There must be some unwritten rule, something of a taboo, about not thinking positively about a project vehicle while in its presence. It’s almost like the car, or truck, knows when your brain inwardly speaks well of it and, as if it has a special sense, proceeds on its own accord to kick you in the shin just as you feel good about the progress you’ve made on your pride-and-joy. And so it was that just as I was thinking positive, upbeat, proud thoughts about my 4Runner, a tray of coffees dislodged itself and spilled their caffeinated goodness all over the rear passenger-area carpets. Lesson learned.
Aside from a trio of Dunkin Donuts’ finest beverages finding their way out of their holder and onto the back-seat footwell, all has been well in the land of Stormtrooper 4Runner. Mostly, at least. There are certainly some bugs to iron out, many of which will hopefully be dealt with in the not-too-distant future, but as a whole the Canadian ‘Toy has been performing admirably and has already proven itself invaluable in its time under my care.
Nothing major has been done to the truck since the last update, but certainly enough so to be deemed progress. Hit the jump to read what’s been happening in the world of Stormtrooper 4Runner.


It’s been wheeling, it’s been a post-surgery support vehicle, and it’s been subject to the nonsensical day-to-day life of commuting: the Stormtrooper 4Runner has done more thus far than I ever could have asked of it, and has done it with aplomb. Already proving to be everything I wanted of it and more, the white four-by-four is easily a hundred times better suited to my needs and wants than was the my ill-fated VehiCROSS.
Six months gone already with the 4Runner in my hands. Time sure does fly. That should mean big steps have been made, right? Well, not entirely. Rather, small steps have been made to tailor the 4R more to my usages and to keep it reliable so as to have a long life ahead of it. But those small steps have added up to make it more livable and to simply bring it to a better condition than it was in when I brought it home. So what’s been done? Where to start…

Most noticeably, I pulled off the roof rack/awning/lighting package…though more so out of necessity. It put the truck at risk of smacking low ceilings in parking garages which posed a serious threat seeing as I was in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals for most of the months of March and April, both of which had parking garages of questionable height clearance. The added stress of worrying if the truck would fit wherever I needed to leave it deemed the roof rack more psychological strain than it was worth. And the awning? Wholly pointless for day-to-day life. Especially so considering it was going unused and robbing the truck of precious miles-per-gallon. So now, for the time being at least, the whole assembly resides on a storage rack, crying silently, awaiting future usage.
First on the list of things I replaced was the driver-side mirror, forgoing the dying glass with a massive fracture in it in favor a cheap replacement from Rock Auto. No more than five minutes to swap from old to new, the added visibility was welcomed with open arms. I mean, with open eyes. On the same front, the windshield developed a massive, massive crack running nearly the full length of the glass vertically directly in front of the passenger seat. A call to Safelite, an hour and half worth of service call later, and the new windscreen is good as new, aside from a very minor air leak that’s only noticeable at speed.