Well......... it has been a long time since I updated the progress of my 4Runner.
Back in August of last year I was out with my son running around Lucerne Valley when we got caught by a sudden rain storm and flash flood that caused me to roll the 4Runner onto it's roof. It was pretty messed up. I crushed in the roof, shattered the windshield, blew out a side window and the tailgate window, shifted the body over towards the driver side about 4 inches at the roof line and bent both front fenders and the hood beyond repair. My son was just fine as he was in his car seat in the front passenger seat, (no airbags in a '92). Me, I bounced my head off the headliner pretty hard and had a stiff neck for a few days. I had to get a trailer and bring it home as the hood crushed the distributor cap and it could not start. Got it home, put on a new cap, put in some oil and drove it off the trailer no problems and parked it in the driveway for 2 months. During the 2 months I kept trying to figure out what I was going to do with it. I finally came up with the idea of making a convertible out of it. I cut off the entire roof, leaving the door jams and seals intact as all the doors still functioned as they should. I then cut the back end down to look like a truck bed. I put in a full roll cage, found a 4" suspension lift, replaced the hood and fenders, made a pre-runner bumper, and put 33's under it. Turned out pretty cool for a shade tree hack job.
The day it rolled...
- DAV_4926-web.jpg (128.29 KiB) Viewed 6000 times
- DAV_4947-web.jpg (110.21 KiB) Viewed 6000 times
Final pic of the mods I had done.
- 4runner.JPG (116.86 KiB) Viewed 6000 times
After having it through the winter and enduring rain and even snow with out a complete roof I decided to get rid of it. It really worked well off road for going to the races and photographing the race vehicles in the middle of nowhere, but I needed something a little more comfortable. I came across a '95 Toyota Land Cruiser, 80 Series, with front and rear factory lockers. I will now start a new thread on the build up and personalization of this new to me vehicle.
