The Wife Runner

Scoured Offerup and other social media posts now for months. Hoped for a 96-98 4x4 auto with the e locker. Missed one in San Diego for $8500. Last night went to look at one and didn't go for it, but there was this one:




Has been owned by a Toyota tech since 2002. I paid more than $3k less for it than the Limited I looked at that night. I figure any aftermarket locker will be better and much cheaper and the SR5 package fits my preference with a super clean cloth blue / gray interior, J-shifter, etc. No issues on inspection other than a busted CV boot on the passenger side. It's for my wife (Beck).

 

Had it for about a month and decided my vacation was the perfect time to freshen things up beginning with the engine.



Had a guy try and pass off one with worse compression than my current engine and wasted a good deal of time on that so I had to act quickly to find another and this is where I got one from haha :-(



Blessing in disguise - plucking the engine out of my can o' worms allowed for some deep improvements on it, and also was able to get the 4runner runnin again. Installed new King ext length co's, OEM rack, OEM Tacoma outer tie rods and lbj's, Tundra BBU (Callahan kit off Amazon), and Solo tube uppers and fabbed lowers.



Wife learned how to drive and it grew a little on me too (she grew up in a mega-city where no one drives lol).

 

Fast forward a year and low and behold, someone crossed traffic in front of my wife:



Insurance blamed the other driver. That said, no way was I going to rely on this tissue paper thin excuse for a bumper anymore. First thing was moving the turn signal bulb to the corner lights temporarily.

Started by rebuilding the radiator body mounts because they got a little tweaked by the accident.



Pulled something else off my Tacoma:



Now missing a bumper and an engine lol



I didn't like the whole bumper look on the 4runner. Found a replacement bumper on OfferUp for $65.



Luckily it was a chrome bumper painted with a rattle can and I was able to get the paint of with acetone.



Rebuilt the bumper into a pushbar:



Added a couple tubes going out to the sides of it.







Looks better imo. Still have to return the turn signals to the bumper, but I will put the the stock lenses back on minus the big honking halogen unit. I'll make a bracket with durable trailer marker led's behind them so it will still look stock, but better amount of space behind them for the side tubes. Been rubbing it down with WD40, perhaps one day I'll paint it haha.

 

Replaced rear bearings when an axle seal began leaking. Machine shop pressed them and looked good using the grease test ala' t4r.org gurus.





New brake shoes and added a stainless rear line. Amazing how well it brakes with the Tundra BBU up front and all stainless braided hoses.

Started refreshing the rear (all original factory) suspension. Figured SPC lower arms were a good enough price, it was worth it to not have to go through the hassle of paying a machine shop or messing around with a mapp torch and added gussets "while I was in there."





Got a good deal on used OME springs and used King OEM clicker replacements (I was going to be making some mounts for outboard shocks, but couldn't pass up the deal and thought of all the time it saves for the Tacoma).

 

It only took a year and four months, but the front end damage is completely finished (besides having to tweak the passenger side headlight a little down, but it’s fine for now as far as I’m concerned).

I found some fender flares on OfferUp for only $50 for the whole set including all the clips that were either missing or tweaked or broken on mine (ones you can’t get on eBay and Toyota doesn’t have even have part number for according to the drawings I was allowed to look at on the parts guy’s computer at my local (well best around here not necessarily local) dealership.

I expertly broke the high pressure AC line by failing to cut enough off of the bumper from my Tacoma around it but luckily I have a friend @Tacomoto23 that can weld anything you can think of so after one failed attempt at a poor idea on my part, I got some aluminum tube sizes from McMaster and a bender from HF and made my own tube to replace the broken part.




Charging the AC wasn’t impossible although next time I charge AC I’m pretty sure it will go a lot smoother (knocking on my wooden desk right now for when I have to do it on the Tacoma).



I then installed a modified Skid Row front skid from my Tacoma (I’m sensing a pattern, wonder if there are any other parts that will end up on this thing haha). I had made windows for Baja Squadron SAE fog lights back when it was going to be put on my Tacoma.



The squadrons make a huge difference filling in the lighting from the high intensity H4 bulbs I added with a separate wiring harness from Auxbeam for $25. There are similar ones for $100+ but the harness is working no problem. I had the other stock headlight connector left over and wired the fogs to come on with the headlights as my wife will never remember to turn them on if I were to wire them on another switch.



The colors aren’t that extreme if you’re just driving and not reflecting off of a white surface.





And last but not least my piece de resistance, reinstalled the stock blinker lenses which was way more work than it sounds as the bumper I bought off marketplace had the stock blinkers pulled and the mounts bent or cut off for some off road lights. Welder in one hand, cup of water to immediately quench before plastic began to melt in another, I got the lenses back in there. The stock bulb housings won’t fit with my bumper support wings you can see here.



But I’ll add some thin trailer marker led’s for turn signals one of these days. Bam!



Feeling happy seeing that last pic haha!

 

Also Saved

 

Bump and subbed for another 3rd gen 4Runner thread on this site
Yours is already a lot more interesting than mine.

 

Thanks - a very different project than compared to the Tacoma since I’ve got to keep it running to get my wife to and from work after every weekend! Funny before I got this truck I never liked 3rd Gens for some reason but now I like almost anything from stock ones to SAS’d crawlers, but I like stock body panel builds over glass fenders on these. I’ll check yours out and I’m sure I’ll find it interesting no matter what you’ve done with it as I just like these so much lately lol.