The Albino Rhino – Not Your Average Engineer

June 13, 2019December 12, 2021

Laying down sound deadening material

I laid down some sound deadening material from Noico in the truck recently. The cabs on these old 4runners are pretty noisy when the trucks are stock but when it’s built like mine is, there is a ton of road noise. While I originally had wanted to put down Dynamat, this Noico stuff worked just as well as Dynamat does. Interestingly, Noico is made in Russia. I have no idea how Russia is cost competitive with China but evidently it is.

Looking into the rear passenger area. I’m planning to build a storage system in the cargo area so I have not lined that area with sound deadening material.

Front passenger side. Hopefully this will help with some of the heat we get through the floorboards, too.

We took the truck for a spin around the area and found that road noise has been cut by about 30%. The next step is to put the sound deadening material in the door panels. Then I’ll consider doing the roof and maybe the hood. The firewall will have to wait until I have a good reason to take out the dash.

February 9, 2019December 12, 2021

Putting Fender Flares on the 4runner

Some UHMW plastic and a few parts from the hardware store make good fender flares.

Outside of Colorado, just about every other state in the union requires fender flares. There are a few companies that make wider fenders and that make bolt-on fender flares. However, we weren’t too interested in spending a bunch of money to solve the problem. Instead, we chose to buy some cheap (less than $30 worth) UHMW plastic sheeting (either 1/4″ or 1/8″… we forget which.) and a few parts from the hardware store to make our own fender flares.

No, these flares aren’t particularly pretty or perfect. But yes, they do provide full coverage and hold up well on the highway or the trail. The plastic has enough give that incidental contact with brush or branches on the trail won’t break them. However, a big impact from a rock will most likely bend some sheet metal as it breaks the plastic. We’re okay with that risk considering how easy it is to get used stock quarter panels for 4runners.

*We used a heat gun to help the plastic conform to the wheel arch. You don’t need to use too much heat to get the plastic to bend to your will.*

*Close up of the UHMW plastic bolted to the wheel well and the fender flare.*

We found our local Ace Hardware had hardware in stock that worked perfectly on our truck. We used some 8mm body panel nuts (the black paper clip looking thing), 8mm bolts, and a washer and split washer to tie everything together. We replaced the stock wheel well plastic hardware with this new hardware. If we were to do it again, we might consider going to 6mm hardware instead so there is a little more clearance around the body panel nut.

*The rear fender flares went on pretty easily. We only needed a little heat to mold them sufficiently. We used 45″ long and 6″ wide UHMW plastic sheets to make these fender flares.*

*All four fender flares are installed. They look better than garden edging and pieces of children’s swimming pools but not as good as fender flares that can be purchased on the internet.*

*A view of the fender flares from the rear. They fully cover the tires.*

The next step for us is to install some mud flaps and we’ll be fully street legal on most of the west coast. After that, we need to look into some removable bumper extensions to comply with bumper height laws in some nearby states. Oh, and we need to make some covers for our off road lights so we can drive on highways in certain states.

September 28, 2016November 17, 2017

Front Axle Rebuild on the 4runner

After having some really bad handling with the truck coming back from North Twin Cone Peak, I crawled underneath to check out the front suspension and steering. Lo and behold, I found the power steering box leaking and the steering arms loosening off of the steering knuckles.

It’s a bit difficult to see but the steering arm is separating from the knuckle! If it were to come all the way off, the truck would lose steering. That would be bad at highway speeds.

The passenger steering arm had lost a stud. It didn’t even break off. It was just missing.

You can really see the separation on the passenger steering arm from the knuckle.

Luckily I had all of the parts on hand to rebuild the front end from when I was planning to build my old 4runner. All of these tie rod ends came in very handy.

New bearings. I decided to throw them in while Iwas at it to have a completely fresh front end.

Working on taking apart the knuckles.

Definitely time for a new inner axle seal. I went with an Eco Seal from Marlin Crawler.

This part is a real pain in the butt to extract from the truck. I’m not looking forward to having to take this apart again in the future.

Getting those tie rod ends on and off is a huge pain. I finally got it done though. The truck is back together and driving although my steering box keeps going out of adjustment even after being professionally rebuilt twice. I’m thinking that I may need to replace it eventually.