Where to start on slow restoration?

Hi all,

So I have slowly been tackling the most pressing things on my new to me '95 4Runner. My goal with the truck is to keep it road worthy for as long as I can and slowly restore things piece by piece. I am working on getting my doors fixed due to some rusting, see thread here for details: https://www.4runners.com/threads/door-seam-seal-rust-fix.46977/

Other than that I have been rustproofing, fixing a coolant leak on the water outlet, and other obvious issues I ran into.

While under the truck I got a chance to inspect the front end, and honestly Im not sure where to start as its pretty daunting. The truck has 80k miles but over 30 years had very little done in the way of repairs so everything you see is almost certainly original. I took a wire brush and hammer to most pieces of metal and I can confirm that there is pretty much 0 structural issue, as most of the rust is surface stuff. An undercoating was clearly put on at some point so there is a lot of flaking but nothing overly concerning when I wirebrush it off. There is definitely some leaking grease on some of the joints... and I am sure the seals are shot in many places....

My plan was to maybe take off the tires and consider doing the brakes, but then I realized I may open up a can of worms. Based on these photos what do you think? Should I just keep driving until something breaks, or would you get in here and start restoring what I can? There is a SLIGHT clunk on the front left side when I turn, but it happens only sometimes. Other than that I really have no complaints

Would love to hear some feedback in general on what you would attack first, if anything. My goal with this truck has always been to keep it OEM and just refresh over time.

 

^Did that generation have captive rotors, where you had to press out the wheel bearing to replace the brake rotor?

 

It's a two-piece rotor/hub assembly with serviceable tapered roller bearings. Changing rotors on these is a small can o' worms as the seals should be changed/bearings cleaned and regreased.

 

So maybe thats a good place to start, doing full brakes all around? I guess that will at least let me see what else needs fixing in there. My biggest concern right now is that I know that once I start taking bolts off things are going to break considering how seized up everything must be.

 

Get a barrel of penetration oil and drench the old whore and then drink 6-8 beer before you start beating on your rotors with a sludge hammer. If it won’t come off just picture your ex wife face on the rotor and try hammering it again! Usually work for me!

 

Yeah I assume everything under there is going to take a fair amount of bashing on. I am thinking ill do the 2 front first as I am familiar with disc brakes. I have never worked on drums before so Ill research a bit before doing the rears

 

If you plan to keep this truck I propose treating the rust areas with Ospho (on line, walmart) it chemically converts rust to a grey stable compound you can paint. Also does not affect paint on sound steel.
Lots of testimonials for Ospho's amazing results.

 

Thanks. I have used Eastwood rust converter with great results as well. For now I plan to cover everything in fluid film for the winter salt and then start work once it warms around here

 

Looks like your outer tie rod ends are mostly shot from the photos.

I'd maybe just start with critical systems, i.e. brake components, steering components to get it road worthy and then go from there.

 

80K miles for a truck that old is pretty amazing. The rust looks pretty good to me. I think most of those nuts and bolts will come right out with an impact wrench. If not heat them up with a torch first.

 

I think if you replace steering linkage bushings you will get better steering. How much slop is in it right now?

 

Oh they are certainly shot...

Thanks for the advice. I agree makes sense to start there

 

Surprisingly not a ton. Its no F1 car but much better than you would think. I agree though I think steering/tierods/etc need love.

Honestly my goal is that every single thing underneath this truck becomes brand new over the next year I just need to figure out a good strategy and also figure which things I'm going to be able to tackle myself versus needing a hand from my mechanic.

Honestly I'm pretty confident in my abilities... It's the looking through the part numbers and making sure I buy everything I need that is annoying. And even more so since I really haven't done a ton of drivetrain work it's really hard for me to tell which things I can replace without having to replace other things. It's just one big old rusty mess under there so it's hard for me to figure out how to approach this without replacing every single part. I need to figure out which individual things I can isolate and do at a time without having to undo later when I fix more things

 

I've been down that road and don't recommend. A better, more pragmatic goal, is to get everything fully functional. Get it to drive like it was new. You ought not to care what it looks like as long as it works well.

 

Ya another thing to consider is scope creep going that route. You take off X part to replace, but Y part is only accessible when X part is removed so you need to replace Y while you're doing X... and on and on and on.

 

This is my exact fear. And since I really prefer OEM parts if I need to start ordering things in the middle of the work I could be waiting weeks with the truck unusable. That's why I was hoping to isolate a very specific job and order everything at once and hope to not need much else for that session.

 

So you're basically saying instead of trying to literally restore and replace every part just focus on the things that are causing it to not run/drive perfectly.

 

Unless you are making a show car why replace anything that isn’t broken?

 

I agree. I guess I just need to identify whats truly broken. Honestly I may think its driving perfectly when it isnt. The only thing pushing me to fix as much as I can is that I do prefer to use OEM and I just don't know how long something's will be available but I guess it's probably okay for a while

 

What part of the country was it from? Hard to tell but upper and lower control arms appear to be on their way out if you're gonna hold on to it. I would focus on a complete front suspension rebuild and go from there. For me, the main criteria for a vehicle is that it drives good. After that critical issue is fixed it makes tackling other things worth the effort. And that low 80K miles is a motivator too.

 

New York original owner until I bought it, and it will continue to live here

Yes the arms are pretty much shot they are rusting away. That's what I was thinking just doing a full front suspension rebuild, then possibly repeat the same in the rear.

The frame is very solid just surface rust.

Motor wise I definitely need tbelt ASAP so Ill do that in the spring when its warmer (and all related items).

 

I have a question that's sort of related to this work I want to do but also about winter prep. I wanted to get a good idea of the condition of everything in the suspension but because of all of the dirt and grease and other things it's kind of hard to tell what's leaking and what's not. Is it advisable to basically blast everything down with a degreaser or brake cleaner so everything gets down to bare metal in order to take a look at the condition? I was actually thinking about doing that now and then coating everything in some fluid film for the winter as well. Any risk with spraying brake clean on all the suspension parts? Am I better off just using soap and water? What's the best way to get everything to a state where I can actually see what the heck is going on?

My assumption is that aggressive solvents like brake cleaner are probably really bad for any rubber parts...

 

I personally would start with converting the rust with a product like Ospho, then brush on Rust-olium paint. Undercoatings are not rust converters, they assist paint on sound steel by preventing rust getting started. Once started do not seal over it without converting/neutralizing/killing the rust first. Especially since you wish to keep this runner a long time.

 

My Mustang is all gunked up underneath from what i think is the oil pan gasket leaking. I plan (when time allows) to use a pump sprayer with a long nozzle filled with a diluted mix of Simple Green and hot water and just go to town. Probably best to do it when the engine is warm too so its already 'loosening' up the gunk with heat.

 

Yes so my plan was to do exactly that. I was going to go under there with a wire brush and basically brush everything down as much as possible and then use a bunch of Eastwood rust converter that I have handy to coat everything. Then I was going to use the Eastwood rust encapsulator that I have as well and then probably finish with fluid film. The problem is the winter is already here and it's just so damn cold outside that I don't think I'm going to be able to do it for this winter so my plan is just to keep it really clean under there for now and wash it off if I drive in salt and then do this in the spring

If I can get a couple of warm days then maybe I'll try to do it sooner. The rust converter really takes a while to cure in the cold... Trust me I know from the door seam repair I did...

 

That's actually a much better idea. Brake cleaner is probably a bit harsh and at least I know the simple green is safe on rubber and other parts