Yeah, I think I'm going to paint the hatch handle. May do it with plasti-dip though, just in case. I think I'm going to leave the emblems chrome (for now, lol).
05 4runner SR5 V6 4x4 Build
- Thread starter keitht253
- Start date
Yeah, I think I'm going to paint the hatch handle. May do it with plasti-dip though, just in case. I think I'm going to leave the emblems chrome (for now, lol).
Well, I hooked up the ID CTX65cs components a couple days ago, and installed the Kicker ZX350.4 under the front passenger seat.
I decided to make my life easier and tap into the factory speaker wire (tapped into the left speaker wire behind the head unit, and the right speaker wire at the passenger side kick panel).
I installed the speakers using the SAT69 adapter from Scosche that allows you to mount a 6.5" speaker in the factory 6x9 location. I didn't need to make any kind of spacer or baffle for the 2.75" deep woofer, since there were no clearance issues at all (I was amazed). I put dynamat around the opening before mounting the bracket. Then I put double sided tape between the bracket and the 6.5" mounting ring of the speaker. Then I used some non-hardening molding clay from Michael's to seal the 6.5 to the bracket (by putting it around the edges and filling any gaps in the SAT69 bracket). I finished it off by putting dynamat on top of the edge where the bracket meets the door metal, to seal up any holes there.
I set the tweeter level on the crossover to -3db, since they were sort of grating at their 0db factory setting. Then after some adjustment with the crossover point on the amp and head unit, and dialing in the proper gain amount, they were good to go.
All I can say is WOW! I've owned some decent coaxials in the past, but never had a beefy set of components like this (nor have I ever externally amped any of my car speakers before, except for subwoofers). These sound awesome, and I'd recommend them to anybody. The midbass is great, and if I don't have any crossover on them at all, they almost make my Basslink obsolete!
If anyone would like to see them, I can take pics of the finished install. I forgot to do this with the door panels off yesterday, but getting them off is fairly easy so I don't mind doing it again so you all can see what I'm talking about in this post.
To update you all on some other things:
1) Trevloc has sent me a pair of headlights that I'm planning on blacking out as soon as I get them.
2) I'm going to be plasti-dipping my rear hatch handle as suggested, and leaving my emblems chrome.
3) I'm thinking about getting floor mats but can't decide between the huskys and the weathertechs.
4) I keep looking at my car, and wanting to do the FJ suspension swap, but I'm really thinking I should wait to do this until I get new tires as well (which will probably be this fall), so I can do the suspension and then get the tires put on and an alignment done all at once.
However, I'm still trying to figure out the true benefits of the FJ suspension swap and if it'll be worth it. Right now I figure the ride will improve a bit, I'll get more of a level stance, and I'll be more able to clear 265/70r17 tires. Anything else I'm missing?
I decided to make my life easier and tap into the factory speaker wire (tapped into the left speaker wire behind the head unit, and the right speaker wire at the passenger side kick panel).
I installed the speakers using the SAT69 adapter from Scosche that allows you to mount a 6.5" speaker in the factory 6x9 location. I didn't need to make any kind of spacer or baffle for the 2.75" deep woofer, since there were no clearance issues at all (I was amazed). I put dynamat around the opening before mounting the bracket. Then I put double sided tape between the bracket and the 6.5" mounting ring of the speaker. Then I used some non-hardening molding clay from Michael's to seal the 6.5 to the bracket (by putting it around the edges and filling any gaps in the SAT69 bracket). I finished it off by putting dynamat on top of the edge where the bracket meets the door metal, to seal up any holes there.
I set the tweeter level on the crossover to -3db, since they were sort of grating at their 0db factory setting. Then after some adjustment with the crossover point on the amp and head unit, and dialing in the proper gain amount, they were good to go.
All I can say is WOW! I've owned some decent coaxials in the past, but never had a beefy set of components like this (nor have I ever externally amped any of my car speakers before, except for subwoofers). These sound awesome, and I'd recommend them to anybody. The midbass is great, and if I don't have any crossover on them at all, they almost make my Basslink obsolete!
If anyone would like to see them, I can take pics of the finished install. I forgot to do this with the door panels off yesterday, but getting them off is fairly easy so I don't mind doing it again so you all can see what I'm talking about in this post.
To update you all on some other things:
1) Trevloc has sent me a pair of headlights that I'm planning on blacking out as soon as I get them.
2) I'm going to be plasti-dipping my rear hatch handle as suggested, and leaving my emblems chrome.
3) I'm thinking about getting floor mats but can't decide between the huskys and the weathertechs.
4) I keep looking at my car, and wanting to do the FJ suspension swap, but I'm really thinking I should wait to do this until I get new tires as well (which will probably be this fall), so I can do the suspension and then get the tires put on and an alignment done all at once.
However, I'm still trying to figure out the true benefits of the FJ suspension swap and if it'll be worth it. Right now I figure the ride will improve a bit, I'll get more of a level stance, and I'll be more able to clear 265/70r17 tires. Anything else I'm missing?
Catfish
Member
Pics of the door handles:
Those door handles look great! I'm about to plasti-dip mine as well. Did you remove the handles to paint/plasti-dip them?
Yeah, I did remove them. I suppose you could do it while on the car, but that would give you a couple disadvantages. One, it would be very hard to coat the handles all the way around (which I found the hard way is pretty important if you don't want the stuff peeling off anytime soon). Two, it would be hard to get in between the door handle and the end piece.
I think both points are important to note if you're looking to get a clean, consistent, and lasting outcome.
The front handles are very easy to remove. The rears - not so much, but so it goes.
S p a r k y
New member
Just to confirm, you went with the Blacked out tails instead of Smoke correct?
GforceUSA pics appear to be different than yours, so just wanted to confirm. They look great on yours. Those would match my headlight perfect. Also i dont think you need an extra set of headlights, i think it would be tough to mess up your current ones. Was an easy process.
GforceUSA pics appear to be different than yours, so just wanted to confirm. They look great on yours. Those would match my headlight perfect. Also i dont think you need an extra set of headlights, i think it would be tough to mess up your current ones. Was an easy process.
Yeah, I figured I'd have to remove the handles for the best results...which I am completely prepared to do. I was just hoping there might be an easier way...
If I can stand the 103°F outside, I think I'll tackle this today.
Good luck! I think you'll really like the results.
Thanks! They were the first thing I did and I'm very happy about how they turned out.
I've already got some headlights on the way so it'll be nice to be able to paint them without having to be headlight-less during the process.
Anyway, I went with these exact tail lights:
2003 2004 2005 TOYOTA 4RUNNER 4-RUNNER BLACK TAIL LIGHT | eBay
I'm not sure which ones you're saying are smoked vs. blacked out, though, and which camp these fall into.
S p a r k y
New member
03-05 TOYOTA 4 RUNNER SMOKE TAIL LIGHTS REAR LAMP PAIR | eBay
Those are the smoke, not bad looking but def like the black better, will order them soon hopefully
Those are the smoke, not bad looking but def like the black better, will order them soon hopefully
Oh yeah, I remember looking at those. Not a fan at all. They look just like the chrome altezzas with a smoked lens. Blacked-out is definitely the way to go!
Keith, I love that you got the infinity bass link. I've been looking at those for a while for a couple of my cars. I was wondering how stable/top heavy is it? Do you think you would be able to secure it to the top of the wheel arch more to the side? Would the screws hold it do you think? Are the feet too wide? I really like it, I just would kind of like it out of the way. Can you mount it flat to the wall? Sorry, that's a ton of questions but I like your setup. Thanks!
Thanks, settytb. It is pretty stable with the provided mounting brackets - not too top heavy, etc.
I'm not sure if I would mount it to the top of the wheel well, at least not directly. If you could fabricate some sort of board, and mount it there in a sturdy fashion, I have no doubt that the basslink would be fine on top of that. I'll have to check tomorrow to see if the feet are wide enough to go straight on top of the wheel well, but like I said, I probably wouldn't do it - due to issues with vibration, etc. The plastic that's there just doesn't seem too sturdy and I'd be hesitant to mount anything with weight to it.
Right now I have it mounted into the shelf platform only, and it seems to do well there, only held in by two screws. It moves back and forth a bit at higher levels but at regular listening levels its pretty well-behaved.
As for mounting it to the wall (between the wheel well and the hatch, I assume), I haven't checked that possibility directly. I think it would work, though if you were to use the horizontal mounting feet to mount it vertically against the wall. You may have to battle the curvature of that wall piece, though, and it would probably be better to fabricate some sort of flat board to put there to mount the sub on as well.
I hope this helps a bit. I'll go out tomorrow and actually check if the feet are narrow enough to be mounted on top of the wheel well, and if there's enough room for it on that side wall between the well and the hatch. Like I said, though, even if it were to fit, I'd still recommend putting a wood piece in either position, anchored to sturdy metal, to mount the sub on.
Well, I plasti-dipped the rear hatch handle trim piece black. Thanks to Trevloc's instructions on his build thread, it was pretty easy - that is, besides for the terrible storm that ripped through the WV/OH/KY area while the piece was off and being plasti-dipped yesterday evening.
And one with the God rays shining down on my (and Toyota's) masterpiece :biggrin2:
And one with the God rays shining down on my (and Toyota's) masterpiece :biggrin2:
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Settytb: I did some measuring, and it turns out the mounting feet are too wide to be mounted on top of the wheel well. Your best bet would be mounting it as close to the wall between the wheel well and rear hatch as possible, and do so vertically (if you have the shelf system, this will be harder to do). Let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Thanks, man! Have you already ordered yours?
I think those headlights are supposed to come in tomorrow - I'm pretty pumped! I'm also sitting around photoshopping black wheels onto my ride, debating whether or not do go for it after reading the plasti-dipped wheels thread.
So I've been kicking around the idea of plasti-dipping my wheels black. However, I don't think I want to go all black, nor all black with silver center caps. I have come up with three schemes, though, that I kind of like. I personally prefer the first two (and am leaning towards the second one). I want to hear what you all think about these. Here goes:
Black spokes, black center caps, silver lip:
Black spokes, silver lip and center caps:
Black center caps only:
Black spokes, black center caps, silver lip:
Black spokes, silver lip and center caps:
Black center caps only:
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4Runners
New member
Ok now i see what you mean by the different plasti-dip combos. I would still do the whole rim black on yours just because its easier to mask and prep and gives it a nice even seal with hardly any exposed edges that would make it prone to peeling.
But if you wanted to try out one of these combos, i guess you could do the hubcaps first, let them dry then pop them back on the wheels to see what they look like in real life. Then if you want to plasti dip more, do your first combo since you already would have plasti-dipped the caps.
I guess we both got addicted to plasti-dipping. I should probably start a build thread too. How's your door handles so far? That area gets lots of contact and rubbing which is why i didn't do mine.
But if you wanted to try out one of these combos, i guess you could do the hubcaps first, let them dry then pop them back on the wheels to see what they look like in real life. Then if you want to plasti dip more, do your first combo since you already would have plasti-dipped the caps.
I guess we both got addicted to plasti-dipping. I should probably start a build thread too. How's your door handles so far? That area gets lots of contact and rubbing which is why i didn't do mine.
Trevloc
New member
no havnt ordered my tails yet. gotta wait til i get some extra cash.
and btw, whats the point of a confirmation number if they never update it? ahaha
and in regards to your wheels, i like the second one most. but that is going to be hard to achieve with plastidip, there will be no end for it to hold and its gonna peel imo.
and btw, whats the point of a confirmation number if they never update it? ahaha
and in regards to your wheels, i like the second one most. but that is going to be hard to achieve with plastidip, there will be no end for it to hold and its gonna peel imo.
Re: confirmation number - tell me about it. It might have come already but I haven't made the trek down the driveway to check if it's there.
Also, I tried doing that second design on a wheel and couldn't pull it off very cleanly. Back to the drawing board. I may do what 4runners did, or get some aftermarket wheels.
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Yes, plasti-dip is an amazing thing! The door handles have been great thus far. At first I didn't do them the whole way around and it felt like it wouldn't have lasted. I took them off and redid them, and now they feel much better and I think they'll hold up for a while. If they don't last, I'll probably do it with legit paint since I really like the look and don't really want to go back to silver.
