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JeremyR · 01-23-2019, 12:27 AM

Slow But Steady

10/21/2018:
Woke up at like 4 AM to wash my car so I could meet up with @spike021 and do a photo shoot. Stupid me forgot to charge my camera. Doh! I took a few shots with my cell phone and Josh had his camera so it wasn't all bad!

New beginnings

01/09/2019:
2019 started with a bang and a crash. Literally. My truck was stolen and the police found it smashed into a pole and a tree. Apparently there were some witnesses though so the police have been looking to find who took it. Luckily, most of my belongings that were in the truck, were still in the truck. Really not how I wanted to start the year! That truck has been in my family since new in 2006 so it has a lot of sentimental value. Insurance totaled it out. I have full coverage on the vehicle though. I learned that lesson the hard way with previous vehicles I have owned. I don't care if it seems silly or a waste of money, I am so glad I had full coverage. I did not have any money saved or budgeted for a new car right now, so insurance cutting me a check for the value will help cover the cost of a replacement vehicle.

As you can see, all the airbags deployed and the front right strut was demolished and pushed back. I wasn't planning on replacing this vehicle for another year or two. I have a few projects i'm working on for the BRZ that I had to pull funding from in order to purchase a new vehicle. The BRZ is my weekend/fun car and not my daily driver. I don't think it's a fun car to daily drive and it's certainly not a comfortable car to daily drive (After the mods I have done, I mean) so just being a one-vehicle person isn't in the cards for me. Being an adult sucks. #firstworldproblems

I am not one to dawdle or waste time. My brother let me borrow a truck to drive while I hunt for a new vehicle. But what to get? I knew my budget, 10K max. I know, it's not much. But this isn't an expense I needed right now, and I have my BRZ payments still. A more expensive vehicle will cut into my savings/car parts fund way more than I would be comfortable with.

My brother has a pretty nice 2016 Toyota Tacoma Sport. He bought it new with a manual gearbox. I knew this was way out of my price range, but replacing my "truck" (A ford escape is not really a truck, lets be clear) with another truck seems like my only option.

I should note; I don't really like domestic/american cars. So an f-150 or a silverado or something of that nature is out of the question. Toyota makes the worlds best trucks in my opinion, so I needed to start looking at their offerings and seeing what I could afford.

As much as I would like a crew cab tacoma, I need something that is enclosed so I can haul stuff and/or store stuff out of the elements. I think camper shells are ugly and tacky so a truck is out of the question. I needed another SUV. That leaves us with a few different options; 4runner, sequoia, or land cruiser. I've always loved 3rd gen 4runners. 4wd, strong v6, great looks, tons of aftermarket and a big community to boot. Only problem is they are starting to show their age and rust/bad paint is a problem with them. I didn't want to buy a money pit right off the bat, or another project car. I needed something that I could daily from the get go and just do the usual maintenance with upgrades to suit my life down the line.

What I needed from this new vehicle:
Something strong and reliable that I could daily drive, and also take on trips.
Something that could go high mileage without a hiccup, as I am not one to replace cars that frequently. I would rather fix up and keep running a car I enjoy than swap it out for the latest and greatest.
Something that was 4wd like my escape was.
Something automatic so my girlfriend could drive it too.
Something that was a V8 so I could tow my BRZ to the track.

Well this narrowed my search down quite a lot. I started looking at Land Cruisers but I felt it was more car than I needed. A buddy of mine told me that the 4th gen 4runners came V8. Not sure how I didn't know this already, but it's probably because I think they are the ugliest generation of 4runner, haha!

Either way, I am an adult and sometimes you have to make adult decisions. So I bit the bullet.

I combed craigslist and cargurus to find a 4runner in the configuration that I wanted. This proved to be a difficult task. Most of these vehicle are higher mileage by now and in places with a lot of road salt; ie rust. I had trouble getting dealerships to take pictures of the undercarriage for me. Pro tip: if you want someone to buy a car and they ask for pictures, send them pictures.

I had found one at a toyota dealership in Chicago and they would NOT do a vehicle inspection for me. They told me I would have to find a local shop to do it. This proved difficult as well so I took it as a sign and looked elsewhere. I ran into this same issue at a number of dealerships so it raised some flags for me. Eventually I tried looking for a west coast vehicle.

There was one up in Seattle that wasn't the color I wanted (It was grey, not black) but ticked all the right boxes AND the sales person was willing to send me a video of the undercarriage. It looked good from the video as far as I could tell, and I sent it to a couple friends to check over to make sure. The car fax came out alright, it has a clean title but there was some damage reported. The exterior looks mint and so did the undercarriage from what I could tell so I used that to talk down the price down 2.5k from what they were asking. Well the dealer accepted my offer so now I am the proud owner of a 2006 Toyota 4Runner Sport V8 4x4!

This is the only picture I have of it on my phone right now. It's from the dealers site and there are more but i'll post them up later!
I wanted black but hey, the grey is not too bad! I could only find 3 black 4runners in this configuration on cargurus and they all probably had rust issues. Grey or red were my next two color choices. Sure I could of held out longer in hopes that I find a black one, but I am on borrowed time with my brothers truck so I needed to just make a decision. Sometimes you just need to not overthink it and take a chance!

Back to the program

01/23/2019:
The BRZ is "almost" track ready. One could argue it is track ready from the factory, but my abilities as a driver far exceed the cars in stock form. I'm not trying to come off as cocky or anything like that, i'm a really humble guy actually. I've read enough threads on here to see that other people had quickly reached the limit the car in stock form is capable of. If I am paying money to go round a track, I don't want to have to hold back or worry my car won't make it back home. I can easily drive below my and the cars limits on mountain roads near home, so why drive hours away and spend money to do it elsewhere?

Things left to do before the car is track ready:

Oil Cooler
Oil Pressure Gauge

Optional: 86 Nanny

Doesn't seem like much right? Well buying this "new" truck bit into my fund (and my tax return) a bit so it has delayed these a bit.

HOWEVER! I must get to the track this year. I've owned the car officially for two years now and only tracked it in 2017. 2018 was spent upgrading the brakes and a few other things but I never got around to getting on the track. I had already reached the limitations of the stock oil system so an upgrade is needed before I can drive the car any harder.

I've decided to go with the Jackson Racing Dual Radiator/Oil Cooler setup. It's a very clean, easy install, and made to be a straight drop in bolt on affair. I am all for innovative products that work well. What I like about this setup is that it helps brings the oil temps up faster (ie less year and tear on cold starts) and it keeps the oil/water temps in symbiosis with each other. Also; shorter oil cooler lines = less drop in oil pressure. This radiator is track proven, even on boosted cars so I feel it is the perfect choice for my needs.

But, if i'm being responsible, it's not budget right now. I am focusing on the other couple items on the list; oil pressure gauge, 86 Nanny.

Adding gauges to the brz is something i've thought about a lot. I bought one of those crappy joying headunits from china just so I could run Torque Pro and monitor stuff straight from the ODB. Sadly, you cannot monitor oil pressure from the ODB so I am resorting to other means.

I really enoy this Gauge Pod Setup by ortizcustompods. It's very clean and OEM looking, which is what I am going for with the interior.
They offer it in a single pod version as well so I went ahead and put the order in for that! It's about a 5-6 week lead time since they are made to order so I have a little bit of time before it arrives.

I hit up the trusty autoharnesshouse to build me a jumper harness so I can easily run power to my gauge without having to cut or splice or tap my stock wiring. Something I am adamant about is not cutting into or splicing any of the stock wiring harness, so hooking up electronics takes a bit more effort but very worth while in the end to have something built right without fear of failure (or fire).

(Not the one I ordered but very very similar, will take and post a picture once I receive it)

I used Defi Racer Gauges in my 240sx and loved them, so it seemed fitting to carry that tradition over to this new car. I'll be purchasing a Defi Red Racer Oil Pressure Gauge

Simple and it will match the red interior lights well!

For the the 86 Nanny, this is more of a want than a need. I have been getting by with just "holding down the button for 3 seconds" but I know that doesn't fully disable the TC, nor does it affect the ABS.

I need something that could be turn off with the flick of a switch. Sadly getting an 86 Nanny seems tough these days. As luck would have it though, I came across someone on the forums who was thinking about selling theirs so I told them I would buy it when they were ready. Well I got the message I had been waiting for last week and he was ready to sell!

Originally I was planning to run a couple toggle or rocker switches to control it. I bought the the really nice Toggle Switch Insert in blank form, as I was still hashing out the plans for the Nanny. I am all about clean, functional, and oem looking interiors so this fit the bill.

However! Plans change. The owner of the 86 Nanny I was buying informed me his was a custom model that uses a single monetary push button switch to control everything instead of toggles or rockers. This is actually a huge benefit in my book! Since I own a push-to-start brz, I have a blank spot where my ignition would be! I plan to attach this button to that spot. I feel like this is the perfect place for something of this nature. It's out of the way and will not accidentally be pushed by anyone. It is programmed for: 1 press = pedal dance + TPMS disable, 2 press = PD + TPMS + ABS off, 1 hold = fans on high until held again.
Simple and easy!

01-23-2019, 12:27 AM	#30
JeremyR Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Drives: 2015 BRZ Limited Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 487 Thanks: 613 Thanked 269 Times in 181 Posts Mentioned: 13 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	Slow But Steady 10/21/2018: Woke up at like 4 AM to wash my car so I could meet up with @spike021 and do a photo shoot. Stupid me forgot to charge my camera. Doh! I took a few shots with my cell phone and Josh had his camera so it wasn't all bad! New beginnings 01/09/2019: 2019 started with a bang and a crash. Literally. My truck was stolen and the police found it smashed into a pole and a tree. Apparently there were some witnesses though so the police have been looking to find who took it. Luckily, most of my belongings that were in the truck, were still in the truck. Really not how I wanted to start the year! That truck has been in my family since new in 2006 so it has a lot of sentimental value. Insurance totaled it out. I have full coverage on the vehicle though. I learned that lesson the hard way with previous vehicles I have owned. I don't care if it seems silly or a waste of money, I am so glad I had full coverage. I did not have any money saved or budgeted for a new car right now, so insurance cutting me a check for the value will help cover the cost of a replacement vehicle. As you can see, all the airbags deployed and the front right strut was demolished and pushed back. I wasn't planning on replacing this vehicle for another year or two. I have a few projects i'm working on for the BRZ that I had to pull funding from in order to purchase a new vehicle. The BRZ is my weekend/fun car and not my daily driver. I don't think it's a fun car to daily drive and it's certainly not a comfortable car to daily drive (After the mods I have done, I mean) so just being a one-vehicle person isn't in the cards for me. Being an adult sucks. #firstworldproblems I am not one to dawdle or waste time. My brother let me borrow a truck to drive while I hunt for a new vehicle. But what to get? I knew my budget, 10K max. I know, it's not much. But this isn't an expense I needed right now, and I have my BRZ payments still. A more expensive vehicle will cut into my savings/car parts fund way more than I would be comfortable with. My brother has a pretty nice 2016 Toyota Tacoma Sport. He bought it new with a manual gearbox. I knew this was way out of my price range, but replacing my "truck" (A ford escape is not really a truck, lets be clear) with another truck seems like my only option. I should note; I don't really like domestic/american cars. So an f-150 or a silverado or something of that nature is out of the question. Toyota makes the worlds best trucks in my opinion, so I needed to start looking at their offerings and seeing what I could afford. As much as I would like a crew cab tacoma, I need something that is enclosed so I can haul stuff and/or store stuff out of the elements. I think camper shells are ugly and tacky so a truck is out of the question. I needed another SUV. That leaves us with a few different options; 4runner, sequoia, or land cruiser. I've always loved 3rd gen 4runners. 4wd, strong v6, great looks, tons of aftermarket and a big community to boot. Only problem is they are starting to show their age and rust/bad paint is a problem with them. I didn't want to buy a money pit right off the bat, or another project car. I needed something that I could daily from the get go and just do the usual maintenance with upgrades to suit my life down the line. What I needed from this new vehicle: Something strong and reliable that I could daily drive, and also take on trips. Something that could go high mileage without a hiccup, as I am not one to replace cars that frequently. I would rather fix up and keep running a car I enjoy than swap it out for the latest and greatest. Something that was 4wd like my escape was. Something automatic so my girlfriend could drive it too. Something that was a V8 so I could tow my BRZ to the track. Well this narrowed my search down quite a lot. I started looking at Land Cruisers but I felt it was more car than I needed. A buddy of mine told me that the 4th gen 4runners came V8. Not sure how I didn't know this already, but it's probably because I think they are the ugliest generation of 4runner, haha! Either way, I am an adult and sometimes you have to make adult decisions. So I bit the bullet. I combed craigslist and cargurus to find a 4runner in the configuration that I wanted. This proved to be a difficult task. Most of these vehicle are higher mileage by now and in places with a lot of road salt; ie rust. I had trouble getting dealerships to take pictures of the undercarriage for me. Pro tip: if you want someone to buy a car and they ask for pictures, send them pictures. I had found one at a toyota dealership in Chicago and they would NOT do a vehicle inspection for me. They told me I would have to find a local shop to do it. This proved difficult as well so I took it as a sign and looked elsewhere. I ran into this same issue at a number of dealerships so it raised some flags for me. Eventually I tried looking for a west coast vehicle. There was one up in Seattle that wasn't the color I wanted (It was grey, not black) but ticked all the right boxes AND the sales person was willing to send me a video of the undercarriage. It looked good from the video as far as I could tell, and I sent it to a couple friends to check over to make sure. The car fax came out alright, it has a clean title but there was some damage reported. The exterior looks mint and so did the undercarriage from what I could tell so I used that to talk down the price down 2.5k from what they were asking. Well the dealer accepted my offer so now I am the proud owner of a 2006 Toyota 4Runner Sport V8 4x4! This is the only picture I have of it on my phone right now. It's from the dealers site and there are more but i'll post them up later! I wanted black but hey, the grey is not too bad! I could only find 3 black 4runners in this configuration on cargurus and they all probably had rust issues. Grey or red were my next two color choices. Sure I could of held out longer in hopes that I find a black one, but I am on borrowed time with my brothers truck so I needed to just make a decision. Sometimes you just need to not overthink it and take a chance! Back to the program 01/23/2019: The BRZ is "almost" track ready. One could argue it is track ready from the factory, but my abilities as a driver far exceed the cars in stock form. I'm not trying to come off as cocky or anything like that, i'm a really humble guy actually. I've read enough threads on here to see that other people had quickly reached the limit the car in stock form is capable of. If I am paying money to go round a track, I don't want to have to hold back or worry my car won't make it back home. I can easily drive below my and the cars limits on mountain roads near home, so why drive hours away and spend money to do it elsewhere? Things left to do before the car is track ready: Oil Cooler Oil Pressure Gauge Optional: 86 Nanny Doesn't seem like much right? Well buying this "new" truck bit into my fund (and my tax return) a bit so it has delayed these a bit. HOWEVER! I must get to the track this year. I've owned the car officially for two years now and only tracked it in 2017. 2018 was spent upgrading the brakes and a few other things but I never got around to getting on the track. I had already reached the limitations of the stock oil system so an upgrade is needed before I can drive the car any harder. I've decided to go with the Jackson Racing Dual Radiator/Oil Cooler setup. It's a very clean, easy install, and made to be a straight drop in bolt on affair. I am all for innovative products that work well. What I like about this setup is that it helps brings the oil temps up faster (ie less year and tear on cold starts) and it keeps the oil/water temps in symbiosis with each other. Also; shorter oil cooler lines = less drop in oil pressure. This radiator is track proven, even on boosted cars so I feel it is the perfect choice for my needs. But, if i'm being responsible, it's not budget right now. I am focusing on the other couple items on the list; oil pressure gauge, 86 Nanny. Adding gauges to the brz is something i've thought about a lot. I bought one of those crappy joying headunits from china just so I could run Torque Pro and monitor stuff straight from the ODB. Sadly, you cannot monitor oil pressure from the ODB so I am resorting to other means. I really enoy this Gauge Pod Setup by ortizcustompods. It's very clean and OEM looking, which is what I am going for with the interior. They offer it in a single pod version as well so I went ahead and put the order in for that! It's about a 5-6 week lead time since they are made to order so I have a little bit of time before it arrives. I hit up the trusty autoharnesshouse to build me a jumper harness so I can easily run power to my gauge without having to cut or splice or tap my stock wiring. Something I am adamant about is not cutting into or splicing any of the stock wiring harness, so hooking up electronics takes a bit more effort but very worth while in the end to have something built right without fear of failure (or fire). (Not the one I ordered but very very similar, will take and post a picture once I receive it) I used Defi Racer Gauges in my 240sx and loved them, so it seemed fitting to carry that tradition over to this new car. I'll be purchasing a Defi Red Racer Oil Pressure Gauge Simple and it will match the red interior lights well! For the the 86 Nanny, this is more of a want than a need. I have been getting by with just "holding down the button for 3 seconds" but I know that doesn't fully disable the TC, nor does it affect the ABS. I need something that could be turn off with the flick of a switch. Sadly getting an 86 Nanny seems tough these days. As luck would have it though, I came across someone on the forums who was thinking about selling theirs so I told them I would buy it when they were ready. Well I got the message I had been waiting for last week and he was ready to sell! Originally I was planning to run a couple toggle or rocker switches to control it. I bought the the really nice Toggle Switch Insert in blank form, as I was still hashing out the plans for the Nanny. I am all about clean, functional, and oem looking interiors so this fit the bill. However! Plans change. The owner of the 86 Nanny I was buying informed me his was a custom model that uses a single monetary push button switch to control everything instead of toggles or rockers. This is actually a huge benefit in my book! Since I own a push-to-start brz, I have a blank spot where my ignition would be! I plan to attach this button to that spot. I feel like this is the perfect place for something of this nature. It's out of the way and will not accidentally be pushed by anyone. It is programmed for: 1 press = pedal dance + TPMS disable, 2 press = PD + TPMS + ABS off, 1 hold = fans on high until held again. Simple and easy! __________________ *REALMS BRZ Build Thread* HKS\|Parts Shop MAX\|Battle Version\|ADVAN\|Beatrush Last edited by JeremyR; 08-01-2019 at 05:25 PM.