Hiluxforever
SILVER Star
Yea, someone broke into my second tacoma and the glass just exploded and goes everywhere. I was finding glass years later.
Build "Rednexus" - 2007 GX470 Build and Fabrication Thread
- Thread starter Rednexus
- Start date
Member Build Threads
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #822
Mrs. Rednexus offered to vacuum it out for me, but I'm sure a few shards will remain in various nooks and crannies.
So far 2026 has not been kind to our Toyotas. The rear bumper cover of Mrs. Rednexus' Highlander fell victim to a hit and run (while she was taking our church youth group to a nursing home to deliver valentines - no good deed goes unpunished), and now the blown up window for the GX. I'm hoping we are "done" now and both rigs make it though the rest of the year safely
.
- Thread starter
- #824
Agreed! I would have called a glass shop for one of those.
Right now the age of the GXs seem to be in a "sweet spot", since there are a lot of wrecked ones still sitting around in salvage yards, and parts are easy to find.
idk...I've removed the rear quarter panel window. It's only five nuts total! Hardest part is just removing the trim.
- Thread starter
- #826
^About 10 minutes to tear down. A ton of glass made it to the bottom of the door, and quite a bit more was stuck in the window tracks. Some also got in the regulator mechanism. We got glass out of the track with a pick and out of the bottom of the door pushing the broken glass pieces out through the drain holes.
^New window, It was packed in a huge box with 5-6 layers of bubble tape, so a great shipping job by okautopartsms on eBay (it came from Ridgeland, MS). Oddly this window was marked Lexus, but had a different manufacturer than my OEM windows and lacked then VIN etching that's on every other window on my rig. Not sure if it's from a different year of GX or if it's an OEM replacement. The tint and construction were exactly the same as my window, so I am 100% sure this is a OEM Lexus window.
^All put back together. This was a two-person job with Mrs. Rednexus helping. It would be hard to solo this for a first-timer without dropping the window. We had to lower the window regulator all the way, loosen the rear window track, put the new window all the way down, and then slowly work it into the rear window track. After that we popped the regulator arm back in the lower window track (after greasing it) and worked the window up an down (only to find more small glass pieces in the track). In total the job took around an hour.
Hiluxforever
SILVER Star
Oem replacement. All glass must be vin etched on new vehicles and has been that way since before the GX was a platform as far as I know.
Where replacement glass will either have a different number if its from a donor vehicle or no number/arbitrary number if its new production oem replacement.
Edit- I verified and was wrong. Its not required, but its recommended.
Most of my cars have had vin etched glass.
I honestly hadn't even heard of VIN etched glass before!
- Thread starter
- #830
Interesting! Guess whoever bought my GX in Greenwich, CT in 2007 was worried about it getting stolen and parted out! I always assumed it was factory as some of the rig's metal body panels also have VIN tags on them, unless those too are dealer add-on.
Body panel vin tags are from the factory. It is crazy what dealers are doing these days for “Add ons”. I was at Desert Toyota (Tucson AZ) and saw a new 4 Runner that there were charging over $7000. for a front spacer kit and tires. Absolutely horrible.
I wish you would install the snorkel and shared info about it sooner. My hands are itching and I'm just about ready to jump on an ebay snorkel.After doing some reading, I became concerned with the Ascend aftermarket front bumper exposing my airbox to splashing when going though shallow water at speed. It's a wet climate around here and we get water on the road all the time after thunderstroms. IMO the plastic Sarafi/Ironman/Dobinsons snorkels are fugly. I had bought a Lenz in 2025, but after examining it, put it on eBay due to how small it was relative to the OEM intake air tube.
This time I rolled the dice on a King Fab Customs 4" stainless Aussie snorkel for a Prado 120. Came it at $900 USD with snorkel/shipping/import fees, which isn't terrible considering a Dobinsons with a Sy-Clone head would have been ~$650 or so. I'm also hoping it will flow better than other snorkels as it's 0.5" wider than the OEM intake tube and is smooth.
120 SERIES LANDCRUISER PRADO 4" SNORKEL
TO SUIT 120 PRADO THIS SNORKEL DESIGN WILL ONLY SUIT CLEAN, UNCUT GUARDS. OUR 120 PRADO SNORKEL KIT INCLUDES: 4" STAINLESS STEEL HAND CRAFTED SNORKEL IN YOUR CHOSEN FINISH TEMPLATE FOR CUTTING PINCH WELD AND BOLTS FULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR EASY DIY INSTALLATION PLUMBING MATERIALS SOLD...www.kingfabkustoms.com
Definitely a leap of faith on another Aussie vendor (my Ultra winch did come in) but I'm willing to take it! Just waiting for Memorial day to order the remaining final parts for the 2026 upgrades (fuel skid and LED lights). These parts will be installed in the July/August timeframe.
- Thread starter
- #834
It's probably a good 2 months out from getting here unfortunately. Bumpers and the Hefty TC skid are at least a month out as well.
- Thread starter
- #835
All is quiet in Lexus world (for now). Flipping to the "Fabrication" side of this thread, I did get a new toy...belt grinder on sale at HF. It is much faster/easier than using a hand-held grinder for pre/post-weld cleanup, and much safer than a normal bench grinder or wire wheel (which I have several scars on my hands from). This should save a ton of time for the 100+ feet of railings I need to build this year.
The first order of business for this new toy was to use it to make a stand for itself. It's mostly all 2" square tubing. I got a bit carried away and capped all open tubing ends (other than where the mounting bolts are) and ground a number of things flat as well. I hope to use this tool for the next 30 years, and don't want a sloppy-looking stand bugging me that whole time .
The first order of business for this new toy was to use it to make a stand for itself
. It's mostly all 2" square tubing. I got a bit carried away and capped all open tubing ends (other than where the mounting bolts are) and ground a number of things flat as well. I hope to use this tool for the next 30 years, and don't want a sloppy-looking stand bugging me that whole time .
Hiluxforever
SILVER Star
Very nice! That was one of my favorite tools in the steel fab shop.All is quiet in Lexus world (for now). Flipping to the "Fabrication" side of this thread, I did get a new toy...belt grinder on sale at HF. It is much faster/easier than using a hand-held grinder for pre/post-weld cleanup, and much safer than a normal bench grinder or wire wheel (which I have several scars on my hands from). This should save a ton of time for the 100+ feet of railings I need to build this year.
The first order of business for this new toy was to use it to make a stand for itself
View attachment 4138195
That sucks!
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Threads
- 38
- Messages
- 596
Wire wheels,,, are type 3 fun. We always end up porcupined by them.
- Thread starter
- #839
Wire wheels, along with a grinding stone, will also slice right though anything other than a thick leather glove. Hence all my scars
. I'm able to use the belt sander using normal Gorilla Grip gloves which provide a lot more dexterity.
Hiluxforever
SILVER Star
Have a big ass scar on my arm from a wire wheel.Wire wheels, along with a grinding stone, will also slice right though anything other than a thick leather glove. Hence all my scars