It all had to start some where. From a very young age I loved cars, trucks, and anything that went vroom. It sure helped that my father bought and sold cars on occasion for extra income. It was always a fun day when he brought home a car or two. The most exciting day was when he brought home five cars! I came home from school in grade four or five, and there were two cars on the drive way, two cars on the road, and another car in the back garage. My father was obviously a leading factor as to why I am hooked.
The first time I ever drove a standard car was about the age of ten, thats when Toyota really came into my life. My friends that I grew up with had two Toyota Tercels on their farm. One was a hatch back, two door, with a standard transmission, the other was a wagon, four door, four wheel drive, with an automatic transmission. Thats about as much fun as ten year old kids could have on a farm! We took our turns seeing who could start out in first gear more smoothly.
I must have been around twelve years old when my father bought a first generation 4Runner. He ended up rolling it and buying it back from the insurance company. He did an amazing job of restoring it back to life. My father is also the reason why I have such a love for exploring and adventuring. We spent a lot of time in the valleys around our home. Here is a picture of me sitting in the back of the 4Runner.
It was never just about Toyotas though, I've always been open minded about all types of cars. I've had a couple Caprice classics, blazer, accords but my first car when I was sixteen was a Nissan Nx, then a year later I upgraded to a Acura Integra. A few years went by and I upgraded again to a right hand drive Honda Integra GSR from Japan. The chase for more power didn't end though, I had to have the Type R Integra. So I placed an order for a Type R from Japan. As you can tell from this old facebook post my mind was set on Toyota trucks and Honda cars haha. These days I would just say Toyota but I still do love myself a little Honda.
While waiting for the Integra Type R to arrive from Japan I found myself a first generation 4Runner for sale at the university in my city. It was almost the perfect 4Runner to buy because the owner was never able to take it four wheeling, he thought the 4x4 was broken. What our mistake was, was showing him that he just had to lock the hubs. He still agreed on selling us the truck for the same price but we told him we will pick it up the next day. That was our second mistake. The next day we were ready to buy the 4Runner and he shows up with the truck completely covered in ice. He obviously had to test out the truck before he sold it to me. You could tell he tried his best to spray the ice off, which was not a good idea because he also took a bunch of paint off the truck while he was doing that. I told him I was no longer interested in purchasing. He must of needed that money bad because he was just about crying to me saying he had to sell it tonight. We worked out a price that worked in my favour and I took that 4Runner home!
This truck was a blast! it was the first lifted truck I ever owned and I really made use of it. Even as an unexperienced four wheeler I still wasn't able to get it stuck. Even with a blown clutch I still managed to get out! At that time in my life I had no knowledge on how to replace a clutch, nor did I care to learn how. I ended up selling it with the blown clutch for one hundred dollars less than I paid for the truck. I only had this one for a year.
The next 4Runner I owned I actually bought off my father. He didn't own this one for very long but knew I needed another truck. It was in amazing condition! It was a 1994 second generation 4Runner and was obviously garage kept its whole life. The shocking thing was that it was just shy of 400,000 kms on the odometer! Everyone bashes the 3.0 L engine those trucks have but I thought that motor was paired so nicely with the standard transmission.( I obviously never had to do a head gasket) 😅
On the first snow fall of the year something awful happened though. I found myself sliding on black ice while coming up to a four way stop. There was another car going through the intersection. I collided with their front fender and spun us both around. Luckily no one was hurt but sadly the truck was a total loss. I was able to drive it around for the next couple months before they took it away. I drove the crap out of it in the meantime and had a blast drifting around in the snow.
Next up on my Toyota adventures is a 1990 Toyota Hilux Surf from Japan that I purchased in my city. It was a very neat truck and had the 2.8 L turbo diesel motor, which I found quite gutless. Maybe it was the automatic transmission that made it feel more gutless. I remember a couple times being stuck and I had to brake boost the turbo to get it to spool sooner so that I could get out. Any which way, I did enjoy owning that truck and had to own one eventually.
I somehow found a guy to agree on doing a straight trade of our vehicles, it was almost perfect in my eyes. The perfect little toy, a 1990 Toyota Celica GT-Four also from Japan. It was a 230 hp, all wheel drive beast that was tons of fun to drive. I drove that car like a kid would in Forza. The sound of that turbo and the big exhaust was all she needed. I really wanted to be a race car driver and in that car it showed.
At this point I have no 4Runner and have to decide whats more important, daily driving a GT-Four or adventuring and four wheeling where ever I want. I realize adventure and exploration is the most important thing when it comes down to the automotive side of things.
I find myself a 2001 4Runner SR5 with the 3.4 L motor. I no longer need the GT-Four any more and sell it off.
Here I go with my first build of a truck. I knew I needed this 4Runner to be something better than stock. I slowly start the upgrades throughout the years. All the windows tinted out, a three inch suspension, and a better stereo were the first things on the list.
I still own the Integra Type R at this time and am finally bored of front wheel drive. I decide to sell the Integra and chase my drifting dreams. I fly to Calgary and pick up a Nissan Silvia that looks like a full on drift car. This car was on another level of excitement. It had a straight piped exhaust straight from the turbo, and a LSD rear differential. After having front wheel drive cars for all these years, it was sure nice hopping into a new driving style. I really wish I actually got deeper into the drifting scene.
My commitment to Toyota's and adventuring was greatly stronger though and I decide to sell the Silvia and put that money towards building my 4Runner some more. It took me until the second set of TRD wheels before I decided these were the right ones. It also took me a couple years to get it looking this good. This truck took us on many trips, and acted as a great daily driver for many years.
I was very quickly intrigued by the whole overland scene once they started putting roof top tents onto their trucks and I knew I needed to have one. I loved the idea of outfitting these vehicles to go anywhere for any amount of time. I always had plans of doing solar and installing a fridge but never quite got to that point. I purchased this tent from California and had them ship it up to Canada for me. I really do love this style of camping along with the amazing sleeps we have in there. You sure do have a lot of interest in the campgrounds when you open one of these up.
I always told myself that once I get my journey-mans ticket I will reward myself with a fairly new 4Runner. I was never able to find that fairly new 4Runner with the requirements I was looking for. I was not a fan of how the 2015 4Runners looked but always knew the potential in how good they could look. Just going off that I decided to buy one from the next big city over. I took a plane there and drove it back home. It didn't take me long at all to get the windows tinted and put a mud tire on that I bought for cheap. It performed amazing just like this.
The 2015 4Runner became the new camping rig since we got rid of the red one. The roof top tent fit just as well on this truck.
The fun began once I got the suspension installed! I needed it to be lifted so that I loved it! For the first couple years of this trucks life, I was quite hard on it. I really worked it to its limits. I am a lot easier on it these days. It sometimes stays parked in the garage for 3 months at a time. I enjoyed just having it clean in the garage, fully fuelled, and ready to take on a trip when ever.
This is about as far as I built this truck. I am very satisfied how it looks with just the lift and tires. I also did build a tool box in the back for all the tools and recovery gear. We have really mastered the three or four hour adventures around home, without any planning we just get out and go explore the valleys.
While owning the 2015 4Runner I've gone through a few different daily drivers. Like I said before I enjoy having the 4Runner clean and in the garage. I had a 2000 Lexus es300 then a Honda Civic SIR, and after the Civic is when I got myself a 1998 Toyota Harrier from Japan. In Canada it's called the Lexus RX300. It's just a basic SUV but for some reason I was so interested because it was from Japan and also that it was in mint condition. It kind of had a sporty look and feel to it. Just like most vehicles I own, I was finally bored of this one too.
When it comes to Toyota's, I hit the jackpot when I found a 1976 Land Cruiser sitting at a golf course with a for sale sign on it! I never have even seen one of these in person before, it was really love at first sight. However it did take me a week to decide I had to buy it. I think the selling feature for me was that the roof came off, doors came off, and the front window folds down. I thought it was so neat.
It was in rough shape but I did not care at all.
Well this next one is not Toyota related but it does have Toyota wheels on it! I slowly started realizing how annoying it was to have the roof top tent on the top of the 4Runner. The number one problem was that when the tent is all set up you couldn't just hop in the truck and go. So my solution just like thousands of others, was a small little trailer for the tent to go right on top of. I really didn't want to build one. I looked every where for one that was already built but they either didn't have what I was looking for or what I was looking for cost an arm and a leg. I finally got the courage to tackle the job.
For this being the first thing that I've really ever built, it turned out amazing! It pulls behind the truck awesome and does exactly what it was designed for. Except the fact that it needs a slide out for a cooler and maybe some kind of pantry for all the food. I was currently in the middle of the Land Cruiser restoration so I couldn't find time to finish it though, this is how it sits today but that bare metal is covered in a light layer of rust.
Next up on the daily driver list! is a 1988 4Runner with the 3.0 L V6 motor and automatic transmission. I would have probably preferred the five speed standard but I actually enjoyed the automatic too! This truck was strangely comfortable to drive, it just floated down the road, the seats were comfortable, and was effortless to drive (since it was my daily driver). I'm used to having over sized tires on most of my vehicles, so stock sized tires were nice for a change.
I drove the 88 for probably a year until I realized I needed the solid axle 4Runner, and also I couldn't get the antique license plates for the 88 since the Province that I live in did a cut off of 1988. I really wanted to only pay thirteen dollars a month for plates! I found myself a 1985 4Runner with a solid front axle, 22re motor, standard transmission, and cheap to plate.
This truck has so much character. Just the way it sounds, looks, and drives. It has a cherry bomb muffler and is leaking in a couple places. The leaf springs are now frowning. You have to rev it to five thousand rpm's to even get that hundred horse power to move decently. But somehow I have been daily driving it for almost two years already. I've learned to enjoy the loud noises it makes, just laugh when the suspension completely bottoms out, and just have my foot to the floor all the times!
In reality though I am just waiting to start putting money into it. I want it to be a beast, and a super reliable adventure rig when I'm in the middle of no where with my family. The number one goal is to explore and adventure as much as we can.
In between the last four years I took on the biggest job I've ever done in my life, it was the restoration on the 1976 Land Cruiser with my father. I barely knew how to weld, never fabricated in my life, never even took out a motor before. I started with borrowing a flux core mig welder with no gas. Within a few welds I realized I needed a welder with hard wire and gas. So after purchasing a new welder my welds got way better, I was able to grind all the welds down so how pretty it looked didn't really matter.
The whole painting and body work process was all my fathers knowledge. I luckily had him there to teach me.
All of this tedious work just took a lot of time. I very luckily had tons of photos of me tearing the whole truck apart, and also google.
I some how managed to put this whole truck back together properly because the first drive went damn near perfect! It was a long three and a half years of restoring this truck but I would do it all over again a hundred times. I've found a new hobby and passion that will stick with me for life. Maybe some day it can be my job....
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