Builds Over the Hills, and Far Away

[Sundowner]

Couple of updates...

• I heard back from RCV; they don't have a shaft that will fit this particular 70-series...but they seem to have something that will fit every other 70-series; further details as to why this is the case are unavailable at this time. Thankfully, Longfield has me covered if I want to go that route at any point.
• I heard back from Brown & Davis; their 125L tank is in stock, ready to ship, and only about $900 or so! Naturally, that number doesn't include $2400 of freight...so, yeah: not an option.
• I heard back from FrontRunner; they confirmed the 660-lb. static weight limit, and didn't confirm any kind of dynamic load...which tracks. I also looked up the rack weight: 72 lbs.
• I heard back from a local upholstery shop that comes highly recommended, and they can recover my front seats in a matching vinyl, completely rebuild the foam and fix anything else that needs attention for about $1500. That number includes the headrests, and also the installation of a seat heater in each; I'll have to provide the heater elements and later wire them, but I'm actually pretty okay with that figure, overall. It's less than I thought it would be, and I can keep things reasonably factory...and I'll still have the factory fabric if I ever need it.

Opinions on 12- or 24-volt heater elements? I can do either, but have experience with none of them.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

I still think if you're going to use the rack for anything other than an awning, and actually wheel it (shock loading, off camber, etc.) then the earlier "rack on vertical bars" deal that go down to side wings and steps/sliders is a fool proof solution. Then you could have a dance party up there. You could also remove your FRP top and still use your rack. Being out in the wilderness with a rack on plastic gutters and hearing a crunch and seeing daylight though the roof, with storm clouds brewing, is my idea of hell.

 

[Sundowner]

I still think if you're going to use the rack for anything other than an awning, and actually wheel it (shock loading, off camber, etc.) then the earlier "rack on vertical bars" deal that go down to side wings and steps/sliders is a fool proof solution.

Agreed. In that configuration, the supports would be:

• A pair of vertical bars at the rear corners, located between the tail light housing and the fuel door on the right and at the same position on the left, and...
• Either a pair of bars mounted to the windshield hinge area, running outward and upward along the A pillar so as not to occlude vision, or...
• A pair immediately behind each of the front door openings, tied into a reinforced side step.

Without cutting/drilling into the top and/or modifying either it or the body, there's no other practical solution that I'm seeing. I feel like there is one, but I'm not picking up on it yet.

Then you could have a dance party up there. You could also remove your FRP top and still use your rack.

The top will likely never be coming off, unless it's for paint or rubber seal replacement. Making the rack top-removal-friendly also complicates the construction somewhat...but you make a solid point, all the same; Gobis have that feature and I knew several people that made use of it. In the seven years that I had one, however, I took the top off exactly zero times. It's just not something I see myself doing, based on historical trends...and besides: it would require a full set of half doors to do so, and I don't have those.

Note: the static load won't change with any difference in the supports. It's still going to be approximately 200 SAE kilos, or whatever.

Being out in the wilderness with a rack on plastic gutters and hearing a crunch and seeing daylight though the roof, with storm clouds brewing, is my idea of hell.

It's definitely not a good day when that happens; I try not to overly "what if?" myself because that's my particular definition of Hell, but thinking on likely fatigue/failure points is a solid practice, here.

Fun Story: I've been party to some FRP repairs in the past...and when I say "repairs" I actually mean "putting the top back together after the fire service took a hydraulic shear to it for no particular reason." I could dig up the before and after photos, but I don't particularly want to feel nauseous from looking at the before-images...so trust me when I tell you that it was bad. Like, "in multiple pieces" bad. I mention this because of one salient point that I learned during that project: FRP is nowhere near as fragile as people often claim it to be. When in good condition, it's a strong, flexible and durable material; it's only when we start asking too much of it that it becomes a liability. Think of it this way: if we can adhese a transducer to a hull or bolt a chain plate through a deck or build an entire front end for a road tractor or an entire body for a racecar and have all of those applications work perfectly well, then the problems with FRP are not problems with the material itself. Thus, this is really just a question of whether or not we can work within the material limitations at hand, and most people - myself included - don't know enough about that material to do so successfully, so I think we default to the things we do know instead: bending tube and welding up brackets and removing the unknown material from the equation entirely. And that may be what we have to do here as well...but right now, I need more info before I start excluding possible solutions.

 

[Sundowner]

A quick Random Question for anyone that's using two-way radios: where'd you mount your antenna?

 

[Gun Runner 5]

A quick Random Question for anyone that's using two-way radios: where'd you mount your antenna?

Both HAM and GMRS antennas are mounted on the front brushbar.

 

[Sundowner]

Today's Update: Not much to report, honestly. At work I replaced the apportioning valve on an FC101 and fired it up to test the brake bleed, only to have it spontaneously discharge a liter of brake fluid from somewhere in the vicinity of the clutch...after it had been sitting and idling for thirty minutes with no pressure changing in any of the hydraulic systems. We're honestly not sure why -or even how - it did that, but my working theory is pointing towards the fact that since it's a Land Rover it was probably tired of not leaking everywhere.

I should have some wipers and arms on the way, as well as a few other small parts...so those will be fun to replace. Also, the cowl-area leak finally showed back up; we had an absolute deluge last night, and that was evidently enough to put a tablespoon or two of water in the floormat. Only on the driver's side, this time; passenger was dry.

I may have a solution for antenna mounting for a radio; I think I could pitch it from a rear door hinge...but I need to learn more about antennas before I commit to anything.

That's about all for today. Oh: I got my ridiculous yellow flashlight cube working...and it has what is definitively the worst beam pattern I've ever seen. It's a sketchy, dim spot surrounded by multiple halos of artifacts. It gives me a headache just looking at it.

 

[Sundowner]

Well, this actually turned out better than I expected...

Pictured: "Let there be marginally-sufficient lux." - God

I don't need to bore everyone with the details, but: the surplus battle lantern rebuild was a fun little diversion while I've been learning about various things travel-related, which is phrase that here means "radios that one can use near the Canadian border." In the midst of figuring out how to disperse and soften the light from the single worst bulb that Westinghouse ever designed - answer: throw it in a blasting cabinet - I did a lot of research on GMRS, MURS and several other services, and I've decided that adding some radio capabilities to the rig probably isn't a bad idea. I think cell service is still going to be the main form of communication, but I've already learned that it's incredibly easy to get out of tower range when you least expect it; the little handheld FRS radios that we carried on the cross-country trip were lifesavers through Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, when calls would drop completely without warning...and usually at the worst possible moments. I have several extra/unused spaces in which I could install a mobile radio or two, but I'm pretty sure I'll need to find some that work on 24 volts...which - I'm assuming - would also be true of the antennas. That might throw a cramp into the cotillion.

In unrelated news, I'm getting my front seats rebuilt and recovered in the next week or two; they're not in awful shape but some of the foam needs attention and I'm wanting to switch the covers over to vinyl. The stock fabric is nice, but I honestly prefer the harder-wearing materials; they're easier to clean and they seem to last longer for me. So... that's gonna take the rig out of commission for a few days. I have a backup set of front buckets that came from a Prado without the suspension bases, but I'm not sure if I can directly swap those seats onto my existing bases while my stock seats are being worked-on. I'll have to investigate that possibility.

I guess that going to be tomorrow's project...along with looking for some seat heaters: I already have a set of switches in place, so now I need to find a set of heaters that's trimmable - the upholstery guru specified that quality - and which will work with the 24-volt system. I can power them with the auxiliary 12-volt system if I can't find 24-volt models, but I have two unused 24-volt switched connectors directly underneath the console, so it would be exceptionally nice to pull power from there. So... let's see how my Parts-Fu is holding up.

Edit: Well that was easy...

 

[Sundowner]

Update: Heaters are ordered; now I get to figure out how to wire them...and we all know how well I get along with wiring.

Edit: So, here's a thought; bear with me while I noodle it out.

I have to run each pair of heaters from a relay, and each relay needs to be controlled by a switch. The switches are already installed, and I think the only thing I need to do in order to illuminate them is change the 12-volt bulbs to 24's and get a power and ground wire to each; I can pull that from the unused switched power locations under the console...but I don't think I have an unused relay anywhere at all. The heater units are already wired and have their own connectors, and they're set up for Low/Off/High on the included switches...so all I should have to do there is clip the supplied switches and repin them to the Toyota switches. The upholstery guru is installing the heaters themselves, so I don't have to consider that at all...but I'm still left with the relay situation.



Reading back through the product spec sheet: each heater kit comes with a fuse, fuse box adapter - that seems dubious, at best - and a relay...so I'm wondering if that relay is being housed in some kind of floating/inline relay mount. I know I won't need to add a fuse to the switches because the connections under the console will already have one protecting them, somewhere; I may need to chase it down, but it'll be there. So I'm still left with locating the relay itself, and fusing that circuit; that's the high-amperage draw - well, if you can call 4.8 amps "high" then it's pretty high - so that's where the protection needs to be. So, it looks like I need either:

1. Two tiny blocks, each with one relay mount and one fuse slot.
2. A slightly-less-tiny block with two relay sockets and two fuse slots.
3. An auxiliary 24-volt block under the console, which can be of any configuration, so long as it has the provisions from Option 2.

Now, having said all of that: how do I actually need to wire this thing?

Second Edit: I could just mount the relay itself under the seat, and then connect to it...but that still leaves me needing a fuse. An inline breaker might just work.

 

[Sundowner]

Okay, my Parts-Fu is failing me, so... Stupid Question: are 24-volt mobile radios just not really a thing?

 

[Sundowner]

What a rollercoaster of a week; bear with me for two paragraphs of venting.

I suppose that as Bonfire Night looms upon us - and you did remember that it's the Fifth, did you not? - it's only fitting that I find myself figuring out a way to move a toolbox from my place of soon-to-be-former employment. The tl;dr version is this: things are sketchy there; far too sketchy to safely stay employed. The owner has some pretty serious issues and disreputable business practices that are coming to light: a great deal about the daily function of that shop is very unkosher, and some of what's taking place is downright illegal. So, several employees are leaving; we've all been hired there in the past few months, and over the preceding weeks, more and more of its unsavory nature is coming to light...so, it's best to get the f*** out of there before we get entangled in the mess.

Oh...and there's also the part where I didn't get paid for a month because our bookkeeper was in the hospital, and the owner claimed that he didn't know how to work the paycheck software. When I informed him that his accountant could take care of paycheck calculations if they had my tax statements and information on hand, I found out that he couldn't produce my employee file...which is a thing that contains stuff like addresses, Social Security numbers, etc. He didn't seem to understand why I wasn't happy about that.

Yeah.

Time to go.

So, yeah; gonna rent a drop-deck and go pick up the cabinet before my first shift this week, on Wednesday. I am seriously glad that I took the time to install that 12-volt trailer light harness and connector in the Toyota earlier this year; without that, I would have a much more difficult time relocating things. I've no idea where I'm going to put the toolbox because my garage is pretty tiny and there's literally no good space for it, so I guess it's going to occupy the only parking space until I rearrange things...which means that a few rapidly-approaching projects just got slightly more complicated. On that note:

• Wiper arms and parts should be here soon; there's a bit of a holdup on the 470mm blade, but we're going to use a generic set until the good stuff makes it to this continent. Either way, it'll be an improvement.
• My mysterious water leak is still mysterious; it's vanished on the passenger side, and still kinda-sorta present on the driver's side. Investigations continue.
• Seats! Seats are happening!! The local upholsterer to whom I was directed is going to turn the stock fabric into a matching vinyl, and he's cool with getting my heaters installed. We're also going to take the seats all the way down to the frames, so the spare hinges from the Prado seat takeouts - and their intact bushings - can be swapped in... I think. There may be a difference; I'm not sure...but if they do fit, I'll have to re-modify the recline stops that I modified on my stock hinges, but whatevs. If they don't fit, I'll have the hinges themselves in-hand, so I can just tear them apart to get the bushings that I need, or to get a pattern to make new ones. That could be a fun project on the lathe...

That's about all for now, although I did make an interesting observation about something, yesterday:

Pictured: There's a lot of room, right here...

That hinge is made from...what, 5mm steel plate? And it's bolted to a rather significant chunk of structural sheetmetal, with lots of bends and corners and stuff...and there's access to the rear of that area from inside the rear quarterpanel.

Hmmmmmmm...

On that note: Frontrunner has a 30% off sale on all of their racks right now...which means that this is worst possible time to have to walk away from a job...but for seriously, I need to do that. I like fixing things, but I'm not going to remain in the employ of someone so reprehensible; it's not worth the loss of sleep, and being party to both shenanigans and goings-on of the lowest order. So, yeah... Black Friday yet again comes at the worst possible time.

Also, on a completely different note, I Answered My Own Question: 24-volt communication radios are not, in fact, a thing. I'm going to have to pull from the 12-volt system, or possibly install a second, smaller voltage converter just for the radio itself.

 

[Sundowner]

Pictured: The coziness has intensified.

First impression: these things are big. Like, way-bigger-than-I-expected levels of big; they're gonna reach all the way up the back into the shoulder area...and I probably should have realized that when I looked at them online, but I just didn't put two and two together.

I haven't unpacked them yet, but they look decent in the package; connectors and wiring look to be of acceptable quality, some decent slip-over looming is included, and for once I don't have to worry about finding the correct relay. And this is surprising: they're actually made from Koreanesium. I was expecting Chinese production, so... excellent!* Bonus!* Party on!*

* - statements which here mean "Time to call Frontrunner about some entirely unrelated matters, because that 30%-off-racks sale is just killin' me, Smalls."

Also, I was going to go pull my Prado seats out of storage and tear them apart, but I think I need to reorganize the garage to make room for the work toolbox, first; if I don't do that I'm going to run out of space very quickly...which means that I'm already out of space and just trying to keep it from getting worse.

 

[Sundowner]

Rack is ordered. Also, I'll just go ahead and leave this here:

 

[Guyute]

Man! What a ride. Sorry about the employment sh1t show. Congrats on the rack! Secure them tools!

 

[Sundowner]

Man! What a ride. Sorry about the employment sh1t show. Congrats on the rack! Secure them tools!

Bold text added for emphasis; Fun Story follows.

One of the continual refrains that we hear from the shop owner - and when I say "continuous" I mean literally every day, often more than once - is how every previous employee has stolen from him. Every. one. Tools, computers, parts...you name it, and he's said that it's been taken by some person or other. My second week there, he lost track of two laptops that he'd bought, and without even looking around for them he said "someone's taken them, just like some other things that I'm not going to mention." Passive-aggressive alert aside, we heard that same sentence for three or four days...until we happened to find said laptops under a pile of random stuff in the passenger floorboard of one of his cars. Having now seen that misplace/accuse/find/ignore-my-false-accusation pattern repeat itself several times, we severely doubt theft has ever been a problem there...but he insists that it is. Yet, not one item he's claimed as "stolen" in the past few months has failed to show up.

What makes this story relevant is the morning that I came to work and realized that I'd left my box unlocked. I checked the drawers on general principle, not expecting to find what I found: several of my wrenches out of place, an impact wrench not in its usual spot, a missing tape measure, and a screwdriver that wasn't even mine that I had never seen before. I put the screwdriver into the shop box, found my tape measure in the owner's office, and rearranged my other tooling correctly.

As best I know, there was only one person in the shop the previous afternoon, which was the only time any of that rifling could have been accomplished. I'll give you three guesses as to who that person was.

Probably should have packed and left right then, but I'm not very smart.

 

[Sundowner]

Okay, enough whining on my part: let's get back to actual building... pending that the latest delivery is actually intact, that is.

Pictured: Two different languages and they still don't understand "fragile"...

Okay, so, no problems after unpacking...but I'm going to have to go back and check my original invoice, because I'm not sure how a random resistor showed up along with my window regulator sub-assembly, my replacement glove box compartment, and some bulbs. There was also a random switch-light socket in there...but I have no idea why there was just one of those.

Pictured: The investigation continues.

Like, I know it was late at night when I was ordering things...but I'm not even working on electrical stuff right now, so what the hell is that resistor for? Guess I'll be checking into that after dinner. I mean, it's a blower-motor resistor...but I don't need one of those. It works fine...and I'm not even sure why I would grab a spare one. Nor am I sure of why I would only get one bulb socket.

 

[Guyute]

Okay, enough whining on my part: let's get back to actual building... pending that the latest delivery is actually intact, that is.

Pictured: Two different languages and they still don't understand "fragile"...

View attachment 3474950


Okay, so, no problems after unpacking...but I'm going to have to go back and check my original invoice, because I'm not sure how a random resistor showed up along with my window regulator sub-assembly, my replacement glove box compartment, and some bulbs. There was also a random switch-light socket in there...but I have no idea why there was just one of those.

Pictured: The investigation continues.

View attachment 3474959


Like, I know it was late at night when I was ordering things...but I'm not even working on electrical stuff right now, so what the hell is that resistor for? Guess I'll be checking into that after dinner. I mean, it's a blower-motor resistor...but I don't need one of those. It works fine...and I'm not even sure why I would grab a spare one. Nor am I sure of why I would only get one bulb socket.

But did you get a free sticker?

 

[Sundowner]

But did you get a free sticker?

Not a single one.

 

[Sundowner]

Pictured: More stuffs.

New arms, new caps, new short-side wipers, and an interim set from Bosch which I'll use until the Toyota factory long-side wiper shows up. Thanks, @cruisermatt

Also: seats are being pulled tomorrow to be dropped off on Saturday morning, and this probably the only easy opportunity I'll have to replace the worn hinges with the better set from the Prado seats that I bought...so: anyone know the easiest way to take a seat apart to get the hinges out?

 

[Sundowner]

Pictured: Record-fast shipping, but I gotta start making better life choices.

That box is...uh...pretty heavy. Even the small box is heavy; I think my secondary rack-support system project just moved up on the schedule.

 

[Sundowner]

Pictured: So much more room for activities.

I think I'm going to replace my parking brake assembly while I have the room to do so, and maybe the center console lid as well; I have both of them lying around somewhere, waiting for this exact moment to occur. Also, I seriously need to vacuum...but yeah, as of this afternoon the stock seats are out and I have my Prado seats on the workbench, where the latter of which are slowly being vivisected. More pictures later. Maybe.