Well, here is my rig so far. I welcome any criticism and input, as I'm new to this, and all my friends seem to prefer the cheap/rigged way of doing things. So please let me know.

This is what she looked like the day I bought her, this last August.







Pretty clean. Only damage I could find, besides the rear bumper, was a nice big smash in the gas tank skid plate, but a few minutes with a sledge and a pair of Nikes fixed that.

Oh, and the right rear leaf spring was bent.

I wasn't sure what springs to buy for the rear, because I wasn't sure what springs were in the front. The rear was factory stock with add-a-leafs, plus the rear was lower then the front, so I decided to go with 3" lift springs for the rear.

I also bought a set of 15"x10" wheels off an old buddy of mine, which came off my brothers old Toyota that he sold a few years ago. I bought a full set of BFG Mud Terrains, 33"x12.5" and had them fitted. Also removed the rear bumper, bolted on what was left of the front bumper, and cleaned up the body alittle.


*Note my rear shackle angle:


Took the truck out for a trail down in Florence, Arizona.







Flex'd her out alittle. *Note the lack of articulation in the rear:





And a poser shot:

 

There was obviously a problem with my rear springs. So I contacted the place I bought them from and complained. I figured they'd brush me off. But they responded apologetic and telling me to call them back and they'll take care of everything.

Turns out they sold me the wrong springs. There was a problem on the website where I ordered them and some product numbers were mixed up.

They were really cool about it though. They gave me the correct springs on faith that I'll return the other ones. And they gave me all new u-bolts and bushings. Not that I could really use them, but heh.

Funny part was the springs I returned got pretty beat up in the time I had them. I even managed to break the centering pin on one of them. But the guys at the shop just shrugged it off. Their mistake. haha

So anyway, I installed the correct springs in the rear and was kind of shocked how much higher the rear end rides. I almost question if these are the correct springs either. Seem bigger then 3". But oh well, they ride great.





I also took the time to refinish my front shock loops with flat black rustoleum, since the PO never bothered coating them after welding them. Buzzed off as much surface rust as I could and then gave them a couple coats.

before:


after:

 

I then installed a spool locker in the rear. I don't drive this truck much, so I decided against a detroit or similar style locker. Plus, I'm on a bit of a budget with this project. I probably would have just welded it, but I don't have easy access to a welder and I wanted to do this right.

Ironically enough, I discovered that the PO tried to weld the rear end. And did a very crappy job of it too. All the welds broke off, taking a few spider gear teeth with them.





And No, the quarter was not in the diff, just a size reference.





Ran into another problem. We couldn't get the filler bolt off the axle casing to refill it with gear oil. We used wrenches, sockets, vise-grips, and even a pipe wrench to try and get it off. All we were doing was tearing up the bolt.

So instead I sat under the truck and squeezed gear oil into the axle casing with a old mustard bottle through the diff breather hole. For 2 and a half hours.

Oh well, at least it was done.

Took it out to Sycamore Creek last weekend and it drove excellent. Even with a newbie like me behind the wheel, it drove over everything. We even had to cross the river God knows how many times and the 4Runner did fantastic.