Builds "Rednexus" - 2007 GX470 Build Thread (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter Rednexus
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- Thread starter
- #283
It's cracked and getting worse all the time. A new OEM one was $700 with tax....can't imagine they'll make them forever and I hope to keep this rig for a long time.
There are various things out there that would work up front, making it tidy in the back having AV controls is trickier...
..
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OOoohh!! Add blankets and give them heated seats in the 2nd row!! I heated a couple subaru sets of seats and I think 460s have heated 2nd row... It's be a nice upgrade to the 'ol 470 beast!
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- Thread starter
- #286
New HVAC servos were a bear. 90-degree ratcheting screwdriver from HF made the job possible. On the plus side, removing the ECU to replace Servo 19 let me realize that the PS large firewall grommet had a place to feed new wires through. So I did some Christmas eve fishing....red and yellow for future lockers, and mini-coax for the GMRS antenna.
Dash reinstall ain't happening today. If I'm lucky I'll finish the aux wiring and resume the dash on the 26th.
Dash reinstall ain't happening today. If I'm lucky I'll finish the aux wiring and resume the dash on the 26th.
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Do you know if the material was ever changed?
- Thread starter
- #288
I think they did upgrade the material in the past since so many of the dashes were replaced under a 10-year extended warranty, but don't recall where I read that at. Lots of dealers are having end-of-year parts sales right not, so it's not a bad time to pick one up.
Nice work! I have an Ironman pump that looks just Like yours and that's exactly my plan for it too!!
Is your hard-mounted compressor in your build thread?
I've switched out a dash when I worked for a Dodge dealer right after high school. Even with the service manuals it sucked. I had no experience in any auto mechanics at the time. Dealer shouldn't have gave me that job. The truck returned a couple times no wipers and hvac stuff SMH. I had a couple of extra screws and bolts when I finished the job. I'm hoping my 03 dash stays in tack. No cracks at the moment
. I did put 70% carminic tint on the windshield to shave the dash. It really a better driving experience with the 70% tint. I wouldn't drive without it now. I also used 303 Automotive Protectant - Provides Superior UV Protection, Helps Prevent Fading and Cracking.- Thread starter
- #291
If your dash is still good at 19 years old, I'm wondering if it was replaced by a P.O. as part of the 10-year extended warranty. I bought mine at 13 years and the dash was just starting to crack at that point - the rig had spent most of it's life here in MO (undoubtedly less UV rays than NMI've switched out a dash when I worked for a Dodge dealer right after high school. Even with the service manuals it sucked. I had no experience in any auto mechanics at the time. Dealer shouldn't have gave me that job. The truck returned a couple times no wipers and hvac stuff SMH. I had a couple of extra screws and bolts when I finished the job. I'm hoping my 03 dash stays in tack. No cracks at the moment
).- Thread starter
- #292
....and Merry Christmas! Santa's sleigh dropped by (decked out overlanding style - with a rooftop tent and awning) brought me a Loncky steering wheel cover. I had wanted to keep the woodgrain and send the wheel off to Craft Customs in Dallas, but the 2-week wait and $350 were kind of hard to swallow. For $65 this is a really nice cover. Mrs. Rednexus helped get me started and helped finish each of the stitch sections, but I stitched probably 80% of it myself. Took around 3 hours sitting in the house, while the kids played with their Christmas presents.
It looks probably 90% OEM in terms of fit finish, and it feels awesome (as good or better than the leather-wrapped wheel in our '23 Highlander XLE). The leather is really thick, and is smells like a new pair of boots. The grey is a little darker than OEM - don't think this is a huge deal is it should match with the resprayed console plastic, although I would have preferred a perfect match. I'll miss the look of the wood but honestly this leather feels way better.
I think if someone meticulous with the stitching and spent and extra hour you could get one of these to 95%+ of an OEM look in terms of fit/finish. The cover is cut that well, it's just that the stitching/positioning can be kind of tricky to get perfect. Seeing the labor that goes into one of these, $350 from Craft Customs is probably reasonable for paying someone to get it perfect for you, but it's also not hard to just sit at the dining room table and knock this out instead of binging on Netflix.
It looks probably 90% OEM in terms of fit finish, and it feels awesome (as good or better than the leather-wrapped wheel in our '23 Highlander XLE). The leather is really thick, and is smells like a new pair of boots. The grey is a little darker than OEM - don't think this is a huge deal is it should match with the resprayed console plastic, although I would have preferred a perfect match. I'll miss the look of the wood but honestly this leather feels way better.
I think if someone meticulous with the stitching and spent and extra hour you could get one of these to 95%+ of an OEM look in terms of fit/finish. The cover is cut that well, it's just that the stitching/positioning can be kind of tricky to get perfect. Seeing the labor that goes into one of these, $350 from Craft Customs is probably reasonable for paying someone to get it perfect for you, but it's also not hard to just sit at the dining room table and knock this out instead of binging on Netflix.
And I thought he had dropped off the RTT and 270 Awning!
- Thread starter
- #294
So things are progressing, but the wiring has gone a lot slower than expected. Right now I need to fix one wire damaged during dash removal, then put the dash back on. This has been by far the biggest electrical job I've done, and it was just super slow to organize all the wires (dozens of different colors etc), hook them up, label them, heat shrink or tape them, splice them, etc. I made extensive use of our labelmaker and spent lots of time labeling both sides of the wires going to a switch/accessory (for what the wire was), then on the actual switch/accessory side to (for what color the wire was supposed to be). Having it all sketched up beforehand was certainly helpful. Hindsight being 20/20, I'd have bought a Switchpros and saved a couple days of work, but there still would have been wiring to do for my other accessories.
^ Under-dash aux fuse panel and relay holder. One fuse panel is always hot, the other is hot when the ignition is on (via a fusetap to the cigarette lighter circuit and a relay. I build the bracket myself from some basic flat stock, which took around an hour. It took several hours to wire it up and test it inside.
^ Here it is installed under the dash. It was a tight fit, but it did go in without disassembly. It's not exactly easy to get to the fuses, but totally doable with a pair of needlenose pliers.
^ Under-hood aux fuse/relay panel installed. A pair of 10 ga wires (positive and negative) run from the rear-most circuit breaker into the cabin to feed the inside panel. This actually fit pretty good, other than there is no way (that I can find) to firmly attach it to the master cylinder. I put three M8 bolts into the factory holes on the inner fender. On the master cylinder side, I threaded a long M6 bolt through to act as a pin and keep the panel bouncing up and down, but can't get a nut on it. I also installed a tap into the high beam positive wires so my ditch lights and future light bar will be high-beam triggered. This is set up for more accessories that I currently have, so I have blank pins in the deutsch connectors. I'll re-pin them in the future.
^ Under-dash aux fuse panel and relay holder. One fuse panel is always hot, the other is hot when the ignition is on (via a fusetap to the cigarette lighter circuit and a relay. I build the bracket myself from some basic flat stock, which took around an hour. It took several hours to wire it up and test it inside.
^ Here it is installed under the dash. It was a tight fit, but it did go in without disassembly. It's not exactly easy to get to the fuses, but totally doable with a pair of needlenose pliers.
^ Under-hood aux fuse/relay panel installed. A pair of 10 ga wires (positive and negative) run from the rear-most circuit breaker into the cabin to feed the inside panel. This actually fit pretty good, other than there is no way (that I can find) to firmly attach it to the master cylinder. I put three M8 bolts into the factory holes on the inner fender. On the master cylinder side, I threaded a long M6 bolt through to act as a pin and keep the panel bouncing up and down, but can't get a nut on it. I also installed a tap into the high beam positive wires so my ditch lights and future light bar will be high-beam triggered. This is set up for more accessories that I currently have, so I have blank pins in the deutsch connectors. I'll re-pin them in the future.
- Thread starter
- #295
And now let's head back inside.
^ SpeedoHealer splice into the instrument cluster wiring. I used this thread for both the inspiration and instructions. It was actually super-easy to install. I just made two splices into the cluster wiring (C11-15 blue/pink wire, cut so the signal is intercepted by the white SpeedoHealer wire and sent back by the green SpeedoHealer wire). Since I had the dash off it was easy to just continue the SpeedoHealer wiring and I spliced the red/positive wire into the cigarette lighter fusetap and the black/ground wire to a ring terminal and nut on the side of the dash. The SpeedoHealer wiring was a bit too short, so I extended it around 18" to reach everything. FYI - please don't laugh too much at my crappy tape job.
^ Moving over to the passenger side, I installed the Midland GMRS in the DVD-player cubby I made almost three years ago and set the SpeedoHealer on top of the GMRS. I might have to move the GMRS forward a bit as the coax/antenna wire is awful close to the recirculate door on the HVAC box behind it. The other box in the cubby is the Nomad lockup switch controller (which has been in there for a couple of years as well). I'll be using an external speaker for the GMRS.
^ Most of the custom harness for the center console switches etc. Building multiples of these took hours and hours. I'm using CH4x4 switches for most things but ARB/Carling switches for the lockers. I don't yet have lockers (hope to get them later this year), but went ahead and installed the wiring so I don't have to rip the whole console again and fish wires. FYI - I realized I forgot to heat shrink 2 of the locker ground connectors and took care of that after this pic.
^ Other (and smaller) custom harness for the small panel left of the steering wheel. It's hard to see here but I also built the fusetap harness that fees the IGN relay and activates the right half of the interior aux panel, my OBDII wifi connector (so it's not a parasitic draw), and the SpeedoHealer. Various harness associated with the Redarc trailer brake controller (also installed a couple of years ago) are on the right.
^Knocked out most of this list today. Crossing fingers I can get the dash in tomorrow and everything actually works.
^ SpeedoHealer splice into the instrument cluster wiring. I used this thread for both the inspiration and instructions. It was actually super-easy to install. I just made two splices into the cluster wiring (C11-15 blue/pink wire, cut so the signal is intercepted by the white SpeedoHealer wire and sent back by the green SpeedoHealer wire). Since I had the dash off it was easy to just continue the SpeedoHealer wiring and I spliced the red/positive wire into the cigarette lighter fusetap and the black/ground wire to a ring terminal and nut on the side of the dash. The SpeedoHealer wiring was a bit too short, so I extended it around 18" to reach everything. FYI - please don't laugh too much at my crappy tape job.
^ Moving over to the passenger side, I installed the Midland GMRS in the DVD-player cubby I made almost three years ago and set the SpeedoHealer on top of the GMRS. I might have to move the GMRS forward a bit as the coax/antenna wire is awful close to the recirculate door on the HVAC box behind it. The other box in the cubby is the Nomad lockup switch controller (which has been in there for a couple of years as well). I'll be using an external speaker for the GMRS.
^ Most of the custom harness for the center console switches etc. Building multiples of these took hours and hours. I'm using CH4x4 switches for most things but ARB/Carling switches for the lockers. I don't yet have lockers (hope to get them later this year), but went ahead and installed the wiring so I don't have to rip the whole console again and fish wires. FYI - I realized I forgot to heat shrink 2 of the locker ground connectors and took care of that after this pic.
^ Other (and smaller) custom harness for the small panel left of the steering wheel. It's hard to see here but I also built the fusetap harness that fees the IGN relay and activates the right half of the interior aux panel, my OBDII wifi connector (so it's not a parasitic draw), and the SpeedoHealer. Various harness associated with the Redarc trailer brake controller (also installed a couple of years ago) are on the right.
^Knocked out most of this list today. Crossing fingers I can get the dash in tomorrow and everything actually works.
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Recently had the dash replaced in my 05
Debated on just selling it but with a bad evaporator and heater core it wouldn't bring much.
Replaced the evaporator and heater core while he was in there along with many other AC parts.
not inexpensive but I plan on keeping it til it dies so money well spent as far as I'm concerned.
- Thread starter
- #297
I rolled the dice on the EVAP core. The AC is still holding a charge. Crossing fingers that it doesn't spring a leak in the near future.
^Transferred everything over to the new dash this AM. Off now to do a final test of the new electrical systems and then start reassembly.
- Thread starter
- #299
Too late now
. I need the rig back on the road next week and don't have the tools to do a proper evacuation of the R134A without just letting it vent. If it goes in the future I'll have to deal with removing the dash again.On the plus side all of my add-on systems worked on the first try! The hours I spent designing and labeling paid off.
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- Thread starter
- #300
Progress as of this evening. The carpet is disgusting. Giving it a thorough clean in the AM prior to reassembly. All other plastic has been removed, cleaned with Dawn, and hit up with a Magic Eraser. The door cards and other plastic I didn't pull will get the same treatment in the rig.
