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ChefYota4x4's 1987 4Runner Build-Up Thread

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Old 12-12-2013, 06:18 AM
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Originally Posted by aviator
Mark is this the car that was supposed to be fixed by "professionals"? what happened to that? pretty sure you can probably find one... good luck...
Hey mang, I was running out the door and forgot to really answer your question.....

Yes, it is the same car. Its a long story that I probably shouldn't share on here. Let's just say, summer this thing needs to be drivable until February. The hood is bent like a banana, and so far, no one can seem to open the hood... Obviously that's because the hook portion of the latch is bent under and as likely taken the core support latch hoop with it... right? Lol....

I will be posting up Leah pictures and I have a feeling I'm going to need some input from anyone like Dragon or Terry that might have dealt with this type of stuff. I know Dragon pulled out his core support... Right William? I'm sure Terry has as well. The problem is, I need to get it out enough. I'll save all the rest of this until I have the car here. Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer with this. I told my daughter that I found a very clean hood, but I explained that it was white... She said, " Go Daddy, I don't care what color is... White is cool, I can pretend I'm a cop and scare people!" Haha. .. Little sassy girl! Lol.
Old 12-12-2013, 08:24 AM
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I would try to put some downward pressure on the hood bend and see if that takes tension off of the latch and cable assembly. If that doesnt work I would do a few relief cuts to get to the cable or bolts and undo it, since you are going to replace the hood.

The bodyshop world has jacks but you might could use a High Lift jack and blocks of wood to push the core support out. It doesnt look pushed in to bad that you need to replace it. Just push it back out in a more controlled manner. If you cant get the jack in there a tree and a comelong will do the job. You may need to strap the rear axle to something as the core support is strong enough to not move back into shape but pull the whole car. I didnt realize it was that strong the first time we pulled one out.

Anytime we had hood damgae at all, we had to replace the hood latch assembly for liabiltiy reasons. Even when we knew it was not damaged. Can you go behind the bumper and remove the grill to get better access? Something you can check when you get the car back.

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Last edited by Terrys87; 12-12-2013 at 08:25 AM.
Old 12-12-2013, 08:52 AM
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Hi Mark,

It was good to see you at the yard yesterday. Your truck is looking great. It can be seen that you have put in a lot of hard work and thought to get it to what it looks like today. Good luck with changing your daughter’s hood I’m glad you found a clean replacement there. Maybe I’ll run into you there again in the future.

John
Old 12-12-2013, 09:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Terrys87
I would try to put some downward pressure on the hood bend and see if that takes tension off of the latch and cable assembly. If that doesnt work I would do a few relief cuts to get to the cable or bolts and undo it, since you are going to replace the hood.

The bodyshop world has jacks but you might could use a High Lift jack and blocks of wood to push the core support out. It doesnt look pushed in to bad that you need to replace it. Just push it back out in a more controlled manner. If you cant get the jack in there a tree and a comelong will do the job. You may need to strap the rear axle to something as the core support is strong enough to not move back into shape but pull the whole car. I didnt realize it was that strong the first time we pulled one out.

Anytime we had hood damgae at all, we had to replace the hood latch assembly for liabiltiy reasons. Even when we knew it was not damaged. Can you go behind the bumper and remove the grill to get better access? Something you can check when you get the car back.
Thanks! You are the man! Yeah, I was gonna use my 8000# comealong and 6' diameter ashtree.

Originally Posted by 04sport4x4
Hi Mark,

It was good to see you at the yard yesterday. Your truck is looking great. It can be seen that you have put in a lot of hard work and thought to get it to what it looks like today. Good luck with changing your daughter’s hood I’m glad you found a clean replacement there. Maybe I’ll run into you there again in the future.

John
Was great to see you to man! Love your 4th Gen 4runner and can't wait to see your 1UZ swap happen in the xtra cab! I meant to mention seeing you there... Was a great talk, as usual! .... Just got boggled down in the mind, lol.

Take care, John!
Old 12-12-2013, 02:25 PM
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Mark, if you have another hood cut access into the hood or cut it free. I'd try to use a pry bar and slide hammer then once I could see the latch a long flat head screwdriver and needle owe to release the cable on the latch. Just sayin.
Old 12-12-2013, 08:12 PM
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I'm going to go medieval style and say use a quick cut with a metal wheel and just cut the banana hood along the high pt. of the bow... the front will drop down and you might get the release of tension you need and the back part can be lifted up and unbolted...
the sparks and noise will be very therapeutic too... did you remember to grab all the hardware too? [hinges etc.]...
looking at the pic ...since you don't need that plastic grill piece from the front why not just smash it to bits with a hammer and rip it out? that will give you access to the latch area and a sawzall will cut right through the latch hook...
the smashing will also be therapeutic...

sweet motor find are you thinking re-power?
Old 12-13-2013, 05:24 AM
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Mark,
You have a winch? strap the rear tow hook to a tree, comealong or winch the hood/core support foreward. Chances are the attachement points on the radiator and condensor maybe broken. Head light mount tabs could be aswell. What looks miner on the outside may look different on the inside.
Once the hood is off, if the hinges haven't bent, install the new hood. then attach a comealong/winch to the core support at the angle and area of impact....think about how the car was hit, and pull it in reverse. when the car hit the object the nose was dipped down under braking....
Once you have some pressure on the core support, use a hammer(a body hammer and dolly) to work the metal under pressure will help it 'walk back out'.

I was a collision technician in my previous life. PM me if you want to chat about it offline. I can't keep up with your thread activity, if I had that much free time I'd be divorced...haha.
Old 12-13-2013, 08:56 AM
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Originally Posted by RBX
Mark, if you have another hood cut access into the hood or cut it free. I'd try to use a pry bar and slide hammer then once I could see the latch a long flat head screwdriver and needle owe to release the cable on the latch. Just sayin.
Originally Posted by RBX
Mark,
You have a winch? strap the rear tow hook to a tree, comealong or winch the hood/core support foreward. Chances are the attachement points on the radiator and condensor maybe broken. Head light mount tabs could be aswell. What looks miner on the outside may look different on the inside.
Once the hood is off, if the hinges haven't bent, install the new hood. then attach a comealong/winch to the core support at the angle and area of impact....think about how the car was hit, and pull it in reverse. when the car hit the object the nose was dipped down under braking....
Once you have some pressure on the core support, use a hammer(a body hammer and dolly) to work the metal under pressure will help it 'walk back out'.

I was a collision technician in my previous life. PM me if you want to chat about it offline. I can't keep up with your thread activity, if I had that much free time I'd be divorced...haha.
Hey RB, thanks! I really appreciate you talking the time to share your knowledge from practical experience with me!

I have an update I will do in the next post. I hit Send too soon so I'm just going to take my time in make a better post. Seriously man, I appreciate it when you jump in with your professional expertise... You and Ray/RAD and many others have helped me more times with those one of a kind nuggets than I can say .

Originally Posted by aviator
I'm going to go medieval style and say use a quick cut with a metal wheel and just cut the banana hood along the high pt. of the bow... the front will drop down and you might get the release of tension you need and the back part can be lifted up and unbolted...
the sparks and noise will be very therapeutic too... did you remember to grab all the hardware too? [hinges etc.]...
looking at the pic ...since you don't need that plastic grill piece from the front why not just smash it to bits with a hammer and rip it out? that will give you access to the latch area and a sawzall will cut right through the latch hook...
the smashing will also be therapeutic...

sweet motor find are you thinking re-power?
Hahahahaha... Dang that cracked me up! I love the thought of taking my angle grinder to this thing! Lol. Not necessary... I will update in a second or two......hundred. lol.

And yes, unless I can find a way to do the 1GRZFE or whatever its called, or otherwise advanced motors with VVT and several computers relating information from the transmission to the ECU, etc... It still looks like the 1UZ would be easier than the newer 4.0 v6. I'm not only concerned about easy, I really just don't want to spend 10 grand on a motor swap. And by the way, 4th gen 4 runners are not exactly cheap to get as a donor, you know what I mean? Oh mannn! Pricey lil value holding suckers! By the way part 2... I pulled up next to a brand new 4runner the other day and I could not believe that it was a 4runner I would have sworn it was a Sequoia. The thing is freaking huge. I'm not saying it's ugly, but I think John above with his 2004 as the last one that I really like. Even then they have to be really fixed up even come close to exciting me much as something like the 3rd Gen 4runner built by Scotty @ addicted off road. But the 4th gen has definitely grown on me... I think they are pretty damn sick to be honest when they're fixed up.

Last edited by ChefYota4x4; 12-13-2013 at 09:11 AM.
Old 12-13-2013, 09:09 AM
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Edit: I wasn't done creating my post when my stupid potatoes for fingers decided to hit send... Again! Lol... I'll be back shortly
Old 12-13-2013, 11:08 AM
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First off, I repaired her electric seat which was reclined by the claims adjuster... Before he knew that it wouldn't go back up. grr! Lol...

Second, I found a little bit of a short in her combination meter on the wiper side... Cleaned and wrap that up and replace the fuse and she has her wipers again for winter! Woohoo! Lol...

Then, I spent several hours pulling out her core support and getting the new hood on. It was quite the adventure on figuring out exactly how to pull everything back out. This is one of the first picture showing that I had pulled it out a little bit.... It later came out another inch or 1.5 inches in total. Removing the radiator hold down clamp from each side of the radiator where it attaches to the core support was very helpful. At first I was going to pull it all together but the radiator is one of those plastic top ones... Thankfully it wasn't damaged, at least as far as I can see. For some pictures before I got started... (PS: I ended up getting the hood open bye simply sticking a ratchet strap hook between the grill and up into the hood front most cup... There's a little recess in there... Iran cheated on it well I had her continually pull on the hood release... About the third time as I tightened it the hood popped right open! Woohoo! Lol...

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If you look at the pictures above, but I didn't see until later was the wrinkle in the left corner just behind the passenger side headlight... Not really the corner, more like at the first bend of the core support... Here are a few videos. I'm sorry that they are all over the place, and I didn't do the greatest job of explaining, but I am NOT a paint and body guy,... And yet I'm still pleased that I got it to work and managed to pull out everything without damaging anything else. I got it out well enough that I was able to get the plastic trim cover that goes over the bumper top, lights and hood latch...






All fixed ( as well as I could get it... Which is good enough! Hahaha )...

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Edit: forgot to throw picture of this up as well... Nice, right? Completely cleaned it up and through some protectant on there afterwards. But, unfortunately, her alternator is making a ton of noise... Pretty much positive it's on the way out as her charge light is on. So that's next! I'm probably going to give her my gold top battery that I removed, as well... It's a great battery and still in perfect shape. That's the one thing I have to give autozone... Those Duralast gold and platinum batteries definitely last longer than any other auto parts store battery I have ever had! ......

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My daughter stop by my sisters house and took a picture of my granddaughter at the Christmas tree... She said she was pretty overwhelmed and almost scared of it because its so big! Lol... My daughter just sent this to me now...

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**********************

I had such a good time with my granddaughter, Abbygail-Rose and my daughter, Kayla! I felt so bad for her because she was getting over a cold... But she was a trooper and she helped and managed to watch my granddaughter through it all! Such an incredible mother and daughter, I'm so proud of her! My granddaughter passed out on the way to grab a bite to eat afterwards... My daughter had a hankering for Alfredo's Mexican restaurant... It's very good... So she took a video of my granddaughter sleeping with her eyes open! I was cracking up so hard because her eyes were in REM and wandering and everything! Lol...


Then my granddaughter woke up and while I got some better pictures, this is pretty funny... She goes on the attack and then immediately comforts my daughter and looks at us with this shameful look, lol. The video cut off too soon but it was hilarious, trust me. And no, my daughter wasn't hurt by the keys, so we can all laugh now! Lol...


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MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, YOTATECH!....

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Old 12-13-2013, 11:58 AM
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awesome kiddo!

as for the hood fix dude you did great think how much a body shop would have charged to do that heck 2 cans of rustolium black some sandpaper you can have her hood looking good sand the flaked bumper an hit it with the plastic adhesion type wait for it to dry out really well hit it with some 2k grit then buff

still great job mark an awesome kiddo
Old 12-13-2013, 04:09 PM
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Thanks buddy! You get to watch the vids? Isn't she so cuuuute?

I think I might have saved her some money. She insisted on lasting for the parts from the insurance check. (Taught her well!)... But I will Christmas-Dad-Usurp her! Lol. Probably get the lights housings, etc, on 50% day! Lol
Old 12-13-2013, 04:54 PM
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Reading your thread is like being part of your family almost!! I'm the crazy cousin from St. Louis!!
Old 12-13-2013, 11:02 PM
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Originally Posted by HighLux
Reading your thread is like being part of your family almost!! I'm the crazy cousin from St. Louis!!
Haha, I hope that's a good thing for most. I try not to bore y'all. Lol....

You sooooo craaaaazy! Hehe
Old 12-14-2013, 01:13 AM
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Was hoping to wheel tomorrow, but mo my momz made plans and forgot to tell me. We're going to the Christmas play at Church. It's always so well done, and I'll find another time to hit the trails, soon.

I'm going to be randomly / sporadically working on the Lexus,... and I hope I can get it good to go in a couple tries (maybe one of in so fortunate! Haha).

In the interim, I'm going to get on a few things. .....

1. Tidy up some more wiring related to those things I've run up the panels/under the dash/Re-loomwrap the OBA wiring/seal up taillights-to-chassis contact points

2. New/Pending Electrical Projects:

...A. Replace the trailer harness with new kit, mounted properly(I will share plenty on how I plan to do this).
...B. New headlight wiring harness upgrade install
...C. 130A Alternator Upgrade
...D. Adding Rear Window "Always Hot" switch in hidden location to rear cargo area(I'll already be in that panel for the "wiring cleanup project")
...E. Adding new LED Lights to ole Ruby's interior, plus adding Constant Hot Deck lamp(It's Red/adding another on opposite side/all connected to existing switch in dash which will obviously be modified to not need parking lights circuit to operate/Plus they will both be independently operational from the lights themselves)
...F. Loving RBX's Hard-installed Power Invertor as I do, ..... I will be doing something similar. I want a removable 120V power source capable of handling things that draw more power.

And thennnnnnn? Lol.... And then will be, along the way, a last effort to kill this gremlin once and for all.

To the lattern I would like to add that I I'm finding my rig to be running worse with these upgraded sensors, the cold start injector time switch and the updated thermo temp time switch that goes into the top of the thermostat housing. My problem maybe one that is simply revealing itself to be worse because I actually have the right or should I say called for upgrade switches according to the Toyota Service Bulletin, etc.

As an additional note to myself... I really need to take the time to check the intake elbow for coolant that is just above and behind the cold start injector time switch and coolant temperature sensor... It's basically the hard elbow that the coolant bypass hose connects to. Nate's buddy, albert, home I met at pismo jamboree, mentioned that you very much suspected that line as being hard and capable of cars in all kinds of drama within the coolant temperature related sensors.

There are only a handful of things I haven't done or replaced... So, I just figure that since I am one of the 1000 who one up with this crazy ass Grambling... And knowing how frustrating as hell it is... I would like to resolve it before I do a motor swap, rather than just moving on as though that's going to solve all my problems.

Thanks for checking in, guys! I really appreciate you all, honest.
Old 12-14-2013, 08:36 AM
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Your family is lucky to have you, Chef. Is that granddaughter of yours getting cuter each day or what? Merry Christmas to you, too, and here's a little white stuff for you:
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Wish I could afford to mail some to you.
Old 12-14-2013, 11:19 AM
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Wow, thanks, Mrs. Habeautiful! Haha.... Looks like lots of fun, btw.... And lots of work as well, as I very well remember! (East Valley, Spokane, WA, during some of the coldest winter in decades)....

Take care, Sista!
Old 12-15-2013, 01:18 PM
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Very good job on the hood Mark... more or less exactly what a 'pro' would have done on a "budget" price job... and Abby is sooo cute... love the christmas tree hat...
That sleeping with the eyes open thing is so creepy...
Old 12-15-2013, 03:51 PM
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Originally Posted by aviator
Very good job on the hood Mark... more or less exactly what a 'pro' would have done on a "budget" price job... and Abby is sooo cute... love the christmas tree hat...
That sleeping with the eyes open thing is so creepy...
Thanks, Paul! I am glad I gave it a shot. ... Sticking with it payed off, for sure.

Abbygail is just soooooo adorable... BUT, she is constantly on the go more than most kids that I've been around lately. She's very independent and wants to do everything herself. And yet, she's the servant type that likes to give you things... Should just don't want you giving things to her , in other words having them to her. Its so funny, I can have even something like a cookie, but until I put it down she just shook her head and says, "No, I do it". She knows quite a few words in sign language, like please and done, thank you and you're welcome... It will be very cool to see her at 3 years old fluent in sign language! Lol. Okay maybe 5. He he he... and yes, it is pretty creepy anytime anyone sleeps with their eyes open , hahaha.
Old 12-15-2013, 05:23 PM
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Mom and I stopped by my sissssers house after church, cuz my niece Emilee's just picked up a puppy.....





At brunch, I saw this..... LOVE this color! .....

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Heading out from the gas station across the street from the bowling alley, this was planted right out front with kids climbing all over it... Very cool!....



Was fooling around yesterday, and figured I'd remove this from my daughters busted up hood.... Thought about where I'd put it if I go "THAT" route..... hahahaha....

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