What mod did you add to your Toyota this weekend? (1 Viewer)

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Looks great! Do the side windows of that camper shell open and hinge up for full access similar to how the back window works?
 
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New toolbox due to old one leaking...

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Removed the shoddy brush guard that has already done enough paint damage.
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Had to get a new battery. Went with a yellow top Optima. I wanted to do more research and try something better, but when your stranded you just buy the best local option and move on.

I had to get the proper holddown for my stainlesstrays.com battery tray. Used my cordless Milwaukee 3/8 ratchet to make short work of it. :)

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Those Milwaukee cordless tools are pretty great...got a drill driver set when I did my oil pump & crank seals...absolutely couldn't have done it without it
 
^^ Agreed, I would be lost without my Milwaukee cordless impact.. Don't leave home without it either.
 
Got around to installing that VAIStech SL3b unit to play music from my phone.



Pic 1: The head unit is easy to pull. I used a set of those orange trim tools from Amazon to get the vent pieces pulled out, then 4 10mm bolts to pull out the head unit. Easy.



Pic 2: The wire has 3 plugs, 2 male/1 female. Very easy to figure out.



Pic 3: On LC's use the 12 pin plug where I'm pointing. Lexus version uses the 20 pin plug that's 2 plugs over from the right of my finger. You have to request the right wiring harness when ordering from VAIStech, they're easy to work with over the phone.



Pic 4: There's a flat spot between the driver side vent and dash gauge cluster. I used a 3 inch piece of velcro. This spot worked out well when I had to open it back up and reprogram the VAIStech unit.



Pic 5: I ran a short iPhone usb plug through the ashtray for recharging. It has no affect on the control of music, it only uses bluetooth for that.



Pic 6: I chose the wrong emulation mode when I first set it up. It worked initially, but after I restarted the LC, it was playing my iTunes music and a CD from the changer at the same time. This pic shows how easy it is to pull the driver side vent piece and reprogram if necessary. The white strip under my thumb is how much velcro I used, probably overkill, but it seems to be holding well.

This was a very easy mod. The worst part was dropping a head unit bolt in the dash and trying to find it. I didn't, so 3 head unit bolts will have to do for now. The bluetooth picked up immediately and switching from iTunes playlists and Spotify is very easy. Steering wheel controls will change the song within the playlist. I have very little music on my phone, so I'm not sure about changing playlists. The head unit will show the name of the song, but my audio info won't stay on very long before it goes back to showing mileage/mpg stuff. It's not that important to me anyway.

edit: This is the first mod I've done on my LC and the first time I've used trim tools to pull apart a dash or interior component on a vehicle. I work in hospitals/medical areas and am not overly mechanically inclined. If I can do this, you can too.
 
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That is pretty cool. I had the worst time trying to integrate ipods, iphones, etc in our '06 GX470 we had several years ago. There just wasn't much on the market at that time it seems.

In other news, when are you going to post pics of this '71 K5 that you have?
 
Nice job-thanks for the write up. I've been looking at Vaistech and a couple of other options but got bogged down with which product to choose, none of them seemed like a perfect solution. You made it look pretty painless. Are you happy with the Bluetooth audio quality?
Got around to installing that VAIStech SL3b unit to play music from my phone.

 
Nice job-thanks for the write up. I've been looking at Vaistech and a couple of other options but got bogged down with which product to choose, none of them seemed like a perfect solution. You made it look pretty painless. Are you happy with the Bluetooth audio quality?

Yes, it sounds just as good as playing cd's from the cd player. And it really was painless to put it in. The three most difficult parts were worrying about taking the vent piece out the first time (which is no big deal now), trying to figure out which emulation mode I was supposed to use, and dropping that confounded bolt. GROM units were well reviewed, but you can't keep using your cd changer. That is what helped me make a decision.
 
Yes, it sounds just as good as playing cd's from the cd player. And it really was painless to put it in. The three most difficult parts were worrying about taking the vent piece out the first time (which is no big deal now), trying to figure out which emulation mode I was supposed to use, and dropping that confounded bolt. GROM units were well reviewed, but you can't keep using your cd changer. That is what helped me make a decision.


I also installed this unit a few weeks back as the first "mod" for my 04 LX. It was a simple install and works great. The unit picks up my phone right away. Another little bonus is this unit automatically "agrees" to the start up warning screen after about five seconds.
 
How bad was the speaker repair? I got the kit for the "sub" in the mail a few days ago and I'm going to try and tackle it this weekend. Also, do you have in your possession the original wheels for this rig?
 
The speaker repair was easy. I watched a YouTube video on it within the past day or so and it looked like a straight forward process. The time consuming part of it was getting the old foam/adhesive off. Some pics posted here. A couple of razor blades and some patience will get you there. Use this if you need any tips on getting the door panel off.


The PO sold the original wheels before he put the LC up for sale.
 
I've done the speaker surround repair before. It's not hard but tedious to get all the old glue off.
 

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