ROK

Apologies in advance for the crap pics, but the weather didn't cooperate this pick-up day.

I semi-glossed all the chrome bits to unsoccermomize the whip. I debadged everything, but the L logo. The lights are the 4300K Philips kit from XenonDepot (Steve is an awesome vendor rep). Wheels are perfect fitment 18s that push the tires out to the corners while still remaining flush to body running 285 Toyo Open Country ATs. Total cost of mods is $4K to date. I have about $4K in electronics left that I'll get done in early 2012 hopefully. Then I'm done. It'll be a unicorn GX for the next owner.

Before





Toodles

Ancient

Awesome, bad ***, can't wait to see snow pictures.

cdew002

Batman? Is that you??

I want to see it outside in the light before passing judgement. I can say I appreciate the uniqueness it offers, though. Well thought out.

Ancient

Can you use smoke colored plexiglass license plate covers in your state??? That would make you invisible at night.

stiles_s

Nice! When are we going to see some closeups of the wheels? How did you do the chrome?

ROK

thx for the posts, fellas.

ancient, you're right, they do look dark as i've seen them around, but not my style. don't want any more reason for the police to pay me any unwanted attn in my dd. that's why i even had them put the front plate back on when i could've easily had them filled.

stiles, i'll get some pics at some point. they're not my ideal aesthetic, but they're so cheap and readily available i just went for it since they fit perfectly. the chrome bits were painted semi-gloss black. the side ones are a pain in the rear so required a bit of labor hours to get off. otherwise, everything was pretty standard. the grill has gloss black on the surrounds with the center and logo painted sg.

edit: daytime

purplehazek4

Looks pretty damn good! Especially the grill.

stiles_s

Actually, I love the wheels. They were silver and you had them painted black? I think I also recall you mentioning somewhere that they were correctly load-rated for the GX?

I may consider picking up a set if I can get someone local to bite on my 18" T4R Limited wheels. They've been surprisingly hard to sell...

ebradford

i see your darth and raise you an R2. an R2-GX, if you will:



these pics are from the r2-d2 costume i built up for my 6 year old last halloween. i definitely had more fun making it than he did. because, after all, it's all about me, ya know.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1&l=91e7436770

ROK

semi-gloss black from the wheel factory. fitment is perfect and built for trucks. les schwab is selling quite a few of these as ive seen them on diff trucks and also in chrome which looks horrible.

at $200 each, it was a no brainer for me as i'm so used to $1500 per wheel wheels and u know what i mean, stiles!

i'd seriously consider powdercoating your limited wheels (did this on my 4runner) and adding some wheel adapters from spidertrax. add some more aggressive tread it'll look fantastic and very factoryish. the only downside i see is that they're 7.5" v. the 8s i have so would be tough to fit 285s? this really makes the car look rugged as the wider tread makes a huge visual diff. check your 911 as a good example.

ROK

ebrad, thx for the laughs. what if i had a darth vader head poking out and we rolled out together? lol

ebradford

that would work for me. somewhere i have a version of metallica doing the darth vader theme music, which would probably sound sweet out of the ML speakers. haha.

incidentally, what's the ballpark price for powdercoating those 4R wheels? i was thinking about either having mine repainted or powdercoated since they're afflicted with the usual silver paint cancer and look like crap at the moment.

ROK

depends on who you decide to use. i've been charged $150 per wheel in the past. ymmv

stiles_s

Interesting idea re: powdercoating my Limited wheels. Hadn't thought of that. I think my biggest issue w/them is the wimpy looking Cross Terrains I have on them. Great tires, but they look like they belong on a sedan.

Any good powdercoating shops in the Seattle area? Or, should I just have somebody like Queen City strip and re-paint them?

Your wheels look very reminiscent of the TRD BBS 18s toyota sold for a while. Nice look for the GX.

ROK

Here's how they look powdercoated gloss black:



The key thing is to add the AT tires and get the wheel adapters else it just won't look like BAM I did it right. The stock wheels simply sit too far in-board typical of factory design concessions. I'd actdually love to get MTs, but the ride quality would degrade to the point where it wouldn't drive like a lexus.

Powdercoating is ultimately more durable, but I know Queen City does awesome work (they did the GX). They'll probably charge you more than $150 per wheel however knowing their labor rates. But you know you'll get good results.

I'd love to get those BBSs, but just doesn't make sense given the value of the truck. Thanks!