marshal, Thank you for a very admirable thread. How is your rebuild working out?
great thanks, here are some more updates.
got the bumper wings trimmed off. i thought i had some 1/8th" steel laying around to box the end together but i can't find it. ill have to pick some up to weld the ends closed.
i had to use duct tape to mark the cut line BECAUSE SOMEONE USED ALL THE BLUE PAINTERS TAPE
and a b&W just because
then i placed an order for some EBC Green stuff 6000 series brake pads. going through my paperwork from the previous owner and the last inspection of the brakes by a shop under their ownership was at ~38,000 miles and they were about half way through their life. i can only assume that my heavy braking habits at nearly 80,000 and they're due for a replacement. i can't really be bothered to take these wheels and tires off to inspect them with the level of apathy i have going on today.
anyway, these Green Stuff pads should be awesome and offer about 30% more stopping performance over stock. i ran the Yellow stuff on the front of my Jeep with 37" tires and it worked awesome, but it ate through those pads every 20,000 miles, and at $150 bucks for a pair them, no thanks.
also ordered a pair of H9 bulbs to swap my H11 low beams out with. should double my available lumens out of the low beam
did my brakes. WOW what a difference. huge improvement on the pedal feel and initial bite of the brakes and for the first time since it was stock, i can lock the brakes up cold (with E rated 35x12.50's)
i was super surprised with how the pads change out on the front calipers, i never really looked at them when i had the tires off before - but the whole cartridge concept was really cool.
old vs new on the front. the old ones had ~75,000 miles and were the original blue Toyota set
rear pads were even thinner, which i was surprised at.
