I've been lurking around for a few years now and its probably about time I post a build thread as a thank you for all the information I have sucked outta here !
My obsession for toyotas has been ongoing for some time now, my dad flipped a tacoma 4x in PA and walked away, they have just never left us hanging so as soon as I could afford one I bought one.
In 1999 I bought my 92 4runner with its 3.slow and 5 speed, I threw a 3" body lift under it, some 33's and put 130k on it until 2006 when I got out of the USMC and stopped driving from NC to NY. I should have never sold that truck, but I saw the new FJ cruiser and decided it was time.
I bought an 07 FJC, fell asleep and wrecked it How 2 crash an FJI walked away uninjured except for some airbag dust blindness. The insurance ended up getting me an 07 TRD I started wheeling it some, remembering how much fun it was back in the day and decided that wheeling just got much higher on the priority list. I built up the FJC, drove it cross country to the 1st FJC Summit, then Moab, sleeping in the truck there and back, with me, my fiancee at the time and my dog. I wheeled the FJC for a couple years and kinda lost interest, the FJC was just not capable enough without a SAS and Lefty, Being my daily driver it wasnt what I wanted to do, so it became the Flaming Pepperoni cruiser
About a year ago now, a freind of mine, Terry, who used to check out my 92 runner back in the day decided that he was going to sell his 87 4runner, it was too nice for him. He had picked it up from a guy who must have worked for some kind of traffic or construction company in NJ since the rear side panels were made from old street signs
.The truck was CLEAN ! Still IFS up front, but a newly rebuilt 22re R151 and top shifting transfer. 4.88's, truetrac, downey torsion bars, detroit rear, 4.7's in the tcase, rear disk brakes with the t100 master, a spotless interior with its SR5 seats, and a rust free body and frame. I brought it home and made it mine. I gutted the entire interior, used a nice commercial grade bedliner and sprayed the entire inside, we were able to adjust the texture so it wasn't too rough, I made a new faceplate for above my factory radio threw on a marlin front bumper, my superwinch EP9.0 from my FJC, 2nd transfer case, and sky's ebrake, my set of Monster diamond alloy beadlocks with some 35" KM2's (That Rich from the Gotham City Land Cruisers gave me the buy 2 get 2 free coupon for, Thanks again Rich and Allied Wheel !!!) and went through the truck front to rear, including having to pull the head since the spark plug threads were striped out 
All in all I was very happy with my new rig.
Where it all Started
I wheeled it a few times, and broke it just as many, I hated the truetrac locker ! It just didn't make sense, first you have to break traction, then mash the brakes, and wait for it to click in, or slam in breaking output shafts and CV's like they are plastic. I still think that with the double transfer cases the input speed of the diff just wasn't enough to get it to lock, either way it pissed me off and I had to figure out something else. I had picked up an 85 axle and was looking for a High pinion E locker housing to put into it, when what I found was a whole truck with that setup in it in NH. We loaded up the trailer and went on a road trip. The truck I picked up was an 88 pickup, with a rotted frame. It had a Marlin crawler SAS elocked 4.88 front, v6 rear, 33's 3.slow, ac compressor converted to OBA and a bunch of other goodies. I stripped it, kept what I wanted, sold the rest and pretty much broke even on the whole deal. It was time for a SAS.
What was left
Pre SAS
Cutting up
The SAS was the best improvement EVER ! I tried to order my springs and stuff from marlin, but that was a disaster (and a whole different s***ty story) I ended up running chevy 63's in the rear with Bud's hangers, and shackles, my old rears which had a couple extra leafs already in them up front with bud's banana shackles, ford towers a marlin front driveshaft, (that came with the 88 Pickup) It sits nice and low, and is super squishy. Thanks Bud for the tech info and bailing me out with the the parts to make it happen !! I wired in the e-locker with the stock harness, then to the brain and RR diff lock switch and put it above the radio with a LED indicator next to it. RR Diff Lock Switch This is also where I moved my rear window up/down switch to since I'm not running a center console until I build one. I am pretty nuts about OEM wiring, Even when I relocated my rear window switch I cut that section of harness out from a spare and made an extension harness, there is not one spliced wire in my truck. I even installed a waterproof painless fusebox in my drivers side kick panel to run all my non stock accessories, like my fridge, e locker, CB, and extra 12v outlets and used OEM connecters to wire them all in.
I still have some odds and ends I'd like to finish up, like installing interior LED's for dome lights, rock lights, swapping out my 4cyl rear for a v6 elocked rear, in cab winch controls, a new center console with CUPHOLDERS !!, getting rid of my BFG KM2's Because they SUCK ! and eventually we'll sell our school bus that we converted to an RV to finance a nice JD2 Bender/Notcher and build a nice exo cage. I'm Sure I'll find much more to do but I'll start there.
Daves Place
Fall Gathering 2010 Video
My Picture Galery
My obsession for toyotas has been ongoing for some time now, my dad flipped a tacoma 4x in PA and walked away, they have just never left us hanging so as soon as I could afford one I bought one.
In 1999 I bought my 92 4runner with its 3.slow and 5 speed, I threw a 3" body lift under it, some 33's and put 130k on it until 2006 when I got out of the USMC and stopped driving from NC to NY. I should have never sold that truck, but I saw the new FJ cruiser and decided it was time.
I bought an 07 FJC, fell asleep and wrecked it How 2 crash an FJI walked away uninjured except for some airbag dust blindness. The insurance ended up getting me an 07 TRD I started wheeling it some, remembering how much fun it was back in the day and decided that wheeling just got much higher on the priority list. I built up the FJC, drove it cross country to the 1st FJC Summit, then Moab, sleeping in the truck there and back, with me, my fiancee at the time and my dog. I wheeled the FJC for a couple years and kinda lost interest, the FJC was just not capable enough without a SAS and Lefty, Being my daily driver it wasnt what I wanted to do, so it became the Flaming Pepperoni cruiser
About a year ago now, a freind of mine, Terry, who used to check out my 92 runner back in the day decided that he was going to sell his 87 4runner, it was too nice for him. He had picked it up from a guy who must have worked for some kind of traffic or construction company in NJ since the rear side panels were made from old street signs
.The truck was CLEAN ! Still IFS up front, but a newly rebuilt 22re R151 and top shifting transfer. 4.88's, truetrac, downey torsion bars, detroit rear, 4.7's in the tcase, rear disk brakes with the t100 master, a spotless interior with its SR5 seats, and a rust free body and frame. I brought it home and made it mine. I gutted the entire interior, used a nice commercial grade bedliner and sprayed the entire inside, we were able to adjust the texture so it wasn't too rough, I made a new faceplate for above my factory radio threw on a marlin front bumper, my superwinch EP9.0 from my FJC, 2nd transfer case, and sky's ebrake, my set of Monster diamond alloy beadlocks with some 35" KM2's (That Rich from the Gotham City Land Cruisers gave me the buy 2 get 2 free coupon for, Thanks again Rich and Allied Wheel !!!) and went through the truck front to rear, including having to pull the head since the spark plug threads were striped out All in all I was very happy with my new rig.Where it all Started
I wheeled it a few times, and broke it just as many, I hated the truetrac locker ! It just didn't make sense, first you have to break traction, then mash the brakes, and wait for it to click in, or slam in breaking output shafts and CV's like they are plastic. I still think that with the double transfer cases the input speed of the diff just wasn't enough to get it to lock, either way it pissed me off and I had to figure out something else. I had picked up an 85 axle and was looking for a High pinion E locker housing to put into it, when what I found was a whole truck with that setup in it in NH. We loaded up the trailer and went on a road trip. The truck I picked up was an 88 pickup, with a rotted frame. It had a Marlin crawler SAS elocked 4.88 front, v6 rear, 33's 3.slow, ac compressor converted to OBA and a bunch of other goodies. I stripped it, kept what I wanted, sold the rest and pretty much broke even on the whole deal. It was time for a SAS.
What was left
Pre SAS
Cutting up
The SAS was the best improvement EVER ! I tried to order my springs and stuff from marlin, but that was a disaster (and a whole different s***ty story) I ended up running chevy 63's in the rear with Bud's hangers, and shackles, my old rears which had a couple extra leafs already in them up front with bud's banana shackles, ford towers a marlin front driveshaft, (that came with the 88 Pickup
) It sits nice and low, and is super squishy. Thanks Bud for the tech info and bailing me out with the the parts to make it happen !! I wired in the e-locker with the stock harness, then to the brain and RR diff lock switch and put it above the radio with a LED indicator next to it. RR Diff Lock Switch This is also where I moved my rear window up/down switch to since I'm not running a center console until I build one. I am pretty nuts about OEM wiring, Even when I relocated my rear window switch I cut that section of harness out from a spare and made an extension harness, there is not one spliced wire in my truck. I even installed a waterproof painless fusebox in my drivers side kick panel to run all my non stock accessories, like my fridge, e locker, CB, and extra 12v outlets and used OEM connecters to wire them all in.I still have some odds and ends I'd like to finish up, like installing interior LED's for dome lights, rock lights, swapping out my 4cyl rear for a v6 elocked rear, in cab winch controls, a new center console with CUPHOLDERS !!, getting rid of my BFG KM2's Because they SUCK ! and eventually we'll sell our school bus that we converted to an RV to finance a nice JD2 Bender/Notcher and build a nice exo cage. I'm Sure I'll find much more to do but I'll start there.
Daves Place
Fall Gathering 2010 Video
My Picture Galery
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