Jaretstuff’s 1999 Highlander thread

Hello all, I’ve been on yotatech for the last 7 or so years. Throughout that time I’ve had a built t100 on lockers and 35s, a Supra turbo 22re pickup truck, an elocked V8 4th gen and a few more normal rigs. Finally bit the bullet and sold my 4th gen and just got a new daily to drive to work. Well the offroad Toyota bug hit me again and I found this little guy tailgating me for the ride home. 1999 highlander, 3.4/auto, non elocker (boo) with 150k miles. Very excited to do another in depth build and hopefully show how I do some of my mods and fixes.

 

Nice place to start.

 

thanks hab, I remember reading your threads back when I first got on the forum

 

Took off the bug guard, trying to decide if I should keep factory bumper or not

 

Green 99 Highlander club!

2010:


2020:

 

heck yea! Glad to see ya using it for what it’s made for!

 

I found out a 03-09 4runner radio is plug and play in a 3rd gen. I will say fitment leaves some to be desired however. I will have to trim about a 1/2 on each side

 

Today was a good day. I finally had the time to get my 4runner to my actual shop, I had it at my storage garage. Managed to get it all vacuumed out, and got the broken vent shades off. Also managed to get all the ugly add on stickers and badges off. Hopefully be able to get it on the lift soon and start the frame repairs

 

285s for the 4runner

 

Started getting an idea how much I will have to lift/ cut to clear the 285s. Thinking around 3 inches of lift and some minor bumper trimming. Trimmed some to get my 4th gen radio to fit and not super pleased with the result, but it was free so can’t complain. Lastly I’m going to try to make a hybrid factory and steel bumper by sectioning the rusty part of my factory bumper and raising my factory hitch a few inches

 

With the split tri-spokes the stock upper a-arm and the frame (back of the front tire, on turns) might get in the way too.

 

Will a small front spacer wheel spacer help with that?

 

That worked for me, but I quickly moved over from 1/4" spacers to 1" adapters (also called spacers, they bolt to the hub and the wheel bolts to them). There just isn't enough thread on the oe lugs to share with the spacer and not quite enough distance from the upper a-arm, either.

 

sounds like a plan

 

 

Going to start on the frame work and hopefully make a front and rear hybrid bumper

 

Got started on my hybrid rear bumper. Ever since I saw how the factory hitch is on these I thought I could do better, I had a vision in my head of a low profile rework of the factory hitch into a steel bumper and step. Today I started by removing the rusty sheet metal and getting an idea of how it’s going to mount

Factory Toyota hitch receiver

Factory receiver removed from the 4runner

All of the skin cut off

Where the cut and chopped receiver will sit

It will have a plate steel bumper built off of it. I managed to raise it about 6-8 inches over stock

 

Started getting ready for the frame work I need to do. Going to do the rear lift kit at the same time

 

Oof, that's some rust. Gonna feel good after you complete all that work, will be quite the accomplishment.

 

How much lift are you doing? In the rear, just blocks? Or full Long bar kit?