10 day 00 LC build (1 Viewer)

[peacesells63]

This is my 2nd 100 series, plan is to build it in 10 days. My other 100 series is on about day 800 of the build, mostly due to other things (like this truck and 2 other 80 builds) getting in the way. trying to make up for some lost time on this one....

I bought this 2000 LC for my mom in July 2020. She fell in love with my 01 LX a few years back. After looking locally for over a year, I ran across this 2 owner dealer maintained AZ truck for a somewhat reasonable price. After buying it I replaced most of the suspension bushings, rack bushings, shocks, tires, wheels, radiator and misc PM stuff and added a killer stereo. I gave it to her in August.

Fast forward to feb 2021, with less than 100 miles on it (she doesn't drive much) she got rear ended a few hundred yards from the house.

Long story short, I fought to get it totaled and got her a good payout for the truck then bought it back from the insurance company. Shortly after that a local mud member talked about selling his super clean 2000 lx470, so I bought that for her. In one weekend I stripped the AHC and swapped in all of the new LC suspension plus wheels and tires and lots of other stuff... This truck is exceptional and only has 130k on the clock.

Before

After

That left the LC looking sad on jackstands in my driveway....

So, I ordered a pile of parts for it and am putting it back together "nice"

the truck is a 2000 LC 242k miles in champagne pearl.

Parts list -

Icon 2.5 RR shocks
UCA's
Slee diff drop
slee rear springs
DT headers
Icon rebound wheels in titanium
MT baja boss AT 295/70/17 tires
4x4labs rear bumper
Powerstop brake kit f/r
new tailgate from toyota and a paint kit
Ebay taiwan steering wheel

I have a state inspection scheduled on june 10th, so thats the reason behind the rush.

 

[peacesells63]

Day 1

Spent 4 hours pressure washing, 4 more hours pulling parts and painting, then 4 hours installing the drivers side header. Wasn't too bad, but then again there aren't any torsion bars and no diff crossmember in the way.

I will add some more pictures later...

 

[peacesells63]

Day 2

Installed the ebay taiwan steering wheel. Interestingly enough the casting numbers are exactly the same as the factory wheel. This thing is surprisingly nice and well worth the price. Going to put one on my LX as well. The color is not quite right, but it looks "fresh"

Also installed the passenger side header before I went into work. On both sides the angle of the collector did not match up well with the factory exhaust, so I cut the tube and re-welded it. About 5 mins per side and well worth it to not have stress on the headers. After the inspection I will have the rest of the exhaust replaced with 2.25" into magnaflow cats and a 2.5" mangaflow muffler.

 

[peacesells63]

Day 3

welded on the a arm brackets. They are pretty cheesy, couldn’t picture bolting them on making much difference.

got the diff drop installed

Side note, any time you cut into exhaust pipe upstream of the cats, make sure you
Clean out the shavings to avoid clogging cats. this is about 1/3 of what came out from one sawzall cut

 

[JackA]

Are the wheels you ordered on back order?

 

[D21FJ60]

Whats the story with the dash mat?

 

[peacesells63]

Are the wheels you ordered on back order?

They sure are. I’m 5 weeks in so far, icon said 6-8 weeks when I ordered. Poly performance has a great price with a 10% off coupon and no sales tax. 4wheelparts has bronze and black in stock, but the price is a bit higher. Tires are on back order too, but discount expects those this week

 

[peacesells63]

Whats the story with the dash mat?

what about it? It’s from dash designs and is loosely thrown on there at the moment. I have them on all of our vehicles, definitely the best fitting and quality I have found

 

[Greenbean]

I have always wanted one of the dash mats like you see the folks in AU run, usually have stash pockets in them and stuff.

Man both of those rigs look super clean man!

Congrats and keep up the great work!

 

[peacesells63]

Day 3 and 4 were super light on pictures due to getting things done. Tires and wheels are still on backorder, so ill be ballin around town on tundra 20's until those come in. Took a picture before the rotors went on.

and how it sits now

I spent a few hours cutting the rear crossmember and putting 4x4labs pieces together, this weekend will be busy.

 

[peacesells63]

I have always wanted one of the dash mats like you see the folks in AU run, usually have stash pockets in them and stuff.

Man both of those rigs look super clean man!

Congrats and keep up the great work!

Not sure why do few companies make decent mats here, those would be nice. Dash designs recently came out with early 80 series and a few other LC models. Their stuff is nice and only around $50-60 on rock auto.

Thanks, nice to do a build where pretty much everything bolts on for once.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

You are flying through the build! Great to see such a clean truck!

 

[peacesells63]

Made some progress today, got the rear bumper finished and ready for paint. Had to do a little bit of fitment, but overall a very nice kit.

 

[peacesells63]

You are flying through the build! Great to see such a clean truck!

Thanks! Its going pretty good. Building this truck is one of the last things I should be doing, but this truck is far too nice to got to an insurance auction. I could have put it back to stock, but that would have been nearly as much work and way less cool.

 

[peacesells63]

Spent all day Sunday painting the tailgate and rear bumper and took exactly 0 pictures of the process. I took a few today during assembly.

Tailgate came out decent. I used a paint kit from ERA paints with 2k clear. Color match is excellent and the clear is quality stuff. There are 2 spots I’m not happy with, but honestly it’s about the same quality of job as the original paint.

installed the rear shocks, mounted the reservoirs and did the rear brakes. Took it for a test drive around the neighborhood, it feels like it did stock honestly. Definitely pulls harder in the upper rpm range with the headers.

 

[peacesells63]

Been kind of busy, didnt have time for an update.

The truck passed right through the DOT inspection. I put a few miles on it and it drives great!

My wheels showed up Monday and the mickey thompson tires were still on backorder. They said 6-8 weeks again after waiting 6-8 weeks. So, I cancelled that order and got yokohama G003's. They were $300 cheaper and look awesome! Couldn't be happier with the wheel and tire combo. Going to get an alignment this week, put the sliders on and maybe build a front bumper.

 

[aging fleet]

Looks great @peacesells63

 

[peacesells63]

Progress slowed down for about a week. We had a massive forest fire close to where we live and spent 5 days preparing to evacuate. Had to load up my LX and get it ready to go when we were told to get out.

That was lifted Thursday evening, so I got a few things done on the truck.

Played with front ride height and settled at 21.5” which leaves the front with 3.25” of droop with the extended icon shocks.

In the rear, the slee springs were too short for extended travel shocks. They literally fell out when I put the truck on jack stands. So I swapped those for a pair of tourflex tapered wire 3” heavy springs. Night and day difference in ride quality and stability. I now have tapered wire dual rate springs on all of my trucks, and wouldn't have it any other way. The rear measures 23.75" empty and 23" with 400lbs in the back. Plan is to cut the top coil, which will lower the rear down to just over 23" empty and about 1/2" of rake when loaded for fun.

Took it into Findlay toyota for an alignment this morning, the tech spent over an hour dialing it in where I wanted it. End result - it drives great! This dealership did all of the service on this truck since they opened in 2008, they were happy to see it in the current form.

Left enough room in the camber where I can raise it 1/4" without making a meaningful difference. Might do that later on, probably wont.

 

[peacesells63]

Also, I did some testing when the truck was all stock to get an idea of what difference the headers made.

Driving in to work today I was able to pull the same 5% grade hill without shifting out of OD or losing speed identically to the way it was before. That was with 400lbs of gear in the truck and a 120lb bumper. I would say the headers make up for the difference in lift/tires plus some. Should get a bit better when the rest of the exhaust is opened up as well.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

You seems to know what you are doing so ignore me if this isn't helpful but I would wait a couple of weeks before cutting off a coil in the rear. These trucks always seems to settle down a bit after new suspension and it might lose 1/2" in the back on its own!