So, Old Red is a 1985 4Runner built by a forum member. He purchased the truck in 2014 and sold it in 2017. Those 3 years involved the build of a SUPER sweet (and solid) rig. When the builder was first selling the truck, my dad wanted it. The truck was sold locally to a man named Scott, who held on to it from January to August of 2017. Scott put a tank and a half of gas through it for 8 months. This whole time I had been searching locally for a decent 1st gen 4runner for my dad. I was knocking on doors, putting notes under windshield wipers, and checking out craigslist ads in person. I finally came up on an 88 SR5 (that had a ton of problems) for 3500 as the final candidate. I knew if I waited, something wayyy nicer would come up, and it did.
Someone posted the craigslist ad for Old Red in the shoutbox (thanks Bestgen!). I just happened to look at the shoutbox late at night before bed, and saw the link before it was lost forever! I woke up the next morning and passed the idea to my dad that this truck he wanted 8 months ago was for sale again. I was told to ask Scott if he could hold the truck because the deal was done. Scott was in California or else we could have gone out that weekend. We ended up leaving on 8-4-2017 and touched down in Seattle at around 12:30 AM on 8-5-2017. Hung around at a 24hr joint until Scott met us at 6:00 AM. The only thing really wrong with the truck was the leaking steering box and no parking brake, and Scott had informed me about that before I even asked him to hold the truck.
getting a tutorial from Scott outside of 13 Coins in Seattle
pee break at the Cle Elum Safeway, 90 miles after purchase ORM paid the man and off we went, East on the 90 at 80mph. We driver swapped in Ritzville, WA and sat down for a bite in Spokane...well, ORM did. He forgot his phone in Red, and asked me to get it. I walked out to the 4Runner and started looking at the jerry can. The previous-previous owner told Scott that the gas in the jerry can on the back was old and shouldn't be used. I have zero experience with jerry cans, so I started messing with the jerry can to see how it opened. I was going to find a Jiffy lube or something to take the old gas so we could fill up with fresh gas. I started messing with it to see how it opened. big mistake. I saw how the jerry can opened, but it opened with a geyser of old, oily gasoline right into my eyeballs. Not to panic, just think back to science class with the eye washer. I grabbed a water bottle and poured it in my eyeballs and I was fine in 10 minutes. this is why pictures of the back of red have clothes hanging off the back.
MUH EYEBALLS 
On the way to Don's yard, stopped for a beauty shot We were going through Idaho when I ran it out of gas near Osburn, ID. We waited on the side of the road for AAA, got about 2 gallons of gas from the guys, and got back on the road. We filled up at the next exit and stopped by a Toyota liquidator south of Missoula to pick up an engine block for my 22r rebuild project. Don had tons of cool yotas and even some of his own 3rz projects. We exchanged rig pictures and we headed back into the heart of Missoula to get a night of rest. Well, that fell apart because of fires that the PNW was dealing with. The hotshots had all the rooms in town.
With no other place to sleep, we driver swapped and started the drive to Great Falls. We had to power nap because we were dying of sleep deprivation. We pulled into a forest road and logged out for about 2 hours. When we finally got to Great Falls, MT the sun was just up and we refueled and driver swapped. I drove to Highwood and we met up with H8PVMNT at his house.
Outside of H8PVMNT's gate
the unofficial "Red T4R's of Montana" driving through Ft. Benton, MT I totally wasted his time as we were going to arrive there at 5pm on the 5th but didn't make it there until 7am on the 6th. So after arriving 14 hours late, we hung out at the house, he fed us and we headed off to Fort Benton for Sunday morning church. We went mini wheeling after church
H8PVMNT and family
me driving up a notchy bit We went to lunch, said goodbye's and we headed off to Dillon, MT which ORM and I hold near and dear (not really but sorta). We had dinner in Dillon and decided not to waste daylight and hit Idaho Falls, where we basically got the last room. I woke up shivering, loaded up the 4runner and we headed out. For the next 525 miles, we cruised. We only stopped to get fuel and I think we stopped for Elk jerky. ORM and I decided to stop in Kanab, UT for a bite. All the parking lot parking was taken so I found a very small gully to park in
mad flex (the tires rubbed hard core)
AZ border After lunch/dinner, I kept driving. We made it to the AZ border by sunset (WOOHOO!) and reached Page, AZ by dark. After refueling, I started driving for home. I knew Page had a roundabout down the road, but I didn't remember how big it was. It didn't help that the headlights in Old Red were pretty awful. I saw a nice brick inlay which I thought you were supposed to drive on. Nope, I drove straight through a 150ft wide roundabout and managed to go full tourist in my home state. I started to hit the wall outside of Phoenix and ORM took over. I woke up and we were just pulling into town. Red drove really, really nice. The set up is 3RZ, dual 2.28s, 5.29s, 37s and E lockers so it's a really sweet cruiser when you wanna cruise and a beast offroad.
I'd like to thank everyone that put time and money into this rig. I know it was a bit of a group effort, and without you this trip wouldn't be possible. H8PVMNT, thanks for having us over on short notice and I'm still sorry for being so late
