New from NY (2nd Gen)

Hi all,

My name is Joe, from the Long Island, NY area. I've been looking on and off for a while for something to replace my Blazer that I sold a few years back. I wasn't really sure what I wanted and was looking at some 3rd gen 4Runners as well as older f-150s and Chevy 1500 pickups. A few mornings ago a 1995 2nd gen with 80k and one owner popped up on my Facebook feed and I went to go see it. I was aware of a lot of the shortcomings of the motor (3.0) but I really love the body style and the condition was really great (except for paint fade on the roof and Hood) so I pulled the trigger.

The truck has been maintained by the same Toyota dealership since it was purchased in 95 so between that and the visual condition I feel like I have something that I can hopefully drive for a long time and enjoy. I really don't have any plans to do anything besides keep it all as OEM as possible.. at least for now.

It's not on the road yet but I plan to do that next week as well as bring it by my mechanic and get some basic things done.

I don't have much else to say at this point besides saying hi and introducing myself. I am looking forward to learning more about this thing as I continue to work on it and drive it.

Ill likely upload more pictures during the week. The interior is honestly immaculate and I haven't seen leather in this condition on a 30-year-old car in a long time. I do have the infamous crack in the dash though but besides that it's really nice.

 

Welcome and Congrats on the purchase!

 

Welcome to the forum, Joe! That is a very good find, would be a nice one to own myself.

I hope the previous owner had maintenance records, but since you said the truck had always been dealer maintained, you should be able to access records from Toyota. Big question is if the maintenance is up to date?

Good luck with a very nice looking 4Runner!

 

Welcome

 

Thanks!

Well the owner did not have the physical records but I ran the Carfax and there is maintenance pretty much every year or so from 95 all the way until this year at the same Toyota dealership. Now there aren't too many details on the Carfax so I'm going to call the dealership tomorrow (it's very close to my home) and see if they can enlighten me. I'm assuming that when you take your car into the dealership for things like oil and whatnot they would tell you if something major needed to be done ... so I'm just hoping that the owner actually went through with repairs when needed. I'm especially interested in if it had the head gasket recall or anything else major like that. The owner was a young woman who's been driving it for the past five or so years after it was given to her from her grandparents (the original purchasers), and honestly she did not know much besides the fact that the thing has been babied clearly since day one and she used to just bring it to Toyota and have them do whatever was needed. She didn't even know how to put it into four wheel drive

I don't plan to continue going to Toyota because of cost reasons but I have a very reliable mechanic that I've gone to for many years and I also plan to do a lot of work myself. At this point I'm just going to likely do the basics like a tune-up, flush the fluids, and fix up any seals or leaks and then go from there.

 

Welcome from Arizona!

 

Nice find! Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! The interior on the '95 looks like the interior I had in a '86 pickup, shifter and all. Thanx for the pictures.

 

Welcome bro, geez that interior looks practically new for being a 95. The good news is the 2nd gens are very easy to work on so it makes a fun vehicle to keep around if you are comfortable with tools. Just throw a dash mat on it and make sure to use a windshield sun shade in the summer and that thing will stay nice for another 30 years.

 

yeah, the dash is already split in 3 places! I was wondering if I could fix it somehow

 

Take a look at https://www.coverlaymfg.com

I have used them before and it turned out good.

 

VERY Nice 1995
I really like that body style
I REALLY like how good that thing looks
If you plan to do all the work, and you wanna clean it up and make the outside look as good as possible find some Wizards Shine Master and a white pad on a buffer will do absolute wonders to the paint, it will shine up the non shiny stuff better than you can imagine and help seal it back up. Get it cleaned up and polished then after a wash or two seal it up with some NuFinish or ceramic sealer.

ALSO, if you will go to [ https://www.toyota.com/owners/vehicle-specification/ ] and set up an account. You can put in that VIN of your 4R and claim it as yours, then you can see the entire history of that vehicle service records and all. Everything the dealer has ever noted in the computer, every time they told the owner about brake pads, oil leaks, battery levels, ect ect. You can see every oil change, every tire rotation, everything ever noted at the Toyota dealer. The website is a little wonky to figure out at first, how to add a VIN to your dashboard, you will put in the VIN, search it, and then add it to your dashboard. Then you have to figure out how to get to your dashboard to pull the VIN back up. Its wonky but it works. You can also download the entire service history in a PDF and print it out. I suspect its going to be a LOT of pages since the vehicle was serviced at a Toyota dealer. Meaning there are gonna be a whole lotta records, a lotta nonsense, but you will see if any warranty work or TSB work was done, ect ect.

ALSO, that Japan built dash pad is soft, like an armrest. Its not easy to fix it, you just need to recover it somehow. I have covered them with vinyl, tweed, and even bondo and paint before. The cracks split and twist up on the sides, so if you wanna cover it with something and it look smooth and flush you need to file / sand the edges down and fill the crack with body filler before wrapping the dash pad. The other alternative is sourcing a US made pickup dash, they are hard plastic and dont crack. You can swap the whole top dash around but.... A simple dash pad or piece of carpet can cover it and keep the cracks out of sight.

 

Thanks so much for the great response. Ill definitely sign up on the Toyota site. Took note of all your comments and I appreciate the advice.

Everyone has been really nice around here!

 

Congratulations. Keeping it stock or near-stock is a good plan. Being a nice survivor from the '90s is what makes in stand out on its own. It doesn't need fat tires sticking out or to be festooned with LEDs.