chiph9

That's a brave thing to do.

Keep us up to date with your progress.

Chip H.

toy2g

For as long as I put this off, I cannot believe how easy it turned out being. Sure dropping the fender liner sucked, starting a couple of the nuts was a pain, and getting the elbow inside the fender was time consuming.. But even then it was a very slick install, and it fits.

toy2g

Turns out removing the "TEMS" fuse from the dash fuse panel takes care of the flashing "off" light. Problem solved.

I redecorated the lift bay to help make our sponsors feel happy and then proceeded with the build.


(Disclaimer) We were sent a set of these upper control arms for evaluation. I cannot in good conscious recommend these arms to the average builder. There are too many issues that must be addressed. For instance, the sleeves are too short inside the bushings, The washer for the joint are too small, and the quality of the bushings and hardware are still to be determined. Also worth note, the grease zerks works to pump grease in, however they also let the grease right back out.
I replaced the sleeves and washers, ordered new zerks and am keeping a close eye on the bushings. Time will be the deciding factor in this component. The only thing that I cannot fix is the LOUD color they use. YUK



All installed and coil overs cranked up an additional 1/4 inch to get the truck closer to level.


Sat her down, tightened the main bolt and ready for a test drive. (this is where I learned the zerks blow all the grease out.

chiph9

I thought zerks have a ball-bearing check valve inside?

Also - don't forget to re-clip the splash guards in the wheel wells. One looks like it's hitting the serpentine belt.

Chip H.

toy2g

The ***** on the zerks are still there, but all 4 still puked out the grease. Also worth mention, I greased them on the bench, so the grease was not under pressure.

Good catch on the clip, I did however catch it last night on my walk around and clipped it back in before we hit the road.

Did you notice the power coat on the arms is chipped off on the leading edge? One of them came with a poorly match spray paint spot to cover the chip...lol. The powder is thick, but does not really adhere well.

chiph9

Probably an indicator that the part wasn't cleaned well enough before being powder-coated.

Personally, I don't get the blue color. It's going to get dirty from regular use, so it'll look worse than if they had just e-coated it black.

Chip H.

toy2g

I don't like the blue because it's blue, a very loud blue.... But when I rebuild them I can always have them redone in black.

toy2g

I found these when I was over seas a couple weeks ago. Tried to buy a set, but could only find them in Japan for over $600USD. Anyone have a line on them here in the US?

toy2g

Running boards are gone. I did not want to crank the lift up any higher but the tires were grabbing at the end caps. I figured I would drop them before I ripped them off.

I am shipping the truck to Colorado for a couple months for a friend to test a few things, one being sliders.

toy2g

I knocked out a couple things so far this week.

#1. I converted everything to LED when I first got this thing.... But the turn signals hyper-flash when you go LED. So I finally took the time to wire in the resistor to correct the problem.



Next, I decided we wanted a long roof basket. We haul all 4 kids with us when we camp and the only place for an ice chest is the roof, along with camp chairs and awning.

I did not want to spend major money on a Baja Rack for a 4th gen (the mounts are a bit different) and have to modify it to fit. I decided to go with the ROLA + Extension for a 68" basket.

I built brackets for it from some angle I had here and bought a couple u-bolts. total cost...$6






from the top



Nothing had been tightened down yet, just sitting in place to test everything.


So I got it all buttoned up around 6:30pm and took it home. It rubs pulling in the garage, but just the seal. BUT, the wife took one look at it and said she HATES it. SO i guess its coming off until I can take the time to build custom mounts and remove the OEM rails.





You live and learn.

I will update when I decide what route to go.

chiph9

Don't forget to leave room for the sunroof to pop up.

Also - OEM basket mounts mean you'll probably be parking outside, if you're rubbing now with those low-profile brackets you made. Time to jack up that end of the house.

Chip H.

toy2g

I plan on building mounts from scratch so I can toss all of the OEM components. BUT, now the sunroof tilts up all the way as it should, but I have less than 1/16" before it touches the bar. When I drop it down, I will not be able to tilt....More importantly, if you cannot tilt you cannot reset the auto open close function when you change the battery. This has kept me up most of the night... I think i have a plan, but time will tell.

We have however been talking about ripping out the double garage door and doing a single large door, I guess I could raise the entrance a couple inches while I am at it. good idea..

chiph9

Thanks for the reminder - I just changed my battery and reset the steering wheel position, driver's and passenger windows, but didn't do the sunroof.

Reset the radio presets? What are those?

Chip H.

toy2g

Today is going to be so much fun, and by fun I'm speaking to the copious amounts of rage that is sure to follow from this point forward. I have built custom roof rack mounts before, on my 2003 4Runner. It was NOT a good time since every mount is specific to each corner. This one has the added bonus of mounts in the center of the roof also.

It has begun.




I made drawings, but I suspect I will make several adjustments along the way until my drawings hardly resemble what I end up with.

BRB

toy2g

Soooo.

Things change, and today was no different. While building the brackets for the roof rack, I had a moment of pure frustration when I did the math wrong and got the angle 180 off. I took a break and hopped on my phone to see if Sergio at Baja Rack could help. Turns out, there is a GX rack in the works as we speak and it will be ready to ship in about 6 weeks.

So I stopped making brackets. I ran to TSC and bought 12 M8x1.25 x 20mm bolts, 12 3/8 Flat washers and two boxes of part number 2101501 Gaskets(6 per box) and proceeded to do a roof rack delete (FOR NOW) so the rain does not get in the roof.



More to come in about 6 weeks


Since I dodged that bullet today, I decided to install my Hopkins Brake Controller Hopkins part number 47297. It lets you mount the display on the dash, the actuator on the console and the control box out of view. I have one in all of my other vehicles, so it's just one of the things I always add and seldom use.

For reference, here are some pictures of the installed product.

Actuator



Display: I'm holding the actuator so the numbers light up, when there is no trailer hooked up the display is black, when a trailer is hooked up and no brake is being pressed it just has a single dot on the screen.

Again from drivers seat


Control box mounted in drivers side kick panel


The plug is taped into the harness to the right of the steering wheel. It was necessary for me to take the knee panel off (one Philips screw and two clips) to find the plug.


So, I did not build the rack mounts I wanted, but I found out there will be two racks from Baja that will fit the GX. Wish I had checked before dumping over $250 into the Rola with extension....BUT, now I get to spend 6 times as much on a Baja Flat Rack (at least the wife will be pleased)