Is that rear A/C OEM?
A new Cruiser appears...
- Thread starter t00manyuserz
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- #42
Yep it is! Total lifesaver in the original climate, but a little more dubious here where a rear heater might be more useful.
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- #44
Ugh, thanks for posting that (not!), now I’m wondering if I should get one of those magnetic valves before they disappear forever
- Thread starter
- #45
As the snow melted, I got back to my ever-growing list of modifications. One thing I decided to do was install a 360 degree "bird's eye view" camera system. I don't know why I decided to do it - but it was only about 40 bucks on Ali vs. something like 25 for a rear view camera only, so I figured it was an OK deal. Of course, the main problem isn't the cost - it's the hassle of installation... and the fact that it only _later_ occurred to me that with the barn doors and a swing-out spare, there is absolutely NO WAY to install the rear camera in such a way that the entire rear panorama can be seen (the tire blocks it), and on top of that, the 360 system expects centering of the front and rear cameras, and, well, that ain't happening. But whatever, so I forged on ahead. Mostly, my brillian thought was this: the service hole for accessing the mirror was _very_ close to an M12 screw, and I found some cable runs that could be made to fit, so instead of cutting a large hole for the camera in the (otherwise difficult to replace) mirror back, I thought I can just run a tap and feed the camera into it. It was a brilliant idea, and everything about it was perfect, except maybe the visuals of it.
I mean this wasn't exactly _ideal_, but in my quest of reversibility, I wasn't willing to cut holes in the mirror, so this was as far as I was willing to go. Of course, "while I was there", I decided to fix the passenger side motor that was quite anemic...
When I reassembled everything back, oddly, the right mirror not only did not get any better, but in actual fact, it got worse: now, pushing "up" made it move down, pushing "down" made it do nothing, "right" would make it go diagonally to the upper right ↗, and left did nothing. Turned out I reversed some of the wires - oops.
Of course, the main problem about wiring these cameras wasn't the hole where to put them - it was running the actual cable, and holy CRAP this was a nightmare. Mainly because of the door grommets:
These things are AWFUL. Mainly because they have this neck that sticks out that is then wrapped with vinyl tape. I thought it was just for annoyance, because seriously, when does water ever go into the fender like that?! You'd have to be basically driving through a lake, I thought. So I was going to leave them unwrapped because it was basically impossible to reach them to re-wrap them. But I later realised (when I was hunting for my sunroof leak - more on that later) that when water drains from the outside of the roof, it drains right down that fender and basically splashes ALL OVER this grommet - so if it's not properly sealed, water WILL go into the interior. Damn it. So I had to do the contortionist and wrap them securely. At least I figured that out now, and not later.
The nice thing, at least, was that this gave me an opportunity to fix some of the crappy wiring the previous owner (or more likely, his staff) did. I mentioned on several occasions that the car is basically completely untouched as far as bush repairs: however, the only "added" feature is remote door locks. To do this, they added a control module to the driver's door, and ran wires through the door and the grommet to fuse box and so on; but when they ran the wire through the grommet, they did not bother to route it like I did, because probably they figured wires don't get pinched or something (?), so they routed it on the OUTSIDE of the grommet, which obviously resulted in them being pinched. I don't know how long ago the door control was done, but I sure as hell did not think it will last forever in that position, so I took the opportunity to reroute them inside the grommet, like my camera wiring.
I mean this wasn't exactly _ideal_, but in my quest of reversibility, I wasn't willing to cut holes in the mirror, so this was as far as I was willing to go. Of course, "while I was there", I decided to fix the passenger side motor that was quite anemic...
When I reassembled everything back, oddly, the right mirror not only did not get any better, but in actual fact, it got worse: now, pushing "up" made it move down, pushing "down" made it do nothing, "right" would make it go diagonally to the upper right ↗, and left did nothing. Turned out I reversed some of the wires - oops.
Of course, the main problem about wiring these cameras wasn't the hole where to put them - it was running the actual cable, and holy CRAP this was a nightmare. Mainly because of the door grommets:
These things are AWFUL. Mainly because they have this neck that sticks out that is then wrapped with vinyl tape. I thought it was just for annoyance, because seriously, when does water ever go into the fender like that?! You'd have to be basically driving through a lake, I thought. So I was going to leave them unwrapped because it was basically impossible to reach them to re-wrap them. But I later realised (when I was hunting for my sunroof leak - more on that later) that when water drains from the outside of the roof, it drains right down that fender and basically splashes ALL OVER this grommet - so if it's not properly sealed, water WILL go into the interior. Damn it. So I had to do the contortionist and wrap them securely. At least I figured that out now, and not later.
The nice thing, at least, was that this gave me an opportunity to fix some of the crappy wiring the previous owner (or more likely, his staff) did. I mentioned on several occasions that the car is basically completely untouched as far as bush repairs: however, the only "added" feature is remote door locks. To do this, they added a control module to the driver's door, and ran wires through the door and the grommet to fuse box and so on; but when they ran the wire through the grommet, they did not bother to route it like I did, because probably they figured wires don't get pinched or something (?), so they routed it on the OUTSIDE of the grommet, which obviously resulted in them being pinched. I don't know how long ago the door control was done, but I sure as hell did not think it will last forever in that position, so I took the opportunity to reroute them inside the grommet, like my camera wiring.
- Thread starter
- #46
Meanwhile, more parts arrived! In a great example of "throwing good money after bad", I scored a great deal on a hood shock - I got it for $12, but a) unfortunately, it was only the right one, and b) it was missing the actual bolt piece that attaches to the hood. After fruitlessly trying to wrangle it out of my existing shock, and after considering that since my hood sagged when opened (which is why I was using the kendo shinai to begin with, and which is why I got the metal rod support), I reluctantly admitted to myself that I actually do, really, need the second shock... so I ordered it, plus the stupid little bolt.
Together with that, on the right, I was very excited to receive a shift boot from a member here on mud - mine had a cigarette burn in it, and while not critical, it drove me nuts because it's a hole through which many valuable objects can drop, and, well, it's a HOLE, so I was over the moon with joy when I found someone who had a BRAND NEW one for sale. Yippee yay!
See the hole at the bottom? Drove me nuts. Finally, I can get rid of it!
I couldn't figure out how the new shift boot mounts, though. It looked like there was a metal bracket that seemed to form part of mine, that wasn't with the new boot, and so it didn't SEEM to fit. But hey, nothing some ingenious pulling won't fix ...
....................
........................................
............................................................................
........... this boot is not going to fit, is it.
Not only that, but it doesn't look like the old boot was attached in a reversibly-removable kind of way.
In other words, I went from having a minor hole in a shift boot to having a hole without a shift boot. "Facepalm" does not adequately describe it.
Later it turned out that 1) the facelift boot is different from the non-facelift one, 2) the non-facelift boot is unobtanium because Toyota stopped making them, and 3) the member kinda knew that but kinda didn't mention it. Not faulting him since I should've probably checked (I keep running into these "pre" and "post" facelift things on this car), but dammit, I wish I at least knew it BEFORE I ripped my boot off of the bracket.
I guess I have a couple of options now... I could glue it back on, or, more logically, I can get Redline to manufacture me one, or even someone local that works with leather. It does not seem to be a particularly difficult job - I spoke to someone I know in the fashion industry, and their reaction was basically "it's just a few pieces of leather, the pattern should be easy", so I don't think it's the end of the world... but it's annoying as hell, to be sure, since now I can't mount the center console back. Oh well.
Together with that, on the right, I was very excited to receive a shift boot from a member here on mud - mine had a cigarette burn in it, and while not critical, it drove me nuts because it's a hole through which many valuable objects can drop, and, well, it's a HOLE, so I was over the moon with joy when I found someone who had a BRAND NEW one for sale. Yippee yay!
See the hole at the bottom? Drove me nuts. Finally, I can get rid of it!
I couldn't figure out how the new shift boot mounts, though. It looked like there was a metal bracket that seemed to form part of mine, that wasn't with the new boot, and so it didn't SEEM to fit. But hey, nothing some ingenious pulling won't fix ...
....................
........................................
............................................................................
........... this boot is not going to fit, is it.
Not only that, but it doesn't look like the old boot was attached in a reversibly-removable kind of way.
In other words, I went from having a minor hole in a shift boot to having a hole without a shift boot. "Facepalm" does not adequately describe it.
Later it turned out that 1) the facelift boot is different from the non-facelift one, 2) the non-facelift boot is unobtanium because Toyota stopped making them, and 3) the member kinda knew that but kinda didn't mention it. Not faulting him since I should've probably checked (I keep running into these "pre" and "post" facelift things on this car), but dammit, I wish I at least knew it BEFORE I ripped my boot off of the bracket.
I guess I have a couple of options now... I could glue it back on, or, more logically, I can get Redline to manufacture me one, or even someone local that works with leather. It does not seem to be a particularly difficult job - I spoke to someone I know in the fashion industry, and their reaction was basically "it's just a few pieces of leather, the pattern should be easy", so I don't think it's the end of the world... but it's annoying as hell, to be sure, since now I can't mount the center console back. Oh well.
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- #47
I wonder how many parts I'm going to end up with that I'm not going to use. First of all, in the order of the shocks, I also ordered a blower fan for the rear AC unit, because the one I have is covered in dust, and surely could probably use a nicer, cleaner one.
Except... then I actually looked at what needs to happen to remove it, and because the AC unit's casing COVERS the blower fan, the AC has to FIRST be disassembled - which I am sure as hell not going to do until the fan actually dies. And considering what I bought here is just the plastic fan - not the motor unit or anything - the value of replacing it is so limited that I think it's going on the shelf.
In another "while I'm there" moment (driven mostly by the window that fell in while I was trying to soundproof the door), it occurred to me that one way of improving window movement is the window runs. I tried spraying them with silicone and it did absolutely nothing, so then I made the mistake of looking up their prices.... and they are really inexpensive (around $30 per window). I figured the current ones lasted close to 30 years, so hell, I don't know where this car will be IN 30 years, but it seems like a decent price to spend on improving window motion. Of course... once I thought "window run" I also thought weatherstripping for the glass (the inside piece that attaches to the door card, and the outside piece that sits on the chrome piece), and then this wasn't $30 per door anymore, but who's counting, right. So I ordered the complete set (but not the weatherstripping for the actual door. I think that one is still fine. I _think_). So this showed up:
Exciting! Except my excitement was pretty short-lived.
Kids, find 10 differences between the left and the right piece! Actually scrap that, find ONE difference. Right! One's shiny, one's not. I was still somewhat fresh from my shift boot replacement experience, so I only _gently_ tried to rip my chrome one apart and fit the black one onto it, but it very quickly became apparent that this was about as far from fitting as the shift boot onto my center console. Conclusion: I seem to have ordered completely the wrong pieces. I don't know if these are for the facelift, or GX, or who knows what, but it was readily apparent that my $30 per door number has disappeared somewhere in the rearview mirror. Fortunately - very fortunately - it turns out that the chrome pieces are STILL in production, so I was able to reorder those for a less exciting sum of $40 per door (I guess shiny = more expensive), but for now, I got an ever-growing pile of MORE useless parts.
To make myself feel slightly better, I took out the cargo area carpet and decided to clean all the sand out of there. Two things came out: one, a literal metric ton of sand...
.. and two, a rapid realisation that if I'm going to all the trouble of soundproofing the doors, I feel like the cargo area is an area that shouldn't be ignored. But we'll get back to that.
Except... then I actually looked at what needs to happen to remove it, and because the AC unit's casing COVERS the blower fan, the AC has to FIRST be disassembled - which I am sure as hell not going to do until the fan actually dies. And considering what I bought here is just the plastic fan - not the motor unit or anything - the value of replacing it is so limited that I think it's going on the shelf.
In another "while I'm there" moment (driven mostly by the window that fell in while I was trying to soundproof the door), it occurred to me that one way of improving window movement is the window runs. I tried spraying them with silicone and it did absolutely nothing, so then I made the mistake of looking up their prices.... and they are really inexpensive (around $30 per window). I figured the current ones lasted close to 30 years, so hell, I don't know where this car will be IN 30 years, but it seems like a decent price to spend on improving window motion. Of course... once I thought "window run" I also thought weatherstripping for the glass (the inside piece that attaches to the door card, and the outside piece that sits on the chrome piece), and then this wasn't $30 per door anymore, but who's counting, right. So I ordered the complete set (but not the weatherstripping for the actual door. I think that one is still fine. I _think_). So this showed up:
Exciting! Except my excitement was pretty short-lived.
Kids, find 10 differences between the left and the right piece! Actually scrap that, find ONE difference. Right! One's shiny, one's not. I was still somewhat fresh from my shift boot replacement experience, so I only _gently_ tried to rip my chrome one apart and fit the black one onto it, but it very quickly became apparent that this was about as far from fitting as the shift boot onto my center console. Conclusion: I seem to have ordered completely the wrong pieces. I don't know if these are for the facelift, or GX, or who knows what, but it was readily apparent that my $30 per door number has disappeared somewhere in the rearview mirror. Fortunately - very fortunately - it turns out that the chrome pieces are STILL in production, so I was able to reorder those for a less exciting sum of $40 per door (I guess shiny = more expensive), but for now, I got an ever-growing pile of MORE useless parts.
To make myself feel slightly better, I took out the cargo area carpet and decided to clean all the sand out of there. Two things came out: one, a literal metric ton of sand...
.. and two, a rapid realisation that if I'm going to all the trouble of soundproofing the doors, I feel like the cargo area is an area that shouldn't be ignored. But we'll get back to that.
- Thread starter
- #48
Meanwhile, while I was reflecting on what I want to do with sound in this car, I went through a few options in my head. I had a few options: I could put an under-seat subwoofer (something like the Pioneer TS-WH500A or the Kenwood KSC-SW30). I actually test fitted both of those, and they fit PERFECTLY under the passenger seat. But I did not want to sacrifice seat space, and I'm not convinced they made great sound; and they were not cheap, so I didn't like that too much. Also, since I got an Audison Prima 5.9bit amplifier, I did have a subwoofer channel I could work with, and wasting it on a powered subwoofer didn't seem a particularly good choice of action - not to mention more wiring, etc.
The other option was to either put a subwoofer box in the trunk, or somehow put a sub into one of the side panels. I didn't want to do the box because I'm not trying to build a competition level vehicle here; so after doing some research on what was available, I settled on a Skar VD8, which turned out to fit absolutely perfectly into the rear side panel. Of course, I did not want to cut my OEM panel, so I went to the guy I was buying random parts from on the local for-sale site (he seems to have overheated his 80, so he was selling it quite literally piece by piece), and bought the left cargo area panel from him, which I was now feeling totally comfortable to Dremel out. The result was not bad!
The fit into the panel was absolutely perfect, as well:
Annoyingly, it turned out that the Android unit I previously bought, despite having an optical out, didn't ACTUALLY have an optical out. I tried using my USB DAC -> SPDIF to optical -> optical on my amp, but even that did not work - the Android unit I had (from Carlaoer) was complete junk, so it didn't even properly output to a USB DAC. So I went to a brand I knew well from previous experiences - Ownice - and bought a new Android unit with a proper optical out so that I didn't need spaghetti wiring of SPDIF, optical and other cables (don't worry, I have plenty of OTHER spaghetti wiring to do). It sort of fit into the opening, too, though I had to finangle the brackets - a LOT.
I now had sound! And it was actually not bad. Not crazy bass, since the subwoofer is not in a ported / sealed enclosure, but it was good enough to enjoy.
Oh yeah, and the amp wiring. That was good fun, because I have a manual car, and therefore the clutch master cylinder blocks the grommet. So I either had to run about 10m of 4ga cable, or play contortionist. Guess what I chose.
The plan for that cable is basically this: battery to (fuse) to a distribution block underneath the driver's seat. Split that into a wire going to the amp (which will ground to the seat bolt), and another 2m or so cable going to the rear left panel because .... because .... because I got so pissed off that this car has no USB plugs or cigarette lighter plugs (ok, I get that it has no USB plugs, but really? No cigarette plug in the trunk??? It has bench seats with no seatbelts in the back, which means it is designed to basically carry soldiers or bodyguards or something - are you seriously telling me they don't smoke?!?!), that I decided to wire up something in the trunk, because when I go to the grocery store with this car, I absolutely need a charger to charge my mobile phone while I unload my weekly supplies of eggs, milk and instant noodles.
The other option was to either put a subwoofer box in the trunk, or somehow put a sub into one of the side panels. I didn't want to do the box because I'm not trying to build a competition level vehicle here; so after doing some research on what was available, I settled on a Skar VD8, which turned out to fit absolutely perfectly into the rear side panel. Of course, I did not want to cut my OEM panel, so I went to the guy I was buying random parts from on the local for-sale site (he seems to have overheated his 80, so he was selling it quite literally piece by piece), and bought the left cargo area panel from him, which I was now feeling totally comfortable to Dremel out. The result was not bad!
The fit into the panel was absolutely perfect, as well:
Annoyingly, it turned out that the Android unit I previously bought, despite having an optical out, didn't ACTUALLY have an optical out. I tried using my USB DAC -> SPDIF to optical -> optical on my amp, but even that did not work - the Android unit I had (from Carlaoer) was complete junk, so it didn't even properly output to a USB DAC. So I went to a brand I knew well from previous experiences - Ownice - and bought a new Android unit with a proper optical out so that I didn't need spaghetti wiring of SPDIF, optical and other cables (don't worry, I have plenty of OTHER spaghetti wiring to do). It sort of fit into the opening, too, though I had to finangle the brackets - a LOT.
I now had sound! And it was actually not bad. Not crazy bass, since the subwoofer is not in a ported / sealed enclosure, but it was good enough to enjoy.
Oh yeah, and the amp wiring. That was good fun, because I have a manual car, and therefore the clutch master cylinder blocks the grommet. So I either had to run about 10m of 4ga cable, or play contortionist. Guess what I chose.
The plan for that cable is basically this: battery to (fuse) to a distribution block underneath the driver's seat. Split that into a wire going to the amp (which will ground to the seat bolt), and another 2m or so cable going to the rear left panel because .... because .... because I got so pissed off that this car has no USB plugs or cigarette lighter plugs (ok, I get that it has no USB plugs, but really? No cigarette plug in the trunk??? It has bench seats with no seatbelts in the back, which means it is designed to basically carry soldiers or bodyguards or something - are you seriously telling me they don't smoke?!?!), that I decided to wire up something in the trunk, because when I go to the grocery store with this car, I absolutely need a charger to charge my mobile phone while I unload my weekly supplies of eggs, milk and instant noodles.
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- #50
Finally, while working on that (and btw... I know these posts sound a little bit haphasard, but BELIEVE ME: I am curating the sequence, because my actual work is nowhere NEARLY as haphasard, it's actually far more so - I will pull a wire, then go work on a mirror, then take off a wheel to measure disc thickness, then swap an exhaust on another car, then run some soundproofing... if I wrote these posts in the actual sequence I was working on this stuff, it would be worse than attempting to read some politicians' speeches). So yeah: I decided to go and work on the window motors again. Fundamentally, I decided to disassemble all window motors, and replace all regulators with ones I bought from my newly found friend with his overheated Land Cruiser. So apart they came!
Meanwhile, not to forget the larger task at hand here: getting the car actually drivable so I can actually make use of all these functions I'm working on. My guy came by to measure the car. I asked him, "why can't we just use the specs from the official Toyota specs?" He looked at me coyly and said, that's because what they ask for is in no spec books - they just want to make your life miserable, so while a normal regulator might ask for wheelbase, length, and so on, here I have to measure the distance from the front axle to the center of the first, second and third row of seats (and since you don't have third row seats (he told me to remove the benches), then to the center of the cargo area).
He then put some masking tape on the car...
Then explained the logic behind it. "You see," he goes. "I don't actually need to do this. I could just take the car as is. But when the inspector comes to see it, and sees I did all this work to put the masking tape and identify the center points, he's going to say "Oh, this looks like this was properly done", and he isn't going to check or re-measure it. It's the appearance of work that counts".
Then he went to eyeball the "center" and just marked them off. It blew my mind, considering the appearance of work and the actual content of said work were in great divergence.
"And that's why we can't take the specs from the manufacturer," he said. "Because in this crazy country, you have to do things by how the procedure states it, and not by what makes sense."
Meanwhile, not to forget the larger task at hand here: getting the car actually drivable so I can actually make use of all these functions I'm working on. My guy came by to measure the car. I asked him, "why can't we just use the specs from the official Toyota specs?" He looked at me coyly and said, that's because what they ask for is in no spec books - they just want to make your life miserable, so while a normal regulator might ask for wheelbase, length, and so on, here I have to measure the distance from the front axle to the center of the first, second and third row of seats (and since you don't have third row seats (he told me to remove the benches), then to the center of the cargo area).
He then put some masking tape on the car...
Then explained the logic behind it. "You see," he goes. "I don't actually need to do this. I could just take the car as is. But when the inspector comes to see it, and sees I did all this work to put the masking tape and identify the center points, he's going to say "Oh, this looks like this was properly done", and he isn't going to check or re-measure it. It's the appearance of work that counts".
Then he went to eyeball the "center" and just marked them off. It blew my mind, considering the appearance of work and the actual content of said work were in great divergence.
"And that's why we can't take the specs from the manufacturer," he said. "Because in this crazy country, you have to do things by how the procedure states it, and not by what makes sense."
- Thread starter
- #51
Hehehe. It's Japan now.
- Thread starter
- #53
It's amazing unless you're trying to legalise a Japanese car.
- Thread starter
- #55
Haha yep. That's the temp / "your car will disturb the peace so let's get it off the road ASAP" plate.
- Thread starter
- #56
All right. Not to let the story die, while I was waiting for the paperwork to finish, I went into the worst possible mental mode - "well... since the car isn't going anywhere anyway... might as well do something with/to it". Various ideas floated around my head. Obviously trying to retain the originality, but at the same time, do something "interesting", because why the hell not. If it's reversible, then I can enjoy it, right?
Came across this seller on Aliexpress, which looked a little sus, but then, the prices weren't bargain basement, so I figured maybe I'd get something decent... and I did. These switches feel absolutely awesome, and are extremely solid. And the panel is aluminum. Very satisfied with this purchase... now will need to figure out where to stick it in.
I also decided that since my window fell in, and since the car wasn't going anywhere anyway.... I should do the biggest thing that I can do to the car to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Specifically, fix the damn windows, because the anaemic "I'm going to die soon" window movement was really getting to me (not that I could actually drive the car anywhere to experience it... but experience I did, briefly, and it drove me bananas considering how many places require me to open the window to get parking passes and the like). Parts order, here we come!
Basically, to save the pixel peeping, I ordered the complete set of window runs, inside and outside weather panels (and I screwed up... and ordered non-chrome ones first, so I ended up with a brand new set of black ones, which do not fit my car, so I had to reorder chrome ones, grrrrrrrrrr), and all that stuff. I'll skip the detailed rundown on how to remove the window runs and put new ones in, but basically it requires dropping the glass for the front window, and the rear can soooooooort of be done without removing the glass, as long as you spray some silicone spray and gently slide them in. It sucks, but it works, and it saves you the hassle of removing the window. The result is so, so sexy, in a very platonic definition of the word:
I literally can't bring myself to rip that blue tape off. I'm being like the original sultan owner who kept it so long on the rear tire that it ended up requiring three guys to polish it for three hours to get the damn crust off. I know I need to do it. I swear I will... soon.
Not to be left behind, there was the matter of the motors and the regulators, as well. I managed to score a set of everything from a guy who set his 80 on fire (actually, it overheated, and he scrapped it, but I like my description more). His motors were iffy, but combining them with mine worked; and I also scored an incredible deal on the driver's side motor which I got from this guy that bought a 70 motor, which ended up being 12V and he needed 24V - and as it turned out, it was identical to the 80 motor, just the connector was wrong - so undoing the pins and putting in a connector from one of the dozen s***ty motors I've accumulated totally fixed my issue, so I ended up with a brand new driver's side motor for 20 bucks, which you just can't beat.
Very interestingly, my motors actually ended up being "better" than the ones I got off this guy's 80. The outside was rusty, but inside, they were in much better condition. In the above picture, the left one is mine, and the right one is the guy's. You can see that mine is rustier on the outside, but inside, it's much cleaner; I'm going to guess that in the deserts of Oman, nobody really used the windows, and therefore the motors ended up being in much better condition. So what I decided to do was retain most of my motor pieces, just clean them, and replace the outside housing with the guy's, so that they look cleaner. By the way, to ensure I was not crazy, I actually ran the motor with my phone recording it in slo-mo, and I discovered that my motors spun at an approximately 20-40% faster rate than the scrappy ones, so that was an interesting surprise.
Came across this seller on Aliexpress, which looked a little sus, but then, the prices weren't bargain basement, so I figured maybe I'd get something decent... and I did. These switches feel absolutely awesome, and are extremely solid. And the panel is aluminum. Very satisfied with this purchase... now will need to figure out where to stick it in.
I also decided that since my window fell in, and since the car wasn't going anywhere anyway.... I should do the biggest thing that I can do to the car to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Specifically, fix the damn windows, because the anaemic "I'm going to die soon" window movement was really getting to me (not that I could actually drive the car anywhere to experience it... but experience I did, briefly, and it drove me bananas considering how many places require me to open the window to get parking passes and the like). Parts order, here we come!
Basically, to save the pixel peeping, I ordered the complete set of window runs, inside and outside weather panels (and I screwed up... and ordered non-chrome ones first, so I ended up with a brand new set of black ones, which do not fit my car, so I had to reorder chrome ones, grrrrrrrrrr), and all that stuff. I'll skip the detailed rundown on how to remove the window runs and put new ones in, but basically it requires dropping the glass for the front window, and the rear can soooooooort of be done without removing the glass, as long as you spray some silicone spray and gently slide them in. It sucks, but it works, and it saves you the hassle of removing the window. The result is so, so sexy, in a very platonic definition of the word:
I literally can't bring myself to rip that blue tape off. I'm being like the original sultan owner who kept it so long on the rear tire that it ended up requiring three guys to polish it for three hours to get the damn crust off. I know I need to do it. I swear I will... soon.
Not to be left behind, there was the matter of the motors and the regulators, as well. I managed to score a set of everything from a guy who set his 80 on fire (actually, it overheated, and he scrapped it, but I like my description more). His motors were iffy, but combining them with mine worked; and I also scored an incredible deal on the driver's side motor which I got from this guy that bought a 70 motor, which ended up being 12V and he needed 24V - and as it turned out, it was identical to the 80 motor, just the connector was wrong - so undoing the pins and putting in a connector from one of the dozen s***ty motors I've accumulated totally fixed my issue, so I ended up with a brand new driver's side motor for 20 bucks, which you just can't beat.
Very interestingly, my motors actually ended up being "better" than the ones I got off this guy's 80. The outside was rusty, but inside, they were in much better condition. In the above picture, the left one is mine, and the right one is the guy's. You can see that mine is rustier on the outside, but inside, it's much cleaner; I'm going to guess that in the deserts of Oman, nobody really used the windows, and therefore the motors ended up being in much better condition. So what I decided to do was retain most of my motor pieces, just clean them, and replace the outside housing with the guy's, so that they look cleaner. By the way, to ensure I was not crazy, I actually ran the motor with my phone recording it in slo-mo, and I discovered that my motors spun at an approximately 20-40% faster rate than the scrappy ones, so that was an interesting surprise.
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- #57
Another thing that was a surprise were the regulators. Look at the two regulators - mine and the local market one:
Can you see the radical difference? To save you browsing time - mine (bottom right, Oman market) does not have a spring in the center. Local market here (top left), does. I cannot explain it - I thought maybe mine fell off, but both my rear doors had no spring, and looking at the structure of the screw and so on, I do not believe they fell off - they were never there in the first place. Very odd, I would think using a spring to help windows up would be a much smarter way of offloading the motors a bit.
Anyway, after I reassembled everything... the windows were PERFECT. I can't describe the feeling of relief when I realised just how perfect they were - I suspect when the car rolled off the factory floor, they were probably a little faster and/or smoother, but I can't see it being by a lot - the regulators are clean and greased, the window channels are brand new, and the motors are about as springy as they're going to get. Job complete.
Another piece in the box this time were the weather guards. I didn't really feel like getting new ones because I figured I could just cover up the old ones somehow (plus with the soundproofing, the doors were fairly well sealed anyway), but they were a little less than 10 bucks each, so I couldn't really justify NOT doing them. And this looks completely and totally factory!
Wait. Sorry. Missed the crappy brown tape. NOW it does!
Meanwhile.... my guy showed up with a set of brand new temporary plates, and told me he needs to take my car to get the brakes tested. We're going through another step of the Kafka run.
Can you see the radical difference? To save you browsing time - mine (bottom right, Oman market) does not have a spring in the center. Local market here (top left), does. I cannot explain it - I thought maybe mine fell off, but both my rear doors had no spring, and looking at the structure of the screw and so on, I do not believe they fell off - they were never there in the first place. Very odd, I would think using a spring to help windows up would be a much smarter way of offloading the motors a bit.
Anyway, after I reassembled everything... the windows were PERFECT. I can't describe the feeling of relief when I realised just how perfect they were - I suspect when the car rolled off the factory floor, they were probably a little faster and/or smoother, but I can't see it being by a lot - the regulators are clean and greased, the window channels are brand new, and the motors are about as springy as they're going to get. Job complete.
Another piece in the box this time were the weather guards. I didn't really feel like getting new ones because I figured I could just cover up the old ones somehow (plus with the soundproofing, the doors were fairly well sealed anyway), but they were a little less than 10 bucks each, so I couldn't really justify NOT doing them. And this looks completely and totally factory!
Wait. Sorry. Missed the crappy brown tape. NOW it does!
Meanwhile.... my guy showed up with a set of brand new temporary plates, and told me he needs to take my car to get the brakes tested. We're going through another step of the Kafka run.
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- #58
My car came back the next day. The good news was, the brake test succeeded (they did adjust my parking brake a little bit, as it had a bit of loose). The bad news was, all electronics failed on the way back, so the guy had to drive with an open window, no speedometer, no tach, no lights, no blinkers, no nothing. A bit of a "lol" moment for me, and the guy took it in stride - he has a great sense of humour, so he just brushed it off. Turned out that the "INSTRUMENT" fuse blew, and that took out everything, for some reason. Very odd, especially since I didn't have anything connected to it, nor did I touch any of those circuits. Maybe my constant playing with the battery, who knows.
In the meantime, he brought me the book that he has been writing. Not about life, the universe and everything... but about my car. And it's not even his magnum opus... his magnum opus is that 70 from Dubai I posted earlier in this thread. This was just ... mind boggling work.
I'm going to give you a SMALL excerpt of it.
First, the book cover.
Next, the car introduction page. Note the hand-copied VIN. He explained to me that it was not acceptable to take a picture of the data plate with the VIN on it, and instead, he had to take a carbon paper and rub a pencil against the frame engraving. This wasn't fun to do, but what was even LESS fun was getting the engine serial (do you know where it is? Yeah, it's impossible to get to).
Skipping owner ID pages and so on, we get into the details of the car. Dimensions:
... and since obviously you can't trust published (or hand-written) specifications, we had to measure the car, like a cow at an auction.
I'm honestly a little blown away that it passed as a 70 in this picture, but I guess the level of effort displayed to get to this point made it sufficiently trustworthy. You remember the masking tape and so on upthread? Well, this is the culmination of the effort.
More details about the car. Crucial information, such as type of fuel tank (aluminum, steel or plastic); type and size of wheels (and whether they have JWL or SAE markings); whether it has steering locking function as an immobilizer; and various random pieces of information which are completely pointless and serve absolutely no purpose (and are even wrong, sometimes - he accidentally checked "drum" for rear brakes, and nobody seemed to care, or even look).
(... continued ...)
In the meantime, he brought me the book that he has been writing. Not about life, the universe and everything... but about my car. And it's not even his magnum opus... his magnum opus is that 70 from Dubai I posted earlier in this thread. This was just ... mind boggling work.
I'm going to give you a SMALL excerpt of it.
First, the book cover.
Next, the car introduction page. Note the hand-copied VIN. He explained to me that it was not acceptable to take a picture of the data plate with the VIN on it, and instead, he had to take a carbon paper and rub a pencil against the frame engraving. This wasn't fun to do, but what was even LESS fun was getting the engine serial (do you know where it is? Yeah, it's impossible to get to).
Skipping owner ID pages and so on, we get into the details of the car. Dimensions:
... and since obviously you can't trust published (or hand-written) specifications, we had to measure the car, like a cow at an auction.
I'm honestly a little blown away that it passed as a 70 in this picture, but I guess the level of effort displayed to get to this point made it sufficiently trustworthy. You remember the masking tape and so on upthread? Well, this is the culmination of the effort.
More details about the car. Crucial information, such as type of fuel tank (aluminum, steel or plastic); type and size of wheels (and whether they have JWL or SAE markings); whether it has steering locking function as an immobilizer; and various random pieces of information which are completely pointless and serve absolutely no purpose (and are even wrong, sometimes - he accidentally checked "drum" for rear brakes, and nobody seemed to care, or even look).
(... continued ...)
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- #59
Continued to other madly important things like the number of lights, the wattage of bulbs (incidentally, he told me my GCC spec lights wouldn't pass, so he just "lent" me a set of headlights...), type of suspension, type of glass (and the markings on it!) and on, and on, and on.
Engine volume, of course, could not be taken as is - neither the "4500" marking, nor the official specs of the engine that I had to submit, nor anything else could beat the square of the bore x stroke x number of cylinders x pi, divided by 4 formula. We have arrived at the engine size being 4.477L, which is surprisingly close to what Toyota tells us it is.
A page followed that I can't even begin to decypher (and to be honest, this was the page that made me go down the road of getting someone smarter than me to work on this to begin with - I simply have no clue, even with Google Translate, wtf they actually want in this page). It was done, though!
And it went on, and on, and on. Pictures of everything attached, dimensions of everything, he even came back one time to take a picture of my emergency blinker button because apparently that was critical as well.
And once again, everything was submitted for review.
Engine volume, of course, could not be taken as is - neither the "4500" marking, nor the official specs of the engine that I had to submit, nor anything else could beat the square of the bore x stroke x number of cylinders x pi, divided by 4 formula. We have arrived at the engine size being 4.477L, which is surprisingly close to what Toyota tells us it is.
A page followed that I can't even begin to decypher (and to be honest, this was the page that made me go down the road of getting someone smarter than me to work on this to begin with - I simply have no clue, even with Google Translate, wtf they actually want in this page). It was done, though!
And it went on, and on, and on. Pictures of everything attached, dimensions of everything, he even came back one time to take a picture of my emergency blinker button because apparently that was critical as well.
And once again, everything was submitted for review.
- Thread starter
- #60
Ok, I had a couple of people notice the brand new belt mouldings. I thought I should maybe share my experience with them as a side note, just in case anyone is looking for these, maybe this will slightly help. I originally ordered these (because I'm an idiot, and don't read ToyoDIY very well):
When they arrived, I discovered this:
In other words, they COMPLETELY don't fit. Also, they are black, and not chrome. Never mind whether you prefer one vs. the other, but I don't know if there was a change in the facelift version (1995+), or whether it's a different market version, or what - the physical structure of the front ones seems to be totally different in front (they are longer). I didn't check the rear ones because I wanted to throw them to the neighbours' yard in frustration, but I hesitated to. Ended up ordering a new set of everything, so now I'm OK, but now I have a set of brand new black ones I might have to build a birdhouse with.
When they arrived, I discovered this:
In other words, they COMPLETELY don't fit. Also, they are black, and not chrome. Never mind whether you prefer one vs. the other, but I don't know if there was a change in the facelift version (1995+), or whether it's a different market version, or what - the physical structure of the front ones seems to be totally different in front (they are longer). I didn't check the rear ones because I wanted to throw them to the neighbours' yard in frustration, but I hesitated to. Ended up ordering a new set of everything, so now I'm OK, but now I have a set of brand new black ones I might have to build a birdhouse with.