A few pictures of my Runner
- Thread starter 1985taylor1925
- Start date
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
Actually my parents just gave me a camera for Chirstmas, so good pictures to follow! And Im currently working on a mod thats all original and gonna be awesome! stay tuned . . .
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
My Modified Sotoshi Mod
Alright dudes, I did the Sotoshi mod awile back using a large toyota emblem from a Tundra. But I love the Sotoshi mod with the vintage LC Toyota badges. But I also wanted mine to be a bit bigger than the biggest emblem you can buy (I believe the FJ 60 is the biggest emblem at 13" long), and a bit unique.
So, I fabricated my T O Y O T A letters from scratch. So here it is. And, the pictures I took while making the emblem were taken with my phone. BUT, the finished product photos were taken with a REAL CAMERA. Thats right people, I finally have an actually digital camera to display my truck for what it really looks like!
I didnt take many pictures while making the emblem, but youll get the idea.
I started by drafting the letters on paper, which was kinda fun. It took me back to high school tech ed class where we did some basic drafting. I drew several different sized letters, and finally decided on a letter dimension of 2.25" high by 2.75" long. These letters are significantly larger than the LC emblem letters as youll see.
I then cut them out and traced them onto the following . . .
If this looks like a cutting board to you, then you are correct. I thought about making the letters out of a strip of auminum, but the strips of aluminum were'nt quite as thick as what I wanted, and I could foresee some issues going that rout. I wanted the letters to look thick and a bit blocky, and the 1 cm thick plastic cutting board was perfect. Plus it's extreamly strong stuff as it's intended to withstand a serrated knife. And the flat white color is exactly what I was looking for.
Not many pictures of the letters as I was forming them, but I will tell you it was a pain with the tools I had available, and took forever. Every single cut was made by hand, using three different sized hack saws. I won't go into the process of forming the letters. But it involved cutting, drilling holes to cut the inner sections of the O's and A, and a ton of filling and sanding with a close eye.
And here are the letters finished. This shows you just how large they are. The tape measure reads 18". This is 5" longer than the LC Toyota emblem.
I used a strip of aluminum to mount the letters. Initially I thought about keeping the aluminum bare, but decided it would probably look better painted black. The blue tape on the aluminum is over the areas where the letters were epoxied on. Obviously the letters needed to be epoxied to bare metal rather than paint.
So the finished product includes the six letters epoxied onto a strip of aluminum which I painted black, and then mounted to grill mesh using small machine screws with nuts and washers.
Alright dudes, I did the Sotoshi mod awile back using a large toyota emblem from a Tundra. But I love the Sotoshi mod with the vintage LC Toyota badges. But I also wanted mine to be a bit bigger than the biggest emblem you can buy (I believe the FJ 60 is the biggest emblem at 13" long), and a bit unique.
So, I fabricated my T O Y O T A letters from scratch. So here it is. And, the pictures I took while making the emblem were taken with my phone. BUT, the finished product photos were taken with a REAL CAMERA. Thats right people, I finally have an actually digital camera to display my truck for what it really looks like!
I didnt take many pictures while making the emblem, but youll get the idea.
I started by drafting the letters on paper, which was kinda fun. It took me back to high school tech ed class where we did some basic drafting. I drew several different sized letters, and finally decided on a letter dimension of 2.25" high by 2.75" long. These letters are significantly larger than the LC emblem letters as youll see.
I then cut them out and traced them onto the following . . .
If this looks like a cutting board to you, then you are correct. I thought about making the letters out of a strip of auminum, but the strips of aluminum were'nt quite as thick as what I wanted, and I could foresee some issues going that rout. I wanted the letters to look thick and a bit blocky, and the 1 cm thick plastic cutting board was perfect. Plus it's extreamly strong stuff as it's intended to withstand a serrated knife. And the flat white color is exactly what I was looking for.
Not many pictures of the letters as I was forming them, but I will tell you it was a pain with the tools I had available, and took forever. Every single cut was made by hand, using three different sized hack saws. I won't go into the process of forming the letters. But it involved cutting, drilling holes to cut the inner sections of the O's and A, and a ton of filling and sanding with a close eye.
And here are the letters finished. This shows you just how large they are. The tape measure reads 18". This is 5" longer than the LC Toyota emblem.
I used a strip of aluminum to mount the letters. Initially I thought about keeping the aluminum bare, but decided it would probably look better painted black. The blue tape on the aluminum is over the areas where the letters were epoxied on. Obviously the letters needed to be epoxied to bare metal rather than paint.
So the finished product includes the six letters epoxied onto a strip of aluminum which I painted black, and then mounted to grill mesh using small machine screws with nuts and washers.
Attachments
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
blcktpgsr
New member
Super nice nice work. You're patience paid dividence in the end, I like it alot. I have been eyeing for some TOYOTA emblem for some time now and I may just go your way if I find none.
Also did you paint the boards white or leave them the way they were?, coz the color you chose is perfect with the black.
Also did you paint the boards white or leave them the way they were?, coz the color you chose is perfect with the black.
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
Oh ya, I love that I can read TOYOTA from a long ways off. Thats how to represent! I drove past a dude in an FJ Cruiser today and caught him checking out the emblem. And the pictures were taken at my parents house in the praire a few miles east of Cheyenne. The good old flat, brown plains of WY . . .
Thanks Ervin! All you need is a plastic cutting board, and a strip of aluminum. This project cost me exactly $3.75 as all I needed to buy was the aluminum stip. I had the paint, cutting board, and a few little machine screws with nuts and washers. You probably have better tools than I do here, which would make it an easier and faster process. Having the right tools would have made such a difference for me.
The plastic was the perfect color as is, kind of a flat white, so I didnt need to paint at all. I just sanded the texture out to get a smooth surface. I like the flat white against black. Though I have considered several different paint schemes which I may experiment with in the future
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
Thats exactly what I wanted to do as well. Getting it cut out of .25" aluminum would have been awesome. Just too expensive for me. If you do that you should see if he could shave the edges to give a more dimensional look from the front. I went as far as filing and sanding my front edges, but thats it
madbomber08
New member
That new emblem looks awesome. I really like it because no one has ever done that before. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to cut and file out the letters with just basic tools? And also, how did you stabilize the board while cutting through it?
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
I would say the whole process of cutting and finishing the letters took a good 8 hours. I used a small hack saw, another general purpose saw with bigger teeth for making faster straight cuts, and then a tiny saw blade that I actually held by hand to make some of the cuts for the O's and A. Its really impossible to make perfect on-the-line cuts that way, so I made several of the cuts outside the lines and then spent tons of time with a dremel and a few different files. If I had access to a miter saw and band saw the process would have been half the time.
For holding it I used a vice, clamps, and more than anything else, my eagle talon hands.
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
Thanks man. Theres still a ton I want to do to it, like everyone on the forum. Is the 98 black?
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
What do you guys think of these?
What do you guys think of these for my truck. I dont like the altezza lights as I dont think they flow well with the shape of the 3rd gen. I think these work well because they have a square look, like the rest of the 3rd gen. Its either these or 99+ oem style
01 02 Toyota 4Runner LED Tail Lights Rear Brake Lamps Assembly JDM Black LH RH | eBay
What do you guys think of these for my truck. I dont like the altezza lights as I dont think they flow well with the shape of the 3rd gen. I think these work well because they have a square look, like the rest of the 3rd gen. Its either these or 99+ oem style
01 02 Toyota 4Runner LED Tail Lights Rear Brake Lamps Assembly JDM Black LH RH | eBay
Attachments
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
blonde1boarder
New member
Hey man! Just wanted to let you know I loved your emblem so much that I attempted to copy it! Hopefully I can make mine look as good as yours
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
I just saw this post for the first time as I havent checked my thread in looong time.
Did you ever finish this?
