Thanks. It came already black, I thought that the ad said it came primered black, but it looks and feels like powder coating to me. The paint cans in the background in those pics was from painting the front crossmember and tow hooks. It's kind of funny, when I bought this 4Runner I only got one key with it...when I removed the old bumper I found this:




After getting the bumper mounted I decided to remove the wheelwell moulding, side moulding (aftermarket?) and the black plastic rock chip protectors. I figured this would give me a better idea of how much rust I have hiding behind there. Like I mentioned before the passenger quarter panel is the worse by far, and I found more after removing the trim, but the passenger door and fender look great. On the driverside, the rear quarter looks great, one little spot of surface rust, the door is fine, and the front fender has some rust in the fender lip, but looks fixable.



^^^ pile of trim, lots of dirt behind there.



^^^all washed up



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Ha,ha. Maybe I'll try that plasti-dip and see how it looks, if I don't like it I can always peel it off.


I got my Jeep TJ front coils springs today, will be re-doing my Zuk mod tomorrow.






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As much as I like how the wheel trims accent the rest of the truck, I remove them just for the reason that they are rust magnets. As far as painting the grill and head light doors, since you are going with a black bumper, I would paint all the trim black as well if it was me. Toyota had the trim either all black or all chrome.

 

Very nice Ed! Im with Terry! Paint the Trim Black.

 

Hi Terry. I had been wanting to remove the trim for awhile, I was in disbelief at how much crud was built up behind the trim!

Thanks, I couldn't live with that bent up bumper any longer!
I think I'm going to take your guys advice and paint the grille and headlight bezels black, I want to eventually do the exterior white and think the black trim would be a nice contrast.

 

Installed the new coils springs, made a huge difference, the old one were just to big of a diameter and fit too loosely around the upper bumpstop. They made alot of noise, and didnt ride that great. Here's a side by side comparison. The new springseat were 17" in total length, I cut off about 5" leaving them aprox 12" in length.




^^^Here's what the old coils did to my driverside lower bump stop, because they fit to loosely and would shift when hitting bumps. Luckily Im a pack rat and I kept the bump stops off my 86' 4runner, so I replace the one and still have a spare.


Fit and rides alot better.

















































Here's some poser pics I took on some old logging roads up behind my house.





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Looks good Ed I have the same ones! When I took my bumper and tow bar off tho woof made my truck have a big rake look the back end was up high till I put bj spacers on

 

Yeah it rides alot better than it did, I noticed one of my rear Rancho shocks is leaking, so I'm going to have to get some new shocks for the back. Its a little bouncey, I think once I build a new bumper and tire carrier the extra weight might smooth out the ride even more.

 

Where did you get your jeep tj coil springs from? I definitely need to do the zuk mod to mine. It will improve the ride and make the truck look much better.

 

Another question on the zuk mod, as I have never done one before, how do you gauge how long to make your springs? Is it a trial by error process or is there around a set length?

 

ford I ordered both sets off the Internet. The first set (the rear coils) I ordered online from a wrecking yard that's 2hrs from where I live ($50). I went and picked them up in person along with some SR5 wheels I got. I noticed they didn't look like the front coils I bought before, but went ahead and tried them anyway (mistake!) The replacement ones I just got I bought off ebay for $60 with free shipping. They vary in price on ebay, sometimes they sell them seperately as individual coils, so make sure it says that you are buying them as a pair. Sometimes you can find them really cheap, but you got to watch the shipping cost, sometimes it can be high.

The front coils are around 17" long. My 4runner doesn't have a lift, I just wanted to return it back to sitting level and eliminate the sag. I cut a off about 5" and made them aprox 12" in length. If you needed more lift, then it might be more trial by error.

Alot of people have used a spring compressor to compress the spring to get it in place, but I've had good luck just putting a jack stand under the frame, remove the wheel, lower the jack down and remove it out from under the axel to allow it to fully droop, remove the bottom bolt holding the shock and remove it from the lower mount (just let it hang free) then put the bottle jack between the frame and the leafspring to force the axel to droop even more until I can get the spring in between the bumpstops. If you cut your coils longer than 12" then you might need a spring compressor, or you might be able to unbolt the rear shackle to get it to drop down further. Good luck!

PS: I don't have any experience using these, but the original Zuk mod was done with Black Magic coil springs. There is a little cutting of the upper bump stop to make them fit. (The method I did is commonly refered to as the "no cut zuk mod). You can get the Black Magic springs off ebay as well. They come in different spring rates and different lengths. Here's a link to Zuk's website. If you scroll down to the bottom of his home page (past all the gear install info) you will see the Zuk mod links.

http://www.gearinstalls.com/index.htm










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On the Walker Exhaust Systems website the exhaust part I got for mine came up as part number 46919, and don't forget to get the gaskets which are not included. they are part #31534.

 

I ordered the springs of ebay for $44. They haven't come in yet but I compared them to the pictures you had of yours and they look identical. I guess ill hope I got the correct ones but 44 dollars wont kill me if they aren't the correct ones. Thanks for the info. Its been a lot of help.

 

Thanks for the part#'s and the heads up on the gasket!

I hope the springs work well for you.

 

I should be getting some extra money in June an am trying to make a plan for the exterior (after fixing the rust issues) an am planning to use Monsta-liner DYI bedliner.

Monstaliner do-it-yourself roll-on truck bed liner

My main reasons are cost, durability, and it's easy to apply, I can just roll it on. They also have more color options than other brands I've looked at. The link above shows the 40 different colors they have. I was leaning towards doing the body and topper white, and maybe mimic the SR5 stripes on the hood, fenders and rear quarters. But my wife and kids like some of the BRIGHTER colors, lol.




^^^PREDATOR GREEN WITH PYROCLACTIC GREY TOPPER AND SR5 STRIPES^^^




[B^^^]SMURFADELIC BLUE WITH BLACK TOPPER AND SR5 STRIPES^^^[/B]




^^^DONT-YELL-AT-ME yellow WITH PYROCLACTIC grey TOPPER AND SR5 STRIPES




^^^TERQUILA TURQUOSE WITH PYROCLACTIC GREY TOPPER AND SR5 STRIPES^^^



^^^WHITE WITH WHITE TOPPER OR POSSIBLY PYROCLACTIC GREY TOPPER AND SR5 STRIPES

^^^My kids really like the "Predator Green" I'd go with black or "Pyroclastic" which is a really dark grey for the top and SR5 stripes. They also like the "Smurfadelic Blue", "Dont-yell-at-me Yellow", and "Terquila Tequose".I still like all white or maybe white with the dark grey or black topper and SR5 sripes. They think it looks too plain, lol. I like the yellow and turquoise with the dark top and stripes. I don't know about the green, looks a little to much, lol. Maybe I'll go back and do the little 4runner pic with all the different color combos, might help me visualize better.

What colors combo do you guys like???



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Midnight Special





Black topper


My son likes the all sand
Im going to paint mine the toyota blue, and will more than likely use the black for my top, right now its smooth white

They have me interested in their chassis/rust killer, gonna have to test it against the eastwood I bought before spraying

 

When I first got mine my first thoughts was to change mine to all chrome, but the black has won me over.

 

I like the sand colors too. That midnight special blue is a cool color as well, to many choices, my wife and kids aren't making it any easier, lol. Here's a pic of one of my all time favorite color combos, the guy says it's called Voodoo blue. With the black accents I think it really pops! The pic of the jeep below it is in the "Smurfadelic Blue" it's probably the closest Monsta-liner color to the voodoo blue, but in some of the pics I've seen it looks a little more purple.





I like the chrome, but prefer the black on my rigs, I will eventually be building a rear bumper with a swing out tire carrier and also a safari roof rack, so I'll be going black on everything else anyway. I'm interested in their chassis/rust killer too, I was going to use some POR 15, but might do some research on theirs before I purchase anything.
]

 

Well I've seen a few yellow runners but never the decals redone they look so good when the decals are redone. I actually sold some parts to a guy who had a perfect brand new looking runner with the same colors as mine with the dark grey and silver sr5. Stripes they look great like that. I've been really thinking about getting on my paint once have the sas done. I've been actually thinking about going flat black with glossy sr5 stripes. I've done screen printing on t shirts before and the black on black looks really cool. I actually really like the turquoise on grey a lot too. Some one the 1st gen taco mas had the black with the turquoise I like that color scheme too. If u went with the bring green I think it's just a cop magnet really every one will see yr truck no matter where u go but I'd say every kid will love it haha

 

I like the idea of the monstaliner. IM halfway debating trying that now. The ww2 od is the color I would go with if I decided to do it without a doubt. And refinish my black top too.