Rob's 1st gen Hilux Surf (1st gen 4runner) LN61 3.0 TD 1KZ/T

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14) INSULATION

I wanted to insulate the truck for a few reasons:-

a) For deadening for the sound system (more on that in next post). ESSENTIAL if you like your music!
b) To reduce road noise
c) For heat insulation

I used three main products:-

1) Sound insulation
- Silent Coat 40 Sheet (375x250mm)
- This stuff is self adhesive, and can be cut
- I would normally buy dynamat (which I used on the 2nd gen), but that stuff is darn expensive, and with wanting to do the whole truck, I wanted to find a cheaper alternative which was still just as good
- I read a whole bunch of reviews, and spent considerable time doing research, and "Silent Coat" ended up being the next best thing to Dynamat, but much cheaper
- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2) Heat insulation on a roll
- Yuzet 1711 1.2m x 25m Double Aluminium Bubble Insulation
- This I applied AFTER the sound insulation. So the sound insulation was stuck to the inside of the body (see pics), and then I added this stuff on top. It was then secured with the silver tape (below)
- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3) Silver tape
- This was used to join the pieces of heat insulation
- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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15) SOUND SYSTEM

I'm a big music lover, and ever since my first car (H-reg Ford Fiesta 1.1 Ghia), I've been into doing custom sound systems.

The stock speakers are crap and went straight in the bin. The front ones are also TINY! Even if you buy the most expensive speakers in the world, 10cm speakers are never going to sound amazing.

Front
- 17cm (6.5”) speakers
- Mounted on 18mm MDF
- Then carpeted (I just cut to size, folded over the MDF, and used a combination of instant adhesive and a staple gun to secure it all)
- I moved the door pocket back a bit so I could fit them, which is the same as I’ve done on my gen 2, and an idea I got from someone else years ago
- I did have to remove some of the body of the door to get the speakers to fit
- The speakers are “component” speakers, which means the tweeter (high pitch) and woofer/mid speaker (bass/mid) are separate speakers and have a cross over to separate out the frequencies. The tweeters are mounted near the dash, and the crossovers hidden away
- I used decent quality speaker cabling, and threaded this through to the doors (NOTE - do not use cheap speaker cabling!)
- The front speakers are MB Quartz.


Rear and sub
- The rear speakers are 6x9’s, mounted on 18mm of MDF
- Again, carpeted them and secured the carpet in the same way as the front
- The sub is a fairly cheap 12” kenwood sub, and I re-used a 2 channel alpine amp I had left over from another car project, which I mounted on the right hand side, and is hidden once all the interior goes back in
- The sub is mounted on two layers of 18mm MDF (so 36mm thick)
- For the 4x “normal” speakers (eg everything except the sub), I’m using the built in amplifier on the head unit in the dashboard. On my gen 2, I’ve used a separate amp, but I wanted a cheaper install on this so just used the head unit’s built in amp, and to be fair it sounds pretty good


My basic advice for a decent sound system
a) Mounting speakers on something decent is essential. MDF is great, and will sound better than mounting on plastic
b) Don't use cheap cable (stay away from CCA cable)
c) Use a seperate amp if you can
d) A fancy head unit with funky flashing lights won't make it sound any better
e) Tiny speakers will sound shit unless you spend a ton of money. If you can go bigger, you can spend less money and have a better sounding system
f) Use insulation / deadening (see section above)

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16) LUCKY COIN AND ORIGINAL JAP DETAILS

Whilst taking the interior out, I found a japanese 10 yen coin (amongst some japanese bits of rubbish and stuff). Apparently the japanese put a coin in the interior hidden somewhere for luck (so I’m told). So I’ve mounted it to the dash board.

Also pictured is a sticker on the glove box which I love with all the original japanese writing on it.

Excuse the dodgy picture, there is a better one in the next post below….

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17) INTERIOR STARTING TO LOOK ALRIGHT

The interior is all going back in, and starting to look ok now. Also pictured is a before shot!

Still more to do on it, but so pleased to see it coming together!

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18) POR15

Rust is a personal enemy of mine. My first gen 2 rusted away, and I want to keep this gen 1 for as long as possible! So protecting it was really important.

After asking around, Charlie who has an awesome V8 gen 3, recommended POR15.

I bought this from the UK distributor which is Frost (link below). I called them to ask for advice and Lee from there was exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable

Pictured is a section of the rear BEFORE + AFTER.

We've also done all the wheel arches and some of the chassis. Eventually I'll do the whole chassis and underside of truck. Tony will be doing the engine bay once what's left of the old engine has been removed.

https://www.frost.co.uk/

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19) TOW HITCH AND WIRING SORTED

A new tow hitch, drop plate (in prep for it being lifted) and electrics sorted.

Got all this from ebay, including a metal plate and metal electrical socket so that it will (hopefully) stay in one piece more than a plastic one.

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20) LIGHT BAR

My 2nd gen has massive spotlights and a roof rack on it, but this does add to the height of the truck a bit, so I wanted to find a solution which would mean I'd be more likely to be able to park the truck in places with height restrictions (probably an attempt in vein, but I can try!)

I've heard a lot of good things about LED light bars.

This one has a nice balance of spot/flood beam pattern, covering a long distance irradiation and wider view.

I wired it up using a standard auto relay to my full beam so when I turn the full beam on, the LED light bar comes on too.

I mounted it to the roof by drilling some small holes.

This is the one I bought:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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21) TINTING THE WINDOWS

I tinted the windows because:-

a) It looks cool!
b) So people can’t see my shit inside
c) For better insulation from outside heat (for when I’m sleeping in it, and for when I’m driving around with my dogs)

To tint the windows I bought a cheap window tinting kit off ebay. They don't look "perfect", but for a truck which isn't supposed to be shiny, they look pretty damn good.

I removed all the windows to tint them, and also tided up the roof whilst I was at it.

The rear quarter windows are held in place using bolts/nuts from the inside, and glue. So you'll need something to lever them out with, and you'll need to glue them back in.

The side windows (from memory) are held in my the L trims, and some interior plastic. Then they're literally just glued in.

I had to sort out the window rubbers as most of these had shrunk, and had to be stretched. You can see how they were before in the section " 5) WINDOW RUBBERS" To do this I soaked them in hot water for as long as possible, then used a heat gun to stretch them out. I also think (can't quite remember) that I used some kind of spray lube or something to refresh them.

Once done all back in, I added a bunch of stickers for my own amusement

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22) TRIP TO SWITZERLAND TO PICK UP PARTS!

So Tony brought to my attention a post from a chap called Jay on the European 1st gen 4runner group, about a lady in Switzerland who has a massive stash load of 1st gen and old Toyota parts.

Whilst the 1st gen wasn't sold in most of Europe, it was sold in a few countries like Switzerland.

A lady there is a MASSIVE Toyota buff. She used to work for Toyota, and her house used to be a garage! She has a collection of beautiful old Toyotas, and her basement (which is huge) is full of old Toyota parts. You literally have to see the place to believe it; it's truly amazing and I feel so lucky to have been invited in to see it!

She breaks 1st gens, and has all her parts really organised. This lady is genuinely a true wonder, and it was amazing to meet her.

We drove down in the 2nd gen, and riding on top of the 2nd gen whilst in channel tunnel was a bit of a laugh!

Here are her contact details:-

Sabine Richner
s.richner@gmx.ch
056 441 35 43
079 242 88 61
www.tcsp.ch
- I've not included her address out of respect - but if you wanted to visit I'm sure you could email or call her. She speaks a basic level of English, and worst case scenario there's always Google translate!

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23) ROLL CAGE!

One of the things I really wanted was a factory roll cage for the rear. These seem to be standard equipment on the US 1st gen 4Runners, but optional on the ones sold in Japan.

Mine had the holes to mount it, but didn't have a roll cage. So getting this in Switzerland and bringing it home made me really happy!

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24) CHECKERPLATE TAILGATE

The original cover for my tailgate was ditched, so I made one out of checkerplate.

It was literally as simple as using the old one as a template, tracing around it, and tracing the mounting holes, and then mounting it.

I bought the checkerplate from ebay.

It also means I can sit a gas cooker or something on the tailgate and cook, or just in general not to have to worry about a carpetted tailgate (the carpet from the floor of the truck has also been removed and painted).

I have also checkerplated the rear of the back seats so that when you fold them down you have a solid floor.

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25) WHEEL ARCHES

To get the truck through an MOT, the wheels aren't allowed to extend out futher than the body. So to counter this I needed some wheel arches.

I could get some made, but that would be really expensive, and I'd probably end up smashing them at some point off roading and that'd be really annoying!

So following a tip from Tony, I got some garden lawn edging off ebay or amazon, and rivetted them on.

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26) REAR BRAKES

I bought new rear brakes from Rough Trax. Pictured are some of the part numbers on the boxes for reference

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27) CHARGING POINT

With the 1st gen not being my daily driver, I don’t want the battery to go flat.

I don’t want to have to unplug the batteries each time I stop using it, or lift up the bonnet to plug in a charger, so I fitted in a caravan style socket on the side, and in the interior of the car (hidden behind the panels) I’ve fitted a trickle charger which connects to the batteries.

I also fitted a mains socket inside so I can plug stuff in if I’m ever on a caravan site or something like that.

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28) LEISURE BATTERY AND SPLIT CHARGER

I wanted to have two batteries; one as a leisure battery which I could run stereo, fridge etc from, and one as the starter (main) battery.

I wanted them to be isolated when the car wasn’t running so that I could let the leisure battery go flat, but not flatten the starter battery (so I could still start the truck).

I then wanted them to automatically re-connect when the car is running so they both charge from the alternator.

To achieve this I used a VSA (Voltage Sensitive Relay).

I also hooked up some switches so I could have my stereo and sockets either run only when the ignition is on (normal operation), or all the time (camping mode).

I’ll add more of a write up and pics of this in due course.

I’ve also started a video write up of how I’ve done it on the 2nd gen….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69VEgehWz40