ARCHIVE The Plaidwagon Thread

[Trapper50cal]

Hey Kyle and everyone following plaidwagon's thread

His seat back net frames officially work with the rare cloth interior 100's

Thanks Again, Kyle!

 

[plaidwagon]

Hey Kyle and everyone following plaidwagon's thread

His seat back net frames officially work with the rare cloth interior 100's

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Thanks Again, Kyle!

Looks awesome! Thanks for being the world’s first cloth interior 100 series to have a set of these!

 

[plaidwagon]

Let’s gets some updates in here- always a lot going on with life/family/work/business.

Finally tackled a huge area of neglect a couple weekends ago. Had a new Toyota steering rack sitting on the shelf for a few months. My original rack was still tight, just leaking a lot and making a huge mess down there.

I jacked up the engine from the driver side and kept the oil filter housing in place.

My biggest struggle was getting the steering shaft off the old rack. Was able to sneak a ball joint fork in from the top side and hammer it in to slide it off.

Since I knew my steering wheel was straight and my old rack was centered, I matched those dimensions to the new rack (which was way passenger in the box). Those measurements also lined up the paint marks from Toyota on the new rack.

Got some fresh outers from Cruiser Outfitters as well. I did stay with factory rack bushings, we’ll see if I regret that decision later!

High tech garage alignment. Driving across town I was about 2 degrees off at my steering wheel while driving straight. Alignment shop said it was pretty close and got it perfect. New rack tracks straight and feels totally solid, pretty happy to move on from this project!

 

[plaidwagon]

I also installed a Slee diff drop while I was in there. I won this at the raffle last year at Cruisers On The Rockies, paid for the whole trip right there!

 

[plaidwagon]

Another little product I’ve had in motion is these oil caps. I always forget the capacity between our 100 and GX470 so these are pretty handy! Originally I was purchasing blank caps online but now these are machined at my friend’s shop in Minnesota. I’ve got them for fzj80, uzj100, and gx470 on my site- more models to come.

 

[shane431]

You sure it’s 8 quarts? Never mind! I see the 7.2 qts!

 

[plaidwagon]

You sure it’s 8 quarts? Never mind! I see the 7.2 qts!

For the 1FZ I think technically it's 7.6 but I had a crowd of 80 series guys tell me to put 8 quarts on it. I do think these caps can be a little tricky to please everyone since a lot of folks have their own oil preference or don't want to use a Toyota filter.

 

[augustwest]

@plaidwagon: any idea when you'll have tan LX470 seatback nets back in stock?

 

[plaidwagon]

@plaidwagon: any idea when you'll have tan LX470 seatback nets back in stock?

I'm pretty much building everything to order these days, seat back nets are typically shipped within 1-2 weeks depending on color. You can drop an order on the website if you'd like to get a pair rolling, be awesome to ship some out to another Colorado rig!

 

[augustwest]

I'm pretty much building everything to order these days, seat back nets are typically shipped within 1-2 weeks depending on color. You can drop an order on the website if you'd like to get a pair rolling, be awesome to ship some out to another Colorado rig!

Just placed my order! Thanks!

 

[plaidwagon]

Just placed my order! Thanks!

Order received- thanks so much! I was also notified that you're my 250th order through the site- cheers to little milestones!

 

[jaewastooshort]

Finally tackled a huge area of neglect a couple weekends ago. Had a new Toyota steering rack sitting on the shelf for a few months. My original rack was still tight, just leaking a lot and making a huge mess down there.
...pretty happy to move on from this project!

The steering rack replacement has been the most unpleasant job I've tackled on mine so far... that stupid splined joint where the shaft joins the rack input gave me a problem for weeks trying to get the corrosion broken up enough to break the joint.

Regarding the DIY straight-edge alignment, were there any concerns with trying to adjust toe with the front suspension unloaded?

 

[plaidwagon]

The steering rack replacement has been the most unpleasant job I've tackled on mine so far... that stupid splined joint where the shaft joins the rack input gave me a problem for weeks trying to get the corrosion broken up enough to break the joint.

Regarding the DIY straight-edge alignment, were there any concerns with trying to adjust toe with the front suspension unloaded?

Guess I got lucky! I only had to battle the steering shaft for a couple hours but it still put up a fight. Helped having the rack totally loose and then the fork could push the rack away as well.

As for the diy alignment, I just needed to get a couple miles across town so I just want to make sure I was somewhat close. Aimed for 1/8” of toe but factored the unloaded suspension so I gave it a little more.

 

[plaidwagon]

My seat back panels were pretty trashed so I stripped the factory pleather material off and wrapped them in some plaid fabric. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Keeping straight lines straight on a completely curved panel is tricky!

-also pictured is a little headrest storage/ipad mount that I’m messing with. I’ve got 4 kids so some entertainment on road trips will be nice. Figuring I can hook the iPad to my stereo’s Bluetooth for sound.

 

[plaidwagon]

Had a hood vent idea rolling around in my head for a while. I didn’t want to cut any of the under structure on the hood, the 100 series has a ton of it and doesn’t really have any good wide open spaces to work with. So these just need the top sheet metal cut away and can be placed wherever. I chose .100 thick 5052 aluminum, wanted them to be stout enough to handle a tree branch dragging across them and also never bleed rust like steel eventually would.

I aimed for directly over the exhaust manifolds that way any water that comes in doesn’t land on anything critical like a fuse box or something electrical. My hood liner was trashed so I just tossed it and probably won’t get a new one.

My goal with these isn’t to claim that I’m solving a problem or that everyone needs them. I just wanted to let some heat out that gets trapped and hopefully make a better environment for items under the hood with some airflow. Low speed trail days and hot summer months out here in the desert can only benefit from it.

These are available on my site in black powder coat or raw aluminum. Comes with a layout template and black aluminum rivets. Shipped a few out so far, excited to see them out in the wild.