'87 4runner

Day one: installed a new fuel pump and got to hear my engine fire up for the first time. And drove it on the trailer to haul it home.

Day two: pulled the interior carpet out of the back as it has gotten wet and I wanted to avoid it sinking in and rusting out the floors. I'm excited how good of condition the floors are in though! Gotta put the tailgate mechanism back together, but I think it passed Billy-Bobs inspection, he just hangs out in the front seat and watches me work.





Ok, time to update this. It has been a couple weeks since I picked up my '87. The most difficult part of doing this project on a very, very low budget is finding parts for cheap. Unfortunately, the 4 runners up here are far and few between. However, I got a huge break when an '84 came up on Kijiji. Unfortunately, it was a little beyond what I could afford due to vet bills, so I asked the guy about parting it out so I could get the parts I needed for a reasonable rate. He was game, but I didn't know which parts I could get off of this, not how much to offer (I really hate bargaining), but my lack of bargaining skills worked out on my favor. 6 days later he sent me a message saying if I still wanted it he would give it to me for half the cost. Billy-Bob had definitely improved healthwise with the supplements, so I don't feel bad postponing the echo by a little bit to afford this unicorn. So on Friday I rented a u-haul and brought home another vehicle: '87 + '84 = happy, happy, joy, joy







As you can see from the pics, there is not a single window left, but the windows are gone cause some teenagers smashed the windows, so still a clean title on the vehicle, and definetly some usable parts.

The dilemma I am now faced with is this: I love the '84 is beautiful, but needs a bit more love to get on the road, so do I create a larger project for myself and swap the donor and project vehicles or just stick with the original plan?

The 84 has a solid axle, the exhaust system is still in tact, awesome look to it, but requires a battery, and supposedly just a carburettor to get her going, though it sat in the guys yard for the past twenty years so who knows how easy it will be to get started.
The exterior body is in way better condition than on the '87 (I am from Alberta, so thanks to the constant salting of roads all winter the exteriors rust away around the wheel wells and the tail gate.) The e brake/parking break won't work, it gets stuck when I try and pull it and the vehicle definetly does not stay in place. Since this is a manual transmission it seems like a slightly important thing to have. And I would need to replace every window in the vehicle.

However, the interior body of the '87 is in better shape than the '84. The '87 runs great with the new fuel pump, and the interior is in pretty good shape over all. The work it needs is a new exhaust (the down pipe from headers was so rusted out that it was almost broken in half when I removed it. And the middle section was completely missing.) There is electrical issues that I will need to sort out as well as the high beams on one head light seems to only turn on 50% of the time, the wipers try to move just a jerk and then nothing, and a few other things. The window crank in the drivers door is slipping near the top so I can't close that window fully with it. It also had a disagreement with a deer so the body right behind the drivers side door is crushed, and the fenders are just chunks of rust that haven't fallen off yet.

So anybody have opinions on my dilemma? Both are EFI, both are manual, both are hard tops, '84 is solid axle, the '87 is not.

So my weekend was spent stripping the interior of the '84, it would be done by now if my back and shoulder weren't in so much pain yesterday, but this is how she looks now







Oh, and let's not forget Billy-Bob... He is quite sad he didn't get to hang out in this one while I'm working, but once the broken glass is all out of the way, he will enjoy exploring this one too.



Ok, so I know it's been a while since my last update, but it's not cause I haven't done anything. The water pump and timing chain have now been replaced, removed the oil pan and cleaned it out, and got the new exhaust system put on. I cleaned my rear drum brakes and replaced the shoes, as well as the drums and painted my rims so the vehicle is drivable once again with the tackiest rims, so I'm quite happy how it turned out so far.

Also after two months of searching, someone finally put a rear window with regulator bar for sale on Kijiji so the next step is fixing the rear window, though one of the arms in the tail gate has a broken spinner so gotta find a solution for that sooner rather than later. But looking to go camping on the island in the next couple weeks with my roommate and his project vehicle (80s Jeep wagoneer). Hopefully, I can figure out that back window...

 

Man, does all that look familiar for some reason...

Have fun all!
Pat☺