Builds 40 Guy Builds a 100 Series

[REZARF]

Last little detail with the HAM radio was mounting the Mic connector, I had purchased a CAT5 Panel Pass through thinking I would mount it between the cigarette lighter and the 12v accessory outlet. But drilling a hole there was not as cheap to return to stock down the road, and more importantly in making my decision, the coiled cable for the mic then flopped around on top of the center console. I decided to use the outlet with the separation kit and used a little 3M VHB Tape to mount it to the side of the center console. This allowed everything to mount towards the passenger side seat and the cord dangles from the side of the console with plenty of reach for when I need to use it.

All that is left is mounting and wiring the speaker for the HAM and I am up and running. Feels like it has taken forever to get this far with this radio.

 

[REZARF]

So Sunday I loaded the boys up to meet my wife and daughter at church. The 100 wouldn't start, I have been having issues with the starter contacts, as I was poking around I also noticed the front Passenger CV axle boot was torn, I knew it was slinging a bit of grease but this was total failure. I had had it at Toyota that week for an oil change and it was just weeping 2 days before so it failed recently.

All that said, I decided to do what any 40 owner would do... INSTALL MY SNORKEL!

Now I own an ARB Safari Snorkel for the FJ40, and I thought I would give the eBay Snorkel a shot. I have never had an issue with my Safari Snorkel but as a dad with three kids this clone fits into my budget much better. In fact, I used a few eBay gift cards from Christmas to pick it up over the holiday season. I searched and searched for the knock-off with "LAND CRUISER" on the side. Overall, the snorkel is of good quality, it is NOT on the same par as the Safari Snorkel, it is however, well made and came with everything needed to install it, sans instructions... none, nothing, nada, no instructions of any kind.

The kit did come with the Snorkel, the fender air duct, template for holes, snorkel hood, all hardware (nice quality).

Before Shot...

I used masking tape to cover the area and keep paint chips to a minimum, this worked out just fine.

I pulled the tire off as well so I could have better access to the inside of the fender for removing the spray skirt and the OEM air intake and hardware. I also pulled the antenna to make the fender level for fitting the snorkel.

 

[REZARF]

After I taped off the fender I pulled the inner fender spray skirt. If you want to replace everything in the same day you might have a few of the pop in plastic hardware on hand, I managed to break about half of them getting them off. No biggie, but I will replace them so I don't get a bunch of flapping or excessive mud up in the fender.

Here is a shot under the fender looking toward the cab of the 100 you can see the air intake tube and the antenna. Both come out with just a few simple bolts.

Here is where the air intake tube turns into the air cleaner box. It is a two part system the elbow is removed with two bolts on the inside, then it can be removed from the engine side.

Three bolts hold on the air cleaner box, remove those, then loosen the air intake hose clamp to the engine and the whole box can be swung up out of the way to access the air intake tubing better.

Then remove the 2 bolts holding the elbow on and separate the from the inner fender tube. It takes just a little effort to separate the two since they create a "water tight/air tight" seal.

 

[REZARF]

Newt up, time to start cutting holes!

I taped the template down and checked it's alignment a few times, then held the snorkel up to the fender to make sure everything looked good. I had no reason to think it wouldn't line up, so I marked the holes with a sharpie and center punched the holes so my bits wouldn't wander.

Before cutting the holes I pulled the template off in case for some reason I needed it again (Heaven forbid!) You can also see in this pic that I lightly traced out the antenna hole so I could make sure the snorkel would line up well with it. I just smeared the grime on my glove onto the tape.

This is likely the scariest part. I measured again, everything looked good, trusted my measurements and fired up my 4.5" hole saw. Honestly, the saw cut like butter and I was through in a matter of seconds.

Most of the way through, I use technique of letting only a little of the hole saw bite at a time then work the saw around in a circular pattern until I am through. If you plow into any material using a hand held drill and a big saw like this it'll tend to grab and jerk out of your hands causing paint damage or worse. I use fast speed on the blade, light pressure and let the saw cut through before moving towards uncut material.

No turning back now, I'm either installing a Snorkel or an aggressive right turn signal!

 

[REZARF]

Yup, big hole. I cleaned up all the holes with a file, I used my leaf blower to blow all the metal chips away from the paint and avoid scratching. The hole saw makes a huge mess.

Test fit. This is the part where you have a sigh or relief or freak out that the hole is in the wrong spot. I got to enjoy the fact that I did it correctly. The fit looked really good and using a 4.5" saw allowed me to fine tune the adjustments before drilling all the other holes that needed to be drilled to mount it.

Here is the body line I was most worried about, the fit of the snorkel is actually very accurate all the way around. I was stoked at the fit against the body once I was able to test and flush mount the snorkel.

Here is one of my two gripes about the quality. You can see that there is an "open pore" texture on the surface of the snorkel. My Safari snorkel has some of the same but nearly as noticeable nor prevalent. However, the seams on this snorkel are of much better quality than the Safari. For a $300 difference in price, I can live with it.

 

[REZARF]

Next up was punching out the other holes. I used a freshly sharped 1/8" drill bit to pilot each hole then I used a step bit and opened each hole to 1/2" to give me wiggle room I wanted to fine tune the fit of the snorkel into its final location. These bits work exceptionally well in sheet metal and make clean smooth holes fast!

Once I had the snorkel bolted up and mounted firmly where I wanted it on the fender I turned my attention to the A-Pillar mount. It is as simple as screwing it on and marking the holes with a sharpie, I ended up using masking tape and marking the location of the bracket then removing the snorkel, lining up the bracket and marking the holes before drilling.

The snorkel kit came with rivets for the bracket, but I didn't like the idea of rivets for this application so I pulled out a few 10-24 nutserts and used them instead. They work on the same principle as a rivet, as they expand behind the sheet metal to create a mechanical bond but they leave you with a threaded insert so you can bolt things down, adjust, remove the item being attached.

Holes drilled for A-Pillar bracket.

Before moving on, and permanently attaching the snorkel and bracket I cleaned up all the holes with a file, light sandpaper and then used a color matched paint to treat all the exposed edges. I used a heat gun to get the paint to flash then let it sit for a few hours while I played with the kids. Making sure the holes are covered is more important than the color or finish smoothness obviously, but I have used this for paint chips with great results and it lays pretty smooth. The color is spot on.

 

[REZARF]

Cleaning up the holes, you can see the burrs left behind and the red paint from the hole sawa.

After filing and the touch up paint you should be good to go on preventing any rust down the road.

I cleaned up every hole, I think you make about 10 all together.

 

[REZARF]

This is the nutsert tool I use if you haven't seen one before, works like popping a rivet would. It has different attachments at the end to attache different size nutserts, you can make a poor mans version with a bolt, nut and and larger nut as a bearing in a pinch too.

One thing to remember is to use a high quality pure RTV silicone caulk like this for each of the nutserts. I glob it on so that when the nutsert it compressed it oozes out and fills all the gaps. FWIW, I used it on each of the bolts generously too, this should keep water out of the A-Pillar.

This nutsert is popped into place with the silicone already covering the backside. You can see that before I compress it how "deep" the threads rest inside the insert.

Once you clamp it down, the backside mushrooms creating the mechanical bond and simultaneously squeezing out the excess silicone. You can see how the threads are drawn to the surface as you clamp down on the nutsert. I used these all over my trailer and haven't had one come loose yet. They are slick when done correctly. I wiped up the excess silicone and had a nice set of threaded holes to mount the A-Pillar bracket to.

 

[REZARF]

Goop, insert, set and snug up the nutsert, repeat. I find pop rivets harder to set than these little guys, so just know they easy to work with.

Three all set, I just wiped off the excess silicone before mounting up the stainless bolts (also coated with silicone).

Here is the finished bracket with the stainless hardware installed and the bracket ready to mount the snorkel for the final time.

Now it was time to install the snorkel for the final fitting. I used blue locktite on the studs and found that if I mounted all the bottom studs before mounting the snorkel onto the fender then the final two upper studs could be installed easily. The kit came with nice wide stainless fender washers and nylock nuts to finish off the mounting.

 

[REZARF]

I added a dab of blue Locktite to the A-Pillar bracket for good measure as they have no lock nuts or other means to keeping them in.

The snorkel mounts up VERY solidly, I can shake the whole 100 by the snorkel and there is no movement. I also liked that the hose clamp for the snorkel head was colored black to match, even my Safari snorkel didn't mind that detail.

Looks good if you ask me...

Done, now to order some parts for the CV boot and the other things that need repairing. But I had to get a fun mod done that actually had something to show for it!

 

[G-Cat]

No turning back now, I'm either installing a Snorkel or an aggressive right turn signal!

Awesome.

 

[REZARF]

Snorkel Wrap up

I didn't snap any pics of it but the rubber duct connects with the larger of the two ends attaching to the snorkel and the smaller opening attaching to the airbox. I didn't reuse the OEM duct, elbow, or pass through. I did use a quick wipe of WD-40 around both openings to make the rubber easier to slip over the snorkel and air box. Reattach your airbox, fasten both worm screw clamps on the rubber duct and fix the snorkel air ram intake onto the top of the snorkel and your good to go. All in all it was a job, and except for the big 'ol hole, it's nothing to be afraid of. It took my 2.5 hours of work, with 2 additional hours letting the paint cure.

 

[wpsfan]

Awesome job and write-up, I'm looking to do this soon as well. What part of CO are you from? I'm in the Springs, want to do another?

 

[Get outside]

Nice job Drew, as always!

 

[SS100]

Great write up for anybody looking on how to DIY!!
The truck looks great!

 

[REZARF]

Tore the front axle out yesterday, to fix a torn inner boot. Got the axle out, cleaned it up, checked it out... everything was nice and tight still, and repacked the grease and installed the new boots...


...only to tear the same joking boot upon reinstalling. Ugggh! Next week, I get to redo the boot and tackle the starter contacts.

On a happy note I traded my m12000 winch for a Warn xd9000 winch plus some cash. So I am tossing the cash at new synthetic line I have on the way. I should have time to knock that out on Tuesday as well as they are calling for nice weather here in Denver.

 

[REZARF]

I have to say I can't recommend the wood block/towel technique of tapping the CV home on the front axle as recommended in the FAQ thread

I could have spit nails having split the boot I was trying to replace upon reinstalling it. However, the second time I had the axle out, fixed and reinstalled in just over an hour.

Just after "fixing it" the first time...

Ready for another tear down...

At least I didn't have to repack with new grease! Ha!

I noticed a torn upper control arm boot, it was just split but I tore it off to get at the inside and check it out. Everything was solid, so I ordered up a new boot from Mr. Toyota.

One thing about the Toyota OEM stuff is you know it is gonna fit, be quality and they include all the little stuff like the grease for the ball fitting, and the key ring to clamp the top down tight and not let any gunk in. I personally feel that getting the OEM stuff is well worth the price, also if you make friends with your local dealer guys and ask for an enthusiast discount, most of them will hook you up.

 

[REZARF]

Next up, gotta knock out some new starter contacts.

 

[Rigger]

Great thread!

 

[REZARF]

Awesome job and write-up, I'm looking to do this soon as well. What part of CO are you from? I'm in the Springs, want to do another?

Nice job Drew, as always!

Great write up for anybody looking on how to DIY!!
The truck looks great!

Great thread!

Thanks Guys! I appreciate the feedback.