My Forever Car - 2003 Toyota Sequoia "Build" thread (1 Viewer)

[generalli]

Hey guys, I recently started browsing this forum a bit more, and found tons of helpful information that helped me. So, I wanted to share my journey modifying my 2003 Sequoia, and maybe some of the mods I do will help others with their cars.

I purchased this Sequoia slightly over a year ago as my high school cruiser; but after owning, maintaining, and modifying the car for a year, I've made up my mind that this is going to be my forever car as I feel a connection with this one that I've never felt before with any other car that I owned in the past (Outback and Scion TC). So, this thread will be constantly updated and hopefully, never dies until this forum goes offline.

Let's get started with the fun stuff!

Here's how the Sequoia looked on Facebook marketplace before I bought it:

She's a 2WD (I know, I know) with 184k miles, I got her for 4100 cash which I felt was a pretty good deal at the time. Here are some pros and cons I noticed with the car:

Pros:

• Imperial Jade Mica - Biggest selling point for me, I love green paint and it's my favorite color on any car. Now, this paint is also a con and I will explain why later.
• Rust Free - Even in Texas, I checked out some Sequoias with rust underneath, this one was perfect: zero rust anywhere which made working on it way easier.
• New starter - Bought in December 2019, the starter was replaced in March 2019 with receipts.
• Recent timing belt job - Changed at 130k miles, which gave me another 40k worry free miles.
• Open LBJ recall - Meant that I can get a new set of lower ball joints, which is a common failure point on these, at the dealer for free.
• Great condition inside - Most Sequoias I checked out was trashed on the inside, torn leather seats, stained cloth seats, etc etc. This one had none of that and was in great shape inside, aside from the fading fake wood trim.
• Rear hatch working - PITA to fix, most Sequoias have this issue, if you own one you know. This one was working so I didn't have to deal with any of that.

Cons:

• Hail damage - Not bad, but I won't get it fixed because I feel like it adds character and adds to the cars story. Both a pro and con for me.
• Repainted - Car was repainted to make it look like a limited (SR5s were only two tone in green). The new paint is a cheap single stage and looked like it was done in a garage, but it looks good from over 2 feet away so I'm fine with it.
• Wheels - one is mismatched (LBJ failed, one wheel had a crack in it so the shop replaced it with one from a junkyard that's not painted black) and the rest are faded.
• Leaky valve cover gasket - easy fix for me.

For this "Build", I wanted to make this into my camping vehicle and capable of doing light offroading trails and fire roads in parks and national forests. It just needs to get to a suitable campground and not get stuck on the way there or back (while looking good of course). So the mods I have for the truck will reflect the build ideology.

 

[generalli]

After I took her home, I gave her a nice wash and this is how she looked afterwards:

You can really tell how badly those wheels need a repaint.

 

[generalli]

So, I went down to the local Home Depot and bought 4 cans of their Rust-O-Leum trim paint. This stuff is perfect, the gloss level is just right and the new paint instantly brought back some life into the car. If you're looking to do your wheels in black, I highly recomment this stuff. During this time, I also fixed the leaky valve covers in a garage with a friend. Took around 3 hours and while the valve covers were removed, the engine looked perfect and had zero sludge build up, sadly, I got no photos of this as I was working with a friend.

Here's how the car looked after the new paint on the wheels.

 

[generalli]

After getting the pre-existing flaws out of the way, I worked on upgrading the car cosmetically.
First, I installed some marker lights to the grill because I thought they looked pretty cool. Inspired by the ford raptor of course but I opted for the "line" styled marker lights instead of the dot styled ones on the raptor.

Install was pretty straight forward. I zip-tied them onto the grill (perfect size) and tapped into the parking light for power. This way when I have the parking light or main headlight on, the markers come on and I can turn them off anytime I want. If you want a similar mod, I definitely recommend these Grand General Markers. They have been on the Sequoia for a year now and still works perfectly with zero condensation; the size is perfect too.

Continuing the theme of lighting, I installed new fog lights, parking lights, and reverse lights. For the fog lights, I went with some yellow Hella bulbs and put a yellow film over the light, and for the reverse lights and parking lights, I just went with cheap Amazon LEDs which are still working perfectly a year later.

I feel like the yellow tinted fog lights + the LED marker lights made the car look way more agressive, definitely not a mod I regret doing.

Here's what the upgraded reverse bulbs look like at night with the rear window down. Helps alot with backing up at night without a reverse camera.

 

[generalli]

Here's a photo of the ol' girl in the sunset showing off the marker lights.

 

[generalli]

While looking through Facebook marketplace, I found a set of spacers which were an absolute steal, ($80 for 2 G2 spacers and 2 Spidertrax spacers) so I had no choice but to buy them.

Install was easy and I used Loc-Tite for safety. After the spacers install, I also removed the side steps (4 bolts each side) and sold them for $40. The 1.25 inch spacer made the wheels perfectly flush with the fenders which drastically improved the looks; and the side step removal made the car look more aggressive and less like a soccer mom hauler.

 

[generalli]

At this point I was looking for a more aggressive A/T tire to put on the Sequoia. While browsing on Facebook marketplace, I came across this set of wheels and tires for a Jeep Wrangler for $150, tires were at 80% tread and those wheels alone were worth $150 so I hopped on the deal. I ended up selling the Wrangler wheels for $100 and using $60 to get to tire shop to install and balance the tires for me. These tires are 245/75/17s which are taller but thinner than the stock 265/65/17s, I frequent dirt and gravel roads and these tires handle very well on them.

 

[generalli]

Went on a photoshoot after the new tires:

 

[generalli]

Some more pictures with a mate's imperial jade mica Land Cruiser.

 

[generalli]

At this point, I was about 10 months into owning the Sequoia with black wheels and was kind of growing tired of the color combination. So, I ran down to Home Depot again and bought 3 cans of Antique Brass spray paint to paint the wheels a bronze/gold color. The results were decent for a spray can job. There are some drips and imperfections, but looks good if you don't look too closely.

 

[generalli]

Photoshoot with a friend's green Discovery.

 

[generalli]

After all the cosmetic upgrades, I wanted to focus more on the functionality of the car and do some functional mods.
There are 2 main things I wanted to address:

1. Leveling the front end. I've always felt that the Sequoia looked kind of awkward with the front end being about an inch lower than the rear, so I made a decision to level the front. But I also wanted to retain the ride quality so a spacer level is out of the question. I asked around on facebook and ended up going with a set of Bilstein 5100s and setting them on the second notch (Josh from 1stgenoffroad.com helped me a lot with deciding what suspension to go for).
2. Lighting. I always felt that the Sequoia lacked in the lighting department. The headlights are too dim and I wanted to address that, so I bought a set of Hella 500s and a N-Fab prerunner bar to custom fab to the Sequoia.

 

[generalli]

Installing the Bilstein 5100s would probably be easy if you are experienced and have proper equipment, but me being a high schooler with basic tools and no garage, I had to jump acorss many hurdles to get the shocks installed.

I followed this guide while installing the shocks. Taking the stock shock assembly off was easy, one bolt on the bottom and three up top. But removing the spring from the shock was the hard part. I had to use three spring compressors to press the springs down far enough for me to take apart the shock assembly... I hid behind a wood plank the entire time while taking the springs out.

Assembling the 5100s are easy if you follow the instructions in the video; I set the shocks to the second notch which leveled the truck perfectly and gave it an approximately 1 inch boost to the front height, so if you're looking to level a 2wd Sequoia, I recomment the 2nd notch (or maybe 3rd if you wnat the front a little bit taller).

Installing the new assembly back into the truck was also a bit of a PITA, you need to push down on the suspension while installing it because the 5100s are longer than the stock shocks, I ended up using a wooden plank as a pivot to push the suspension down and forced the shocks in.

 

[generalli]

This is the light mount bar I opted to install on the Sequoia. Since it's not for a Sequoia, I had to custom make some brackets for the install. As I didn't have a welder myself, I asked a mate to weld in the brackets for me onto the bumper support bar.

Had to cut 2 holes into the bumper to fit the light mount, but the final product was well worth it.

Here are some pics I took after the front level and lights install during a trip to the Hill Country:

 

[generalli]

That's all the updates I'm gonna give for today. Since then I reupholstered the interior door panels in tartan and installed a wooden trunk floor, will post about those updates in detail tomorrow.

 

[TLar25]

Great build thread so far! Good looking 1st gen!