My better late than never build thread

[gm350reratliff]

So, as promised, here are just some of the pics from the FJ Summit. Still have a ton of pics, video, from multiple cameras to go through.

Leaving the beautiful Ouray area. I definitely miss it!

On the way back we stopped at Honeyville just North of Durango. Pretty cool little store.

Finally had a chance to clean it up yesterday.

 

[gm350reratliff]

 

[gm350reratliff]

Like I said earlier, this Comet HD-5 (I think that's the model) seemed sturdy at first but ended up breaking last year on Imogene pass. Apparently, a 4' Firestik, HD spring, and quick connect are just too much to handle on a rough road. I fixed it using what was available at the Ouray hardware store and it has stayed that way since.

Where the big silver fender washers are used to be a thick machined washer. Unfortunately, that big thick washer is what broke on the trail.

I cut this piece of 1/8"x1.5"x1.5" aluminum angle stock and ground it down to this.

I applied some 3M VHB double sided tape to the "feet" of the bracket I made then painted it black. Originally, the Comet mount used a small metric allen screw and threaded into the end piece. I drilled through that end piece and used a longer stainless steel 1/4" bolt that goes through my bracket as well and secures with a stainless steel acorn nut.

The Comet mount is now very sturdy and held up great on the rough roads in the mountains around Ouray, CO. It doesn't stick out much further than the Comet already did. Hopefully, if someone else is having trouble with their Comet mount, this can give you an idea of how to brace it a little better.

 

[gm350reratliff]

Today I installed some Rokmen rear trailing arms Rear Trailing Arms, Trail-Series - Toyota that I purchased pretty cheap through Red Dirt Offroad https://www.reddirtoffroad.com at this year's FJ summit X. These trailing arms are much beefier than the OEM ones and come with maintenance free bushings. The install was super easy but here's some pics anyway.

The packaging is very nice with Rokmen products. You can tell they take pride in what they sell.

Also today, I had the 4runner re-aligned. I felt the 6112's settled enough and after the beating I put this 4runner through at the FJ summit I felt it needed it. Not to mention, it still had a pull to the right. Typically, this is something I do myself, at a friends shop but their shop is busy and I don't want to have to drive 100 miles one way. I had the local mom-n-pop shop do it and I was pleased that the kid that does them there is actually pretty savvy on the rack. It took them 2 tries but I think they got it pretty good. I think these ST Maxx Coopers make it pull to the right a little more than it should but they were able to get it to go straight by having a pretty good caster split.

 

[Coley]

That grill is awesome!!

 

[gm350reratliff]

That grill is awesome!!

Thanks!

 

[gm350reratliff]

Today was a pretty productive day just not on my 4runners. I lifted my buddy's FJ today using some Bilstein 6112's and the Daystar rear spacers and my old rear 5100's.

However, I did do a little bit of work to my 4th gen after the FJ was finished. I removed the rear quick disconnect sway bar links and put some extended length non-disconnect sway bar links on.

Anyway here's a pic of the new links.

 

[aryuary]

Not too bad. Where do you go wheeling around NM?

 

[gm350reratliff]

We mostly go on Mt Taylor or in the Zuni Mountains because they are close to home.

 

[gm350reratliff]

While I should probably be flushing the transmission and antifreeze or finishing the fence around my house, I decided this morning that I was going to finally start welding together my Relentless Fab front bumper. Originally ordered in February or March, this bumper kit didn't come in until May. The first bumper Relentless Fab sent me showed up right away but was absolutely destroyed by UPS so I had to wait while UPS processed the claim and for Relentless to cut a new one out, which really sucked because I had some down time back then and could've knocked this thing out instead of waiting until now. I know I won't get to finish it this weekend but at least there's progress.

Off with the factory bumper.

Bye bye plastic bumper! Oh wait, I still need that for Tuesday.

Center section in.

Almost all tacked in place.

 

[luke87gt]

nice work! have you considered painting the door handles black?

 

[gm350reratliff]

nice work! have you considered painting the door handles black?

Thanks! Yes, black door handles are on the list of things to do, just haven't got there yet. I'm probably just going to replace them with prepainted handles when the time comes though. Honestly, I thought my kids would've broke the handles off by now by the way they open the doors.

 

[gm350reratliff]

I put in a little more work on the bumper today. Got the center and headlight hoops tacked as well as welded some of the inside of the bumper. It seems pretty stout now. Unfortunately, probably won't be able to work on it for a while again but at least it's together. Here's how it looks so far.

 

[luke87gt]

Thanks! Yes, black door handles are on the list of things to do, just haven't got there yet. I'm probably just going to replace them with prepainted handles when the time comes though. Honestly, I thought my kids would've broke the handles off by now by the way they open the doors.

I've considered the same but would like to repaint my existing handles... I just don't know what would have to be done about the existing chrome

 

[gm350reratliff]

I've considered the same but would like to repaint my existing handles... I just don't know what would have to be done about the existing chrome

I think you would be ok if you thoroughly scuffed the chrome, cleaned them, sprayed with some adhesion promoter like Bulldog, then painted. You would have to remove the handles for the best results though.

 

[gm350reratliff]

No real new updates on my 4th gen but we did finally take a little offroad trip yesterday to the Zuni Mountains and checked on some family property. Fairly easy trail with some mud mixed in. I was trying to avoid the mud but my kids provided enough peer pressure so I gave in. Anyway, here's a few pics from our little trip out.

My favorite pic of the day was taken by my wife. I just love how this one came out.

Hopefully, there will be more updates in the near future. I'm almost done with the Relentless DIY bumper, I have some lights to install, and hopefully will be starting a rear bumper soon.

 

[gm350reratliff]

Snorkel time!

Today I decided to install a Land Cruiser 80 series snorkel that I received for Christmas (thanks mother-in-law :thumb. I actually picked it out, it was around $70 on amazon. I've wanted one for a while mostly due to some of the very dusty roads I go on but I'm also going to be installing a Relentless Fab bumper soon which may leave the stock intake venerable to water if I decide to go puddle jumping. Let's face it, I don't think anyone will be offering a 4th gen specific snorkel. There's just not enough demand for it in my opinion. Not only that but I don't want to pay $400-500 for one.

I think this snorkel would be perfect (well, as perfect as we can wish for) on a 2003-2005 4runner due to the fact that they seem to have smaller, flatter fender flares. 2006 & up 4runners will have to trim about 1/2" from the top of the fender flare (more on that later) so you may want to source a more narrow snorkel.

Something that seems to be missing from just about every 4th gen snorkel install thread, a part number. Well here is the one I purchased: TMS Snorkel Air Ram Intake Kit for 90-97 Toyota 80 Series Land Cruiser / Lexus Lx450 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B90PPGY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_DTRLybTRR7875

Here is the box and the only marking on the box.

Yes, it's a cheap Chinese knockoff. There were no instructions and the template was off. I had to add some material to the bottom of the template just make sure I was lining it up correctly.

I honestly spent a lot of time holding the snorkel up to the fender and trying to get the template just right. Also, building up the courage to drill some holes in a mint condition fender.

Well, no turning back now.

Definitely no turning back now. I used a 4" holesaw which gave me plenty of room for adjustments and the snorkel still easily covers it.

 

[gm350reratliff]

This snorkel's outlet is just above the factory intake but unfortunately it's a little too high so I had to remove some material above the factory intake to make it work.

The snorkel comes with a piece of rubber tubing with about a 10° angle. The angle isn't large enough to adapt it to the factory fender intake but it is enough to adapt it right to the factory rubber tubing. I used a piece of 3" ID steel exhaust tubing about 4" long to splice to rubber snorkel tubing to the factory rubber tubing. A piece of 3" ID X 3.25"ID would be ideal because 3" ID is actually too small for the factory rubber tubing so I cut off a piece from the factory plastic fender intake box and siliconed it to the exhaust tubing. Not ideal but it works.

Once the snorkel was tightened down it put the rubber tubing close to the sheet metal even though I cut some out so I used some heater hose to help prevent the sheet metal from cutting through.

I was hoping to avoid cutting the fender flare but there just wasn't any way around it. I had to cut about a 1/2" off the top of the flare. I heated up the flare with a heat gun then used a box cutter with a new blade. I cut about 1/4" initially then some additional 1/16" to 1/8" cuts until it cleared. I ended up with a very small gap between the flare and snorkel but you can't really see unless you're looking for it.

I also had to heat certain sections of the snorkel and help shape it to fit the 4runner better. Overall, it came out good, especially for not being made for this vehicle. There are some small gaps but I used some camper shell weather stripping around the edge of the snorkel to seal and conceal those gaps. Here's some pictures I took tonight when I finished. I will take some pictures in the daylight tomorrow as well. It took me all day to install this. Just like others have posted, it's not easy, it's not for the faint of heart, some ingenuity and imagination is required.

One other thing is it comes with rivets for the A-pillar bracket. Rivets in the A-pillar seems like it could become a rust nightmare so I opted to use some 3M VHB double sided tape. I slightly bent the bracket so it would contour to the A-pillar better then stuck it down. So far, it's nice and sturdy. Just don't go overboard when re-shaping the snorkel or you'll end up with a big gap here.

 

[gm350reratliff]

I finally found some time this week to finish my Relentless Fab DIY bumper. It's taken me literally a year to complete due to getting busy with everything else. I was just sick of it sitting in the garage, halfway sanded and bare. I decided to neglect some other stuff around the house and finish this thing up. I got off graveyard shift Monday and started sanding down the bumper. By Tuesday it was ready for paint. I decided to go with the Rust-oleum rattle can paint job for now.

Moments after taking that picture, I was wheeling my engine hoist into place while watching my kiddo ride her bike and I ran into the rickety stand the bumper was on, unfortunately knocking it over. :redbrick::redbrick: Of course it screwed up the paint but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Re-sanded and re-painted.

Being this is a steel bumper and I using a Warn 8000 winch with steel cable (it's really heavy), I didn't trust the thin OEM bumper flanges to hold all this weight on their own so I fabbed some reinforcement brackets with 9/16" bolts through the frame. Shouldn't go anywhere now!

After the reinforcement brackets were completed, it was finally time to mount this bumper! I still need to finish wiring up the winch and install the LED cubes but here's how it sits so far.

I also have some 700 lb King springs that I'll be installing onto the 6112 Billies (this bumper/winch combo dropped the front an inch!) as well as new upper ball joints but all of that will have to wait until next week (hopefully) because I work all weekend starting tomorrow.

 

[wadle5]

Did I miss your post somewhere on the hardware to mount/secure the Treds to the rack? Anymore details as I would like to do that as well. :thanks: