Awesome job on the write up and keeping with it.... most guys would say forget this and send it to the dealership althought I will say not really the case with LC owners thanks to write ups like this and the MUD forums. Hopefully its all passed you and you can get ready for that trip this summer. Wish I could be there and trek up with ya. Cant wait for that bumper to be put on and get some pics!
Builds Atnolan94 Land Crooser Build Thread (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter atnolan94
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atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #123
Got to work on the bumper a ton today. I actually am at a point where I went to test fit it, and I may just keep it on between stints of working on it. Still a long road to finishing it, but off to a great start. I may post this in multiple messages. We will see.
First things first, I got a fresh grinder wheel, cutting wheels for the angle grinder, and a wire brush cup for the angle grinder. I also bought this BADA$$ little 120v arc/stick welder from harbor freight that is an amazing little machine. It was something like $130 with coupons, and cafe with both leads. I already had a good and gloves and such, and a box of sticks is about $5. REALLY came in handy.
The entire drivers side of the bumper was twisted up and back toward the vehicle. The PO cut the last 3-4” off the end of the bumper to get home then just took it off. To the eye it’s just not all that far off, but it couldn’t be mounted with the top plate bent up towards the fender. Rather than twist the entire thing back, which I believe would be really hard to home brew, I came up with a simpler solution.
I cut a tapered wedge from the top line of the bumper, which I then bent downward to take that upward angle away. This is hard to describe but the pics are below.
I then welded this seam and smoothed it out with a grinder. This little 120 volt welder is really impressive. It only runs up to 80 volts so really couldn’t handle any thick metals like drill pipe of heavy schedule pipe. But for this sheet metal, it runs 80 volts with a 3/32 rod really smoothly. It’s better than any of those Lincoln tombstone welders I’ve used, of course those are 240v and can run well over 200 amps. I’m not a very good welder but after some touch up you can see this thing cleaned up pretty good. It’s also literally smaller than a shoebox, just plug it in your normal GFCI outlet and you have up to 80 amps at your disposal. TBC....
First things first, I got a fresh grinder wheel, cutting wheels for the angle grinder, and a wire brush cup for the angle grinder. I also bought this BADA$$ little 120v arc/stick welder from harbor freight that is an amazing little machine. It was something like $130 with coupons, and cafe with both leads. I already had a good and gloves and such, and a box of sticks is about $5. REALLY came in handy.
The entire drivers side of the bumper was twisted up and back toward the vehicle. The PO cut the last 3-4” off the end of the bumper to get home then just took it off. To the eye it’s just not all that far off, but it couldn’t be mounted with the top plate bent up towards the fender. Rather than twist the entire thing back, which I believe would be really hard to home brew, I came up with a simpler solution.
I cut a tapered wedge from the top line of the bumper, which I then bent downward to take that upward angle away. This is hard to describe but the pics are below.
I then welded this seam and smoothed it out with a grinder. This little 120 volt welder is really impressive. It only runs up to 80 volts so really couldn’t handle any thick metals like drill pipe of heavy schedule pipe. But for this sheet metal, it runs 80 volts with a 3/32 rod really smoothly. It’s better than any of those Lincoln tombstone welders I’ve used, of course those are 240v and can run well over 200 amps. I’m not a very good welder but after some touch up you can see this thing cleaned up pretty good. It’s also literally smaller than a shoebox, just plug it in your normal GFCI outlet and you have up to 80 amps at your disposal. TBC....
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #124
I also banged the holes on the front a bit, and I have plenty of dents to bang out and seems to weld, but I think this is a good start.
After I finished these items I decided to test fit to see the progress I’d made. To my genuine surprise, It bolted right up. I need a little bit more hardware to secure it 100% and be comfortable winching off it. The passengers side looks great, the drivers side really looks fine, with the exception of that end lopped off. I will need to reshape the top plate a little more since it’s really really close to the fender. But this will work for now. I may play with it tonight if I have time.
The plan is to possibly trim the lower lip, refinish the far end on the drivers side, work out some of the dents, and refinish the entire bumper in black. Again, definitely a long way to go but happy so far that it actually bolted up! I was a little worried that it would be too twisted up.
I think this bumper will get me by for a while, but addicted off-road just posted their new 100 series bumper and I really really hope to buy one at some point they look amazing.
A few pics of how she sits now. And a bonus pick of the Nolan Family silver vehicles! (Working on a GX470 for the wife, she’s interested in the idea)
After I finished these items I decided to test fit to see the progress I’d made. To my genuine surprise, It bolted right up. I need a little bit more hardware to secure it 100% and be comfortable winching off it. The passengers side looks great, the drivers side really looks fine, with the exception of that end lopped off. I will need to reshape the top plate a little more since it’s really really close to the fender. But this will work for now. I may play with it tonight if I have time.
The plan is to possibly trim the lower lip, refinish the far end on the drivers side, work out some of the dents, and refinish the entire bumper in black. Again, definitely a long way to go but happy so far that it actually bolted up! I was a little worried that it would be too twisted up.
I think this bumper will get me by for a while, but addicted off-road just posted their new 100 series bumper and I really really hope to buy one at some point they look amazing.
A few pics of how she sits now. And a bonus pick of the Nolan Family silver vehicles! (Working on a GX470 for the wife, she’s interested in the idea)
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #126
This weekend, in addition to hopefully doing my inner tie-rods, the bumper will come off so I can rework and finish the drivers side, then I will paint the whole thing. Still on the fence about trimming it, I'm leaning towards not doing it because I can always go back and do it should I choose to.
A well-timed amazon ad also made me the owner of some ARB knock-off 9" Round LED Lights. these things are crazy bright and really complete the ARB look. I really was impressed with the quality, and they weren't too expensive. Since I lost my fogs with the bumper, I decided I would just wire them to the fog switch which turned out perfect!
I gave my TBs a crank as well since the bumper has definitely cause some settling. Plenty of thread on the drivers side but the passenger side needs some re-indexing. i will see if I have time to get to that this weekend. The pic below is from before I cranked the TB's. I got about an inch out of them and I think i will probably need 1 more inch to be back to where I was before.
A well-timed amazon ad also made me the owner of some ARB knock-off 9" Round LED Lights. these things are crazy bright and really complete the ARB look. I really was impressed with the quality, and they weren't too expensive. Since I lost my fogs with the bumper, I decided I would just wire them to the fog switch which turned out perfect!
I gave my TBs a crank as well since the bumper has definitely cause some settling. Plenty of thread on the drivers side but the passenger side needs some re-indexing. i will see if I have time to get to that this weekend. The pic below is from before I cranked the TB's. I got about an inch out of them and I think i will probably need 1 more inch to be back to where I was before.
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #128
Thanks 57. Its coming along. The bumper has been fun, and I've been working on ideas to further clean it up. I may trim the lower lip to give it a bit more ground clearance, but will require some general reworking of the bumper mounts.
Work has been crazy lately going through a routine audit at the bank so haven't put my hands on the cruiser much this week. But luckily I've had no temp issues, no coolant loss, and no signs of any other damage from my Rad burst and overheating episode. The rear bypass looks clean and leak free as well. No signs of leakage from the new radiator or the heater T's.
I do have some inner tie rods sitting in the parts pile that I'm hoping to do soon. I ordered new bulbs for my instrument cluster and gear indicator in the console, as I have multiple lights out right now. Hopefully that spruces up the look a bit on the interior. I'm still putting off my TB job....really need to get to that. I alos have some struts for my rear hatch. The ones I have hold it up, but I still have to push it a lot of the way up. My White Knuckle sliders are likely coming in the first week of may....I am super excited about them!!
Depending on how my weekend plans shape up, I may get to wheel the cruiser a bit Saturday or Sunday which I'm super excited about to see what this thing can do!
Work has been crazy lately going through a routine audit at the bank so haven't put my hands on the cruiser much this week. But luckily I've had no temp issues, no coolant loss, and no signs of any other damage from my Rad burst and overheating episode. The rear bypass looks clean and leak free as well. No signs of leakage from the new radiator or the heater T's.
I do have some inner tie rods sitting in the parts pile that I'm hoping to do soon. I ordered new bulbs for my instrument cluster and gear indicator in the console, as I have multiple lights out right now. Hopefully that spruces up the look a bit on the interior. I'm still putting off my TB job....really need to get to that. I alos have some struts for my rear hatch. The ones I have hold it up, but I still have to push it a lot of the way up. My White Knuckle sliders are likely coming in the first week of may....I am super excited about them!!
Depending on how my weekend plans shape up, I may get to wheel the cruiser a bit Saturday or Sunday which I'm super excited about to see what this thing can do!
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #129
Below is a pic of the cruiser with the passenger TB cranked to the max, and the drivers side cranked to match. I have about an inch of rake, and I think I will keep it this way for when I load down on weekend trips, etc. So the TB re-index may wait for another day when I actually need it. The plan is still to do a Tough Dog lift, but I want to address my steering and CV's before heading down that road.
My black plastic was pretty bad in my center console after removing the terribly faded, port installed wood trim. The center stack trim was also faded and dirty and needed to be addressed. I have seen guys like @TEXAS 57 repaint the console trim piece, but since I have the eBay wood wheel, I decided to just buy a new fake wood dash kit so my steering wheel wasn't the only "wood" in the vehicle. I know a lot of people think these wood trim are tacky, but I think it looks much better than faded, adhesive damaged black plastic. I didn't do all the trim pieces it comes with, just all the center console and stack trim. It comes with little trim pieces to go across the dash and door panels as well as the glove box latch and lock....it's a little much if you do all of it! I settled on the basics and I think it looks way more finished this way.
My first idea was just to clean it with goof off and protectant. The black plastic cant really be cleaned with goof off, because it actually pulls the black coating off the plastic itself. Underneath is a grey, marbled plastic that would have to be refinished. So there isn't really a great way to remove the adhesive without damaging the plastic. If you read Texas 57's build thread, he went thru the same process and has a great picture of what the raw plastic looks like. He painted his and it looks really good. I took the easy road!
The pic below shows my center stack after removing my old, faded trim, then a pic installed with the new trim. In the pic of the bare center stack, you can see it particularly on the right side of the radio window that the adhesive brings the plastic finish up with it. It looked like this around the piece, the picture is iPhone quality so it doesn't do a great job of capturing it.
My black plastic was pretty bad in my center console after removing the terribly faded, port installed wood trim. The center stack trim was also faded and dirty and needed to be addressed. I have seen guys like @TEXAS 57 repaint the console trim piece, but since I have the eBay wood wheel, I decided to just buy a new fake wood dash kit so my steering wheel wasn't the only "wood" in the vehicle. I know a lot of people think these wood trim are tacky, but I think it looks much better than faded, adhesive damaged black plastic. I didn't do all the trim pieces it comes with, just all the center console and stack trim. It comes with little trim pieces to go across the dash and door panels as well as the glove box latch and lock....it's a little much if you do all of it! I settled on the basics and I think it looks way more finished this way.
My first idea was just to clean it with goof off and protectant. The black plastic cant really be cleaned with goof off, because it actually pulls the black coating off the plastic itself. Underneath is a grey, marbled plastic that would have to be refinished. So there isn't really a great way to remove the adhesive without damaging the plastic. If you read Texas 57's build thread, he went thru the same process and has a great picture of what the raw plastic looks like. He painted his and it looks really good. I took the easy road!
The pic below shows my center stack after removing my old, faded trim, then a pic installed with the new trim. In the pic of the bare center stack, you can see it particularly on the right side of the radio window that the adhesive brings the plastic finish up with it. It looked like this around the piece, the picture is iPhone quality so it doesn't do a great job of capturing it.
Your wood trim looks excellent. That coating they put over the plastic structure is a "plastic coating" like a melamine used on cabinets or maybe a variant of PTFE (Teflon). Make sure you get it all off before re-coating if you or anyone else goes that route.
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That wood trim looks really great. I'm going to have to look into that. Do you have a link to the kit you used? I have the same console set-up you do, and I've been frustrated with the deteriorating quality of the plastic finish.
I just want to get my hands on a 3 knob climate control instead of my fidgety buttons that are mashed to heck. Looks good!
Do you have the factory nav? I wish I could do away with mine but all the threads ive read on it seem to make me say forget it.....
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #136
@TEXAS 57 Got rid of his factory nav in lieu of an aftermarket unit. Peruse his build thread. @TXSunDevil also has a ton of experience with it as well.
It's not that bad once you get into it. Do it in good light. Cutting that first wire though...
I think he has the push button controls.
Luckily no. The wear on my buttons VISUALLY aren't that bad, but they all are "loose" and wiggle around when you touch them which in turn makes them not register sometimes. So you have to press multiple times thus compounding the problem. I just tend to think the 3 knob's hold up longer but that is a complete assumption.
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #139
Luckily no. The wear on my buttons VISUALLY aren't that bad, but they all are "loose" and wiggle around when you touch them which in turn makes them not register sometimes. So you have to press multiple times thus compounding the problem. I just tend to think the 3 knob's hold up longer but that is a complete assumption.
They do
atnolan94
I'm Your Huckleberry
- Thread starter
- #140
Well my wife and I were out at a dealer in town inspecting a really clean 2005 LX for a fellow mud member (@ElkWhisperer) and it didn’t take long before we were test driving GX470s. The value is incredible on these things, and I think we may add one to the stable pretty soon here...this one was particularly clean (but pretty overpriced, just like the LX we inspected).
She recently made some contact with a brick wall in her Tiguan and ripped a little trim piece off that I’ll need to replace...but may me going up on Craigslist in May, for us to sell and replace with a GX while she is on break from occupational therapy school. Never thought I’d say this, but I may end up a little jealous, these GX’s are really nice!
She recently made some contact with a brick wall in her Tiguan and ripped a little trim piece off that I’ll need to replace...but may me going up on Craigslist in May, for us to sell and replace with a GX while she is on break from occupational therapy school. Never thought I’d say this, but I may end up a little jealous, these GX’s are really nice!
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