New member in Oregon, gonna need help lol!

Greetings all.

Quick introduction: back before I could even drive I wanted a 1984 4x4 Toyota pickup. I blame the movie Back to the Future.

Zoom ahead a few decades and I'm the caretaker of my fiancée's 1988 4Runner. It's in rough shape. She always wanted one, and she finally got one during a previous relationship. Her ex made all sorts of promises about making it nice for her. Well, he didn't fix anything to make it reliable or safe or cosmetically decent...nothing she wanted. He did, on the other hand, do what he wanted to her truck and lifted it, put some big meats on it, outfitted it with a SAS, re-geared it, and got out the welder and made himself a DIY rear spool differential. He was converting it to a crawler, which is NOT what she wanted. Not that it won't go to good use...but he spent $4,000 of her money without asking on what he wanted, lying and telling her it was necessary. So now it looks pretty impressive, sits up high and hops around on asphalt around corners thanks to the spool.

The chassis has over 240,000 miles on it. We have no idea how many miles the 22RE engine has on it, as it is out of a '93. I suspect the 5spd manual tranny is all original as it howls like banshee when you let off the gas in 3rd and 5th. The rear axle has been tilted to adequately deal with the driveline angle. The front is a problem. The ex welded together a janky driveline I'm told could potentially bind. Interior is *rough*. We just had body work done to the rear fenders to take care of the rot. There is a decent dent in the driver's side front fender. Deal with that later. Otherwise it's a straight rig. There's still some Roy along the top of the tailgate at the window opening. We just had the entire brake system flushed of the black fluid that once, I suspect, resembled brake fluid. Also had a chemical flush done on the cooling system to remove a shocking amount of sludge. Getting a new water pump and radiator too. Need to do something about the muffler, which makes it sound like a dying Chevy Sprint. So there you have it.

I think I've had my moments of "why does she like that truck???", but she does. Somehow she sees past the jank and just sees her dream Runner, I suppose like she sees past my jank and loves me, so I told her one day "I don't know why you love that truck so much, but you do, and I love you, so let's make it what you want it to be. Let's make it right."

So that's me and her Runner, and I'm going to need help.