Salvaged First-Gen 4Runner Undergoes Full Blown Restoration
Plucked from a junkyard, this 4Runner looked doomed until an eager YotaTech member swooped in and saved it.
The story of YotaTech member arlindsay1992 should sound pretty familiar to most of us. A few years ago, he was a young college student looking for some reliable transportation. He found it in the form of a 1998 Toyota pickup that he scored for just $1,500. Soon afterward, he discovered the YotaTech forums and quickly found himself enamored with the Toyota 4Runner and its expanded storage capacity. Thus, his priorities soon changed.
“Spring break my sophomore year I bought my 1987 4Runner,” arlindsav1992 said. “I bought the truck in Pennsylvania for $2,900. It had 318,000 miles and a salvage title. Why did I even consider buying it? Garage kept, no. Frame rust, very, very minor body rust, a remanned engine with 20,000 miles, and a Can-Back soft top. The Can-Back alone is $1,400 so I jumped on it. The remanned engine will come back to bite me later, but at the time I was considering it a plus.”
For a very short while, these two Toyotas lived side-by-side. But that wouldn’t last long. Soon, the OP had sold his pickup so that he could focus solely on the 4Runner. He began by tearing out the interior and cleaning it up. That’s when he discovered that the previous owner had spent a whopping $17,000 fixing it up over 4 years after saving it from a junk yard. So perhaps this wasn’t such a bad deal, after all?
The next step involved fixing up the Toyota’s suspension.
“The rear had add-a-leafs already, but the passenger side leaf was broken and missing the front leaf section. The rear was cracked but not broken in half. The front had all stock parts. The ball joints were all OEM Toyota but were either original or very old. I replaced all the parts with Moog and threw in some eBay BJ spacers. The rear got a set of ToyTec add-a-leafs.”
From there, the OP was driving and enjoying his 4Runner, making minor changes along the way. Until disaster nearly struck. A shot timing chain tensioner led to a blown head gasket, which led to a damaged head. But he was able to find a new one, install it, and everything was running great again. Before long, it was finally time to start diving into the body work.
The OP sourced a set of new fenders to replace the old rusty ones first. But that wasn’t the only spot plagued by rot. Years of driving on salty roads had taken their toll, so some serious surgery was in order. Even though he had no experience, the OP tackled this job eagerly.
“I’ll openly admit that I have little to no idea what I’m doing when it comes to bodywork. Some of the professional guys may see this and cringe. Or maybe they’ll pat me on the back for getting it right. Anyway, this truck gets parked in the garage and I have another truck for rainy days, so hopefully it won’t rust again in the future.”
Regardless, he did an amazing job in our opinion. This 4Runner turned out great, and it’s just proof that anybody can do this sort of work if they put in the time and effort. Of course, the joys of success didn’t last long, however. The OP is now in the middle of installing a rebuilt engine so he can drive this Toyota another 400,000+ miles. So be sure and head over here to keep up with this impressive build and all that lies ahead!
Photos: YotaTech Forums
