Builds The Story of Blue (3 Viewers)

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Finally found time (and motivation) to install the solenoids and run the lines to the front and rear lockers. Used a ton of Teflon tape anfmd a little red Permatex gasket maker to seal up the connections. It is a tight fit between the cyclonic air cleaner and the AHC but everything fits!

The compressor and both lockers are activated by the switch panel. Good to have the triple locked truck again!

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I ordered new leather skins for the front seats last week (Jun 24th) from @Ridies. They usually take 4 to 5 weeks to get them shipped from overseas (I think Pakistan). I also ordered a new driver's side seat cushion from Impex Japan. I was expecting to get everything on hand by mid to late July.
Welp! Ridies were delivered to my door in 5 days flat, including 2 days of weekend! I don't know what black magic they used, but I am definitely very impressed! My driver's seat bottom is still probably a month out!

The covers themselves are ultra high quality with all panels made of full grain leather. That is actually incredible since even the original Lexus seats have leather on the seating surfaces only. I chose to get perforated seating surfaces with wrinkled inserts. I stayed with the light gray to match the original color. I really like the 'Audi Burnt Orange' but I am not planning to replace the second row at the moment and didn't want mismatched seat color.

The install
So far I have only installed the passenger seat set. Took the seat out, stripped off the old leather (cut out a ton of hog rings). installation is reverse (and much more labor intensive! :D). It turned out pretty decent if I say so myself with the exception of the rear seat panel. The leather gets glued to the rear panel and it requires more talent than I could muster to get clean results. I think it is serviceable and I am happy to live with it.

Some pics:
First pic shows the Ridies has French seams on the headrest instead of the simple top stitch on the original leather.

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Perforated leather, I wonder how much work it would be to add "cooled" seats to the hundy.
 
Perforated leather, I wonder how much work it would be to add "cooled" seats to the hundy.
Haha, I looked at that too. Most aftermarket seat cooling systems use a TED (Thermal Exchange Device) that serves both heating and cooling functions. For me it isn't worth the price. Here is WI summers are mostly mild and short. We have had perforated leather on our Sienna for 10 years and it has been enough in the summer!
 
Got the driver side seat pad from Impex Japan (along with full set of engine/transmission mounts). Stripped old leather and foam and rebuilt the seat. Must have took my good 4 hours of going hard at it! @Ridies seat skins are great quality and they fit like factory - very pleased with them. These still a small issue with the back of the front seats being a couple of inches too short and the hook being wrong shape, I will post more about it in their thread.

Immediately took the truck on a 300 mile round trip with the family. The new seat foam and leather makes a world of difference in the comfort! And the perforated leather definitely makes a huge difference in mitigating swampy ass!

This concludes the front row refresh!


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Nice job! I'm jealous, these have been on my list forever. They look great, and the perforation was a nice touch.

Having installed them now, would you do it again or would you have a shop do it?
 
Nice job! I'm jealous, these have been on my list forever. They look great, and the perforation was a nice touch.

Having installed them now, would you do it again or would you have a shop do it?
I have hard time trusting anyone with my truck, so I just embraced the suck! But honestly there is nothing too technical about this job just a ton of hard, tedious work. If I could find someone to do both seats for a couple of hundred bucks, I'd probably have them do it. The two local shops I talked to quoted almost $500 for the job!! I think they just didn't want the job.
 
That is a big ole "W" on the perforation. Nicely executed.
 
Also, added a couple of charging ports. The one on the passenger side is kinda neat since it had one port that connects to the USB input for my head unit and the second port charges!

The quad lock wireless charger is neat and very stable!

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We live in a world largely designed for 4 person family, and there are no good bike racks available to carry 5 bikes. I bought an ISI 4 bike rack (iSi Advanced 4x4 Bicycle Carriers | Extreme Duty | Offroad | Cars | 4x4 | Caravans and Camper Trailers - https://www.isi-carriers.com/) last year, based on @divemedic 's recommendation and couldn't be happier with the design, strength and customer support. We just resigned to carry the 5th bike inside.

Since my youngest one's bike is finally too big to fit inside, we carried it on the top on a Yakima rack. It fitted great on the Gamiviti @nakman rack and the bike was super stable in about 300 miles round trip, mostly on highway.
Putting it on or taking it down is still pretty awkward :(

I did put the truck on Low to make it easier to get to the roof.
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Lake Michigan at Sheboygan, WI!
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We live in a world largely designed for 1 4 person family, and there are no good bike racks available to carry 5 bikes. I bought an ISI 4 bike rack (iSi Advanced 4x4 Bicycle Carriers | Extreme Duty | Offroad | Cars | 4x4 | Caravans and Camper Trailers - https://www.isi-carriers.com/) last year, based on @divemedic 's recommendation and couldn't be happier with the design, strength and customer support. We just resigned to carry the 5th bike inside.

Since my youngest one's bike is finally too big to fit inside, we carried it on the top on a Yakima rack. It fitted great on the Gamiviti @nakman rack and the bike was super stable in about 300 miles round trip, mostly on highway.
Putting it on or taking it down is still pretty awkward :(

I did put the truck on Low to make it easier to get to the roof.
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Lake Michigan at Sheboygan, WI!
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Nice to see Blue playing well with the family.

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My dad told me that my parents only had 2 kids because roller coaster cars at the time only held 4 people.

Also they only had 2 televisions in the house so there wasn't any need for more than 2 remote controls.
 
My dad told me that my parents only had 2 kids because roller coaster cars at the time only held 4 people.

Also they only had 2 televisions in the house so there wasn't any need for more than 2 remote controls.
Are we related? My Dad used to tell me I didn't have any siblings because my mom made him get rid of his '68 Charger and he was stuck with a Civic hatch. Low and behold I have six siblings, one tv, and I was the remote. I am no expert or anything but I think that civic was making some cross-country trips back to Detroit.
 
My dad had 6 kids because my mom refused to have anymore :lol:
 
We live in a world largely designed for 1 4 person family, and there are no good bike racks available to carry 5 bikes. I bought an ISI 4 bike rack (iSi Advanced 4x4 Bicycle Carriers | Extreme Duty | Offroad | Cars | 4x4 | Caravans and Camper Trailers - https://www.isi-carriers.com/) last year, based on @divemedic 's recommendation and couldn't be happier with the design, strength and customer support. We just resigned to carry the 5th bike inside.

Since my youngest one's bike is finally too big to fit inside, we carried it on the top on a Yakima rack. It fitted great on the Gamiviti @nakman rack and the bike was super stable in about 300 miles round trip, mostly on highway.
Putting it on or taking it down is still pretty awkward :(

I did put the truck on Low to make it easier to get to the roof.
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Lake Michigan at Sheboygan, WI!
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About time for a utility trailer!
 
They're all Overlanding mags with scantily clad tents.

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About time for a utility trailer!
That's debatable! Many times our trips with bikes include visiting cities too. Utility trailers can be a total nightmare to park in larger/congested cities. Wouldn't you think a Tundra with a bed would be more suitable for this?
 

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