Weekend at Bernies (1 Viewer)

[NC LX]

Well ONSC family..., Meet "Bernie" my new to me 100 Series. When I leave for the weekend camping now Im going to tell my wife I'm spending the "Weekend at Bernie's."

After several fallen through deals around the east coast on clean 100's, This one came up on CL out side of Birmingham, AL. Being from Alabama I was lucky enough to have a good friend and 100 owner go check it out for me that night. His approval gave me the confidence to lock the deal in over the phone and pick it up a few days later.

Specs are 1 family owned, 1998 LX470 with a 20 year history of service and getting groceries. It has spent it's entire life in and around Birmingham. When I picked it up it has just hit 203k.

From the previous owner, documents for,
Timing belt and water pump at 167k. Heater T's, new starter, and alternator had been replaced in the past year.

This was just after getting it home putting a little over 1000 miles on it.

 

[NC LX]

The ability to pass people, bigger back seat, rear air, are CUP HOLDERS are amazing, but its not the 80 I come to love. I had to make it a little less grocery getter and and more me. Adam at FAT helped me locate an ARB Sahara.

Installation wasn't to difficult, but apparently for the ARB to fit nice and tight on the LX some trimming was necessary.

Added a winch and did the necessary electrical upgrades I've done in the past on other budget winches.

Excited to see what it will become and evolve into...

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Sexy!!!

 

[Dwight S]

You still have steps? Loose'em.
Bumper looks good.

 

[little_joe]

Added a winch and did the necessary electrical upgrades I've done in the past on other budget winches.

Care to elaborate on this?

 

[NC LX]

Care to elaborate on this?

Adding quality wire, soldering connections, eliminating cheap Chinese solenoids for quality ones that reputable companies use, adding grease on contact points, sealing out moisture. Also when I cocked the winch clutch, adding extra grease and sealing the gear side of the winch case. Moisture is the enemy.

whether I spend $300 or $1300 on a winch, these are things I would do to any winch.

 

[weejub]

Congrats, Austin!!

 

[Green Hell Mustang]

Excellent truck! Time to update your avatar.

 

[NC LX]

Excellent truck! Time to update your avatar.

I need a good photo.... if only I knew somebody to make that happen...

 

[jimsmith1370]

Nice truck. I love it.

 

[NC LX]

Nothing to exciting to report. I serviced the AHC system. The system works perfect but the ride was way to rigid. Ordered 3 quarts of AHC fluid from the dealer.

This is what I pulled out of the AHC resivor and out of the 4 bleeder valves at the frame. It’s supposed to be a light pink.

Pretty sure the soccer mom before me, probably put washer fluid in the wrong resivor.

I pulled out the old laptop from 2002 and set up Techstream to make sure my AHC pressures were in spec.

Changing the fluid made a huge difference in the ride.

 

[NC LX]

The 470 is growing on me but one of the things I can’t stand is not having the ability to connect my phone.

I looked at a few different double dins but prefer the simplicity of the OEM radio. I decided to open up my factory radio and splice into the output.

Pulled the top of radio case off and located the R/L for the speaker outputs.

I dug through my toolbox from my past life of wire and old connectors and found a female 3.5mm plug.

Soldered into the L/R channels.

Taped everything out of the way.

 

[NC LX]

Drilled a hole for the Plug and Reassembled the case.

With out haveing a tape in the deck the tape button doesn’t do anything. To trick the radio and make it think it’s playing from a tape I used and old tape adapter and cut the wire off and Placed it in the tape player.

Now when I hit the tape button, the radio thinks its playing from the tape.

 

[JohnVee]

Crafty.

 

[fj40z]

Nice stuff Austin!!

 

[NC LX]

In preparing for the Georiga Traverse I Orderd the 2.5" Medium OME w/SPC uppers from SLEE. Spent the past couple of days installing everything. Picked it up this morning from the alignment shop. Couldn't of done it w/o @Green Hell Mustang

Eliminating the AHC was a must needed upgrade. Love the stance of the 100 now. The OME kit seems to handle the extra weight of the bumper and winch perfectly.

The upper SPC control Arms were the perfect addition to put the upper Ball joints in spec with OEM

Don't let anybody tell you different, the rear shocks are a nightmare on the 100. It's obvious the 100 frame was assembled before the body was sat on top. After a few hours I ended up drilling a hole for access to the hole on the top shock mount. 3 min later after the hole was drilled I had the shocks off.

To cover the hole I had drilled, I used a Plastic insert from the bolt bin at the local hardware store. A little touch up paint and clear caulk sealed them in place for next time.

 

[Green Hell Mustang]

Ok. Now it's time to update your avatar.

 

[JohnVee]

2.5" and what...265's? Something's rotten in Denmark.

 

[NC LX]

More Prep for Bernie.

Slee ARB LED Light Brackets With Cree Cubes

Mounted the RTT on Friday afternoon and took Isla down to Jordan Lake for an impromptu camping trip.

Used a set of Yakima 58” bars.

Isla thought I got her a tree house.

 

[NC LX]

After sleeping in the RTT Friday. Yesterdays project included adding power up in the tent for lights, charging, etc.

Since pulling power from the truck, I showed some attention to the battery and addressed the only rust on the entire truck. Used POR15 gas tank repair to treat the surface.

Forgot to take an after picture. Took about 6 hours to use the rust convertor to prep the metal for the POR application.