 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Race Truck Project |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
In October of 1985, I picked up my first 4Runner in Guam - a black 1986 SR5 22RE. For 12 years and 164K miles this was my "baby". My racer, family hauler, race truck puller, and customizing project. From the first day, I knew that I would be a 4Runner fan forever. Then the "corporate" types at Toyota decided to radically change the truck in 1990, and I hated them. So I became stuck in a time warp - the 1984 - 1989 "square fenders" 4Runner (topless, of course). I'm not saying I'll never own a late model 4Runner - just that this version is my favorite. |
|
|
|
|
In the fall of 1997, a drunk driver made a left turn in front of me (at highway speed) and took Black Beauty off the road forever. The Smittybuilt double tube front bumper saved my life as it crumpled the sheetmetal evenly and absorbed most of the hit - I'm a dedicated customer now. Except for a slight buckling of the passenger side floorboard, the truck is basically good from the firewall back. So she became a parts truck for the 1989 SR5 V6 I bought the following month, and donated both rear quarter panels during the rebuild of Sponge Bob you see on other pages. She will eventually also swap both axles (5.29s) with Sponge Bob, and I'm going to strip her down to the frame to see if it is worth saving. I would prefer using the rust-free frame of this truck to begin the build of the racer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
A couple of years ago, I began thinking about building an obstacle course racer, and knew I wanted to use as many parts as possible from Black Beauty to keep the Bear Racing legacy on the track. But I'm also realistic enough to strongly suspect that her frame is bent, and needed another "donor" truck to provide a straight frame. An uncle of my wife sold me his '88 SR5 V6 when the transfer case died at a whopping 465K miles, but I quickly found that wasn't the only thing dying on this truck. The engine is blowing more smoke than an executive at a shareholder meeting, and I'm pretty sure the 5 speed and clutch are toast also. No problem! The '86 has all of those in great condition and ready to swap over to this frame. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
It's hard to hide the fact that the body panels are rusted through, and you can't see how bad the interior is here from these pics, but neither are important to a racer running an obstacle course. When each truck is stripped down, I'll mate the usable parts together, find replacements for what is still needed, and have the 4-point roll cage welded in - hopefully in time to get some points this season. I'm going to run it basically stock until something breaks, then replace it with stronger components. I'm going to work with Black Beauty's 22RE as the engine for the race truck, and might rebuild the V6 in this truck to swap into Sponge Bob. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
RETURN TO INDEX |
|