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!
And like I said, it's my wife's truck. She has a few stickers on the back. Got a problem with that?
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,
microphone, and a backup camera installed over the license plate.
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:
And like I said, it's my wife's truck. She has a few stickers on the back. Got a problem with that?
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,
microphone, and a backup camera installed over the license plate.
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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