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After finally solving the backup light intermittency, red headed step truck passed MA state inspection today. Woohoo! Gooed-up neutral safety switch caused intermittent backup lights. Let there be light! Street legal
Finally some sunshine and we put 127 miles on the Goorunner Sunday on a local shake-down cruise to get ready for summer. We headed to Nahant, Marblehead, Salem and farther up the coast to Gloucester (pronounced gloster) and Rockport. Checked out one new guitar store and ate lobster rolls for lunch. Goorunner returned a misleading and disappointing 16 mpg. I say misleading because the tank is larger than my beach truck so the needle falls more slowly. But then when I got home, I noticed we had been driving with the front hubs locked since December(?)…D’oh! 😡
That’s got to be good for a couple mpg. Next trip, I’ll make sure the hubs are unlocked, advance the timing a little since it has 93 octane in it and recalculate.
After finally solving the backup light intermittency, red headed step truck passed MA state inspection today. Woohoo! Gooed-up neutral safety switch caused intermittent backup lights.
I’ve been feeling the urge to try to restore the graphics on the Goorunner. What’s left of them is either sun baked, painted over with red spray can or rusty. I had some silver VHT that seemed the right color and sticks to anything, dries fast and withstands heat, so i decided to try a test Instead of buying correctly sized masking tape i just taped strips to the passenger window and split them with a razor knife. That way you get two perfectly straight edges. Before. Taped off and scuffed with 320 sanpaper All taped off. Here goes nothing Seems to be working. After. I even cleaned and shot the mirror with satin black.
This test was a great success. Tomorrow i will do the front fender and maybe driver’s door.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 04-07-2024 at 05:15 PM.
Picking up where i left off yesterday, it was a beautiful day so i decided to do some more taping and painting. Ready for paint I’ll have to remove the snorkle to paint this fender. I like it! I’m sure it raised the value.
Had to remove the snorkle for today’s painting.I’ve only ever Loctited a few things in my life, and one of them was a snorkle bolt that today would not remove. So it backed out far enough to get a hacksaw behind it and cut it. We’re just gonna do the right thing and forget about that bolt. Four other ones are holding it mounted. Now i should probably do the rear graphics…
Ugh I love first gen’s, I’m an 80’s kid so as much as I like my 91 I do wish I had a first gen runner or first or second gen pickup. I would love to do some 80’s Toyota decals on my truck but it just wouldn’t work….
We finally got some sunshine and a Massachusetts holiday Monday so i took advantage of the family being around to have them help lift off the roof. Under blimp surveillance Had to drill 28 holes to mount the rails I decided to modify the cab rail to use the factory roof bolts. Took me two days because i cannot see, measure or cut straight. Got the roof on just before it started raining today. Good timing- my gift.
Putting lots of miles on the GooRunner lately. Trips to the farm and hauling rocks for the wife’s “big, beautiful wall”. Then about 120 highway miles yesterday to go fishing with an old friend. First trip to the farm this year. Rides much better with a couple hundred pounds back here. Some success.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 05-22-2024 at 07:08 AM.
I bought a used spare tire winch to replace my seized one, but the mounting bolt heads are rusted or rounded off and the wrench won’t grip. That combined with the oil coating down there means i am going in through the trunk floor. 😡 Big mess. I decided to just start scraping the goo. Then, of course the wind gusted to about 30 kts.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 05-22-2024 at 07:26 AM.
Putting lots of miles on the GooRunner lately. Trips to the farm and hauling rocks for the wife’s “big, beautiful wall”. Then about 120 highway miles yesterday to go fishing with an old friend. Some success.
been a while since I've seen it, 4Runner looks amazing!!
been a while since I've seen it, 4Runner looks amazing!!
Thanks! Not really great, but thanks anyway. There’s a car show coming up on father’s day and for that i will set the goal of getting the back bumper, spare tire winch, mudflaps and rear stripes on. and maybe buff out some paint.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on the back half of the GooRunner recently.
1) Paint graphics
2) straighten and rehang bumper
3) Make the spare tire winch work
4) Have the spare tire remounted so it stops leaking
5) Straighten and repaint the plastic trim parts
6) Pop out big dent in right corner
7) New mud flaps for cheap
8) Drill the last couple mounting holes for the hitch
Of course, like everything else with this truck, there are challenges. I think i will try straightening this bumper. Can’t make it any worse! Hammers and heat🔥
I have no choice. The 12mm bolt heads are too rusted. I tried 11mm, 12mm, 7/16” nothing i had would grab them so i had to cut them off. That worked well! No amount of heat or panther piss would have made this operational again.
Let’s work on that dent. There is even oil goo inside the tail light cavity! I have an idea. A baseball and a crowbar. Kinda worked but i also had to use other things like a section of 2x4 and a hunk of 2” square steel to pry against. After some heat, hammer and dolly work and self-etching primer. Good enough.
Bumper still not straight enough. Quick trip to the hardware store to get some longer bolts and a couple washers for shims. That’s better! Still have to do the mud flaps and hitch bolts.
03-19-2024, 02:17 PM
