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On some places on the west coast, I know it is not easily done to get custom paint mixed and it runs about $5 more a can to have it mixed. You are better off staying with an off the shelf brand as it is more consistent as custom mixed can be a few shades off.
I have to go about 40 miles to a auto body store that has a big selection of SEM. My local parts stores have some and can probably get it shipped to them. Might see if they can do that to save some cash. Also see if you can find a auto body store that sells all kinds of auto body supplies. A ton cheaper then the big name parts stores. The ones I have around here are mom and pop stores.
For about $150 I could have the interior on my truck done. $100 for carpet and $50 for SEM paint. It would look so much better and only take a few hours to get it done. I hear you on the cost. Got so many other fires to put out that the 85 keeps getting put on the back burner.
lookin good ed, just went through this whole thread. your off to a great start on this runner!
1. 23 mpg is awesome in a 4runner, did you notice a huge mpg loss with the new tires?
2. i really like your idea for mounting the tablet, i might have to copy you! does it just sit in the track or does it lock in somehow? (i'm just wondering if it will stay put while rattling around on the trail). also, how did you do the bends?
3. seats look great! i bet they're comfy
On some places on the west coast, I know it is not easily done to get custom paint mixed and it runs about $5 more a can to have it mixed. You are better off staying with an off the shelf brand as it is more consistent as custom mixed can be a few shades off.
I have to go about 40 miles to a auto body store that has a big selection of SEM. My local parts stores have some and can probably get it shipped to them. Might see if they can do that to save some cash. Also see if you can find a auto body store that sells all kinds of auto body supplies. A ton cheaper then the big name parts stores. The ones I have around here are mom and pop stores.
For about $150 I could have the interior on my truck done. $100 for carpet and $50 for SEM paint. It would look so much better and only take a few hours to get it done. I hear you on the cost. Got so many other fires to put out that the 85 keeps getting put on the back burner.
I still need to check around to see if I can get SEM paint here locally. We have O'Reilly's a NAPA, and a Carquest and that's about it for parts stores. I hear ya on projects getting put on the back burner, I don't know if I will ever get my trailer project finished, lol.
lookin good ed, just went through this whole thread. your off to a great start on this runner!
1. 23 mpg is awesome in a 4runner, did you notice a huge mpg loss with the new tires?
2. i really like your idea for mounting the tablet, i might have to copy you! does it just sit in the track or does it lock in somehow? (i'm just wondering if it will stay put while rattling around on the trail). also, how did you do the bends?
3. seats look great! i bet they're comfy
keep it up!
Thanks! I need to calculate the tire size difference to see how far my odometer is off, if any. It doesn't seem to have affected my gas mileage.
On the tablet mount, I made it so the width is a hair wider so it slides in snugly, I've hit alot of potholes on my driveway at 25 mph and it has never vibrated loose.
On the bends I just used a grinder with a skinny wheel and grinded a line deep enough to where I could put it in a vice and make the bends. After test fitting it I was going to weld the seams or tack weld it, but it seems plenty sturdy without doing it. Oh I used scrap 14 gauge sheetmetal. All said and done it's a little heavy, but it works.
I'm liking the seats, they are really comfortable. I worked on the passenger side one today and got the mounting brackets for it finished up.
Originally Posted by dropzone
Do the seats still have the airbags in them?
Good eye Rob! The airbag was attached to the factory seatbelt, I removed the driverside one, still need to remove the one from the passenger side seat.
So I didn't get nearly as much accomplished on my days off as I had planned. I did finish the passenger bucket seat bracket.
I also managed to burn a hole in my seat when I was removing the old brackets. I'm stilled pi$$ed about that one. I had the seat covered with a tarp folded double thick covering it while I was grinding. Evidently one of the bolt heads I cut off fell down and melted through the tarp and my seat !!! I'm going to try to find a way to patch it, with the arm rest up it partially conceals it...every time I think about, ugh
It was nice out in the morning but rain clouds rolled in limiting what I could get done.
I think my back seats are really going to take some work to fit. They fit in there width wise, but as I feared, the contour of the floor doesn't work with them very well, it sits up way too high.It would be ok for the kids, but not an adult, plus they don't look right that high. So not sure what I'm going to do yet. I might just take them all apart and try to make the new cushions work with the original hinges and mounting hardware, will see.
On my driver side seat the first time I removed the original seat I broke loose the square nut that's tack welded on the bottom side of the floor. This was really irratating because I've had to take the seat in and out several times and I have to reach underneath and hold the nut so I can tighten it down. On my other 4runner I had 3 that were broken loose. So today I decided to fix it.
I just got a peice of scrape metal, cut it to a small rectangular size, drilled a hole the slightly larger than the thread hole in the nut. Then I tack welded the nut to the metal. Then I drilled 3 small holes through the floor, bolted the metal square into place centering the hole, then tack welded it into place from above filling in the 3 small holes I had drilled. The reason I did it this way is its hard for me to weld over head, also I was scared of burning through the floor if I tried welding the nut directly to the floor. Anyway it worked out great, here's some pics, they'll probably make more sense than me trying to describe what I did.
True, I just keep chipping away at it a little at a time, it will get there!
Originally Posted by dropzone
Bummer about the hole in the seat, that sucks.
I like your solution for the spun nut. Simple and effective
The hole in the seat still eats away at me, I thought I had it covered good. I'm thinking I might be able to remove some of the fabric from the map pocket on the back of the seat to patch it.
The spun nut fix was pretty simple, wish I had done it on my 86' when I still had it. Alot easier than trying to crawl underneath the rig and weld it overhead!
I took a break from working on my back seat, it's going to take alot more work than I had originally thought, so I moved on to my tailgate.
I haven't open the tailgate since buying the 4runner. I tried pulling up on the handle and nothing. The lock for the tailgate didn't feel right either. So I pulled the cover off the inside. I was able to manually manipulate the latches on both sides and drop the gate down. Every moving part inside was pretty gummed up with dried grease and dirt. At least it wasn't all rusty! Started cleaning everything, but noticed one of my cables was froze up pretty good. I was able to break it free, but it has too much friction inside the cable for the return spring to bring it back into position. I tore apart the latch on the passenger side to clean it as it was full of gunk, and in the process lost one of the small springs that goes inside. I will have to see if I can find a replacement at the hardware store.
Does anyone know if you can get replacement cables for the tailgate?
I'm also thinking of making a new cover for the inside of the tailgate to replace the red carpeted one. Here's some pics of the gunk inside the tailgate.
^^^This was after I cleaned it some, I might just pull the whole unit out so I can clean up more easily.
^^^This is the passenger side latch that I lost the spring out of, it was full of dried grease and dirt.
^^^One of the cables was still good, need to replace the other. You can also see the red carpeted cover in the background, I have some sheetmetal that I can use to make a new one, then I might use grey roll on bedliner to cover it and match my interior.
That hole wont be noticeable with a cover over it. I put the marathon superhides on all seats in every vehicle I own. They are a tight fit and they last. I haven't worn out a set yet. I would eventually like to put more comfortable seats in mine eventually. But have to take it one thing at a time.
I have not checked for replacement cables but if you come across a 2nd gen runner, their cables will work better then the first gen cable. I know you don't have a salvage in your area but it gives you a better chance of finding set in a 2nd gen over a 1st gen.
Pulling the assembly is not near as hard as you might think. I run a battery right to the motor and run the window half way down or so. Then unbolt the 4 bolts holding it to the tail gate and slide the assembly to get it off of the tracks. I put wheel bearing grease on the rollers and tracks to try and keep the track from rusting out.
Once you get the motor assembly out, be very careful with the back glass. That could be almost impossible to replace. Seems like the defrost on the window like to catch on the rubber seals when removing the glass from the hatch.
hey ed, i know i replaced a couple of those tailgate cables in my time, i wanna say i went to the dealer at least once, did you try there? if you can't find one let me know, i have a yard here that has mountains of toyotas and i can mail you one
That hole wont be noticeable with a cover over it. I put the marathon superhides on all seats in every vehicle I own. They are a tight fit and they last. I haven't worn out a set yet. I would eventually like to put more comfortable seats in mine eventually. But have to take it one thing at a time.
I hear ya on taking on things one at a time, I catch my self wanting to jump around and moved onto other areas, which is fine, unless money is involved, lol. Thanks for the info, I may ended up buying some seat covers to help protect these seats, I will still at least attempt a repair on the hole, my OCPD won't let me rest otherwise, lol. I will have to check out the Marathon Superhide covers tho.
Originally Posted by Terrys87
I have not checked for replacement cables but if you come across a 2nd gen runner, their cables will work better then the first gen cable. I know you don't have a salvage in your area but it gives you a better chance of finding set in a 2nd gen over a 1st gen.
Pulling the assembly is not near as hard as you might think. I run a battery right to the motor and run the window half way down or so. Then unbolt the 4 bolts holding it to the tail gate and slide the assembly to get it off of the tracks. I put wheel bearing grease on the rollers and tracks to try and keep the track from rusting out.
Once you get the motor assembly out, be very careful with the back glass. That could be almost impossible to replace. Seems like the defrost on the window like to catch on the rubber seals when removing the glass from the hatch.
Thanks for the info on the second gen cables that's good to know, also I will have to grease the tracks as well, I don't need any more rust!
Originally Posted by liveoffroad
hey ed, i know i replaced a couple of those tailgate cables in my time, i wanna say i went to the dealer at least once, did you try there? if you can't find one let me know, i have a yard here that has mountains of toyotas and i can mail you one
Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it! I do have a Toyota dealership her locally that I can check. But first I'm going to try a quick fix, I will show more of that in my next post.
I came up with a temporary fix for the messed up cable on my tailgate, but it works better than I thought it would so I will probably just keep it and see how long it holds up.
I had some plastic coated cable and a couple cable clamp left over from another project. It was nearly an unobstructed diagonal straight shot from the mechanism that pulls the cable to the latch.The only thing in the way was the orignal cable stop that the old cable snapped into so I just bent it down out of the way, if i ever go back to the original one i can just bend it back up. You can see it in the second pic below, it's the tab that bent down just below the cable clamp:
It works really good, just need to find a replacement spring for the passenger side latch that I lost yesterday.
I was cleaning out my carport, which is long over due and I was going through a box of treasures and came across this rearview mirror that I had forgotten I still had off my 85' parts truck. This one has the light in it, which I will go ahead and wire up and make functiinal, then I will have an extra dome light along with my 2 map lights. The plastic on my old rear view mirror was in pretty bad shape from the sun, the replacement one is in much better condition, I will be painting it with SEM later.
^^^you can see how bad of shape the plastic is, alot of my plastic is sun damaged like this, I need to find replacement door handle inserts that go around the inside door handles too...
^^^This mirror is in great shape, just needs cleaned and painted.
The original (red) mirror base I will keep as a spare, I remember Terrys87 converting one of these over from a non-light version, swapping over the wiring parts and turning it into a lighted version.
How high do the bolts on the clamp you used stick up for the tailgate fix? It almost looks like from the picture that they might get interfered with by the panel that goes over the top of it. If it does get some of the crimp on lead connectors and do it that way. Just something I thought about looking at it. Glad you found a way to fix it, and I don't see you having any problem with it breaking with that cable on there.
My mirror looks like its in worse shape than the red one of yours. But im not too concerned with the interior stuff at the moment. Trying to get the rust and mechanical parts back up to par first.
How high do the bolts on the clamp you used stick up for the tailgate fix? It almost looks like from the picture that they might get interfered with by the panel that goes over the top of it. If it does get some of the crimp on lead connectors and do it that way. Just something I thought about looking at it. Glad you found a way to fix it, and I don't see you having any problem with it breaking with that cable on there.
My mirror looks like its in worse shape than the red one of yours. But im not too concerned with the interior stuff at the moment. Trying to get the rust and mechanical parts back up to par first.
I think it was just the way it looks in the pic, I double checked to make sure it operated ok with the cover back on, and didn't notice it rubbing on anything, but those crimp style connectors are a good idea, I just went with what I had laying around.
I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can start painting and getting my interior done. My last 4Runner I did a SAS and engine swap first and was always working on mechanical stuff, I never really did get any interior work done that I wanted. This time around since it runs good I'm trying to knock out the interior and get it the way I want then I will be moving on to the rust/body work. I'm kind of looking forward to get on to something more mechanical, I really want to build a rear bumper with a swing out tire carrier!
The red pieces don't seem to hold up to well in the sun. On your door handle inserts, you can move them to the opposite side, it will put the damage part to the bottom to where you cant see it and the good part to the top.
For the extra dome light, it comes in real handy at night time. I found an LED bulb at Orielly that makes it even better and does not get hot. The factory bulb can get things so hot that it will melt the plastic.
Great idea on getting your gate to open again. It is a real pain when you cant get access to the cargo compartment.
It probably is just the picture then. I don't blame you one bit, the interior is what you have to ride in. I just need mine back on the road then its gonna get to be a bunch of projects at once I hope. Nowhere near built like you guys around here... yet. But you guys sure do give a guy so many ideas that your mind cant just stick to one idea at a time.
03-20-2016, 11:51 PM
!!! I'm going to try to find a way to patch it, with the arm rest up it partially conceals it...every time I think about, ugh 
