Builds Spdstr280Z's While I'm in There 80 Series Build... (1 Viewer)

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I really hate to use the term "final touches" because there is a hell of a lot more to do, but I'm hoping to drive the 80 on a local family getaway this weekend, so I am knocking out some of the remaining items, mainly in the interest of safety. That means I need little things I wasn't worried about on the first test drives, like turn signals, seat belts and a front bumper. Heated seats are a stretch goal.

Did some more painting in my high end heated paint booth...

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Not perfect, you can see a run in that gas lid. But a little wet sanding and polishing, it'll do....


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And I did something I had no plans to ever do, I put the beat up stock bumper back on. I still plan on a winch bumper, but I can't quite make up my mind, and I need to stop spending money for a while. And a rear bumper with a tire carrier will need to come first anyway....

Front end Friday Monday ! I may end up cleaning up that peeling paint and damaged trim on the right side if it stays for a while. Not exactly what I wanted, but it at least is complete looking...

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Jason
 
I really hate to use the term "final touches" because there is a hell of a lot more to do, but I'm hoping to drive the 80 on a local family getaway this weekend, so I am knocking out some of the remaining items, mainly in the interest of safety. That means I need little things I wasn't worried about on the first test drives, like turn signals, seat belts and a front bumper. Heated seats are a stretch goal.

Did some more painting in my high end heated paint booth...

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Not perfect, you can see a run in that gas lid. But a little wet sanding and polishing, it'll do....


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And I did something I had no plans to ever do, I put the beat up stock bumper back on. I still plan on a winch bumper, but I can't quite make up my mind, and I need to stop spending money for a while. And a rear bumper with a tire carrier will need to come first anyway....

Front end Friday Monday ! I may end up cleaning up that peeling paint and damaged trim on the right side if it stays for a while. Not exactly what I wanted, but it at least is complete looking...

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Jason
Your paint skills look great from an internet away, I’m absolutely gonna try this when it warms up this spring!
 
Your paint skills look great from an internet away, I’m absolutely gonna try this when it warms up this spring!

Thanks ! They hold up to about 10 feet... :beer:

For smaller parts / areas, find a local paint shop that will mix 2K paint in spray cans. It's not cheap, but it opens up a whole new world. Almost no point in pulling out detail guns any more. Those parts are 2K epoxy primer, 2K filling primer, and 2K single stage urethane. Basecoat / clearcoat is also an option. These are what I have been using...

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Then the paint store fills these with color...

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Jason
 
Thanks ! They hold up to about 10 feet... :beer:

For smaller parts / areas, find a local paint shop that will mix 2K paint in spray cans. It's not cheap, but it opens up a whole new world. Almost no point in pulling out detail guns any more. Those parts are 2K epoxy primer, 2K filling primer, and 2K single stage urethane. Basecoat / clearcoat is also an option. These are what I have been using...

View attachment 3174251View attachment 3174253

Then the paint store fills these with color...

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Jason
Your thread is such a great contribution. Thanks for sharing your methods. This is blowing my ****ing mind!
 
Looking good!
 
You have done so much for your cruiser. Even removed the factory sh*t they sprayed underneath due to your OCD. Fantastic accomplishment!
 
You have done so much for your cruiser. Even removed the factory sh*t they sprayed underneath due to your OCD. Fantastic accomplishment!

Thanks man. I need to get you a shot of the areas I cleaned and Raptor'd against the areas I haven't gotten to yet. It's killing me when I'm under there. Right now I'm taking the Vice Grip Garage logic of "we'll pretend we didn't see that..."

Jason
 
Getting some miles on this thing, daily driven since Monday. Weather was really nice earlier in the week, this morning it was about 30 with frost on the windshield. Seems I got my moneys worth with the new heater core, heat and defrost work great.

Speaking of heat... My original seats were garbage, ripped leather, crusty rusty frames and busted adjustments. Kind of a good thing, since I didn't mind cannibalizing's them for the wiring harness. I cut off the seat connector, pulled some pins and wire splices from the other under seat connector, and proceeded to make a hybrid harness out of the Toyota plug and the Scheel-Mann harness. There is mixed info out there, so I grabbed the multimeter and test light. The Toyota vertical switch and circuit in the car provide a high "signal" on one wire and a low "signal" on another, just like the Scheel-Mann switch. I saw no reason not to connect all the Scheel-Mann input wiring (power, ground, high signal, low signal) directly to the Toyota under seat plug. since it has everything needed.

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White plug is the Toyota seat plug, large black plug is the Scheel-Mann relay plug, small black plug is the seatbelt connector.. Wires headed under the seat are to the heating elements.

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Unexpectedly, while the +12VDC under the drivers seat was ignition switched, I found the same wire was always hot on the passenger side. I didn't want to install this so the passenger side could be left on when the truck was off, so I planned to look for another ignition switched power source. Fortunately I didn't have to worry about it too long. When splicing the harness for the passenger side I realized that the Scheel-Mann +12V wire does not connect directly to the relay at all, it only provides power to the switch. Since we already have switched power from the Toyota switches / harness, we don't actually need +12V for the Scheel-Mann harness at all. I capped the wire and assembled the harness. This was actually exactly what I had done on the drivers side too, but I thought I was only capping the power and ground to the switch from the SM harness, assuming there was a wire directly to the relay. Did any of that make sense ? It's kinda late.

So, this is not a tutorial, I am not a professional automotive wiring expert, I'm an idiot. Don't burn your truck down doing what I did, but for me and my truck and the SM harnesses I received, I connected the truck ground to the SM ground, and the switched circuits from the truck to the SM switch inputs only, that's it. And I have working heated seats using Toyota switches with working indictor lights. Simple and easy.

Only current modern vehicles I have to compare these heaters to are my Mazda 3 and our GX 460, both '18's. The Mazda seats take a while to warm up, and get comfortable but will never get uncomfortably hot (of course they will be too warm once the car is hot, but they never feel like they are going to burn you), the Lexus seats heat up fast and will roast us out of the seats on high. The Scheel-Mann seats are between the two, they take a minute to warm up, but will melt things in your pockets once they get hot. Both my wife and daughter think they get as warm as the Lexus seats, just take longer to get there. Testing them this morning they took about 5 minutes to really warm up, but in 10 we were switching them to low or off.

Jason
 
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Looking around for some nice Forest Service roads to get out and do some breaking in and riding on something other than asphalt, I learned there is a "ghost town" about 30 minutes from my house off of Forest Service gravel roads. Perfect, dragged eldest child out of the house...

My manly 4WD lifted and locked rig, muddy after the adventure...

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Nothing to see here, nope, only high clearance 4WD rigs can make it in here....

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But the ghost town / ruins were pretty cool....

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Jason
 
Rolled lucky 7's ! It's really lucky 514, that's the mileage since the transfer case went back in, so about 600 on the engine now. Beginning to relax that I didn't do anything else stupid in the rebuild of either...

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Jason
Next up is dismantling the dash to polish the cluster plastic....



JK. Congrats on your accomplished repair my man!
 
Next up is dismantling the dash to polish the cluster plastic....



JK. Congrats on your accomplished repair my man!

LOL, that WAS polished a bit, at least with Plexus. Looks fine IRL. I post those close up pics and I regret not replacing it when I had it apart. I may be going back in at some point anyway, wired the relays so the rear locker light works with the Eaton locker, but I have no light. Fairly sure I put a bulb in the hole knowing I was going to do it...
 
LOL, that WAS polished a bit, at least with Plexus. Looks fine IRL. I post those close up pics and I regret not replacing it when I had it apart. I may be going back in at some point anyway, wired the relays so the rear locker light works with the Eaton locker, but I have no light. Fairly sure I put a bulb in the hole knowing I was going to do it...
Skip it. Im just giving you a hard time. I'm living in a glass house...everything near the steering wheel is more than a little tired and worn on my rig.
 

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