DirtDobber's 4th gen 4RNR build

I received this 4Runner with 140k miles from my Dad in October 2012 after he suffered a massive stroke on labor day of 2012.  He purchased this 4Runner new in 04 and put over 75k of those miles on it from unpaved excursions throughout the entire state of Montana and parts of Utah, Cali, Washington, and Oregon.  I had made trips out to my parents home in Montana and went on several of these with him.  He always told me to tell people when I went back to NC that he was out there in MT doing REAL THINGS meaning seeing nature and the world outside of social media.   He gave me the truck on the condition that  I use it to show my kids real things as well.  


My Brother in Law and I flew out to Montana last Oct and we packed up a Uhaul trailer of stuff from their home (which they have now sold) and drove the 4Runner back to NC.

I am planning to use this for mild/moderate off road trails, camping, fishing etc.  

Now on to some pics and more info.

a stretch of Montana highway on one of me and my Dads adventrues.    


I was driving in MT and we ended up running into a friend along the way


This is the truck after we got it back to NC.  Had to buy a new set of 265/70/17 tires before the trip.   

from there I started making some small modifications to it. 

first up was to make the rear bumper reflectors operational lights.  




Next up was to paint the grill, fender flares, door clading, and lower centers on the front and rear bumpers black.  





After I finished painting those areas black I decided to bake my headlights in the oven and black them out to match.  That's my other car which is also black and gold themed

Just last weekend (June 15th 2013) With the help of my friend from work we installed Bilstein 5100's on the front set to 2.5" and daystar 1.5 spacers on the rear. 

My wife helped me to install a brush guard i picked up locally for $100 as well.  I would love a demello bumper or SW but don't get to off road enough to justify the weight or cost of them.  I will be adding some skids later though for some more undercarriage protection. 

I also removed the stock running boards at this time.   

I will be ordering a set of spidertrax within the next month too.  I plan on painting the stock rims either a real dark gun metal or black.

The most recent addition has been my DirtDobber decals.  A friend of mine from work cut them out with his vinyl plotter\cutter.  I have one on each fender (the other side is mirrored so they both face forward)  and then one on the hatch. 

the lift looks great...should have waited to get tires ...BIGGER!! lol

That's a pretty sweet looking 4runner!  I really like the DirtDobber decals!

That is a awesome looking 4runner..i like that body style

Looks good.  How old are your kids?

7 & 12

Looks great. Bittersweet story on the acquisition of the 4runner. Beautiful pics.

That looks good! I need to re-blackout my FJ. The original blackout is getting a little thin.

What type of paint did you use in the process?

Great shot with the buffalo, its staring you like it whats a challenge.