The Mahalas........ BUILD

[Mahalas]

Been a while since I did an up date.


After about a year of driving around I finally found time to finish the stereo
Floor all striped.






And what it looks like after 2 layers of sound deadener and amp installed.
This was such a pain in the ass to do in the cold even with a very good heat gun, highly recommend warm weather.



<a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mahalas/media/c2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h42/mahalas/c2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo c2.jpg"/></a>



Factory tweeter cover on the left, I cut out the mesh and used a very strong bumper repair material to install the mount for my type R. (on the right). I was a little worried about the cover holding to the door and not vibrating but the factory clip is more then enough.



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What the door looked like before reinstalling the trim panel. I used the factory speaker mount with a spacer ring. The plastic was rigid enough but I used nuts and bolts instead of the factory screw and clip to attach it. I think I also placed a small bead of seam sealer around the out side edge for stronger rigidity and sealing. The yellow stuff is non drying art clay.



<a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mahalas/media/c4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h42/mahalas/c4.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo c4.jpg"/></a>



Rear door trim panels didn't fit over the speakers. Install just kept getting better and better. I wanted to keep the pockets, so I removed the back side relocated the front wall and welded everything back together.



<a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mahalas/media/c5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h42/mahalas/c5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo c5.jpg"/></a>



Front door panels.
I ordered 400 square feet of sound deadener, between the 4runner and my cousins Solara I ran out. Really 200 square feet per car and I ran out.... Luckily I had some old Dynamat foam kicking around the shop, turned out to be way better suited for the trim panels.



<a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mahalas/media/c6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h42/mahalas/c6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo c6.jpg"/></a>



WORST PART OF THE WHOLE INSTALL
I don't have a picture of this, wish I did (was way too pissed at the time) but behind the head unit there is almost no space. The climate control main air duct is really close to the back of the stereo. Even when I used a 90 degree RCA adapter it didn't fit. So I took my trusty head gun and started heating the duct. With the back of a screw driver I slowly massaged the wall to make some space. Well.... next thing I know there is a hole in the duct. To remove the assembly I would have to remove the entire dash board.:redbrick::redbrick::redbrick:
You got to be kidding me, this is ****ing ludicrous. Luckily outside the shop I have a parts civic. I pulled out the duct from under the dash (well actually I ripped it out in a rage of fury) cut out a patch and started welding. I'm an awesome welder when it comes to plastics. Few hours later, working in very uncomfortable positions, with no room and slowly getting high off the fumes it was fixed. I was impressed my self.

This is the finished product. You can also see where I decided to mount my scan gauge, and yes that block off plate is aluminum finish.



<a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mahalas/media/c7.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h42/mahalas/c7.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo c7.jpg"/></a>

 

[Mahalas]

Top left switch is for ABS.
Bottom left is for a solenoid to disable charging to the secondary battery.
Top right is a 3way switch. Down with the key on shows primary battery voltage. Up even with the key out show secondary battery voltage, and also gives power to the stereo (zero power drain from primary battery)


Short vid of how it works. (cant figure out how to imbed)
Dual battery acc switch. - YouTube





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[Mahalas]

Time to up date this since the Runner is going back under the knife.
In the mean time tho I managed to do a little wheeling and camping.


Went up an old "goat" trail called Eagle Mountain. To keep the trail open the city has gated the entrance (to keep shit heads out) and you need to rent a key by proving you own a off road vehicle with your insurance. My buddy has a key and we decided to see what the Runner can do. Along the way we caught up to a stuck Tracker, luckily my buddy easily took the hard line around and winched him up.

Pictures and a vid of said truck.

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In the mean time we actually started building up a small traffic jam. Couple of guys in a done out jeep asked if I needed help. "No just waiting for the tracker."
The tracker and jeep ended up joining us on for the ride up. Well the tracker had no choice as we winched him a couple of times.
Even tho we did have to move some rocks and build up traction points (yes on the easy line) the Runner didn't get stuck once. The jeep guys were so impressed the "Lady" as they called it made it up with no problems.
4Lo with the rear Elocker put the tracker to shame and made it look easy....ish. I was very impressed and so was my buddy, who originally thought I wouldn't make it past the first obstacle let alone all the way to the top.

The skid plates got a little love (mushroomed two bolts) and the gas tank skid has a nice dent.
The running boards were used to protect the rockers and are a complete wright off. This didn't bother me at all as sliders are on the to do list, but not having a step for the mean time kind of sucks.




Some carnage vids/pics and a little capabilities of a stock 4runner with sagging suspension.



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[MTD]

the headlights on the 3rd gen are garbage, no light bulb will ever help them. Period.

you need these:


These guys are AWESOME, service is top notch! i bought the HID's bulbs elsewhere due to their price, but everything else is straight from TRS, i've done this mod on 2 vehicles this way, perfect!

The SOURCE

i keep meaning to take pictures / video of my own retrofit, but never have gotten off my arse to do it.....

I agree LOL
FX-R TRS Retorfit with Apollo shrouds and amber halos. My buddy and I have a little business doing these. OP, feel free to PM me for a hook up lol. Or if you need help doing your own too lol

Only pic i have with halos on...

Dat cutoff lol

 

[hrt4me]

4Lo with the rear Elocker put the tracker to shame and made it look easy....ish. I was very impressed and so was my buddy, who originally thought I wouldn't make it past the first obstacle let alone all the way to the top

great!

 

[Mahalas]

I met this little thing on my cousins birthday and decided it would be fun to take her camping. We went to one of my favorite late season camping spots, it's an old A frame building that's a few hours away from town. Maintained by like minded people its clean and had a huge stack of fire wood. We didn't get much rain but it was so nice to sit dry by the fire when it rolled in.















A few KM up the road are some hot springs. There used to be better ones but a land slide wiped out the road and it's not getting rebuilt. These are slowly getting developed by committed hikers and coming along. They are quite the hike down, some spots are pretty gnarly with ropes and or roots to hold on to.


Small look out spot on the way down. Gets really bad from here.












Pictures don't do this trail or the steepness justice.









At almost the bottom is a camping spot. Some dude built the tree stand, stories are he also got eaten by a bear when remains and equipment was found. I'm not sure if its true but the fire warden warns people about bears in the area.






With hunting season opened, my buddy saying there is deer in the area and a possibility of bears there was no way I was going any where with out some kind of fire arm. I brought my WW2 mosin nagant that I don't mind scratching on the hike. I will say this, it's long and heavy, made the hike that much more fun.





First tub. Really shallow and very hot. There was already some people there so I decided to look for a more private tub.





Found this one close to the river. It was off the main path and a little cooler, but required some work. I built up the wall a few times by using sand from the bottom of the tub. It worked but I kept having a problem with the water level rising too much and washing out my dam. I came up with a quick solution of making a over flow pipe from 2 beer cans and the problem was solved. With that solved I could focus more on my company :frisky:












Even tho the cans had a purpose I didn't want to leave any garbage, but I also didn't want the tub to fall apart. I used a couple of rocks and some roots to try and prevent erosion.






Shots from the drive.

 

[Mahalas]

Few pictures from the last hunting trip couple of weeks ago.






























And the only thing we caught.







From this little guy.

 

[Freak]

Impressive, I like what you've done with it. Also, cute girl that you had with you. Perfect company!

One more thing.. where in the hell did you get a WW2 Mosin-Nagant rifle?!

 

[Mahalas]

Catch up on mods.


Made a ISR.... Meh, at least it looks cool and was fun to build. Final cost was under $5 for some vacuum tube, every thing else I found in my parts/junk stash.












My wallet wasn't letting me buy these for the longest time but god dam am I glad I did. Highly recommend them for every one. No longer care about tracking any thing inside the cab.





Forgot to post pics of this bad boy. Works great but I wish I went bigger.





Slowly I started piecing together my lift. Originally I wanted only like 2-3 inches max so I started looking for 7 wraps. I picked these up from a buddy
"Yo I got you some of those land cruiser springs you keep talking about."
"Cool what kind, how many wraps, what shape are they in?"
"F*#^ man I don't know, the truck was immaculate and I don't think it has seen much dirt roads. Just come get them before they disappear!"
Turned out they are from an LX450. Ok I'll just lift the truck more then originally planned :naughty: In the mean time I did some research and found out these are great for flex but cant support too much weight.
Dang so close... BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS.... I have already decided to go higher then my original 2-3 inches and sticking with it.
They went to a good buddy of mine and are already installed (not sure if he has gone wheeling yet but with no rear sway bar he says its ass puckering around town)





An IS250 came in to my shop with front end damage. Both head lights were replaced, so I kept the old lights. I was able to salvage the projectors and ballasts (no bulbs). I also ordered some sealed projector HID fog lights from ebay. Between the garbage Chinese fogs and pain in the ass to take apart Lexus lights I've kind of got turned off of HIDs... At least for now.








A while back I bought a shit load of led lights, thx gaterose (not sure how to mention) and finally got around to testing some. I don't have out put shots cause it was a two person job to hold them on the front of the roof but they made my high beams almost non existent.









This thing was on special at my local harbor freight type store (no sale is final policy so pretty much life time warranty) and I couldnt pass it up.
Its the Supper Winch LP 8500.

 

[Mahalas]

I agree LOL
FX-R TRS Retorfit with Apollo shrouds and amber halos. My buddy and I have a little business doing these. OP, feel free to PM me for a hook up lol. Or if you need help doing your own too lol

I'm really going to keep your offer in mind, but right now I'm kind of turned off from HIDs. If I don't get enough light out put from the LED set up I have in mind I will be contacting you.

Impressive, I like what you've done with it. Also, cute girl that you had with you. Perfect company!

One more thing.. where in the hell did you get a WW2 Mosin-Nagant rifle?!

Thx dude, It's been allot of work and allot more to go.
A Russian buddy of mine has an import license and brings in some cool toys from Russia. The rifle is ok. long, heavy and not that accurate. The barrel is a little worn out and the grouping is not what it should be, I have a new one (used but in great shape) just haven't had time or motivation to install it. The thing I like is it's good for practice, the ammo is cheap, I don't mind bashing it a little while hiking and because of the weight/length it's a good rifle to get used to hiking with.

 

[Mahalas]

With cargo room a precious commodity and the pile of garbage that comes from the factory being good for pretty much nothing, I decided to build a roof rack. Also I need a place to bolt all my lights.

Started by cutting these from a single length. I grabbed it from the scrap bin but I should of just paid to have them cut, it took for ever.




One day there was at least a dozen lengths of 1" x 1" 1/32 wall square tubing in the scrap bin, I already tested the strength so I knew it would be strong enough. I added 4 x 90''ish lengths for the sides and started building.











First test fit revealed how bad the thing warped.
With 4x4s under the corners and me standing on the opposite ones it barely wanted to straighten. With a little bit more then just tack welds holding it together I was already impressed with the rigidity.







Second layer welded in.





And a test fit with the ass pretty much completed.




While starting work on the front a buddy from my racing days called me up. Some one rear ended him so I told him to swing by.
Funny enough it was a good thing. The dude gave him $300 and the damage was very minor, he picked up a rebar and cover from pick n pull and still had $225 left over. We cought up and started chilling again. He put in some work on the rack and helped me install the lift last weekend. Wait... what? Some one say lift...
Originally I was going to keep all the lines straight but was persuaded to bend the lower cross member. Without a bender and zero experience I was very hesitant. "**** that man we are doing it! How do you think we bent the roll cages? With trees, this is going to be simple.''
Using blocks of wood and a tire we started slowly bending. Very pleased with how it turned out.










It's literally maximum size possible to within an inch or two.



Defiantly got the hang of welding aluminum.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Great build so far man. Cool pictures of Canada's outdoors as well. Keep em coming!

 

[Diesel_Dog]

Sick rack dude. I believe I've seen pics on the BC toyota or 4runner Facebook page. Good to see 'the rest of the story'. How much does the rack weigh?

 

[Mahalas]

Sick rack dude. I believe I've seen pics on the BC toyota or 4runner Facebook page. Good to see 'the rest of the story'. How much does the rack weigh?

Small world eh?

I estimated around 40 lbs but thanks for reminding me to finally bring my scale to the shop.
Give or take 1-2 lbs not sure how accurate it is.

 

[Mahalas]

Vancouver finally received some snow. The mountains have been bare this year and I haven't been on my board even once.




But.... With snow in the city and most people not knowing how to drive.....
This dumb shit tried to take a off camber turn delivering a container to my neighbors. Car is a rebuild and the damage is minor so I don't really care, but I should receive some money and it will help offset the final repair cost.

 

[Mahalas]

Last year while downtown I kind of bumped into a pole (%100 sober just extremely exhausted) Used my tow strap to pull the bumper out of the tire so I can drive home and started repairs Monday morning.
2 of the bigger out comes of this were-
1. Realized just how fragile the factory bumper is and decided a proper winch bumper is in order.
2. My cat got stolen while the truck sat in front of my shop for 2 nights. Even tho I was pissed at the time, good things came of this.
I stopped leaving any scarp metal outside for the scrap guys, and replaced the cat with a 2.5'' x 17''ish (from what I remember) resonator out of a Chevy venture I believe. The tone was a little bit louder, I was very surprised and would of opted/hoped for more but the back pressure was perfect. Almost the same as stock at lower RPM'S, but defiantly way more flow after 3k. I'm very happy with it.









Yes that's duct tape. Making sure it's not going to be too loud before I started welding.

 

[Mahalas]

Since I'm no longer keeping any scrap metal outside, my buddy swings by once it piles up and takes it to the crusher.
Couple of weeks ago he's got some GM on his flat bed and we loaded up the back with what ever was in my shop.
Grabbing a breather and having a quick chat after we finished, I started looking at the wheels.
"Almost a shame to throw those away''
"Yes it is a shame... but they are 6 lug"
"......."
As we look at each other he tells me to buzz them off and when the crusher lifts the truck he'll pull them off.
Middle of the day, shit load of things to do and I'm scrambling to rip off wheels.
At this point we're blocking the entire lane so my neighbor comes over to see whats up. We end up using his forklift and pulling the wheels of then and there, instead of ****ing around with one lug left and my buddy having to grab some kind of wrench to undo it at the crusher.










Tires are shot and one of them is has more damaged then a few nicks and scratches, but there is now way I can say no to free wheels.
16X8 not sure of the offset but it looks like they will stick out a little more then my 5 stars.

 

[Mahalas]

Fixed the rim today. Super easy now that I know how to weld aluminum.
Spent more time making the inner bead perfect then the outside lip

 

[Mahalas]

Great build so far man. Cool pictures of Canada's outdoors as well. Keep em coming!

Thanks Brian.

 

[Mahalas]

Teaser.... :spy: