Builds "Rednexus" - 2007 GX470 Build and Fabrication Thread (10 Viewers)

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Wow! That is really beautiful. Wish I had trails like that close by.
Appreciate that! Definitely very thankful to be able to live and raise a family down here in the Ozarks.
 
Blue Dog panels after initial sanding, glazing putty, and more sanding. It's not hard to get these smooth.
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Primer and paint are next.
 
Blue Dog panels after initial sanding, glazing putty, and more sanding. It's not hard to get these smooth.
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Primer and paint are next.
Sorry Red, I may have missed it but what are you going to do with them after you've smoothed them down?
I just have 1 blue dog at the shifter surround , but just stuck it in there, never thought of doing anything to it.
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As an FYI the 9100 now has switches activated for front/rear locker and arb pump. Plus there's a micro c charge port mounted above.
 
I'm going to give them a coat or two of Dupli Color charcoal wheel paint, which is almost a perfect match for the OEM grey interior paint.
 
I'm going to give them a coat or two of Dupli Color charcoal wheel paint, which is almost a perfect match for the OEM grey interior paint.
So.. that surround, I could basically prep it like you have, paint it, and it would be close to the gray color?
 
That is the plan, but stay tuned for how it actually turns out! I may pull and repaint the center console, too, as the paint on it is kind of beat up anyway.
 
I should have around ~18" total, and will be putting it in a protective loom as well. Someone else posted photos of theirs in the loom and it also looked great and more finished. I have some red loom for the hot wire and black loom for the negative.
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That is the plan, but stay tuned for how it actually turns out! I may pull and repaint the center console, too, as the paint on it is kind of beat up anyway.
Looks easy to prep, sand it putty it sand it. Putty and sand again.. paint..
 
One more round of glazing putty and sanding, two rounds of high-build primer with dry and wet sanding, then a final pre-paint round of high-build primer later.
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Lookin good. Also jealous of those trails so close by.
 
Thanks!

Finished the top coats today (other than the inside of the pocket which I'll mask and get in a week after this off gasses). The Dupli-Color wheel paint is a bit more metallic than OEM but otherwise close. I'll definitely re-spray the rest of console so it matches.
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Knocked out the passenger seat rehab using the Leatherseats.com covers. Overall this was actually a pretty easy/fun job at the dining room table - especially considering I had been dreading it. I probably have ~5 hours in it from start to finish. The covers fit really well, although some of the attachments were a bit different than OEM. I also used the tear-down as an opportunity to steam the foam and restore some plushness. The OEM foam was still in really good shape. Seat heaters were transferred over with a basting gun. There are still some wrinkles that I may hit up with a steamer if they don't work themselves out.

For the end result - the seat feels brand new! Very plush/supple and grippy instead of dead-feeling, hard, and slick like the old covers. I'll knock the driver's seat out in a week or two when I install the near dash, switchgear, and other things.
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Looking forward to seeing how they look after a bit of time and dewrinkling!
 
Took advantage of the upcoming 13 days with no work (Merry Christmas!) to rip into the driver's seat. Had it out and totally stripped down to the frame in 45 minutes total. Another hour or so and I had the seat heaters transferred to the new covers.
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Side-by-side (pre-teardown), and it's amazing how disgusting the old seats were. The $320 leather touch-up I had done in Jan (linked here) was a total waste of money and deteriorated badly within a few months - I'll never recommend that method (or shop) to anyone - and lesson learned (again) - buy once, cry once.
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For the driver's side I went ahead and picked up a new lower seat cushion on eBay for $120 shipped. It was pretty much exactly the same as OEM other than it was missing the upper soft foam from the OEM cushion. $10 of Wal-Mart craft foam, some spray adhesive, and pins later and that was rectified.
 
Took advantage of the upcoming 13 days with no work (Merry Christmas!) to rip into the driver's seat. Had it out and totally stripped down to the frame in 45 minutes total. Another hour or so and I had the seat heaters transferred to the new covers.
View attachment 3514085
Side-by-side (pre-teardown), and it's amazing how disgusting the old seats were. The $320 leather touch-up I had done in Jan (linked here) was a total waste of money and deteriorated badly within a few months - I'll never recommend that method (or shop) to anyone - and lesson learned (again) - buy once, cry once.
View attachment 3514086
For the driver's side I went ahead and picked up a new lower seat cushion on eBay for $120 shipped. It was pretty much exactly the same as OEM other than it was missing the upper soft foam from the OEM cushion. $10 of Wal-Mart craft foam, some spray adhesive, and pins later and that was rectified.
I needed to do my driver seat, but now I want to after seeing this. 😂

These look awesome.
 
I needed to do my driver seat, but now I want to after seeing this. 😂

These look awesome.
Just need to wait for Mrs. Rednexus to massage the headrest cover into place (that sounds bad....) and these will be done! I really think any of us who wrench on our rigs can do this job on a Saturday, and I should have done it a year or two ago.
 
All done! The driver's seat (on the left) had a bit more "deflated" foam than the passenger's seat, despite steaming it. No one makes an upper replacement seat cushion for these, so it is what it is. Still very happy with how these turned out and the relative ease of the job, and the seats are vastly more comfortable now. EDIT: If I were to do this again I would have had a roll of ~1/2" seat-specific foam on hand and added some padding to the DS upper cushion. Not going to take it apart and it feels just as good as the PS seat, but it would have helped my OCD some :)
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I went ahead and ripped out the whole center console for cleaning and re-painting prep (just the grey pieces). I scrubbed everything in the utility sink and hit up the painted pieces with a 400-grit sanding sponge, in addition to filling in some gouges with glazing putty. I also sliced up the forward-most plastic piece for a GMRS external speaker (more on that in a few days).
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Karen appeared to have been a soda-holic as there was lots of sticky black residue in and outside of the console, in addition to dust, hair, and other disgusting things. The inside of the console took 5-6 rounds of Dawn and scrubbing before the wash water stopped running out brown and grey. Things look vastly better, and I'll re-spray they grey plastic tomorrow, give the textured plastic another round of cleaning with a magic eraser, then try and put the puzzle back together.
 
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All done! The driver's seat (on the left) had a bit more "deflated" foam than the passenger's seat, despite steaming it. No one makes an upper replacement seat cushion for these, so it is what it is. Still very happy with how these turned out and the relative ease of the job, and the seats are vastly more comfortable now.
View attachment 3514884
I went ahead and ripped out the whole center console for cleaning and re-painting prep (just the grey pieces). I scrubbed everything in the utility sink and hit up the painted pieces with a 400-grit sanding sponge, in addition to filling in some gouges with glazing putty. I also sliced up the forward-most plastic piece for a GMRS external speaker (more on that in a few days).
View attachment 3514885
Karen appeared to have been a soda-holic as there was lots of sticky black residue in and outside of the console, in addition to dust, hair, and other disgusting things. The inside of the console took 5-6 rounds of Dawn and scrubbing before the wash water stopped running out brown and grey. Things look vastly better, and I'll re-spray they grey plastic tomorrow, give the textured plastic another round of cleaning with a magic eraser, then try and put the puzzle back together.
Now that you've got all that apart!!!

Are you going to add USBs or USBc to the 2nd row?

Tell me about the light that lived in the back of the console!!! What's it's power source and can it be swapped for an LED?!
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Now that you've got all that apart!!!

Are you going to add USBs or USBc to the 2nd row?

Tell me about the light that lived in the back of the console!!! What's it's power source and can it be swapped for an LED?!
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2nd row power is a good idea....my kids aren't at the device age (yet) and we do use the DVD player, so I'll need to see if it's feasible to put a power port somewhere below it. If not I can stick one back in the bottom of the center console, which is where I had the old USB data port to the head unit (that's now getting moved as the data port would often get gunk in it).

Here's a photo of the light. I think it is a LED but some tiny/small/specific version. Mine appeared to be burned out - I'm probably not going to replace it.
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While waiting for paint to dry between coats, I found what appears to be a solution for the 2nd row power ports, while maintaining the OEM DVD controls (which my kids do like and perhaps I could use to watch a movie while camping in my rig sometime :)).

Amazon product ASIN B09MKS53XK
There really weren't and options I could find that would allow a normal USB plug to be used on this angled surface without leaving a ton of wire and connections exposed, resulting in things being unsightly and susceptible to being kicked by my kids climbing around. This will need a cigarette lighter to USB adapter for device charging but should provide QC levels of juice. Since I'm deleting the OEM cigarette lighter, I'll just extend that circuit backwards to this one. This will give the rig a total of ~4 dedicated QC USB ports, 1 Android Auto/slow charge port, 1 slow charge/data port into the head unit, and 3 cigarette lighter ports that can be used for more USB ports (counting the aux plug I installed in the rear cargo area as one of my first mods).

@DRANGED , thank you for the suggestion!
 
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Progress as of 3 pm. Goal for Christmas eve is to get the inside accessory wiring in and new dashboard installed (before I forget how it came out). Going to try to knock out HVAC servos still today.
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