It didn't take long.

After the two-hour drive home the night before, I realized one thing immediately: using my phone speaker as the primary source of music was not going to work. So while drinking my morning coffee, I did what any responsible new vehicle owner would do and immediately started spending money.

A quick trip to Crutchfield later and a new head unit, speakers, and an under-seat powered subwoofer were on the way. I had a similar setup in the F250 and loved it. I'm not trying to win any audio competitions—I just wanted decent sound and enough bass to make the commute a little more enjoyable.

With that financial decision out of the way, it was time to start working through the growing to-do list.

• New wiper blades

• Liftgate struts

• Shifter rattle fix

• Window tint

• Title transfer

• Insurance

• Remove factory stripes

First stop was the title office, where they somehow managed to charge nearly as much as the stereo upgrade. From there I grabbed a set of wiper blades because the drive home the night before had involved a healthy amount of rain, and discovering your wipers are worn out during a storm isn't exactly ideal.

Once the paperwork was taken care of, I added the 4Runner to my insurance and started gathering parts. Thanks to a few helpful forum posts, I ordered liftgate struts and shifter bushings, then made the obligatory trip to Lowe's for the additional hardware needed to complete the repair. Floor mats also found their way into the shopping cart because the factory carpet mats were in surprisingly good shape, and I'd like to keep them that way.

Next up was the tint shop. The front windows already had tint, but the rear windows were just factory privacy glass. Technically they looked dark from the outside, but from the driver's seat it never felt right. Luckily the local shop was able to squeeze me in and tint the rear doors and cargo area the same day.

Before calling it quits, I also did a few test runs on removing the factory stripe decals. One of my biggest concerns was whether the paint underneath would be noticeably different after all these years. Fortunately, the ghosting looked minimal, which was good news because removing the stripes was already climbing the priority list.

The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

At that point the Texas heat had officially won.