Here are a couple pics of his 'runner. It has the old ATS kit.

 

It looks good in the pictures, but better in person. When are you going to come in again to get the wipers and squirters finished?

 

Sweet. I now know what my Runner will look like with the Ivan Stewart kit. There seems to be 2 other build up of LT Runners. I will hopefuly get mine started at the beginning of '05.

 

Who else is doing an lt runner?

Isn't the Ivan glass killer on 4runners? Can't wait to see yours Redrunner87, I know you are gonna go totally race ready. sweeeeet


Chris- I told Jim to call me when you guys have room to squeeze me in. I've got a couple of things that need tweaking, Nothing too major.....but I have been romping in it quite a bit.

 

I remember seing a '89-'95 fiberglass hood with the n3rd gen. 4runner scoop molded into it on one of the sites that sells toyota fiberglass stuff but now I cant find it. Has anyone run across this site?
Thanks

 

Deathrunner, I know Downey used to make HD sockets for the 1 st gen's
http://www.downeyoff-road.com/
BUT I can't remember if they were only for the rear, might be a good place to start though.

 

914runner- I can't recalling seeing sucha hood, but I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if I come across one.


Buki- Thanks for the idea. I checked their site and couldn't seem to find one. I have a copy of thier catalog somewhere around here, so I'll have to check that too. I'll probably just wait and see if my stockers can handle it.

 

I love the look of the Ivan kit on the 4Runners. I want to start soon, but I need to save up the money for it. The parts hopefully will be put on in March or April of '05.

Sean at TLT is building one up aswell.

 

What kit is Sean using? I'm curious to see how everybody is going about it. Is his for trails or racing. I take it yours is for racing (as you stated before). Mine is a daily driver/desert/trail runner. I'm curious what sean is building it for.

 

I think he is gonna use the Total Chaos with Sway-Away.I want to build mine for the same purose but with more emphaisise on Racing. But I am gonna retain the 4WD for regular trail use. Not two sure about it being a daily driver though.

 

So I take it you wouldn't race in 4wd?
I guess jumping in 4x4 is a bad idea.

Hey I just noticed your sig, what's with the no 4x4???? Did you bust something? I guess you should have bought a Ford, you know Ford tough and all. J/K

 

His hub has been acting up. The drivers side wont engage and you get a wonderful grinding sound.

As for racing with 4wd I wouldn't see any negative effects, except for more moving parts. There are are a few trophy trucks that have 4wd and the jeepseeds also. As long as you are not running any traction aids in the front I think it would be fine.

 

I killed the hub for the second time on the Pismo trip. I will be running in 4WD, but won't have any traction device in it. There are already to many Fords in this family .

 

your set up looks great!
cant wait to see it painted. what color are you going with? is it possible to paint the fiberglass top?

 

We are building our '89 up with Total Chaos' new "Caddy Kit" that allows for mounting coil-overs and removing the torsion bars, it gets 13" vertical travel. We drew up some blueprints in solidworks to get about 14", using 12" shocks out of the rear without cutting through the cab/bed. I think for fiber glass, we will mold our own since there really isn't a set of fenders that we like, most of them have round wheel openings and the factory lines are so angular. And for the bedsides, we will re-shapes them to clear the 33x10.5's. We are just buttoning up the 3.4l late model motor swap and the suspension goes in next, starting with the front and then we will fabricate the rear. We are also caging the truck but we have no plans to race it as of yet.

you can check it out and follow the progress on our website, it is in the "news" section on the home-page for the moment but it will soon be featured as a full-time project vehicle. The link is in my signature...

 

the Josh- Thanks. I am going to paint the whole truck Black again once the rear glass is on. It wouldn't be much of a deathrunner in any other color. And Yes you can absolutely paint fiberglass.

Sean- Sweeeeeeeeettttttttt. I'll check it out.

 

Sean-
I read about it on your site.....AWESOME.

Deaver told me that they don't make a spring over pack for my truck? what gives?? How did you manage to get one? and how much??? That's the missing piece to my setup. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks -Seth

 

We are planning to use the same Deaver/Donahoe Tacoma bolt-in pack that we are running in our '99 TRD Taco. This will require modifying the front spring perches/location to fit a 1st gen. 4Runner, but these springs are capable of pulling more than enough travel when combined with the proper shocks and shock mounting geometry. Once we finish our rear, we will most likely publish the blueprints for people to reference, and of course will be publishing a full article on exactly how to perform this modification to your truck. We will get to the rear suspension no later than the end of the year, probably sooner. The front is scheduled to be done by the end of this month...

 

Awesome. I think your project will really play a big part in how my rear ends up. I'm happy with my front setup, but the rear is my concern. You have the same idea that I had in mind, but I can learn from your install and you will get it done slightly sooner than mine. I take it the deaver pack is pretty soft in your taco, did you consider the extra weight of the 4runner? I wonder how that will affect thefeel of that spring pack. Also what do you think the springs and perches would cost?

I agree about the fenders available. I hate the round openings, that is why I went with the Ivan glass, it keeps the opening squarish.

As far as the bedsides....How are you planning to reshape them and keep a seal on the cab??? We (Protrux and I) had discussed cutting the fender open to allow the maximum exposure of the wheel well. This would give us maximum clearance without scarificing the seal. Is that what you are referring to? Or were you actually going to spread them out wider too???

We were going to either fit 80's long bed bedsides over it or I emailed fiberwerks about custom sides.

The straight axle guys must think we're crazy. Thanks for being receptive to my questions. -Seth

 

Actually the bolt-in pack is much softer and more progressive than stock but it is by no means too soft. The 4Runner rear end is a few hundred pounds heavier though so I am sure we will need to have Deaver do a little work to the pack before we install it. We had Deaver re-work our long-travel Tacoma springs to sit a little lower and be more progressive. Deaver can do this same day if you schedule it in advance or they can just make your springs as per your specific request ahead of time. Just let them now what you need and they can make it happen. They are true experts who can tune leaf springs to be give a very advanced ride! Check out the article here,Deaver Tuning Article

I really like the Ivan glass on the older style trucks like yours, I think that if you can figure out a way to make the rear look similar that would look really nice and very appropriate of the "Death Runner" name. Although it will be time consuming. We are looking for something a little less extreme that will maintain the factory lines, only enhanced just enough to clear the tires on full compression. We chose 33x10.5's because they seem to be a good size overall and they will be easier to fit in the rear than a 33x12.5" or even a metric 285/75.

We are planning to most likely mini-tub the inner wheel-wells and open the outer wheel-well up a few inches, we will most likely end up just massaging the factory sheet-metal. Baker motorsports has a auto-body guy that does incredible work with steel and fiberglass, he will be doing the bedsides for our Chevy HD2500 project. You can get a hold of Baker here, Baker Motorsports

No worries, any time!