Builds What did you do to your Land Cruiser/Toyota/Lexus 4X4 this week? (12 Viewers)

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Finally got around to replacing my radiator. TYC with home air conditioner foam @LandCruiserPhil suggested in another post.
This actually made my AC run cooler than using stock Toyota radiator.
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Is there a PN and a certain location you sourced this foam from? I was thinking of filling that void with a rubber hose.
 
Is there a PN and a certain location you sourced this foam from? I was thinking of filling that void with a rubber hose.
I used a window air conditioner foam insulation kit from Home Depot. Foam was like 2" square by 3 feet long.
 
Those of you that have replaced a brake booster on an 80 know that you often have to loosen mounts and jack up your engine a bit to clear the intake manifold and get the new booster against the firewall. Good mechanics will accomplish this by wrenching on the isolator lug nuts in a counter-clockwise manner but not me. Last week I started on th DS upper mount and cranked on that sucker--clockwise, unfortunately--with my 17mm socket and breaker bar until, you guessed it, I sheared off the lug. It was early and in my enthusiasm I had begun without any coffee. Learned THAT lesson--oh, and that "lefty-loosey" one too.

My new mount arrived promptly from NLXTACY at Wits End along with some caliper bolts (who hasn't thrown a bolt and scavenged one from the rotor?) and a very sexy 1FZ-FE engine name plate. Tonight I removed air filter housing and intake, forward exhaust manifold heat shield, loosened PS and transmission mount nuts, and removed DS lower mounting nut without incident. Removed fan shroud bolts too. Tomorrow I'll find a scrap of 2x6, jack up the engine, replace the DS mount, and install that brake booster (you remember the brake booster?).

Damn I'm speedy and efficient!
 
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Those of you that have replaced a brake booster on an 80 know that you often have to loosen mounts and jack up your engine a bit to clear the intake manifold and get the new booster against the firewall. Good mechanics will accomplish this by wrenching on the isolator lug nuts in a counter-clockwise manner but not me. Last week I started on th DS upper mount and cranked on that sucker--clockwise, unfortunately--with my 17mm socket and breaker bar until, you guessed it, I sheared off the lug. It was early and in my enthusiasm I had begun without any coffee. Learned THAT lesson--oh, and that "lefty-loosey" one too.

My new mount arrived promptly from NLXTACY at Wits End along with some caliper bolts (who hasn't thrown a bolt and scavenged one from the rotor?) and a very sexy 1FZ-FE engine name plate. Tonight I removed air filter housing and intake, forward exhaust manifold heat shield, loosened PS and transmission mount nuts, and removed DS lower mounting nut without incident. Removed fan shroud bolts too. Tomorrow I'll find a scrap of 2x6, jack up the engine, replace the DS mount, and install that brake booster (you remember the brake booster?).

Damn I'm speedy and efficient!

Remember - No job is complete until you have done it twice.
 
Leveraged the front gate as a tent remover. $50 in a rope block and tackle and some 2" straps and it was easy peasy. I looped the anchor strap around the pole then pushed it up using an 8' 2x2. Going to go with 10' straps around the tent next time. The 12' straps had the blocks touching with only 2" of lift. Lowered it onto my son's truck padded with some wood and pushed it off onto furniture casters. Not lifting that beast was awesome!!

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Finished up the drawer system I got from @Pitch :cool: Solid system with two drawers, folding/flip up storage area, some foam padding on top, and quality hardware. It seems however, that whoever built them originally made everything half an inch too wide. Plan was to originally add a couple of supports to stiffen up the slightly warped side wood and make it more stable of a platform to sleep on, but because everything was a tad too wide, the supports made the whole thing too rigid to fit between the wheel wells. We were able to get away with a single small 8" wide plywood support on the bottom connecting one side to the center divider that gave enough pressure to keep the drawers in their tracks but still able to open without too much force. Sanded all the wood, removed some of the blackened/mildew areas, then covered in Killz primer to manage the musty wood smell. Overall, with only about $50 in wood and paint into the whole system, I'm pleased with it. Wont be a permanent/forever solution, but until I graduate and have more available fun monies in a couple of years, it'll do great.

Also, decided to clean, polish, and hand wax the rig for the first time and put some UV protection spray on the awning and tent to help restore the color and give an extra layer of defense against the hot AZ sun. Oh, also fixed my passenger mirror, so happy about that.

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@Just Diddly, your rig is looking great! And, now that you got it all pretty for the holiday weekend... get out there and used that premium camping setup!
 
Epic run to the Rockies this past week.

Telluride to Ouray vis-à-vis Last Dollar Road (not Imogene). Pops you out close to Ridgeway and then you go nude at Orvis Hot Springs then onto Ouray for ice cream. Hahaha

camped outside of Silverton and next morning headed East up and onto Engineer Pass. I’m not good with one lane 30 degree inclines at 12,000’ with ATV’s and Jeeps flying down. Nope. I was pushing about 7,200 lbs of weight with gear and family.

Later that day ended up camping around Wolf Creek, and the next night between Purgatory and Rico. we did a full loop.

lots of water crossings and wildlife too, if you’re into that. Haha

Zona

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Where did you get the Home AC foam? And is it all around the front of Radiator?
I went with this one
https://www.lowes.com/pd/M-D-3-1-2-...oam-Foam-Air-Conditioner-Weatherstrip/1096097

I used 2 of these, one on top and the other on the bottom. I was able to use the side foam from my previous oe toyota radiator as you can unbolt the side that the foam is attached to.

I'm sure you can use a 1/2 foam to attach on the sides. Since its metal you could use the adhesive kind.

The top and bottom did not need any as I wedged them in and its pretty secure.
 
Finished up the drawer system I got from @Pitch :cool: Solid system with two drawers, folding/flip up storage area, some foam padding on top, and quality hardware. It seems however, that whoever built them originally made everything half an inch too wide. Plan was to originally add a couple of supports to stiffen up the slightly warped side wood and make it more stable of a platform to sleep on, but because everything was a tad too wide, the supports made the whole thing too rigid to fit between the wheel wells. We were able to get away with a single small 8" wide plywood support on the bottom connecting one side to the center divider that gave enough pressure to keep the drawers in their tracks but still able to open without too much force. Sanded all the wood, removed some of the blackened/mildew areas, then covered in Killz primer to manage the musty wood smell. Overall, with only about $50 in wood and paint into the whole system, I'm pleased with it. Wont be a permanent/forever solution, but until I graduate and have more available fun monies in a couple of years, it'll do great.

Also, decided to clean, polish, and hand wax the rig for the first time and put some UV protection spray on the awning and tent to help restore the color and give an extra layer of defense against the hot AZ sun. Oh, also fixed my passenger mirror, so happy about that.

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So clean. Looks sharp.
 
Finally got one of my many dream trails checked off. Weren't able to get to Engineer pass as the weather turned later in the afternoon by the time we started making our way there. Still awesome and will be back...soon.

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Hey guys, I'm new around here. Over the past few weeks I've been working on the slide out drawer and sleeping platform in the 4th gen. I got it finished just in time for overlanding the AZBDR a few weeks ago and here are a few progress pics.

The legs of the sleeping platform were bolted into the stock seat mounts. The picture with our shepherd was just a mock up for height.

It's almost a queen size sleeping platform with contour cutouts. We slept comfortably for 3 nights on the trail. The slideouts have locking latches and double as prep surfaces with oak cutting boards.

The water system is a 12v pressure shutoff pump that pulls from a 3.5 gal water brick and feeds to a sprayer in the back. It's really convenient to spray off shoes and water the dog when we're out there. Spraying your head off in the sun is also amazing.

I'll post the suspension work I'm doing next weekend.



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Got the Weber 38 carb installed in the '80 Hilux. It runs SO much better than that wonky Aisin that was on there. So now it runs, idles, and thanks to the Historic Vehicle ahem, rule, it's registered and titled in AZ. Got to keep the cool Utah plate, too.
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Got the Weber 38 carb installed in the '80 Hilux. It runs SO much better than that wonky Aisin that was on there. So now it runs, idles, and thanks to the Historic Vehicle ahem, rule, it's registered and titled in AZ. Got to keep the cool Utah plate, too.
So is the black truck going up for sale? Wheels and Nittos are installed, thanks for the deal!
 

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