Today while preparing my truck for my Bushwhacker install I removed the rock guards off the rear fenders and what I found about blew me away!:eek: There must have been about a pound of dirt in each side! I have no clue how it gets in there but that stuff had been there for years. I had to chip it out with a screwdriver. Also when I removed my rear flaps they were in pretty sad shape!! All this prevented me from installing my bushwhackers today because one it was freezing cold and my hose was frozen solid, washing the truck would have been ludicrous. Second I want to take some time to clean everything very thoroughly before I go covering it up with the Bushwhackers. I highly recommend removing the plastic stone gaurds and cleaning them next time you are washing your Runner. To remove there are 4 phillips screws then you have to slide it straight down to pop it out of the clips. Hope this helps someone!


Mystery surprise #1 behind the flaps!





And behind plastic piece #1... show em what he's won!



After some good scrubbing she's as good as new!

Hoping to do the Bushwhackers maybe next weekend when it's not sub artic outside!

 

Thanks for the tip Meyers. My Bushwackers come in Tuesday. Il make sure I clean that corner out.

 

Don't tell my wife, but sometimes when she leaves, I take those car parts, computer parts, whatever, and throw them in the dishwasher. Thirty minutes later, factory fresh!

 

Ewww...I didn't even thing of cleaning there. I will have to take them off and see what I can find under there. Thanks for that tip Joey. I believe I will wait for spring to do that stuff, when it warms up. :fireman:

 

It can be scary whats underneath those panels. When I removed mine there was nothing there. I mean no metal there, it all rusted away. The other spot to check is by pulling the rear panels on the inside out and looking in there, mine was filled with about 3 inches of dirt and underneath all that dirt was rust. Only thing holding the rust together was the dirt so now I have holes to fix.:cry:

 

Sounds to me like this is one more reason to hate the RubberMaid cladding on the 2003 4Runner.

 

You'll get the same amount of build up if not more w/ the Bushwackers. During the summer I usually take my flares off for cleaning.

 

Yuk! Who knew that much junk could collect in such a small spot. Much like you, my hose is frozen solid, so I won't be cleaning any of those nooks and cranies any time soon...

 

Eeeewww... I'm on it , I'm on it. Gonna clean that area tomorrow @ work! (yeah, I have one of those jobs) As someone else said, who woulda thought you could get that much crud in so small an area??
Thanks U.K.!!!

 

1Runner if you look in the pics you can see the clips that hold then on. Undo the phillips screws and push straight down. They take some force but they will come off!

 

I have the same problem that Rockrunner found when pulling off the plastic pieces in front of the rear wheel. Completely rusted out! The plastic trim actually fell off because there was nothing holding it in. Now what? Anybody have any good ideas on how to fix that area?

 

Ive been trying to find aftermarket peices for mine to weld in for a while. They make them for 1st gen. runners but not 2nd. The only option ive found is to find a wrecked runner and cut the sides out to weld into mine, or you can buy the whole side of the truck, goes from the very back to the back passenger door, and down to the peice under the plastic molding, and up to the water lip on the roof right from Toyota. up here in Canada it was $1100. But thats major surgery for a truck thats not that old.

 

I had a hole about the size of my fist under the rear door in front of the rear wheel under the rocker (couldn't see when standing next to the rig). I had to get it repaired to pass inspection here, so I had both sides repaired (other side was getting there...). My body shop hand formed new metal to put in there. Looks like new...

That is the only area I've seen rust on my Runner - except I did notice a little rust forming on the surface of the rear bumper (side piece) I think it got scraped on something though.

Time to step up the custom rear bumper design/fab...

 

Holy crap! Good lookout. Gives me something else to clean now, my neighbors already think I'm obsessive-compulsive anyway with my vehicles.