1988 4Runner: Summer Beater

[ssapach]

I figure I could start a bit of a build thread for my 4Runner.

First a bit of info. I was looking for a new wheeling rig for some time now and I wanted something with a removable top. That right there limits my choices quite a bit. I had a 1984 Toyota pickup previously and I quite enjoyed it, so I figure it wouldn't hurt to have a 4Runner and be able to use some of my leftover spare parts.

So throughout my year or so of watching classifieds and asking the odd person, I finally stumble upon a 1988 4Runner with a V6, 5 speed, 3" body lift, 2" blocks/spacers, 2 sets of 33" tires and a soft top! I have to admit, the soft top was what caught my attention the most. It looked great in the pics and it's a lot more versatile than the fibreglass top in the summer.

This is one of the pics from the classified as:



So I had to go and see it. Took it for a short test drive, and let's just say I kinda fell in love with it!

This is the day after I got it home:





It even has a pretty clean interior, and not missing any major pieces! In fact, it came with the factory cover for the sun roof and a small trouble light that plugs into an outlet on the driver's side.







It was riding on the winter tires when I picked it up, but it also came with these bad boys in 33x12.5:

 

[Dave Bennett]

Nice score!!!

 

[ssapach]

First order of business was removing the body lift. I'm not a big fan of them to begin with, and it messes with the shifters coming through the floor.....

This is the tool kit I used for body lift removal, I refer to it as the "Eastern European Body Lift Removal Kit":



A new set of tail light lenses wasn't going to hurt. Here is an old one and a new one side by side, the old one actually looked pink when it was lit up at night.





Of course with my luck, removing the body lift resulted in the radiator needing to be relocated. It should have been as easy as removing the relocation brackets that were installed with the body lift was installed. But, someone decided to get the wrong radiator for this vehicle. There was a new rad installed not too long ago, but it was for a 2nd gen Toyota and as a result it is 15/16" taller. Just enough to prevent my hood from closing. So I had to relocate the rad AGAIN. Minor detail with a bit of welding and drilling a few holes, just an annoyance.



One of these won't hurt:



Of course the snorkel wasn't required, but they sure look wicked when they are installed. At this point I have to admit that I was disappointed with the ARB snorkel kit. But I still had to have it.

First of all, this piece was supposed to be drilled and tapped.....



The hole template for the fender needed some fine tuning, luckily I had the original rusty fender to practice on:



This hose is absolutely stretched to the max just to make the connection. I was worried that it would pop off one day, but I have acquired a different hose to reinstall when I get my 4Runner back from the paint shop.



Still looks great when installed:

 

[ssapach]

Nice score!!!

Thanks!

I will always think that I overpaid a little......and I won't say how much I paid......but I was waiting and looking for one of these for a long enough time that I wasn't going to let this one go!

 

[ssapach]

While I had time anyways, I made a few battery cables to replace the oldies. They looked original and the terminals on the battery posts looked pretty rough.



Marlin Crawler short throw shifter to tighten things up a bit. My old shifter was pretty sloppy due to the bushing being worn right out to nothing.





I absolutely LOVE the short throw shifter and I would recommend it to anyone! Easy to install and works great! It's might take some getting used to compared to the old shifter, but it's much quicker shifting now......not that this thing is a sports car or anything though.:elkgrin:

I think this pic was appropriate for this time frame in the project:





And then I threw on an ARB front bumper! I love the looks of the bumper, but it's somewhat annoying to put the winch on. Nowhere to mount the controller box and the winch cables needed to be rearranged to reach where I did mount it. Not to mention the whole bumper has to be taken off to get at the winch at all. But I cannot disagree that the ARB bumper looks damn good, because it does look damn good!

 

[ssapach]

This is a simple little mod, but I can see some value in it. All I did was get a piece of 1/8" aluminium plate and drill/countersink some holes in it and put a few stainless screws to hold it in. But it will sure beat the old factory plastic/carpeted piece for the tailgate!



Trail Gear delivery, somewhere in those boxes is a SAS kit, minus the front axle.



I pulled the rear glass out in order to replace the metal clip on the bottom. The old one was rusted out and sometimes the window would want to fall out of place when rolling it down. It was only a matter of time before the whole piece of glass fell right into the tailgate. It would probably happen on the coldest day of the year and the glass would probably break when it happened.



Of course I can't just fix the rusty metal on the glass, I had to fix a bit of rusty metal on the tailgate itself.



And then I got a $100 donor rig.



The donor rig was basically being passed around until there was nothing left. Some friends took the motor, transmission and t-case along with a bunch of interior and body pieces. I got the joy of hauling it away for them and paying $100 for it.

 

[Laxaholic]

How is it on power/fuel? Looks great, would be awesome for the summer.

 

[toyotech]

sweet build. where did you find a snorkel? i didnt know arb made one for the 3.0 1st gen

 

[ssapach]

How is it on power/fuel? Looks great, would be awesome for the summer.

I honestly don't think it's that bad for power, but some people will insist that the V6 is gutless. I've never owned anything that was really sporty or really fast though, so this thing feels like it's quite well powered as I can accelerate to merge with traffic and it can maintain pretty good speed on the highways. As for fuel economy, I think I got about 17 mpg when I drove it home, but my speedometer is a little off due to the tire size, so the extra math in my fuel economy could be a bit of a factor.

 

[ssapach]

I got my front axle inside and ready to tear apart. Not too many pictures through this process, as there isn't much to see when tearing an axle apart except dirty parts.....and I wasn't about to start washing my hands every 5 minutes so I could pick up the camera. Sorry to disappoint anyways



Welded on a few extra pieces. I would like to point out that the upper gussets for the knuckle ball will interfere with the ball wiping seal. More specifically it will interfere with the combination of the 1 piece rubber (or whatever plastic compound it is) seal and rock rings from Trail Gear. The gussets can still be put on, but they need to be ground down a bit so that you don't ruin the ball wiping seal. Either that or you need to severely limit the steering by adjusting the bump stop bolts.



These knuckle balls have seen better days:





I sanded them down a bit with my orbital air sander. They're still not perfect but it smoothed them out quite a bit. I just didn't want to take too much material off, although when I put the knew ball wiping seals on I found out they fit quite tightly and I could have sanded more down. Oh well, live and learn!





Fresh paint!







New rotors were even included in this SAS kit. I have to admit, Trail Gear did a pretty good job of putting together the pieces for a SAS kit.



I got the knuckles all reassembled.



I didn't really get a close up of it, but you can kind of see the clean metal where I had to grind back the ball gusset. It was slightly annoying, as I already had the seal stretched over the ball and I wasn't prepared to remove it and have to reinstall it.....as it's a bit of an annoyance in the first place.

 

[ssapach]

I've run out of pictures at this point, but as of the end of the night I had the hubs and rotors installed on the spindles, as well as the locking hubs. Basically I have a front axle that is ready for the swap, just need to get the vehicle side of things ready one day. Of course when I get it back from painting I will wanna cruise around with it for a bit, so my SAS will be on a slight hold for maybe a month.

I will try to keep this updated as much as I can, but I am off to work again for a couple weeks so there likely won't be any updates until I'm home again. With any luck, my mean machine will have a fresh coat of paint by then and I can put the soft top on for the summer!!!

 

[dorton]

I'm looking forward to your progress. Nice ride!

 

[john101477]

Holy crap man, what a steal. I love the seats man, mine are shot in the 86. My fronts are torn and I recovered the rear with vinyl, considering I am not a upholstery guy...
Subscribed

 

[austintaco]

Very Nice! Best thing about getting a late model first gen 4runner is that you get all of the creature comforts (power options) but you don't pay out the azz for it like you would for solid axle 84/85.

 

[ssapach]

Thanks everyone!

The other bonus with the later model 1st gen is the V6, which carries a few extra goodies like the 23 spline t-case, bigger brakes and heavier third member (at least in the rear). Maybe once I start cutting pieces off in prep for the axle swap, I might be wishing I had found an '85 unit. I can already see that the front spring hanger will be interfering with the ARB bumper mounts...