15 this was well worth it. Note: They topped off fluids and depending on how much fluids needed they charge a certain price per gallon. I needed a 1/4 gal of coolant and it was $14.95 a gal so I paid $4 for the 1/4. No surprises.

Now I finally get my hands dirty!

 

I will get back to this tomorrow. For now check out this cool vid from last weekend of my first wheeling experience ever! To say the least I was super stoked and blown away that a stock yota could do what I did with it.

This was on the Rubicon Trail in Lake Tahoe not far from where I live (I know why am I moving!) We got almost to the Y before my ride height and diffs began to plow snow and get stuck. Pics also of that day. In the summer this is apparently a cake walk but some of those holes combined with a steep and messed up snow bank sure made things interesting!

Here is the vid:

 

ya my 86 4runner is pretty little still too.. but one day. one day.
welcome to the team!