[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by Ni1522ke

So... The big question. What has the wife decided? Has she tossed out a couple of ideas? Does she begin to talk about but leave you on the edge of your seat wondering whats coming? Or has she just pink fuzzy dice and hung them from your mirror?

Excellent question! I don't think she'll be involved in any of the interior LED or door handle stuff we're doing this weekend.

Maybe I'll talk her into doing:

(a) the "always on 12V outlet" mod this Saturday, or
(b) the Infinity Kappa speaker install next week, or
(c) an exhaust tip.

[harper7]

Originally Posted by sp8ball

If I was interested in this, should I do fog lights or driving lights?

PIAA Lights - PIAA Bulbs, PIAA Headlight, PIAA Fog Lights & Off Road Lights

I was looking at the 520s.

Attachment 43474

Which color? I was thinking amber fog lights, but what if the light doesn't match my jet yellow Putco bulbs? Would it be safer/easier to just make them driving lights?

And why do they look purple and yellow?

The "protective cage" would be black, naturally. I'd be placing them in the lower grille area in an attempt to look awesome.

The PIAA 520's are way to big to fit in the lower grill . The lens alone is 6 1/4 " and with the lower mount and grill on is close to 8" . That's what she said!

The 510's are as big a round as you can fit in the lower grill and they have several reflector types available. If your putting yellow fog bulbs in the oem fogs then you shouldn't need another set of fogs unless your moving to San Fran. I've only used my PIAA's twice for actual foggy conditions in over a year.

Any lights other the fog lights(driving lights) up front should be treated as high beams and can be wired to be triggered by your high beam switch.

Here's PIAA's website and they have all the info you should ever need on different lights ..... PIAA

[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by harper7

The PIAA 520's are way to big to fit in the lower grill . The lens alone is 6 1/4 " and with the lower mount and grill on is close to 8" . That's what she said!

The 510's are as big a round as you can fit in the lower grill and they have several reflector types available. If your putting yellow fog bulbs in the oem fogs then you shouldn't need another set of fogs unless your moving to San Fran. I've only used my PIAA's twice for actual foggy conditions in over a year.

Any lights other the fog lights(driving lights) up front should be treated as high beams and can be wired to be triggered by your high beam switch.

Here's PIAA's website and they have all the info you should ever need on different lights ..... PIAA

Amazingly, you answered every question I ever had about PIAA lights in one post.

[4RunningDetroit]

I vote that Mr. Sp8ball and Mr. Harper7 get together and write a book or a manual. With Sp8ball's thorough write-ups/wit and Harper's seemingly unending knowledge of...well, everything, it would make for a very interesting read. Chapter 1: How to Lose Yourself to a 4Runner.

[sp8ball]

ALL DAY MOD PARTY & FAMILY BBQ A HUGE SUCCESS

So, we did it!

Antman and I spent a good 6 hours in his garage, once again ignoring his truck and working solely on mine (which I'm starting to feel bad about). Then we took a break, during which time i went home and got Mrs. Sp8ball and the baby while the Antman family prepped some food for an afternoon cookout. The wives got to meet, and everyone hit it off smashingly!

As for the mods themselves?

- Interior Door Handle LEDs? CHECK!
- Color-Matched Door Handles? CHECK!
- Cupholder LEDs? CHECK!
- New Shifter Boot? (since I had the shifter console apart for the cupholder LEDs) CHECK!

We learned how to take door panels off...and did it over, and over, and over again. (tweaking things, discovering that gaps - like along the front edge in the picture, below, of the interior door handle LED - didn't belong there and fixing them) We got more efficient. We used lots of solder. Antman tried to blind himself with hot lead. Sp8ball chugged a 5-Hour-Energy at 9am and used up an entire, fully charged camera battery taking pictures. And I had to listen to you-know-who brag about his incoming Gobi rack and ladder.

Here's a couple of quick teaser pictures until I can get the write-up posted...

[azn-sensation]

very nice. looking forward to the write ups!

[4RunningDetroit]

Is that a faux TRD shifter boot? Was a hot glue gun involved? I'm looking forward to that one! I sure wish I could find a talented/charitable/automotive savvy T4R runner owner who was willing to donate his/her time and labor to the modification of my truck...anyone like that in/around Indy? Just thought I'd ask.

[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by 4RunningDetroit

Is that a faux TRD shifter boot? Was a hot glue gun involved? I'm looking forward to that one!

Truth be told, it's a Pilot brand shifter boot from Pep Boys. I was going to include it in the "shifter knob changeout" write-up, whenever my main shifter knob gets here (my leather ball TRD shift knob is already installed on the 4WD shifter). I think it looks pretty good, despite a lot of folks on here knocking Pep Boys stuff. Is it the greatest quality? No, of course not - but it's not terrible either. Since the OEM shifter boot is stapled to a positioning ring, Antman and I brainstormed (only a mild drizzle of rain was created) and decided...let's just throw this one OVER the OEM shifter boot so we don't have to remove staples! I did (though it took some wrestling and maneuvering because it was a tight fit - the boot has an elastic bottom), and it still clipped back into place. So that's that!

Originally Posted by 4RunningDetroit

I sure wish I could find a talented/charitable/automotive savvy T4R runner owner who was willing to donate his/her time and labor to the modification of my truck...anyone like that in/around Indy? Just thought I'd ask.

So basically, you're longing for your own Antman!? I'm telling you - meeting someone who knows what they're doing - and has done these mods to THEIR truck so they have all the "lessons learned" - has been the real difference for me. And he's a nice guy and stuff.

[Johnny Utah]

Originally Posted by sp8ball

Sp8ball chugged a 5-Hour-Energy at 9am

HAHAHAAHAHAHA Good work sir. I would pay to see that.

[jam23r1]

Originally Posted by sp8ball

Amazingly, you answered every question I ever had about PIAA lights in one post.

uum i have the 540's in the lower grill, i used a 3/8 tap to put them right in and as you can see thay fit and dont hit the bumper and iam going to mod the grill back in or i mite just put one more pare in. thay are 540 ion fog and i think i will git a high beem and thin i wont need to put the grill back in the light's will be the grill

[sp8ball]

Holy crap! I almost fell to the third page! My stupidity and moronic sense of humor must have worn off on people!

Lots to catch up on, and some stuff to do going forward. In reverse order...

I have my Kappa Speakers, Grillcraft MX grill, "Toyota" emblem, TE fog bezels, and Putco fog lights in my garage, ready for installation. Still trying to convince Mrs. Sp8ball to do the speaker change-out, and I'm going to hold the bezels and new fog bulbs for the same time that I do the Satoshi grille mod, which will be...when I lose 15-20 pounds. In the past week, I lost 1 pound! (note: I think these numbers are skewed)

Anyway, some write-ups should be making their way on here in the next 24 hours. Please bear with me - I took over 200 pictures during the all-day mod session at Antman's house, and had to sort through them, delete the crappy ones, compress them, etc. etc.

I'm going to lead off with two "Tutorials" - one on how we make/prep LEDs for install, and one on removing door panels. You need each of those Tutorials to do 2 of the 3 mods I'm going to write up.

1) Color-matched Door Handles: need to remove door panel
2) Interior Door Handle LEDs: need to remove door panel, and need to build LEDs
3) Cup holder LEDs: need to build LEDs

Let's get started!

(Quick personal note: I hope a whale has already taken a crap on Bin Laden's corpse)

[sp8ball]

TUTORIAL: How to Make the LEDs to Install in a Cup Holder or Door Handle

Below are the steps used to pre-fabricate the LED lights used in the Interior Door Handle and Cup Holder LED mods.

Get an Amber-colored LED. We use these, from a local electronics store. It's about $10 for the box. They are nearly identical to the amber color emitted by the dash lights (for those of us with SR5s).




Get some two-wire speaker wire, preferably of a thin gauge.



The long side of the LED is the “positive” side. You’ll need to cut this to add a resistor.



Here’s the chart on the back of the LEDs that tells you what resistor to use. We’re using 680 ohm resistors because these LEDs are fed by a 12-volt power source.



The legs on the resistors are a little long for our application, so you can cut them to be shorter.



Add some solder to the end of the resistor.



Then, solder the resistor to the LED. (note how the LED is being held in such a manner as to protect it from the heat – the pliers will act as a heat sink and absorb the heat before it can “travel” up the metal leg and damage the light)

[sp8ball]

TUTORIAL: Making LEDs (cont.)

Solder the other end of the LED to the striped wire of the speaker wire.



Crimp down on the soldered connection to eliminate burrs.



Eye up the second wire in the speaker wire pair and cut it to length (because of the length of the resistor, this wire will be too long initially).



Put an shrink sleeve on the speaker wire, and then solder it to the other end of the resistor.



Shrink the first wrap, and then place a larger wrap (or tape) over the pair of connections and shrink/wrap them to secure all connections.



Test using battery or the little power source that comes with some LED strands.



And that’s it! Read through the write-ups, determine how many you’ll need, and make them ahead of time. It’ll minimize the amount of time that your truck is apart, and will give you a really good idea if you’ve built the LEDs correctly. Once you have that confirmation, it also makes troubleshooting easy once you’re installing (as you should be fairly certain that any failures in your install aren’t a result of a bad LED/wire).

[sp8ball]

TUTORIAL: Taking Off the Door Panels

The removal of the door panels to get to the outer door handles and to install the interior LEDs was a lot simpler than I first imagined, and was less intimidating than the instructions I saw on the Repair Manual. Here are some steps to get these panels off.

(note: because of a few “oh crap” and “does that look right to you?” moments, Antman and I took the door panels off about 19.4 times per door)

FRONT DOORS:

Reach in and pull the plastic cover piece off of the corner by the A pillar.



Gently pry open the three screw access points on the door, and remove the screws.

[sp8ball]

TUTORIAL: Taking Off the Door Panels, Cont.

FRONT DOORS, Cont.:

There is a spot to grab at the bottom of the panel, at the outermost corner from the door.



Give it a good yank, and the clips holding the door panel in place will give way. Work your hands up the side until the popping stops.



The only thing really holding the door panel to the door at this point is the attachment inside the top of the door (where it meets the window). Gently lift up to lift it off of this attachment point – but don’t go walking away from the door with the panel just yet.



Reach in and disconnect the wiring harness, as shown below.



You will now be left with two cable connected to the door – these green and white connectors shown below. One controls the door handle operation, and the other controls your door locks, so remember what order they’re in (mine was white on top, green on bottom). Disconnect the cables.




Now you can see the white pins that “popped” when you pulled on the door panel. See those black gasket/o-ring things? They may stick to the door instead of your door panel when you pull the panel away. Collect them off of the door and put them on the clips themselves for re-installation.



Here’s the metal clip (one of several) that run along the weatherstripping. This is what gets clipped in FIRST when you’re reinstalling the door panels.



That’s it for the front doors. To reinstall, simply reverse the order!