"Dru" (therealkennyd)
07/12/2018 at 11:37 • Filed to: Toyota
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"Dru" (therealkennyd)
07/12/2018 at 11:37 • Filed to: Toyota | 0
| 6 |
My awesome dad bought me this 4Runner for my 25th birthday. I turn 30 in exactly one week and it’s actually in worse condition now.
Backing up, the truck was originally a Virginia vehicle with 117K original miles. Despite being more or less south of the mason Dixon, it could not escape the tinworm. We had the 22re rebuilt and some new tires put on and she was road ready. However it slowly developed small problems that I lacked the funds and tools to fix. It is not currently road worthy as the exhaust manifold overheats and there is some sort of fuel delivery issue. The rust varies from spot to spot on the vehicle from “eh that’s not too bad” to “you need a donor body and metal fab.”
My pops has offered to have it taken to a shop and pieced back together. However, I moved about 200 miles away from my family a few years back and I haven’t found anyone I would really trust to work on this down here. So if I’m taking it anywhere, I would probably trailer it.
“Why don’t you work on it yourself?” You might say. I’ve tinkered with it here and there. The biggest obstacle being lack of tools, and when I have the time, I don’t have the cash for parts, and when I have the cash for parts, I don’t have the time.
I’ve considered selling it but I’m deeply emotionally attached. The 4Runner was my dad’s dream car when they debuted in 1984, but he couldn’t afford one then. To this point in time, as a family, we’ve owned a collective 12 or 13 4Runners in under 30 years. If we had a family crest, there would be a T4R on it.
Speaking very much relatively, my financial situation has improved over the last 5 years. So I could probably knock out 1 problem per month for the foreseeable future. The restoration would probably take at least 10 years, working on it myself as much as possible.
I enjoy wrenching, but I also enjoy finished projects and not lying to myself that “I’ll get around to it.”
So what would Oppo do? Wrench on it here and there or farm it out?
My bird IS the word
> Dru
07/12/2018 at 12:10 |
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If you have to ask: farm it out. Restoration sucks. You have to be extremely committed to not driving the thing for years at a time, wrenching every nice weekend, and generally hating yourself the whole time. I do it because I can’t afford the labor costs. It still sucks ass.
Future next gen S2000 owner
> Dru
07/12/2018 at 12:22 |
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Farm it out. Restorations are a labor of love. If you have to ask you will most likely end up with it torn apart and no money/drive left to fix it and it’ll end up on CL as one of a dozen half finished projects.
Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> Dru
07/12/2018 at 12:40 |
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Triage seems like the best way to sort it out. Figure out the safety and drivability issues first, then slowly bring everything else up to snuff over the coming years.
If you can do some sleuthing on your own, that would be helpful to solve your running lean issue, if that is the problem. Paying a shop to troubleshoot a problem can get expensive, but not as expensive as misdiagnosing a problem... so... Really the only things that can cause a problem like that are the MAF, fuel pump, fuel filter, and/ or injectors.
crowmolly
> Dru
07/12/2018 at 12:58 |
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Bodywork first.
Expensive and not the most satisfying. But the rest of the stuff can come later. Otherwise you may have to take it all back down to do the metal repairs later.
E92M3
> Future next gen S2000 owner
07/12/2018 at 14:39 |
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^This
People are ambitious at first. Th ey’ll disassemble the vehicle, but then talent, time, or money runs out. I would just wait until you have the funds and time to complete it. I’ve seen people put new tires, brakes, etc on a vehicle then it sits for 10 more years and those parts are dry- rotted and need to be replaced again .
Captain of the Enterprise
> Dru
07/12/2018 at 15:17 |
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I’d farm it out. There’s no way I have the time to restore something myself. Maybe start with getting it running and drivable.