Long time 4Runner fan

Can't remember how I got into 4runners, but back in the early 90's, I bought an 89 4Runner as they were really hot items back then. That 1st one I drove to Cabo San Lucas in 1991 for the solar eclipse that year. I even drove it out to Malarimo Beach on our way to Cabo for the eclipse. 60 miles, one way, of chatter board dirt road and had a lot of fun then. I sold that one a couple years later and then didn't have one till late 90's when I admired my friends 90 4Runner. I liked the body style of those 2nd gens and so I purchased a 90 2 wheel drive version. A couple of years later, I purchased a 95 4Runner that was 4wd. However, I really hated the V6 in those two cars as the engines had no torque and got lousy gas mileage. So eventually I sold that one. About 3 years ago, I spotted a nice 85 Runner on Ebay that was local to SoCal, so I went and looked at, really liked it and I was able to talk the guy into selling it on the spot. It had a couple of dented fenders that i eventually got around to fixing as it was clear that one of the previous owners actually used it off road although he didn't trash it. It had fairly new paint so just needed to fix the dents.
One day I was looking through the craigslist ads and spotted a guy selling a 85 4Runner. He mentioned in the ad that he had converted the rear axle to full floater, using a kit from Frontrange off road. That conversion really interested me as one of the previous owners had towed this 4Runner behind his motor home. It would have been nice if he had had this kit then as he could have saved 80K miles on the running gear. So anyway, kept watching the Frontrange website till they offered the kit on sale, so i quickly purchased the kit, but it sat in my garage for 2 years as I was to lazy to put it in. However, 2 months ago I finally got around to installing it and I'm glad I did. That is about the only mod I have done to it, as it's pretty stock otherwise. I put the decals on it a year ago, so will have to post some pics which I don't currently have.

Long winded intro, but I've been a car guys for 50 years, and I mostly owned muscle cars, and currently have a 65 Olds 442. The 4Runner is a nice change of pace to work on. Enough now, hope to meet some other socal 1st gen guys on here. Take care!

 

Welcome to the forum! That was an excellent intro!

 

Thanks, I'll take some pics tomorrow, and post them.

 

Welcome aboard, that’s definitely a pro intro, I appreciate it!
Feed us with some pictures, especially since we all love visual stimulation

 

Welcome from SoCal!

 

Welcome.

 

I posted some pics under 1st gen picture gallery. Hopefully you can find them.

thx
John

 

Aloha!
Nice!

 

Welcome from FL.