2001 Land Cruiser Renewal Complete (1 Viewer)

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Tampa, FL
My renewal work on my 2001 Land Cruiser is complete. I’m calling it a “renewal” because it really wasn’t all that bad to start out with, so it wouldn’t be right to call it a "restoration". It’s also not really right to call it “mine” because it’s my wife’s truck. We are the original owners, and to put that into perspective we bought the truck a few months before 9/11 happened. My son was 5 years old sitting in a booster seat in this truck, he’s now a teacher. This truck has been through beach trips, family vacations, ski trips through New England snow dumps, blizzards, hurricanes, floods, and years of football and baseball practice/games. Let’s face it, it’s 20 years old with 230,000 miles. My wife is entitled to a new car. Except she doesn’t want one, she loves her Land Cruiser way too much. If we’re going to keep it as a primary vehicle, it needs to be well loved.The truck is practically part of the family. So basically, it’s a mall crawler. But a damn nice one, now that I’m done!

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And like I said, it's my wife's truck. She has a few stickers on the back. Got a problem with that?

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So to start, let’s talk about the mechanical work we’ve done in the last few years. We did the timing belt (again) with the usual accompaniments (water pump, thermostat, etc…), plugs and ignition coils, new ABS controller, new muffler, front/rear shocks, new AC coils and compressor, rotors, pads, repacked bearings, new battery, and new Yokohama Geolander H/T shoes.

We had the windows tinted and did a full replacement of the sound system. We went with a Pioneer NEX head unit with Apple Car Play,

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microphone, and a backup camera installed over the license plate.

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Then we put a 6.5” Kicker subwoofer amp in place of the factory sub, put the sub amp where the jack was (still need to figure out where to put the jack!), JBL speakers (including components with separate tweeters in front), and a Kicker amp under the front passenger seat to power it. When we did the stereo work, I also did a lot of Dynamat/Kilmat in the rear, which I’ve now finished thru the whole interior. I’ve also added Noico sound insulation on top of the sound deadener. Here's the sub and the amp:

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I replaced just about every light bulb in the truck. I pulled the steering wheel

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which I replaced with the Lexus-style wood wheel from the eBay seller out of Thailand

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and then pulled the instrument cluster

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and replaced all bulbs.

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I used a combination of LED and OEM, but every bulb is new.

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I also changed the HVAC cluster lighting to blue LED

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and the gearshift to a nice bright LED.

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I did the bulbs in the heater switches, rear window switches, and replaced the factory side mirror switch with the GMC switch that is lit, instead of the overpriced Lexus switch. I did the door courtesy bulbs and interior cabin lighting in LED. I replaced every single exterior bulb, front and rear. I had a cracked driver’s side headlight and cracked passenger side foglight, both replaced with OEM. I love the key ring in blue:

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I wired a Baja S3 light mounted in a hitchpod in the trailer hitch and spliced into the backup lights.

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I did the Lexus cabin filter mod, and also wrapped the heat shields in pipe clamps. I mounted a Scangauge in Ben’s 3-D printed replacement for the sunglass holder.

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I also added the new cup holder (I did get the fit better!),

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the middle row power center in place of the middle row cup holder,

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and Ram ball mount in front.

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I also replaced the battery terminals, and hood/tail struts.



Oh yeah, and new wiper blades!
 
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I got in there pretty deep, this was me at 1am on Friday night three weeks ago:

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That wasn't as bad as it looks. The soft trim shop did most of the tear down and then gave me the truck back to do the sound deadening/proofing work. I think I got my act together ok:

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Now for the good stuff!

First, the paint job. It wasn't bad to start, my body guy had a lot to work with that was still good. He and I carefully went over what we could do to keep the budget in line, and came up with a great plan. Mark did me right with top quality German paint. Mahogany Pearl, the most beautiful Land Cruiser color ever!

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I mean.... My man can paint!!!

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There is a bit of unfinished business. I’ve already mounted the antenna and fished through the wire in order to do the key fob mod to increase the range of the remotes. But I haven’t had time to start the mod of the actual controller yet, that’s coming up. I’m also intending to do electric door lock actuator replacements. I’ve gotten the motors from eBay, but my existing motors are still working so there’s no rush. But it’s only a matter of time.

Other than that, this project is done. Ah yes, after a good tune up, alignment, balance, and rotation. That's Monday! My wife is very psyched to finally have her truck back, but can't believe how great everything's come out. Her biggest pet peeves about the truck over the years have all been solved here, from squeaky manifold shields to hot cupholders that don't hold cups to key fobs that only work from 6 inches away to backup lights that don't light anything up behind you to the air conditioner condensation dripping on her feet when she's riding in the passenger seat, it's all fixed (or just about). Fun project for a truck we love!
 
LOVE. IT. Inspirational. Looks incredible. And that steering wheel...is perfection.
I'm not ready to go that far yet. For perfection, I need to figure out how to re-do the Toyota logo in silver. Whatever junk chrome paint they used has long worn off. I'm planning on seeing if any of the vinyl wrap masters in town could do something with it in chrome film. The white plastic look is not cutting it.

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But technically that's not the steering wheel anyway!
 
Great job. Final interior pics?
 
There is a bit of unfinished business. I’ve already mounted the antenna and fished through the wire in order to do the key fob mod to increase the range of the remotes. But I haven’t had time to start the mod of the actual controller yet, that’s coming up. I’m also intending to do electric door lock actuator replacements. I’ve gotten the motors from eBay, but my existing motors are still working so there’s no rush. But it’s only a matter of time.

Other than that, this project is done. Ah yes, after a good tune up, alignment, balance, and rotation. That's Monday! My wife is very psyched to finally have her truck back, but can't believe how great everything's come out. Her biggest pet peeves about the truck over the years have all been solved here, from squeaky manifold shields to hot cupholders that don't hold cups to key fobs that only work from 6 inches away to backup lights that don't light anything up behind you to the air conditioner condensation dripping on her feet when she's riding in the passenger seat, it's all fixed (or just about). Fun project for a truck we love!
How much the carpet run ya
 

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