First Gen 4-Runner. European family adventure wagon.

We've discussed a lot of things as a team since we entered in the Budapest to Bamako... but nothing more important than this.  After lots (not really) of discussion, a decision has been made:

Postponed, postponed, postponed...

Originally scheduled for early January, our trip got bumped to March 17th, and is now bumped out to 20-October.  No big deal, and if you've followed along with the build then you know it's just my luck making things difficult for everyone else.  Sorry guys

I did get the fender arches on and I did pass inspection, but the things did take a little trimming to look "not completely awful" (it also required drilling more holes in my fenders...):

The driver's side was definitely the better side on this one.  I guess I got a little complacent on the passenger side because I started in the back and when I got to the front I found that I had "JUST" missed the angle on the passenger fender and it had a bit of a "tipped up" look to it.

Bleh.

Anyhoo, they did their job and I passed the inspection so off they came and in the attic they went.


Next up was a bit of a surprise.  I kept noticing what I thought was a leak puddle anywhere I parked.  It'd be about the size of a dime but I could never actually see anything drip...  I always assumed it was just paranoia, and moved on.  Well at the inspection station I finally caught a glimpse of it (the inspector didnt, which is good).  It turned out to be a slight fuel leak near the engine, on the pressure line, just before the fuel filter.

When I went underneath to take a beter look, I found this!








No big deal as I had a spare length of line buried in the garage, but dang!  How did I miss THAT while I was working in there???


So line fixed and we all move on, right?

RIGHT???


naaaah.

Remember that waterfall I SWEAR I spotted coming out of the top of my gas tank when I first started the engine?  Yeah, it turns out I wasnt crazy.  Patching the leak at the engine brought that leak RIGHT back.

See it spraying away in there?

Now to be fair, I HAVE been looking for leaks, and I HAVE noticed that my fuel consumption was absolutely ABYSMAL...  I just had no idea WHY.

anyhoo.  The line just happens to be the only one I can't 100% access without dropping the tank.  so down that went (armor first):

I swear this thing is going to be 100lbs lighter, just from all the mud I've scraped out of it..


The other end of the line was smashed between the frame and the body.  At first I was all "WTF" but then remembered the truck used to have a 2" body lift that probably made that pretty accessable at one point in time...

Not for me though, and no way was I putting that lift back in (I still hate that thing)







That there is just a sneak peek at what the rest of the line looked like...

Anyhoo, I had to cut back the hard line a bit to put things in a more accessible area, so that was done:

But unfortunately it was done at 1PM on a saturday afternoon, which is the EXACT time that everything in town closes for the day.  Also unfortunately was the fact that I used the rest of my fuel line reserves on the first repair and had to wait until next weekend to finish this section...


Boo

Add in the fact that I went home from work sick the next monday and "double boo"

Eventually the covid tests came back negative and I was able to get back into action.  Wham-Bam-thank you ma'am:

Easy money.


Here's what gets me though...  That line didn't look "that old", and furthermore I could see it was EU rated to 20-bar...  How does that happen???  I'm thinking I may need to do a full inspection of my remaining fuel lines just to be sure.  I did purchase 2-extra meters of the stuff just in case it's needed on the trip.

Good times.

Redneck achievement unlocked:



Somewhere in there was a "gift" from a guy who could get such things.  He thought it was hilarious (I thought it was delicious) 

This is more for any readers from the future, but I didn't want anyone to think I forgot about the project.  I've been documenting everything going on over in the Ukrainian Refugee Assistance Thread

Cheers guys.  Enjoy.