Greetings From Charlotte (1 Viewer)

[cwmoser]

Thanks I never knew. There continues to be a lot posted on this forum that is interesting.
I never used the rear heat and only just tested the rear AC.
Heat and Cooling at the front by itself works just fine.

I really like the LEDs you installed. I have a couple of 1980's Mercedes that I installed LED lighting in.
Like to do what you did to my LX470.
Where did you purchase the LED lamps?

 

[bradinPA]

Nice work and I love the '02 in your photo. I have a '72 in addition to my 100 also.

 

[CBB]

Links to the bulbs below. I'm very pleased with how they turned out (still yet to drive the car, not having seats and all...)

I will say this about the below bulbs, however. They are polarity sensitive, if that's even a term. There is no way to know if you have the bulb oriented properly until you hook everything back up. The buttons/switches were easy, but the cluster was a... cluster. I had to take it in and out about 4 times to get the bulbs all oriented right. Some of the bulbs I had to re-use the factory bases after the provided ones didn't seem to work. Long story short, try to find bulbs that don't care about polarity.

Amazon product ASIN B07J4SFK6Q
Amazon product ASIN B07HMH13YJ

 

[CBB]

Nice work and I love the '02 in your photo. I have a '72 in addition to my 100 also.

Thanks! I love the '02 to death. It's a 76 that I purchased from the second owner out of Rome, GA. Talk about a drama-free car, these little guys are about as easy to operate and work on as any car I've ever been around. My wife and I take all kinds of road trips in it, gets about double the MPG that my LC gets.

 

[ouzo12]

Greetings from Charlotte as well! I see a few nice hundies roaming town. Yours looks super clean.

 

[SlowBuild]

I have a question about your console LEDs: Do they dim?

I have a couple lights out I’m thinking to replace but I also have a few lights (D, fog, high beam, AHC dot, BRAKE, and maybe a couple others) that don’t dim with my dial at night. I don’t like driving on dark roads at night with the glare from my console in my eyes. I’m wondering if it’s just bad design from factory, or if it’s an electrical problem, or maybe a bad LED install.

 

[CBB]

I have a question about your console LEDs: Do they dim?

I have a couple lights out I’m thinking to replace but I also have a few lights (D, fog, high beam, AHC dot, BRAKE, and maybe a couple others) that don’t dim with my dial at night. I don’t like driving on dark roads at night with the glare from my console in my eyes. I’m wondering if it’s just bad design from factory, or if it’s an electrical problem, or maybe a bad LED install.

Hey there!

So the LED lights do indeed dim. I noticed that the only bulbs that have the dimmer functionality are the 6 that illuminate the dials. To test which bulbs do and don't dim, turn your lights on and unplug the dimmer control above the steering column. You'll notice that the dials all go black, since they aren't receiving any current through the dimmer knob, and that several of the indicators stay illuminated. Realized this by accident when none of my dials were lit up before plugging the dimmer back in.

For the ones that stay too bright, I would either throw the factory bulbs back in (I left them alone, didn't want them to be brighter) or find a way to put some kind of tint on them to reduce the output.

I'm not an expert on how all of this works, just speaking from my recent experience.

 

[CBB]

I picked up everything from being powder coated this morning. They had everything turned around in about 3 days. I'm very happy with the way the parts turned out. I did a semi-gloss/satin on the tow hitch, and flat on the roof rack bars (so it would be easier to match the plastic covers, in theory). I'm excited to have these and the front seats installed tomorrow.

 

[SlowBuild]

Hey there!

So the LED lights do indeed dim. I noticed that the only bulbs that have the dimmer functionality are the 6 that illuminate the dials. To test which bulbs do and don't dim, turn your lights on and unplug the dimmer control above the steering column. You'll notice that the dials all go black, since they aren't receiving any current through the dimmer knob, and that several of the indicators stay illuminated. Realized this by accident when none of my dials were lit up before plugging the dimmer back in.

For the ones that stay too bright, I would either throw the factory bulbs back in (I left them alone, didn't want them to be brighter) or find a way to put some kind of tint on them to reduce the output.

I'm not an expert on how all of this works, just speaking from my recent experience.

Thanks a lot I’m going to look into this.

 

[cwmoser]

You have done a exceptional job refreshing the interior on your Land Cruiser.
Wow, nice work.

Some questions:
- what is the sound deadening material you used under the carpet?
- did you only need one ten pack of LEDs for each type?
- can you give me an idea of what it costs to reupholster front seats?

My son also lives in Charlotte and drives a 2004 white Land Cruiser that I bought for him. I keep telling him if he
takes care of it that it will hold its value. His just turned 200K miles and runs perfectly. He needs to take
it to an Upholstry Shop and get a split in the font seat sewed back or have the seat leather replaced. The
Previous Owner had the two front seats reupholstered and other than the separation at a seam they are in
great shape.

 

[CBB]

You have done a exceptional job refreshing the interior on your Land Cruiser.
Wow, nice work.

Some questions:
- what is the sound deadening material you used under the carpet?
- did you only need one ten pack of LEDs for each type?
- can you give me an idea of what it costs to reupholster front seats?

My son also lives in Charlotte and drives a 2004 white Land Cruiser that I bought for him. I keep telling him if he
takes care of it that it will hold its value. His just turned 200K miles and runs perfectly. He needs to take
it to an Upholstry Shop and get a split in the font seat sewed back or have the seat leather replaced. The
Previous Owner had the two front seats reupholstered and other than the separation at a seam they are in
great shape.

Thanks for the kind words! This weekend is going to involve a ton of time doing paint correction over the whole car.

For the sound deadener, I used the NOICO 150 closed cell foam. I haven't driven the car yet, so I can't comment on the effectiveness until the week starts and I can get some highway time. Even if the actual performance is negligible I did find that the carpet fits a little snugger and the back seats don't rattle around anymore. So I'd count that as a win!

Amazon product ASIN B07TKXMPH7
For the LEDs, the 10 pack of each was more than enough. I have a few of each left over. There are probably a few more bulbs I could have replaced (PRNDL, idiot lights), but they all still work and I didn't want them to be too bright. Keep in mind that polarity matters on these, so maybe find some that don't care (if that exists).

I didn't see this until after I picked my seats up today. I would have asked my guy otherwise. His name is Leon Brown and he's based out of Concord up by HWY 73. Great guy, email is the best way to communicate with him.

Home - leonbrown78878554-181992-sml-1

As for the cost, mine were extremely blown out so it was $650 to have everything done (front seats, both armrests and the center armrest). He spent a lot of time with steam and added a fair amount of foam where needed. That is a little on the high side from what I've seen here on the forum. He said if it was just a quick and simple job it would have been $400 or so. I guess I came out OK instead of having to order the OEM seat foam for a couple hundred dollars per seat. I got the materials from Land Cruiser Heaven and the quality seems good. The texture is a bit different but they seem like they'll hold up well.

 

[Beto Cruiser]

Actually, I lied. I also was getting tired of the terribly designed fabric speaker covers on the door panels. I figured I'd rip the fabric off to see what's underneath. Lo and behold, paintable plastic! I started trying to match the lighter door panel color, but went too light. Then my wife suggested trying to get it closer to the darker color, since they won't be right next to each other and it'll make for a nice contrast. Sure, why not. I found a color at Home Depot called annodized bronze, which the cap was a perfect color to my ashtray that I brought with me. Turns out, the color needs to have just a little more brown in it to match just right. I'm content with how they turned out for now, but it'll definitely be a project for another day if I can ever find a perfect match on the color.

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Any pics of the final installed product? Really curious how it looks. Great idea.

 

[CBB]

Any pics of the final installed product? Really curious how it looks. Great idea.

It looks a lot better than the tattered cloth, but the color is a little more gray than I'd lilke (needs to have a hint more brown to be right). Naturally, the plastic cap on the spraypaint was a 99% perfect match. I may have found a better choice, but I'm just going to ride it out like this for a while. It's not terrible, and nobody other than me is ever going to know that

A: it didn't come like that
B: it's not a perfect match

I'll update as I mess around with different colors.

 

[CBB]

Alright,
So the LC is back together and I'm in love all over again. The refreshed interior makes the driving experience so much better, and the new leather smell is the icing on the cake. Only issue I ran into is that somehow when reinstalling the seats I managed to get the driver seat lumbar support all the way inflated and now it won't go back. Probably a pinched hose that I need to locate. I'll also need to re-cover the steering wheel in the near future. It and the outer AC vents are my only real detractors on the interior that are left. I'll probably do the rear seats in the next year or two. The new leather is just a tad bit lighter than the old, and the contrast in quality stands out a bit. The rear seat is still in pretty good shape, so I'm not in that big of a rush.

After the interior was back where it needed to be I decided to get going on some paint correction. I didn't want it to turn into a multi-day buffathon as the humidity here over the weekend was exceptionally oppressive. I used Griots Garage machine polish 1 to start and finished up with machine polish 4, which of course turned into a multi-day project. I used a Meguairs microfiber cutting pad. I finished it up with Chemical Guys Jetseal. I've been using this stuff for what feels like a decade now on all of my cars and love it. A quarterly application seems to work the best for how I maintain my cars, but the water never doesn't bead (edit: apologies for the bad double-negative).

For the tires, I really like Chemical Guys silk shine. I have it in one of their pump spray bottles (Mr. Sprayer, I think). I just spray around the tire twice, let it soak, then come back with their soft green brush to spread evenly and get rid of any excess product so it doesn't sling on the rest of the car. It seems to be fairly durable for the most part.

Pictures!

 

[CBB]

Pics of the powder-coated roof rack and tow-hitch. I matched the end caps as best I could for their flat black. Got pretty close...

Has anyone found a way to get the rubber pieces of the roof rack feet restored? Can they be dyed or painted?

 

[cwmoser]

Exceptional work.
Regarding rubber pieces on Roof ... I use Forever Black on rubber trim. Its like a paint that you apply to rubber and is pretty much permanent.
The hard plastic Door Handle and softer rubber Trim on my 560SL was a dull gray and this is the effect I obtained:

 

[CBB]

Sweet! I'll pick some up. That's one of the few missing links left. I wonder if that would work for the rear bumper step as well?

 

[ouzo12]

Sweet! I'll pick some up. That's one of the few missing links left. I wonder if that would work for the rear bumper step as well?

I have used the following and both work fairly well. They do make the surface slippery so something to keep in mind. Allegedly if you spray the Stoners blackener on your weather tech rear mat it makes it slick enough where items slide all over the place when driving. Allegedly.

Amazon product ASIN B0002KKITG
Amazon product ASIN B071FRWWRF

 

[CBB]

New shows for the LC!

I went with the 265/75R16 BFG KO2. So far I've put about 300 miles on them and really like the driving characteristics. Of course, they were paired with 4 new OEM shocks so it's hard to know where the credit is due. Either way, the combo is fantastic from my initial driving.

I had already posted a photo from the alignment rack of the new tires but finally got the chance to get a few from different angles. They look great compared to the prior Michelin 275/70R16 that came off. The wheel wells fill out nicely, but I will say that they do sit a little inboard from the rear sheetmetal (about the same width as the old tires).

If anyone wants another angle just reply and I'll snap some more photos.

 

[CBB]

I got really, really tired of cleaning the wax and junk out from between the letters of the "Toyota Land Cruiser" emblem on the rear hatch. I replaced it with the later model piece. Looks worlds better and should be much easier to clean. Unfortunately, I did get a little over-zealous with the badge removal and now I'm having a hell of a time getting the old adhesive off where the "V8" and dealer sticker were. Tried Goo-Gone and a plastic scraper blade with minimal success, so if anyone has any input I'm all ears.