What have you done to your 100 Series this week? (58 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Spent some time at a buddies lake house and slept on the roof of the cruiser. Cool at night and warm during the day. Pretty awesome for mid November.

20201106_170149.jpg


20201106_172228.jpg
 
new weather stripping for all 4 doors, now wind noise at hwy speed is gone, super stoked!
took out the speakers i had put in for replacements (didn't pay attention to their Ohms) and replaced them with 2 ohm speakers, sounds way better. realized i have a bad tweeter on the driver's side so have to either get an oem replacement or just figure out how to rig component speakers...just a bit leery of cutting the oem wiring. found another post from @highonpottery that might help with which wires to use.
up next, fixing the leak in the passenger footwell from the ac. got the parts and gasket to convert to being able to insert cabin filters, should be fun.
man i love this truck, it is a blast tinkering on it!

Which speakers did you go with? Would you mind sharing the brand and part number! Thanks.
 
Started mounting my Yakima Mega-Warrior and awning to the LX. This is the third vehicle this thing has been on. I know I'm a cheapskate. LOL!

I really need some sliders next. Im short and have to jump to get in. Anyone recommend some bare steel, cheap sliders with a kickout?
IMG_1690.JPG
IMG_1692.JPG
 
Looks really nice--nothing wrong with using what you already have. You don't buy quality gear just to replace it.
 
Started mounting my Yakima Mega-Warrior and awning to the LX. This is the third vehicle this thing has been on. I know I'm a cheapskate. LOL!

I really need some sliders next. Im short and have to jump to get in. Anyone recommend some bare steel, cheap sliders with a kickout? View attachment 2493007View attachment 2493008
White knuckle off road sliders in bare metal, about 800 delivered, super high quality, just installed mine, clean em with mineral spirits, prime and paint with rattle cans for about 30 bucks. Best option IMHO. See my posts from about 5 days ago.
 
Happy with them?
So far, they do what they need to do. Heat from seat heaters radiates through nicely. I need to readjust the outside strap on the DS seat cushion a 3rd time. The cutout location for the power seat controls is not as correct as the PS.
 
What was your reason for going with extrusion pieces? Was the install easy?
For me, the reason was the ease of attaching accessories for a fraction of the cost (~$140) of a new roof rack.
The install is actually pretty easy. What takes some time are the in-channel plates with tap holes used to attach the L brackets that hold the extrusion bars to the side railings.
 
Got around to start the front wheel bearing replacement job today.

1. A big FU to the person who attached the calipers to the knuckle last time. I spent 90 minutes just loosening (2) 17mm bolts.
2. I didn't even finish one side in 4 hours; I get distracted too easily.
3. Bearing and races were Timken and looked OK, but the grease was BLACK sludge. Only deep in the hub where there is a grease pocket could I tell it was originally Lucas green.
4. I've consumed 3 rolls of paper towels already.

BIG SHOUT OUT to all of the contributors on this job over the years in this forum. If something stumped me, I could find the answer in 5 mins or less using the phenomenal search function.
 
Loaded her up with our family of 5 and drove 2800 miles from WI to IL, IN, OH, WV, VA, NC, TN, KY and back. She was down on power with misfires unders 2000 RPM during the first 800 miles, until I decided to pull the plugs to see what's what. Found 3 plugs to be quite loose with some oil on the threads 😬

Replaced all 8 with new Denso Iridiums and that restored the throttle response to normal - made it a lot more pleasant to drive the rest of the 2000 miles!
Some observations:
  • Thicker Ironman TB upfront made a huge difference in the ride. A lot less jittery at low modulation disturbances and much reduced nose dive on braking
  • Upgraded LC rear sway bar made the sweeping mountain passes in southeast much more confidence inspiring. I won't say she is now as planted as my X5 but for a big lifted brute it is quite surprisingly firm and flat on those big high speed sweeps
  • I was carrying close to 200 lbs in the rooftop box and still didn't notice any wind noise or any effects of having so much weight so high up. For comparison, our Sienna feels like a tippy sail boat with the same setup!
  • I spent some time setting up the awning before the trip - we ended up using it exactly zero times - now I am wondering if we even need the awning and the accompanying room :meh:
  • We spent a day at the Windrock offroad park doing "moderate" trails 2 and 22. With just the rear locker (98 doesn't have A-TRAC) she climbed really steep and rocky climbs with no drama at all. I get impressed by this truck every single time I test its limits.
  • Accessories: This was the first time we carried a fridge (ICECO JP50) and my made-at-home-in-under-2-hours platform proved to be game changers for the long trip. We took with us so much food that we couldn't even finish in almost 2 weeks! And the platform meant I didn't have to stack things on top of each other. I had access to all of my stuff without having to empty half of the trunk!
  • We averaged nearly 13 mpg during the trip, on a heavily laden truck with a roof box and spirited (;)) driving.
View attachment 2491401

View attachment 2491402

View attachment 2491403

View attachment 2491405
View attachment 2491406

You made it to Windrock?? Dude that's awesome!

Looks like it was a great trip. Nice save with the plugs.
 
Merging a few weeks into this one. I've mainly been adding/tweaking a few smaller things since the truck is in pretty good condition:
  • Video Dash Cam/Backup Camera:
    • Took me from '02 to '20 in one step. Having a backup camera without opening the can of worms with the nav/touch screen was great.
    • I hated the dinky straps to mount to the existing mirror so I created a bracket to mount the new one to the old hardware.
  • Interior LED Swap:
    • Makes a huge difference immediately. The warm light looks the same just 100x brighter.
    • Pulling the bulbs out didn't seem too bad until I wiggled one the wrong way and blew the fuse (twice)
  • Tire Pressure Monitoring:
    • Install and calibration was a breeze. I removed the black panel that holds the mirror control and rear vents and made on with a slot to hold the monitor which keeps it out of the way and hardwired to a power source.
    • Now, I just have to figure out how to turn the volume down on the alarm. "Hey, your tire pressure has dropped," is the notification I'm looking for instead of the current sound which is a bit like, "HOLY s***, HOLY s***, THE TIRE EXPLODED AND THE RUSSIANS ARE INVADING!!!!!"
  • CD Changer Delete:
    • I ended up creating a box to drop in the empty slot but will eventually figure out a more useful storage solution.
  • Heater-T Replacement:
    • Glad I did this one. One "T" felt like wet cardboard and disintegrated in my hands.
    • I've got some extra hoses/valves if anyone was looking to do this one.
  • Speaker Replacement:
    • Easy enough to do although the passenger doors needed a bit of 'slimming' to fit everything properly.
    • Time to repair the foam on the subwoofer since it doesn't look like a replacement is easy to find.
    • Anyone found it worthwhile to replace the stock amp? I got an immediate improvement in sound quality/volume but think this might be the best next step.
  • ScanGuage II Bracket:
    • Since the ashtray was just taking up space, I popped the face of it off and mounted a bracket to hold the ScanGuage. After seeing some stories about vehicle inspections having a problem with this installed, I wanted a way to easily pop on/pop off as needed.
  • Roof Rack:
    • I went with the cheap Amazon buy since I wasn't sure if I'll keep it long term. I TPV'd the seams and bolts and hit it with a rattle can bed liner. It gets the job done and looks a lot better than what I paid for it.
    • If anyone's created a larger wind deflector for their cargo rack, I'd love to hear your thoughts any improvement to wind noise/resistance.
Up next:
  • The Underbody: Rust removal and winter coating
  • Changing the wheel color to something darker
  • Hardwired audio input. The tape adapter has led to a constant Bluetooth connection war between me and my wife and its time for a peace treaty
  • Power Inverter. I guess I'll connect it to the battery and run the wiring through the firewall but I need to do some more research on the threads here
  • Tailgate lid storage
  • Reclining the 2nd row seats
  • Leather/carpet/paint repair and refresh
And the upgrade that improved things the most:
The Lucky Bodega Cat Co-Pilot
51618050-3FF9-48C7-8FC7-F42F719559F2_1_105_c.jpeg
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom