Builds Building my GX470 for adventure and fun

[DNGRZN]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, but I've been lurking and learning for a long time. A year ago I picked up a 2004 GX470, knowing what it's offroad heritage was. I plan to set it up for many camping adventures her in the pacific NW and elsewhere. I have to build it slowly since I am a full time Nursing student with a little over a year left, so I'll post small things as I get them done. I spent 12 years fabricating show cars, so I'm hoping I keep things clean. If you ever catch me being lazy, let me know oke:

I love all the how to's and detailed photos of some members, so I have taken a lot of pics along the way and hope to share them here to pay it forward.

In this thread I'll cover a lot of what I've done and will be doing.

This is what she looked like the day after I brought her home and slogged some logging trails. I learned quickly that the running boards and tires needed to go and new sliders and tires were needed.

 

[DNGRZN]

It was easy to see that the low kid launcher running boards had to go and I was glad to remove them and see the real ground clearance available. I have to say that I am really glad that MetalTech 4x4 is only about an hour away. LT and Kendall were great. They installed them for me ( for $$, not sure if they do that anymore) and I was pretty happy except for an insane rattle that they were really cool about fixing.

Turns out the sliders needed to be changed a little to better mount to the GX470 platform and so they made a new set and replaced the ones I had. The new ones stick out a little more (which I really like) and no rattles. The powder coating is top notch also. They were really gracious about getting everything resolved and I was glad to do business with them. All the new sliders will be modeled off of the spacing that worked on my rig, so no one should have that problem.

 

[DNGRZN]

I hope no one minds, but I did a bit of a "how-to" on the HID conversion and LED bulbs. While I was doing this I also discovered that without the plastic engine cladding under-hood road noise increased. I wanted to keep it in, but be able to remove as needed for cleaning and such so I replaced all of the flimsy little plastic clips with rivet in place DZUS clips that I had left over from my race bike (may she rest in peace(es). It's a great crash video

I got my HID kit from The Retrofit Source, and while it works now, I must be honest and say that overall my experience left a lot to be desired (went through 3 sets of bulbs to get consistency, 2 ballasts failed, and the relay pack failed though they improved the design with the second version of the harness). I think that in the future I would choose another provider, however I will say that once I reached people and detailed my experience, they did ship me all the replacement parts at no charge and we got it worked out, but it took months as each piece got worked out.

First I removed all of the plastic shields and discarded all the factory clips


Then the battery had to come out so I had a good place to mount the relay pack and Drivers side ballast. I also learned that I needed a new battery, terminals, battery box, and a good wash with baking soda and water.



I then mounted the relay harness (buy a waterproof relay harness, the one pictured has been replaced after it failed) with the wires down to limit water pooling and ingress. Then I mounted the ballast to the inner fender with the wires facing back, again to prevent wind blown water from penetrating the wire port.



The harness was plug and play connecting to the drivers side headlight wire, and then running the ballast output to the H11B bulb in the factory bulb housing. I then routed the passenger side wire above the major wire loom that runs in front of the radiator. If you push the clips out (carefully) the harness drops down enough to zip tie the light harness to it and then clip it back up into place.



Then following the harness on the passenger side, I mounted the second ballast in the same orientation ( I reversed it after this photo, but used the same location), and used zip ties to secure it all. Note: I used the factory fender ground bolt on each side to ground the relay harness and the ballasts and have had no issues.



I routed the power wire to the battery, but have since relocated it to my underhood distribution that I'll post about later.

While the battery is out is a good time to replace all of the little running light and signal bulbs with LED bulbs. The bulbs pictured burned out quickly and I have since switched to the sealed OSRAM LED bulbs (not pictured) and have had no failures and am very happy with those.




The difference is literally night and day.


For the reinstallation of the plastics I used a combination of spring, and rivet in place DZUS mounting clips (14mm). These make removing the plastics a breeze with a 1/4 turn. The clips are held in place by a retaining washer and so they don't fall out of place when you move the plastics. Great when getting into things in the mud.




I am contemplating doing the highbeams as HID as well, but I like the instant on and off of incandescent and so may opt to use LED headlight bulbs instead as those are getting better and cheaper all the time.

 

[DNGRZN]

I am not sure how many of you have had this problem, but it sure was vexing until I figured it out.

The problem as you may know is that the SRS Airbag light comes on when you sit in the drivers seat. My problem would stay for weeks and then magically be better. I read that others had been quoted in the thousands of dollars to fix this, and also that a 50 dollar sub harness would fix it. I decided to see if I could fix it for less. You can.

The problem is in the "seat position sensor" harness under the drivers seat. The wires are pulled tight and they break internally, but stay in place looking unbroken.

Remember when working on this airbag system, you do so at your own risk, and NEVER WITH THE KEY TURNED ON. I used the key on to remove all the seat bolts and then place the seat in the rear most position before turning the key off and disconnecting the negative battery terminal.

Once done I laid the seat back to see the wires underneath

This is a picture under the drivers seat. On the left side, you will see a black box with a white plug (as a landmark) directly beneath that is a small silver box bolted to the seat rail with a black plug that has two wires in it. this silver box is the seat position sensor and the wires going into it are the culprit.





You can see where my fingers are the broken wires. They broke VERY close to the plug, but never fear, this is still salvageable if you have any soldering skill at all.




The process for removing this sub harness is to follow it from left to right (as in the image) and unclip the retaining clips (so that you can use them again later) until you get to a larger beige plug near the front of the seat bottom. Unclip this large plug (it caused no problems on my vehicle with the power disconnected to take it out and put it back, YMMV), then remove the 14mm nut holding the seat belt recepticle in place and carefully pull the rest of the harness out so that it is east to work with on a bench)

Here is the plug and broken wire ends




Once out remove the sheath that covers about 3 inches of the broken wires (grey and white). Grab some wire the same gauge and solder a length to each broken wire that is about 4 inches long. I solder, electrical tape, and then shrink wrap over the top, so be sure to put the shrink tubing on before the plug.



Once you have this extra wire soldered to the gray and white wires, it is time to disassemble the plug. You will need needle nose pliers and a small pick tool.

First, carefully grasp only the white part of the inside of the plug and pull towards you with pliers. Do not crush this, you'll need to put it back.




It was too hard to take pictures, but here is what I did next. Once the white part is out, there is two small silicone bushings that seal the end of the plug, pull these out with pliers, you will not reuse them.

Once those are gone, flip the plug around and look inside with a light, you will see deep inside there is a small black plastic tab that is holding the metal pins from sliding out. Push these out of the way but do not break them, and tilt the pins and they will slide out the back. It took me several tries to figure this out.

Once they are out, simply put the shrink tubing onto the longer wires you added and solder the ends onto the pins you removed. You'll see a little of what wire colors they once were to match up. Tape the solder (the wires are very close together) and then shrink wrap each wire.





At this stage, put the pins back into the plug and reassemble in the reverse order (minus the silicone seals). I then used the cut tail end of a zip ties about 2 inches long and taped it to the plug and the wires to keep them from flexing here.

Put the harness back into the car, and you will see that the 4" of additional wire length allows you to keep some flex in the wiring to keep it from straining in the future.

Reinstall the seat and tighten the bolts, make sure that the key is off, then install the battery terminal, and then stand outside of the airbag path and turn on the key. The light should go out on the dash.

This mod has held up for me for nearly a year now. Hopefully for the intrepid do it yourselfer, this works for you. If not, order the harness online and just replace the subharness. It is like 65 dollars shipped.

 

[DNGRZN]

I have no pictures of this, but I have seen several threads where people recommended all kinds of things, and in all that I found one gem.

The culprit is most likely the vanity mirror contact inside your sun visor. Easiest way to find out, remove one and replace the fuse, then play with the other visor (extend and retract) and see if it blows again. If it does then maybe the other is ok, or maybe both are bad (both of mine were bad).

I do not wear makeup or anything, so a vanity light was not something I needed. I dropped both visors and carefully pulled out the electrical socket in the roof that they plug into. I then cut the red wire in the plug socket and insulated the live end on both visors. I reinstalled the sockets and then the visors, replaced the fuse, and voila! No more issues. (the girlfriend was not pleased until I told her how much a new visor cost).

Hope that helps someone else.

 

[DNGRZN]

Now, I have always felt that the factory reverse lights are too dang dim on the Gx470, and I saw on T4r.org someone had made a mod to their reverse lights that would be doable on the Lexus.

I bought 2 H8 low beam bulbs (35watt) and checked that the circuit would handle the increased draw. It is within tolerance, though at the edge. Fortunately reverse lights are not on long. (till the roof rack etc later)

So, as a how to for the mod, or to simply change the bulbs, here ya go.

Remove the emergency tools



Then the center handle by carefully prying loose the clips and wiggling the handle out.



Pop out the flat clips and remove the screws



Gently with a plastic tool pop the top trim above the glass out toward you (not down)



The side trim comes out from the top down, and the clips point toward the outside edge of the door, so pull gently in toward the glass. On the bottom there is a little hook you can gently move to release the trim from the large door plastic




Carefully pop all the clips holding the large panel onto the door loose and remove the panel.



Carefully pull down the plastic (you will out it back) and access the inside of the revers light housings. unplug the wire harness from each and remove the bulb socket and bulb.



You will see that the housing uses 4 lugs to hold the bulb in place, but the H8 only uses 3. This is ok.



Carefully try the bulb into the housing until the most lugs line up pretty close and take note of where you need to trim the lug on the bulb, or trim the bulb housing your choice. I trimmed the cheaper bulb (do not touch the bulb glass with your skin. I used a microfiber to hold it during trimming). Trim the little bit off of the bulb so that it fits into the housing and can lock into place. keep in mind that the bulb is angled and so it must turn to a helpful position.



Trim in small increments until it fits.

I cut the plug end off completely but left enough that I could reconnect it if I ever decided to. I then crimped on some small flat female blade terminals that fit the bulb blades and plugged in the bulbs to the harness and tried it out.

I did one at a time and took photos.

The light on the left is the H8 and the one on the right is the stock 7448 bulb




I am standing in front of the 7448 housing and showing the light throw of just the one H8 bulb. The second photo below is of me standing in front of the H8 and only the light from the 7448.




Once you have done both, reassemble everything in the reverse of removal and enjoy being able to actually see behind you now.

I'll eventually have a rear tire carrier and this wont matter, but that is a lot of dollars and a good ways off. This is great for now and cost less than 20 bucks and took less than an hour to do.

 

[SanJuanGX]

Nice write-up, thanks for all the great detail!

 

[The Great Him]

awesome report on the h8 bulb conversion. i have wanted to do something about the anemic reverse lights but didnt want to add aux lighting at this time. might just have to do this mod!

 

[470SNC]

thanks for the write up great stuff!

 

[DNGRZN]

awesome report on the h8 bulb conversion. i have wanted to do something about the anemic reverse lights but didnt want to add aux lighting at this time. might just have to do this mod!

It really has made HUGE difference and is much more enjoyable to back up now. It really did not take long and I pretty much only used a razor knife (with gloves) and a dremel to smooth a corner. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer if you hit a snag.

 

[DNGRZN]

Stay tuned for more fun stuff. I'm deficient of time right now, but when I have more I'll post the details. I have completed my underhood wiring project, stealthy ham radio install, rock lights, underhood and cargo light upgrades, rear cargo drawers, rear power distribution, relocatable LED flood lights, and mostly home brew dual battery install. Can't afford the suspension until I finish school in a year, but I am sure I will get more little projects done in the mean time.

Major thanks to all those who have detailed their GX470 builds before mine. I have learned so much from all of them, and am having fun trying to give a little back.

 

[DNGRZN]

Ok, after too long a hiatus, and some prodding from @Mountain I will get started on some of the other work I've done. While Mountain has much of what I want on the outside, I hope people benefit from the stuff I did inside.

I'm going to work in this post on my power distribution, and by request, share a list of parts.

So basics, ran a dual battery setup with all accessories running of primary start battery with my secondary battery wired through a Hellroaring BIC which I can link for winching etc, or use as a permanent backup. I chose the BIC based on several 4x4'ers and a lot of HAM radio cats who swear by them for reliability. Worst case, I can always jump with my 30 foot 2 gauge jumper cables lol. I wanted to do this system right from the start, so I mapped the entire system with all planned upgrades and some room to grow. While I do not currently have all of the gear, I prewired for it, as it is simply a matter of time, and cheaper to do once, than many times.

Sorry I am no artist when it comes to schematics, but this is the basic outlay



The parts list is as follows:

• Optima Red Top x2 (one is pending)
• Trailgear battery box for Optima welded on brackets I bent myself from 1/8" barstock (I remade mine from thicker stock, but no pics, the 1/8" was too flexy) Battery Box
• All high current cables in the front are 1/0 gauge stereo cable (which is overkill, i just had a roll of it, 2awg is plenty) except for Jump Block, and Winch cables which are 2AWG. There is a double run of 4AWG cable to the distribution in the rear. I think it broke out to be 30 feet of 1/0, 30 feet of 2awg, and 30 feet of 4gauge (15red/15black).
• Blue Sea Systems SafetyHub 150 SafetyHub 150 Fuse Block - Blue Sea Systems
• HellRoaring BIC Hellroaring Battery Isolator/Combiner BIC-75300
• I ran these terminals on every post, but replaced the through bolt with a grade 8 (overkill I know, but the original broke) with a nylock nut on the end. Zinc Battery Terminal - Military Ordinance | GoodBoatGear.com
• 12 1/0 gauge 1/4" tinned closed end ring terminals Ring Terminals
• 10 - 2awg 1/4" tinned closed end ring terminals (same link above)
• 8 - 4awg ring terminals I had in the toolbox.
• The Bluesea AMI/MIDI Safety fuze Block for Aux Batt with 200A fuse BOX
• 50 feet of the 1/2" techflex braid Loom
• 3 meters of the 20mm black shrink wrap Tubing
• 2 meters of the 18mm shrink wrap RED (I'd buy 20mm if I did it again, the red was a tight fit) Tubing
• 3 of the stinger 1/0AWG cable Tie Downs
• These 2awg Booster Cables
• This Anderson Powerpole style 2 gauge jump Connector
• Blue Sea 5025ST power and ground fuse box in the rear. 5025ST
• Powerwerx Chassis Mount connector x2
• KC HILITES Cyclone lights (x2) (and a shoutout to Seth of AdventureDriven for the idea. Cyclone Lights
• solder
• flux

Tools used were:
propane torch
pliers
hammer/anvil type crimping tool
patience

I will not bore everyone with a how to on soldering, but in the PNW and with all the muck around here, water safe cables are a must have, so EVERY single cable connection has a closed end on a tinned connecter, which is brushed inside with flux and solder is pooled in the tip, then the cable is inserted, crimped, heated with a torch, filled with solder until full, and then electrical taped, and shrink wrapped. It takes a lot of time up front, but you'll never need to do it again later.

I began with mounting my SafetyHub 150 to the top of the factory fuse panel with rivets through a smudge of silicone to avoid leaks. When making cables I left enough length to still access the factory panel.



Once I had the new terminals on the battery and tightened well, and the block positioned, I measured from the POS terminal of START battery to the input for the Safety Hub and if you have ever worked with heavy cable before, you will know it has a mind of it's own about shape and direction, so I cut to length, and rotate the cable until it liked the shape I wanted and then I marked a terminal and the cable and crimped it, mounted that end to the battery, and then matched the shape and connector, pulled it apart, crimped that one, and soldered as indicated above.



I then did the same with the ground lead to the BUSS block on the right side of the SafetyHub. I had to loop it to allow enough slack to move the fuse box lid, and also allow for a clean battery connection.

There is room to carefully allow a small loop of cable for all of the drops from the high current outputs down to the ground and out to each side which again allows enough slack to open the fuse box. (And allows me to run under the factory fuses to avoid a side impact pinch point) (NOTE: when bending the ring terminals it is a must to put the flat of the terminal in a vice and bend with a mallet to avoid cracking the terminal or the fuse box)



I don't have many good pictures of this at the moment, but will in the future when I get my NEW BIC installed, I dropped a wrench on the old one and melted it (don't do that ) but the 1/0 gauge runs from the positive terminal to the center terminal of the BIC, and the BATT 2 1/0 runs from the outer terminal of the BIC parallel to the ground 1/0 and runs along the firewall above the brake booster to the other side (If done carefully, all factory plastics will fit back over the wiring if you remove the foam). The bic is under the metal plate in these photos, mounted to a vertical metal plate that bolts to the fender well.

You'll see I clear the power cable with the plastic here. I heated the plastic with a heat gun until soft and pressed it down over the cable and then smoothed the edges to form it. Did this for the Aux batt too.





On the passenger side, I began by using some plumbers tape to map the shape and size of the brackets I would need, and then used them to guide forming the flat stock with my vice and a 4lb sledge hammer. I then mounted them at the lower end using nutserts and washers in the wheel well to proved reinforcement. Were I to do it again, I would likely just bolt through using fender washers and a nylock nut.

I utilized two of the stock airbox mounting bolts for the front mount points, and tack welded everything until I was sure of the fit. I boxed a frame under where the battery box would go to provide more welding points.



I then mounted the bracket, put the airbox back in, and test fit the Trailgear battery box to the frame and then tack welded it, pulled it all apart and fully welded it. I also was careful to provide as much clearance as possible for the engine harness from the firewall. I only had to tip that bracket up about 1/2" to clear under full rev. I then zinc primered, and painted the box. (Powedercoat would have been best, but I was being cheap)



Once I had the battery in, I took the clamp bolt that this came with, bought a 1.5" (I think) of the same threads, and ran it up through the welded capture nut on the battery box. I then used a nut to lock down the aluminum plate, and on top of that same bolt once the battery tie down was on I used a long threaded nut to capture the aluminum plate I had bent up to support the fuse holder and the tie down. You can see that I criss crossed the power cables to permit flex, and avoid breakage and sharp bends. Again, measure twice, cut once on this expensive cable, and let the cable tell you how it wants to bend, because you wont be convincing it otherwise. All connections soldered to death.




Final fit looks like this with the cover off, and with the cover back on in pic 2





The wiring for the relay pack, and lights off of the low current terminals don't merit much in the way of write up and photos other than to say, when doing it, use waterproof relay housings, I default to 40 amp relays, and pre-plan your runs and connections so that you can run and bundle everything nicely.

I guess you can also see the switch I placed into the plastic cover on the right which turns on the K.C. HiLites Cyclone lights mounted under the hood lip. This is easy to disconnect as there is a small powerwerx connector underneath for easy removal.

Now, to run the dual 4gauge leads to the rear there is a trick to doing this and keeping it water tight. Strip about 1" of insulation off of the end of each wire, look at the large grommet on the drivers side firewall right of the brake booster. There are 2 small nipples about 3/8". CAREFULLY take SHARP end cutters or another similar tool and snip as little off of them until you can see a small hole into the car. About half of the nipple should be visible on the face of the grommet still. (In case I am unclear, do NOT slice or cut the large grommet except for the little nipples, you do NOT want that leaking when you go swimming.)

now get a long piece of straight metal about 1/8" across ( I use an old car antenna with the ball cut off the end) and gently slide that into the hole in one nipple until you can see it in the car near the pedals, be careful not to force it, there is a lot of electronics down there and you don't want holes in it. Align the stripped end of the power cable so that the bare wires are near the long side of the rod/antenna and the long part of the cable snakes off toward the rear of the car. Use electrical tape and tape the wire shielding to the antenna piece, and keep wrapping tightly until you have covered the bare wires, this should look like a taper. If this is unclear, let me know and I will try to take some photos.

Once you have this, spray the shielding of the 4gauge and the antenna liberally with nice sudsy window cleaner ( I use sprayway) to lube it up. Go back under the hood and slowly pull the cable through, being careful to massage the grommet as the cable comes through and if it feels stuck be gentle or you risk tearing the grommet. keep pulling cable until you have enough to reach your destination, the little nipple will stretch around the 4gauge making a very tight seal once the window cleaner dries. If you need to change position of the cable once dry, lube it up again to prevent tears.

Repeat with the other piece of 4gauge. Be careful when you run the cable under the carpet to avoid the gas triggers for the seatbelt arrestors, other wiring, and any pinch points of any kind. I fully disassembled the rear of my GX to the bare metal so that I could locate a sub fusebox in the rear, add lighting, a switch, run the roof mounted ham radio antenna, swap out the power inverter, and prerun the wires for my LED lights as indicated in the diagram.

ADD PIC LATER

Once I had everything tied nicely in the rear, I installed the BlueSea 5025ST behind the rear Jack access, so that it would be out of the way, but still user accessible once I had built my drawers. I also added a flexible LED strip light zip tied to the factory wire loom hooked to a toggle switch under the fuse panel so I could see in the dark if something went out.







I ran the power lines, antenna, front speaker cables, Mic lines, programming cable, Powerwerx port power feeds to their respective homes in the car before buttoning up the rear panels. (I will do a writeup on the radio install in a future post when I find more time, been at this for a few hours already)



These little connectors are rated to handle the load of most of the refrigerators that I have looked at, and with such a short power run of 12 gauge behind the panel from the 4gauge distribution I doubt I'll ever have a load imbalance from what I calculated as max draw. So far I have had no noise on my radio lines.



Other than connecting the current and future accessories to the wiring that I pre-ran, this is the electrical upgrades that I've run. I hope that this is a help to others considering beefing up their power sources. Any questions, please feel free to ask, I'll reply and post pics when I can.

Cheers!

 

[GXO]

Damn, that is nice. I need to get that done myself. Awesome job!

 

[DNGRZN]

Damn, that is nice. I need to get that done myself. Awesome job!

Thank you Dan, I owe you some Kudos too. You have a great rig, and I started a lot of my research on these builds with yours, BonnerBB, and Marten's (boo471) Scuba Steve. You were nice enough to email me back a time or two answering my questions, so thanks for helping me brainstorm my "final build sheet" list of parts.

 

[Mountain]

Thanks @DNGRZN ! Need this write up so I can copy it!

Did you convince your gf that you needed SSS bumpers yet?

 

[DNGRZN]

Thanks @DNGRZN ! Need this write up so I can copy it!

Did you convince your gf that you needed SSS bumpers yet?

@Mountain glad to provide. Also, lol, nope. She's holding out for the woodgrain warrior incognito for the front (for now), she kinda likes the rear one tho.

If you need any of the crimper tools or whatever, I've still got all of them still. I'm hoping to find time for the radio install how to next.

I'm counting the days till my new job starts so I can start throwing mountains of money at my truck. Can't wait.

Have fun with the parts shopping!

 

[wingysataday]

Impressive

 

[NMBruce]

very nice

 

[Dannyk2]

Super clean!

Sent from my Nexus 5X

 

[THeGeNTLeMaN]

@DNGRZN could you please give some more detail on the wiring in your truck

Lol I'm kidding of course ... God bless you my good man ... you are thorough and thank you for taking the time to document it the way you did ... Im sure it took you much longer to do that than it did for me to read and comprehend it...

I'm putting an Incognito together this week with the new revisions and doing a test fit ... if all goes well it will be for sale .... and many more behind it