So, the story starts with a trip up to Denver from the Springs on a prospect of a project in the form of a 1988 Toyota 4Runner. Being in the millitary, we move around quite a bit and this is by far one of the most expensive areas to buy pretty much any vehicle, so when I saw her for $1500 bucks I had to at least give it a once over. Upon arrival and chatting with the PO, it was cheap thanks to his lovely wife thinking it was too loud, and in need of a bit of brake work. So after a little haggling, I got the price down to $1200 with the option to do a quick brake job in his driveway.
Our first dilemma started off with a couple trips to the parts store with the old pads after assuming that she had original calipers (apparently not). so after acquiring the proper pads and bleeding the system time to make a the fun little ride back down to the Springs. Driving down was actually a delight and the engine seems to be in really good shape, considering i was running 75 mph with no issues sitting on 33's so I'm hopeful that the PO didnt tell me a white lie about the supposed rebuilt engine he had dropped in. I'm really not expecting a whole lot of traffic on this thread but I'm on here constantly so I'll be on here updating as I go along to more or less to document where she started from and watch the money drain from the hole in my wallet with everything as she goes.

 

Now that she's home. Time to do a wee bit of cosmetic work and to comb through the engine. turns out I'm awful lucky i didn't blow up the engine because the Distributor wasn't bolted in and was spewing oil. It also had the wrong oil pressure switch for the gauge type cluster so, had to swap that out. Thankfully the parts store had the only one in the state and i got it the next day. A quick trip to Ace for a dizzy bolt and TADA, no more oil leaks. She's properly register now (thankfully it was pretty cheap, since she's "vintage") and driving back and forth to work as i go along.
Now, a couple cans of plasti-dip for the wheels, simply due to the fact i hate chrome, and rattle can the topper for the time being just because that white is a little much in my opinion. Short term goal is to bed line the inside and outside to get rid of that lovely red upholstery, so a little rattle can paint is more or less to start narrowing down paint schemes, and to help give a better overall feel of the finished product before hand. Plenty of other stuff on the front burner to figure out (and find) before i shift too much focus to paint, but the flat black paint was free, so it only cost a couple hours of time, so I cant complain.
But anyhow, I found a google image awhile back when I was still shopping that gave an opportunity to tweek and provide an overall feel for what i would like to look like (over the course of the next year). Hopefully my fab, body and mechanical skills will be able to keep up with my aspirations, but I suppose time tell.

 

Another red red white runner. These things popping up everywhere. I like it.

 

Nice find!

 

Welcome to Yotatech, nice looking runner you have! My 87' is the same color as yours inside and out, lol. I like your "paint" concept drawings, that's a good tool to help visualize what you are wanting to achieve with your 4runner.
For a DIY bedliner if you haven't already you should check out Monsta-liner, they have 39 different colors plus black and it can be sprayed on or rolled. I really leaning towards doing the exterior of mine with it, they're supposed to be coming out with 20 new colors in mid April from what I've read. Look forward to seeing your progress.

 

Thanks ya'll. I'm actually more and more impressed with the condition as I comb through her, especially considering its dang near a 30 year old car. (weird right?)
As far as the liner goes, I'm torn between Monsta-liner and Raptor liner (which ships as a tintable formula or black pre-mixed). One of my bosses has his Cherokee lined in red on the exterior, and eventually I'll catch him and figure out the details on his paint job i.e. age of the liner, brand, home job vs. pro sprayed, ect. I actually just rattle canned the topper flat black over the past two days, and i think I'm actually digging the black on red combo, so i may steer clear of the tan. Plus, there's another 1st gen on post that's already tan, so I kinda feel like he's already cornered that market. Who know what the final product will look like, but it's all about the journey next right?
Any how, hopefully next weekend I'll be able to tear into the top end of the "rebuilt" 22re and get a feel for how rebuilt it actually is haha. My buddy who built performance VW Beetle engines and is ASE certified will be off leave next weekend and he cant wait to dive in to her with me, so i don't wanna steal too much of the fun from him.
Another bit of back round on me personally (as well as the buddy, Justin, that I was just talking about) is that I'm a CH-47 Helicopter Mechanic, so I have a decent mechanical platform, but by no means am I a professional or experienced builder. I have a lot of common sense, at least so I've been told, so if you guys can bare with me when I ask stupid questions that i can't figure out as I go along.


So now, time for the first dumb question. While digging through ole 'Liv, I found the horn didn't work, so I checked the cheapest solution first, and found that the fuse was blown for the horn/hazards/whatever else is run off the fuse. After the fuse was replaced, the running lights (the markers on the front bumper/tail lights) stay on and I can not for the life of me figure out how to get them to turn off, so until I figure it out I just have the fuse pulled. Compounding the issue, I wired in the radio that came with her and surprisingly... It works! However, with the fuse pulled, the radio only works when the headlights are turned on. I've stared at the wiring diagram for about an hour now in the service manual to no avail so, might as well ask, right? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Pics to come very shortly and opinions are more than welcome!

 

So quick little update, rattle canned the topper and wow is it a night and day difference. Can't believe that they even considered a white top, but we can give all the credit to the rest of her design.
Anyhow, got the first opportunity to use the windshield wipers only to find out....they dont work. Yet, another thing to add to the growing list. It's supposed to snow the next couple days, so fingers crossed, this weekend will yield some better weather for more diagnosis and repair. New windshield will be installed on Thursday, (weather pending of course) so hopefully she'll be even further on her way to where I want her.
So now here are is the before and after pics as promised. Cant wait to knock out the body work and liner her!!!

 

There, thats better, my old eyeballs have a hard time seeing those thumbnail size pics, lol.
I like the black top, looks great with the black wheels! Can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can start doing some paint work!

 

Thanks, rustED, still working on getting the forum down pat. BTW I'm a fan of your builds. read both the 4runners and the trailer build.

 

No problem. If you're using photobucket, where it says Email, Direct,
HTML, and IMG...go down to IMG and copy and paste the URL link, then you'll get larger pics. Or from the forum when your typing your message you can click on the little mountain icon just above the box where you type and you can pull pics from your device gallery, I'm old school, just barely learned that

You must have been really bored or had insomnia to read all my build threads, joking, lol, thanks for the compliments, I should have some updates on my 87' soon! Keep up the good work on yours, hopefully you'll get all the PO's bugs worked out soon, I hate working on hacked wiring!