Share your "whatever" mods! (1 Viewer)

[Combat Chuck]

Did some work this week on my truck that got me thinking about what mods and everyone's done to their trucks using whatever they could find for little or nothing in cost.
Not to the extent of encouraging neglectful maintainance practices, but little things that, while far from the best thing you've ever done, got the job done using what you had at arm's length in order to pull your rig together.

My choice "whatever" mod is my sound system. To-date, I have not spent a single cent on it, and it works pretty well for what it is.

The head unit is a bottom-shelf JVC deal that I got for Christmas from my uncle about five years back, it's survived two different vehicles now, and gets the job done adequately.

The rear speakers I pulled from the rear of my Oldsmoble about a day before the wire harness went up in flames, and they fit perfectly behind the seats of my truck.

The front speakers I scrounged from some old computer speakers, I just cut them out of the speaker bodies, ditched the amp junk, and soldered them into my sound system harness, and bolted the speakers into my doors.

Finally, the wire is some old sound-grade wire I held onto when I got out of my sound engineering hobby a couple years back.

so far, I'm out only whatever solder it took for me to throw this together, and I have good enough sound to make my drive a little more comfortable. I'm not into "sharing" my music with the people around me, so I'm okay with the scrounge special on these, and since I've spent nothing on it, I'm happy.

 

[NorCalBorn]

I just traded in a new-in-box mailbox that's been sitting unused for the past 9 years my wife bought that didn't have a lock on it. Since I had my receipt, and more importantly, their return policy's better than WalMart if it's still an item they carry (love Mom&Pop hardware stores) they only charge a 10% restock fee.

Turned the $18.00 into a 6 pack of spray paint. 3 cans of Rustoleum Auto Primer, and 3 cans of Rustoleum Satin Black.

Took care of frame, bumper, and slider chip and scratch touchups and still had enough left over to take care of repainting the house address numbers and I still have 1 can of each to last me through the winter.

Then I wired up my newly raffle won Rigid Industry D-2 Floods and free DeckLight Switch Jeff at ToyConnection gifted to me with the free old school Craftsman Soldering Gun Kit my Dad just gave to me.

By the end of the work I had to go and wash the rig since I felt so guilty about it being all dirty from this past weekends fun and I called it a day well spent.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

I had a chunk of Lexan laying around... Honestly you have to pay upwards of $100k to get a car with a window over the engine.... So I figure it upped the value of GB at least 10 fold! To about $400..... Hehehe

 

[NorCalBorn]

^Wrong hood ornament. Ya need one of the old Buick Gunsight Styles, along with 6 faux carbon fiber side vents!

 

[x factor]

When I first got the truck the fuel pick up tube was completely rusted shut so I wasn't going to trust the tank either. I checked with a local dealer and was told there were several sizes and I didn't know specifically which one I had and told him to shoot me a price on the cheapest one they had and his reply was $350.

At the time I was racing stock cars at the local dirt tracks and had a fuel cell from a spare parts car I bought that someone had made out of stainless steel that is 17 gallon. In order to get a working fuel guage I cut the sending unit out of '71 Cutlas gas tank left over from the race car. This worked for the fuel guage but it reads backward and reversing the wires didn't change it. It has been mounted in a couple of places, the current is as good as it gets as it sit cross ways above the driveshaft and its lowest part is 3" above the lowest part of the frame. I also welded in a filler tube that goes 80% of the way across the tank so when leaning hard to the left it doesn't have all the fuel sitting against the fill cap to leak out which did happen before the longer fill tube was installed.

Mig welding the mild steel to the stainless has not been a problem and this has been the only tank in the truck for 10 years.

 

[Combat Chuck]

^Wrong hood ornament. Ya need one of the old Buick Gunsight Styles, along with 6 faux carbon fiber side vents!

I would put this hood ornament on my truck, just for laughs!

 

[vipergrhd]

I bought a foot rest out of an fJ62 and trimmed it a bit to fit next to my clutch pedal,great on long trips to idle your clutch foot LOL.

 

[Combat Chuck]

I bought a foot rest out of an fJ62 and trimmed it a bit to fit next to my clutch pedal,great on long trips to idle your clutch foot LOL.

I love those footrests!
My sister's Matrix has one, and I think I've stomped it into the engine bay looking for a clutch...

 

[TRoss]

Full size spare is always in the way when we go on wheeling or camping trips so decided to mount it vertical. All the hardware and stock were found at Home Depot so it's a low buck mod. Made the bed more useful when driving to the camp site. I lay the spare down and strap it to the bed when wheeling, the bed side is not rigid enough for hard wheeling.

1" square stock

Fits perfect inside the bed rail lip

Weld some 1/2-13 nuts on...

Self tapping screws through existing bedliner screw holes...

Allthread and some allthread nuts... holds the tire very secure, more so than I expected. With a little bracing to the bed (like the desert racers) I'd wheel it that way too... another project for another day!!

 

[Combat Chuck]

I really like that.
I also like your wheels!

 

[x factor]

In cab winch controls using factory power antenna switch and a cargo light switch.

The only real issue with this was the fact that the antenna switch was sigle pole /double throw momentary and I needed a double pole /double throw momentary switch but with the help of a couple of free relays I got it to work. The lighted cargo light switch powers the antenna switch to activate the relays that close the ground circuits to the winch selinoids.

 

[NorCalBorn]

In cab winch controls using factory power antenna switch and a cargo light switch.

The only real issue with this was the fact that the antenna switch was sigle pole /double throw momentary and I needed a double pole /double throw momentary switch but with the help of a couple of free relays I got it to work. The lighted cargo light switch powers the antenna switch to activate the relays that close the ground circuits to the winch selinoids.

I have a 2nd Gen 4Runner rear heater fan switch and some factory relays set aside for just that.

 

[N2frodn]

85-89 PU (I suspect 4runner is the same).

Want a drivers side grab handle?

Go to junkyard, grab passenger side one from same generation truck or 4runner (take the screws too).

Look at the one on the passenger side on your truck, hunt around in the same place on the drivers side. Toyota was nice enough to put the threaded pickup points for handles on both sides of the cab. Poke holes in headliner over the threaded holes, screw handle in.

Dunno if this one is common knowledge or not, I didn't find out about it until I dropped the headliner on my 86.

 

[Combat Chuck]

85-89 PU (I suspect 4runner is the same).

Want a drivers side grab handle?

Go to junkyard, grab passenger side one from same generation truck or 4runner (take the screws too).

Look at the one on the passenger side on your truck, hunt around in the same place on the drivers side. Toyota was nice enough to put the threaded pickup points for handles on both sides of the cab. Poke holes in headliner over the threaded holes, screw handle in.

Dunno if this one is common knowledge or not, I didn't find out about it until I dropped the headliner on my 86.

I wonder if this is the same for first-Gens?
I really want a driver's side handle...

 

[msahr]

On my RN60, Many years ago I moved my ECU up from the floorboard to behind the glovebox. Re-bent the stock brackets, carefully rerouted the harness, trimmed the glovebox. Price: $FREE! Ah and bragging rights.

 

[NorCalBorn]

I wonder if this is the same for first-Gens?
I really want a driver's side handle...

As far as the 2nd-Gen Runner's, yes. Just feel along the edges of the headliner for the divots.

As for the A-pillar, I don't know, if there's plastic trim, just pop it off and see. Same for the headliner, feel for divots. Although no guarantee there's nutserts there.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

On the drivers grab handle issue, try to hold out and get an SR5 handle, they are soft, not hard plastic, and you'll thank yourself the first time you smack it with your head while wheeling...

 

[NorCalBorn]

On the drivers grab handle issue, try to hold out and get an SR5 handle, they are soft, not hard plastic, and you'll thank yourself the first time you smack it with your head while wheeling...

..or climbing into the seat too damned fast.

**Jerod, ask if we can add this to the smiley list please.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

FAQ'd

 

[Combat Chuck]

Yay! this thread made FAQ!

I think the coolest thing about Toyota trucks is the fact that so many of their little details line up across all the generations.
Rear-view mirror bolt holes are the same location from the first-gen until the current Taco, newer forward-shfting transmissions keep their shifters in similar locations as the older ones, t-case crossmembers are flippable. Let's not forget how interchangeable 40-series body parts are...
There are times when I can't tell if I got into these trucks because they're fun to drive, or because they remind me of Legos.