"So what happened was..." Build (1 Viewer)

[gwatts]

You should get some new carpet while everything is out. You can get it mass backed too. Its better that way as it takes up some extra space as the carpet is thin by itself. I went darker with my River Rock Green LC
Carpet thread

 

[dubdub20003]

This would have been a useful suggestion a few weeks ago, before I spent 3 days with a carpet cleaner… I am so vested in this carpet now, it’s going back in to the 100 and then willed to next of kin. Only way I get the value out of it for the PITA cleaning of it!

 

[dubdub20003]

Does anyone recall if the metal brackets that I painted above install above or below the carpet… I cannot recall. do they hold the carpet in place or does the carpet go over them?

 

[LCposer]

Brackets go below carpet, then plastic covers above carpet

 

[dubdub20003]

Thanks. That means I can not just test fit, but fit, before reinstalling. That will take some work out of it.

 

[dubdub20003]

I have the carpet and all the seats but the passenger back installed. There may be somewhere in the multiverse where a version of me would do this sound deadening project again... but it is kind of hard to imagine. It was an absolute bear to get back together and I had to cut away lots of places that I carefully installed sound deadening just days before to get things to fit again. Unless you really, truly, truly care about having a super silent ride, I would not recommend this to anyone I liked. Great products, but just a lot of work to get right. The worst part, I still have each of the doors to do. So the hard part may still be ahead of me!

Upside, the real reason I started all this was to clean the carpet well... and I did that, and it will now forever be my dirt not the previous owners, and there is a value in that!

 

[dubdub20003]

So I continue to make progress. I pulled new speaker wire to every door... while I bitched as I was doing it, I was pleased when it was done. Just relying on wires and splices and connections that were 20 years old and had already survived at least one prior install was really not worth it to me. Now I have a straight lime of speaker wire without any breaks from the amplifier all the way to each speaker. Since I am running the tweeters and woofers from the separates on different amplifier channels, I do not even have the break at a crossover, as that will be handled by the amp and DSP.
I also put about 6-8 feet of vibration damping materials on each door. It was something I definitely got better at, but unfortunately for me, I started with the drivers door when I was still figuring out the coverage. The rear doors are done quite well. The key, I think, is to put more on the exterior shell than the interior facing shell. The inside has so many bends in it that there are only a few places that could be prone to resonate - mostly right around the speaker hole, which I have 2+ layers of Damplifier on those sections. Also don't forget you can put it on both sides of the interior wall of the door. After how good the rear doors came out, I may get some more on the drivers door.

The next step I expected to be the worst... but to be honest, so far it has not been! That is getting enough space to get the luxury liner pro sound blocking to fit under the door card. My solution below was well worth the time. Two poster boards taped together allowed me to trace and mark all the places that needed to be cut. And since the doors are largely the same, doing a template for one door should work for the other side too. I cut the front doors from the template today... and will tackle the rears tomorrow, hopefully. Happy with the results so far. Waiting on some grill cloth to redo the grills, then can reinstall.... but the test fits looked promising!

Finally, I hollowed out and re-set new tweeters in the pods. The tweeters I am using came with about 5 different clips to help mount the tweeter in all sorts of different manners... but ultimately, the best thing I could do was to just cut out some of the interior plastic in the tweeter pods and just align the tweeters with some black caulk. Still setting, but should be good solution.

Next I have to get the power cables from the battery into the headunit... any recommendations on the best place to cross the firewall? I am a little tight on power wire, so have to find the most direct route. I also made the decision to run the ground wires back to the battery to (largely) eliminate the chances of ground loop noise that so many have fought with on here in the past.

 

[dubdub20003]

So the doors have sound blocking attached. The luxury liner is about 1/2 inch thick and made of vinyl and foam, and heavy. Getting something strong enough to hold it is a challenge, but the sell industrial velcro that does the trick. I need to clean up the speaker holes so the blocking material goes behind the speaker, but it’s getting there. (As you can see I ran the wires through the wrong whole in this pic; I fixed so they run through the other marking slightly below.)

 

[dubdub20003]

Most excitingly, I have a dash without warning lights!!! Since I bought it the ABS, VSC, Trac, and BRAKE lights have been on. Throwing two codes (c1223 and c1254). Working through the diagnostic on c1223, I came to the conclusion it was the ecu… I tried buying a used one, but lost like 6 weeks to a scrap yard that was slow to respond when they sent me a suspension height cpu for a LX. New scrap yard and correct part went in yesterday… but all the lights stayed on. I reset the DTCs and still the same ones came up. I started down the diagnostic for c1254 but that didnt give a clear direction. Not sure if I was doing some of them right, I called it quits last night. Today after work I went back out to try and chip away at it… and I found no lights and no codes waiting for me! A quick drive of a mile or so and none thrown! Seems like the ecu just needed the night to make friends? not sure I understand, but I’ll take it… hopefully it lasts!

 

[dubdub20003]

Well, moving on the right direction. Head unit is installed, which also includes rear camera, Sirius antenna, and microphone, along with usual rca and power connections.

Went from mess of wires to back together… unfortunately, I do not have the amp in yet, and holding off on battery connections until that is done… so had to close it back up without a test! Against every no-self-inflicted-wounds creed to check for operation before closing up… alas, that is what I had to do.

 

[dubdub20003]

Maybe most excitingly, this light works again! When the dash was apart, I did not miss the opportunity to replace this bulb!

Nothing I hate more than bulbs that don’t work… okay, genocide… but you get the idea!

 

[dubdub20003]

Last update for today, I also was able to get the passenger side door skins back on. With the vibration damping material and the sound blocking material, that is no easy feat. Lots of trial and error. On-off-trim, on-off-trim some more. The key is they are done!

One thing that was common on almost all my doors was a soft spot on the door card on the bottom bend to the rear side of each door. Water ingress at some point, with some hard hits over the years. Not wanting problems to get worse, I mixed up some fiberglass resin and coated that section to give it some regidity and waterproof. Not a long term fix, but kept it from getting worse in the short term. I can always pull a skin off and do a legit resin with material if there is a problem. Hopefully I did the stereo all correct so until the window regulator or locks give me an issue, there will be no reason to remove.

… and the other upside of the vibration damping and sound blocking? Much more elaborate and consistent moisture blocking. Not just a thin sheet of plastic that you hope the last person properly reinstalled!

 

[dubdub20003]

So what happened was over then last 3 weeks, the rest of the interior went in, and the interior project is over! I still need to tune the stereo, but can fiddle with that as time allows… that‘s a fun project! With that behind me I shifted to getting my fluids in order. Still have front diff and transmission to do. I had a window to do the work, so had to live with the fluids I could get my hands on quickly... but at least I now have a date and mileage to work forward from. The other two I expect to get done in the next week. Also did a 300 mile trip to Pittsburgh that went flawlessly!

 

[dubdub20003]

So what happened was this weekend I picked up new dancing shoes! These lightly used wheels and tires had been in the classifieds for a few weeks. I had hoped someone would buy them, for they were not in my financial plan right now… but alas, they proved too tempting.

With all the drama around the post-purchase unpleasant diagnosis, I never did those things a new owner does with a good cleaning. Well I guess, I did with the interior, but that took it too far. But haven’t detailed the outside or really dug in with some simple green and a toothbrush to get the exterior grime gone. Starting to chip away at that now!

 

[dubdub20003]

So what happened was I had a great few weeks knocking out projects! I did the front differential and then a full 12qt cycle of transmission fluid! That felt good to get those all done. This truck is on a ride to 2001LC next week, so getting ready for about a 1600 mile trip!

Also helping on the ride, I aligned the Depo headlights and then got a good polish on the fog lights. In hindsight, I wish I just polished the stock glass... but just as I was buying the LC, someone put me onto them as the best upgrade... and they look better than the faded stock glass, but had I known I could polish it, I would have just done that. Nothing to do about it now, but with new bulbs and the polish, my nighttime driving is way safer.

The thing I am most happy about is the LC is in getting new windshield today. I also got all new trim and have a shop here in DC (Windshield City) that has plenty of experience on other member's 100. On top of being confident in the seal and the crisp new window, the passenger side was missing most of the rivets and was making a ton of noise over 25 mph. Getting this done will make the stereo sound so, so much better... and it already sounds really good! Also spraying the plastic cowl around the windshield wipers and the wiper arms with some nice trim paint, which will set it all off nice.

Lots of other projects, but have tried to steer clear of too much mechanical for I want 2001LC to see it as is... without my half fixes, so he really knows the story of each system.

Also ordered a new SCS F5 for the spare...and got red logos from them too, which should pop with the green/grey paint! Need to get the tire on before I leave too.

 

[dubdub20003]

So what happened was… I took off the shield blocking the transfer case to clean it and a friend made fun of me for hours over it… I finally said if Toyota didn’t want me to clean it, they wouldn’t have made it removable… and why else does my dentist give me a new toothbrush every visit? To NOT clean greasy corners? I don’t buy it… the universe wants this cleaned!

Also cleaned by two under engine covers as well. That way I can track any new leaks on my upcoming 1600 mile trip to 2001LC!

 

[excessive]

Love the new wheels and the overall look. Great looking truck, i'd never be able to tell it has that kind of mileage.

 

[dubdub20003]

Thanks. I think the before and after pics show a big change.

So this weekend my LC and I traveled 1600 miles, without issue, to deliver the truck to 2001LC so he could assess what needs to be done to bring it back to tip top shape... for those of a certain age, it is not dissimilar to the feeling one would have a few decades ago waiting for an AIDS test to return. Nothing you can do but wait... and knowing that the news could be bad! I'm at 353k and want to do what is necessary for another 150k of trouble free miles... so it will be worth it, just a bit of trepidation.