Builds Cincinnati LX Build and Adventure Thread (1 Viewer)

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I'm in Cincinnati as well and recently picked up a 99 LC 100 with 160 K. I bought it from a buddy who had owned it since 2003. Your looks in better condition, especially from a rust perspective, but I had to jump at a deal that was too good to pass up. Because he couldn't remember when the timing belt was done, and I saw no indication of it having been done, I went ahead and did it over that last few weekends. While I was in there I did the water pump and every pulley as well as the alternator and power steering pump. I also have a 2000 tundra, so I've done all of this before. First start was yesterday and she fired right up. My wife commented that you could barely hear it running it was so smooth. My short term plan is to slowly go thru the mechanical s and use it as a daily driver. Longer term I'll mix is some mods with the intent of doing some offroad and camping. We spend a lot of time in northern Michigan where the vehicle is well suited.

By the way, I have defenders on the truck and it's the best all season tire I've owned. They are quiet (I do a lot of highway driving) and wear like iron.

Awesome! Welcome to the 100 disease. It'll be perfect for Northern Michigan, where about do you go? I used to spend summers up there in an old Jeep just going down every random road I could find. I have family up in the northern lower peninsula still and am dying to find a time to go up there with the 100 for some exploring.
 
So the factory switches for the quarter window or vent window or whatever you want to call them never made sense to me. You should push "outward" on the switches to open and "inward" to close, same motion as the windows themselves. I was going to settle for simply flipping the right switch upside down, but it ended up being a good bit more elaborate than that.

After pulling the switch, I realized Toyota annoyingly (smartly?) put special grooves in the dash and switch body to prevent putting them in the wrong way/on the wrong side. I didn't want to file down my dash panel, so I decided I'd flip the faceplate part itself while leaving the body in its original orientation. You can pop the faceplate off, and also pop the writing part off to keep that upright.

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Problem is that flipping the faceplate doesn't change what the switch itself does. It just makes the open/close labels wrong. So I got my multimeter out and figured out which pins do the actual motoring. After numerous failed attempts to pull the pins and swap 3 and 5, I simply cut them and put spades terminals on. Really upset I couldn't get the pins out, but I tried every manner of pin and screwdriver and couldn't get the damn things to release. I did put a nice puncture wound in the pad of my thumb...

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Viola! Switches make sense now!
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Those factory switches have been driving me nuts and I didn’t realize it until just now. Completely unintuitive. Definitely stealing this mod!
 
Reef drawers are fully installed. Got impatient wanting to use them so bad that I just installed them. The drawers slide and fit with incredible precision. The wings and their fabulous hinges add incredible functionality to the side areas. Need to pull them back out to do some urethane coats, aluminum guard trim, and a topper mat at some point. @cruzerDave's system just works and the precision of putting it together is incredible. Highest recommendation!

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Awesome! Welcome to the 100 disease. It'll be perfect for Northern Michigan, where about do you go? I used to spend summers up there in an old Jeep just going down every random road I could find. I have family up in the northern lower peninsula still and am dying to find a time to go up there with the 100 for some exploring.
Traverse City area. My wife has family in the area and bought a small place a few years back. I do a lot of kayaking and cycling in that area with lots of back roads to explore.
 
Forgot to shout out to @Luke111 who runs LBBuiltWerks. I ordered the Morimoto 2-stroke LEDs for high beams with his wiring harness and resistor so that they still work as DRLs. Plugs right in, and the color looks nice. I mounted the resistor to the OEM DRL resistor bracket without the cage (couldn't make that part fit). The beam pattern of the LEDs is a bit odd, but does light up above the HID low beam cutoff nicely. I have some interesting plans for my fogs eventually that should really fill out my lighting setup thanks to some other stuff from Lou.


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Drawers complete! Stuck the aluminum trim on with a thin coat of JB weld and it held great. Added some stickers for extra horsepower and ride height. Then took it out into the woods to try as a camping setup and it was excellent.


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Posted a summary of this over on the "what did you do this week" thread, but we had another adventure down in KY on the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway. After an interesting first day where a nut fell off the UCA of my friend's 4Runner, causing a wheel to splay out like crazy, we drove the nearest hardware store in my truck to get all $3 worth of nuts and washers to fix it. What we didn't notice was that the sway bar endlink was probably stressed a bit too much by that insult. Next day, some more noises from the front suspension and suddenly his sway bar link is snapped in half and the CV boot torn up something fierce. Didn't take long for that CV to go out entirely, the ABS sensor wire to get cut, and the electronic transfer case nannies to freak out. A combination of 2WD, winching, and towing from my truck got him back to pavement and at that point everything gave out completely.

This was of course the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Yet we somehow got lucky and managed to snag a U-Haul and load it up for me to tow back home. Lots of strain on the AHC and it took us almost double the usual time to get home, but we made it. My truck never made a peep.

0/2 on the Daniel Boone, but big points for Dwayne this time around.


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Forgot to mention, got @TRAIL TAILOR rear lower control arm skid plates installed before the trip. Didn't find anything to smack them against, but, as usual, they are a well fitted, solid piece that I'm sure will provide some cheap, added protection for as long as I'm out there exploring.
 
@suprarx7nut's YotaMD fob arrived too! Such a nice upgrade. First time I saw these, I laughed at the price. Glad to get one on sale, but have to say, skip the chintzy Amazon knock-off replacements that don't fit quite right. These are worth full price if you're in the market to fix a jacked up fob.

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Belly pan has taken a beating over these first few trips. Got Dwayne a special surprise coming in a few weeks to make up for this insult...

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Some more pics from our last DBBB trip before my buddies CV blowup:

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Been a busy couple of months, so haven't posted in a while. More mods and maintenance as usual along the way. Got some new front and rear sway bar bushings/links done. Mine were surprisingly good for almost 200k miles, but I still suspect they're original.
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Got a Wix air filter monitor installed inspired by @spressomon and @gaijin. Have a new air filter and don't do much Mad Max sort of driving, so not really sure it's telling me much yet.
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Must have left a door unlocked and someone rifled through my center console. Took only the quarters...left a GPS, pocket knife, and other stuff. Probably looking for drug money. Really sucks what people have to resort to.
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But overall, Dwayne's looking good and treating us well!
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Most importantly, was finally able to get this from the BMV! Now it's official.

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Family got me a new Garmin GPS for my birthday last month, so I set up the hardwired mount on a RAM arm. It's great for following routes, creating tracks, checking accurate speeds, and best of all has the satellite communicator SOS function built in for emergencies. Really nice peace of mind. Definitely recommend the GPSmap over the more basic inReach devices that Garmin offers. Same SOS functions, lots more actual navigation and data tracking features.

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Another great product from @Luke111: custom fog light brackets for the LX housings to install Morimoto Matchbox HIDs. They're bixenon, so a high-beam splitter or Lou's custom high-beam harness for LED high beams work for these. Gives your fogs a high and low beam pattern if you do the Pin 17 mod to allow fogs + high beams. I went with 3000k, which I've never tried before but really like so far. Cutoff is excellent, and you can adjust the angle still with the factory adjustment bolt. Really looks OEM.

Bracket in the housing:
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Used some nylon spacers to mount it up and keep the spacing with the shroud about right:
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Mounted up:
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New vs old:
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You do have to cut a hole in the back of the housing cap to get the wires to pass through. I used a dremel with admitted mediocre results, but was able to put the rubber cap in the center and silicone it in nicely. Should be a decent seal still I hope.

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Spliced a 9006 male connector to the old fog light wiring. Was going to use a Canbus setup instead of a relay harness, but it fired right up and no flicker without it. So my fog wiring goes directly into the ballast. The 35w ones don't draw enough power to overload anything from what I've read.

Above the foglight opening is a nice shelf for the ballast:
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Igniter wired up and securely mounted to the backside. Everything is nice and tidy (other than my horrible silicone job):
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Final pattern with high and low beams:
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My buddy also helped me install a light bar behind the grill. It fits perfectly in the slotted parts of the grille supports on the LX. Since the grille goes up with the hood, we also were able to make it swivel and function as an underhood light! Love dual-purpose things...

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These came in a while back, totally forgot to throw some pics up here. DISSENT OFF ROAD SKIDS! Easily the finest armor around. You Asfir fans are missing out. Thanks @benc for the fine crafstmanship!

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LndXrsr, I'm just north of Cincinnati, I'm looking for the stock shield covering the Trans. Looks like you just replaced it, want to sell yours?
 

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