The Sciencemobile

[thenightman]

Rear Storage/Sleeping Platform, Part 1

One of the main reasons we got a 4runner was so we could bivouac internally if necessary. Since we pack lots of stuff we needed a sleeping platform and storage solution. We as usual, this was a last minute deal. The coolest ones have drawers. I knew I wouldn’t have time for that before this trip, so instead I just left the inside of the rear part open in two halves separated by a middle wall. Much of my camping related stuff is in sterilite latching bins, not the giant ones lots of people seem to have, but smaller ones. In packing up the tracker it was very helpful to have smaller puzzle pieces to shoehorn in. Having one huge bin, and having to jam other stuff in around it, in that tiny space would have been unreasonable. This back part fits in three bins in per side.
The material is ¾” (23/32”) good both sides pine plywood. I bought one sheet, and used most of it. I started by making the rear part for the cargo area. I did not put a bottom on it, it seemed unnecessary. In this picture I still haven’t added the middle support. My construction method for this part was staples and gorilla glue, but nails or screws would have been fine. Finish nails would have left a nicer surface.
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I wanted all the room possible, so I pulled the rear seats and carpet. I then put the rear cargo floormat part back in under the box for a little deadening and insulation. Our other cars are both 4 seaters, so I can get away with this being a 2 seater.
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I bought eye bolts and turnbuckles to hold the thing down, the shortest turnbuckles at the hardware store. Naturally, the turnbuckles were too long to be useful. This is probably because I made the bottom of the plywood top the height of the wheel wells, which is shorter than most of the other platforms I have been looking at. My first impulse was to make a bracket that bolts the rear tie down hole and also the side of the box. But this was a time saver. I cut a bit of bed frame, made some holes and deburred it. This is where the turnbuckle mounts on the 4runner now. I reused the tie down loop, reversed, and bolted to the box as the mount for the top of the turnbuckle.
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To mount the front I had to get a little creative. The tie down loops by the back seat were in an inconvenient location. One was also missing, having been replaced with a big ground, probably for an amp, by a previous owner. There was also, again the issue of the too long turn buckles. So I made some more bed frame brackets! These holes are seat bracket threaded holes.
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I made all these brackets and installed them with the thought that I would later have the time to make them into sexy curvaceous shapes and paint them nicely. So far no such luck! Hopefully someday. Here you can see how the front of the rear box part gets held down. The front of the box got a strip across it, one plywood width down from the top. That way it can be a ledger to support the rear of the front panels. It doesn’t go all the way to the floor, so I can still slide longer items under it the length of the back area, nice for a fishing rod or rifle :ak472: you don’t want prying eyes to see.
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Part 2 Coming when I get the chance!

 

[Mark_BC]

What I did for those attachments by the seat is I got some extra black D rings from a wreck and put those there. The turnbuckles attach to those. I also did this in the back.

 

[thenightman]

What I did for those attachments by the seat is I got some extra black D rings from a wreck and put those there. The turnbuckles attach to those. I also did this in the back.

This is a good idea! It has the added cool factor of reusing factory toyota parts. If I had thought of that I probably would have done that. Instead I ended up with bits of a bed frame in my 4runner.

By the way, photobucket is messing up your build thread. Photobucket is ruining many cool old build threads on different forums. It is sad to think that lots of cool threads might be lost forever.

 

[thenightman]

Rear Storage/Sleeping Platform, Part 2

The front part where the rear seats used to be was a little trickier. Most people make it so it can fold back onto the rear box part, but since I did the 2 seater conversion, I don’t have to worry about rear seats, which is nice. Many put a leg on each corner of the plywood, but that seemed like it would be too much in the way. I settled on making a steel structure to support the plywood. The 1/8” flat bar bolts to the box with 4x 5/16” carriage bolts, with a 3/8” fender washer on the head of it against the wood. The square part of the carriage bolt still bites into the wood, as it fits through the hole in the washer, but the big washer spreads the load out. The tube is 1 ¼” box, the cross piece is 1/8” wall; the other pieces are 12 gauge. The cross piece is the width of the rear plywood box. It doesn’t need to go all the way to the door because there is no serious weight that far out.
In this picture you can see the plywood rip that makes up the center of the front portion. It is screwed with self-tappers to the steel structure. Note that the edge of the wood comes to about the center of the box tube. This gives the side plywood pieces something to sit on, so that there is no weight on the hinge. You can also see the ledger built into the rear plywood box to support the rear of the front panels.
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My steel substructure needed vertical support, so I cut this out of bed frame. It bolts to two seat cushion mounting holes. I think I did make a small cut on the carpet so it would fold up conveniently, but nothing that would be noticeable with the seats back in. This is where my support legs will mount.
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I used various bits of wood to get the horizontals to the right height, and then measured the angles and length of the vertical members. It was a pain to do so because the 4runner was sitting on a driveway that slopes in two directions. I took great care in tacking it all together, as burning the vehicle down would be a step backwards.
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Pulled it out for finish welding.
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The cross piece has a 45s on the ends, it will make it easier so slide stuff underneath, I can hopefully put a camlock style latch there in the future, and it looks better.
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Once bolted in, I could mount the plywood side pieces with some old hinges I had from another project, and that left me with this. Finished length is 5’ 7 ½”. It could be made a bit longer towards the front, but rear seat pocket access would be compromised. The rear box top piece could be made about an inch longer to the rear too if someone wanted. My wife is 5’ 7” so this length is perfect for us.
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At this point I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Part 3 coming when I get the chance!

 

[thenightman]

Rear Storage/Sleeping Platform, Part 3

To finish out the rear I made a flap for the right side, this was quick and easy.
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The left side, due to the bulge for the fuel filler hose, was a pain.
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It required some creative clearancing methods.
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I stumbled onto this spring clamp as a storage platform tool. It clamps on the grab handle on the passenger side rear door for storage, and has never fallen in hours of rough wheeling.
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If I fold both the front flaps up I can use it to hold them together nicely.
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If I only am opening one side, I clamp it on that side piece, and rest it on the applicable seat. Also in this picture you can see the latch for the wood flap. I wanted to put some cool cam lever type latches on the front flaps to latch them down, but I couldn’t find some in time. I wandered around home depot asking people if they knew where they were, or if they stocked them there. I had no luck, so I tried asking employees. Still no luck. However I did find some patio door screw type pins.
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The pin goes into this little hole, and is pretty stout. If it’s strong enough to keep a tweaker out of your house, it is strong enough for this application. It is ok. I would still like a cam lock type, which would add some preload, or tension the wood down.
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The box is actually shockingly quiet. There are little strips of adhesive weather stripping where the front flaps contact their supportive members. So far, about two months later I had to replace the weather stripping, as it started to rattle. Took a few seconds, and is rattle free again.
I made this fire extinguisher mount many years ago for my jeep. I was designed to mount vertically, and when you pull the cotterless lynch pin, the fire extinguisher falls free off the mount. Well in the 4runner I mounted sideways. It’s a two-step system now, you pull the pin and move it to the right and it’s free. It can still be accessed from the drivers or passengers seat in seconds. And it was free because it was left over from another vehicle!
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The storage box is still not done. I need to seal it. I think I will try to stain it to match the wood trim color. I want to router a curve on the exposed edges too. Just because I like the way it looks. Also, all the steel still needs to be painted, and various brackets need to be prettied up. But the box is a success! We like our tent, but in a massive storm in Palo Duro Canyon we slept comfortably in the back, and I am looking forward to doing it again. If I take the 4runner to work, I eat my lunch fast, and nap the rest of my break away in the back.

 

[thenightman]

Light Bar for LEDs

I wanted some auxiliary lighting, I got some LEDs off amazon. These were picked based on a mixture of reviews and price.
https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-1260...e=UTF8&qid=1503121433&sr=1-6&keywords=nilight
But where to mount them? I had planned on putting them behind the grill, but the grill bars would block a lot of the lenses. Same with the center hole in the front bumper. If I did a satoshi grill I could put lights behind that with less impedance, but that is a lot of work. Eventually I decided to just drill holes in the bumper and bolt them on. At the last minute though I came to my senses, and managed to find a way to do it that took way longer. I have various lengths of EMT that I pulled out a garbage pile on the side of the road, why not use that to make a light bar hoop! Forgoing plans or sketches, I started by making the first bend with my simple manual conduit bender. Once I had what looked to be a nice angle, I traced it on a piece of cardboard.
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I put in the next bend, using my tracing to ensure that the bends were the same. The seam on the EMT is useful as guide while bending; keep it oriented the same way in the bender for both bends to ensure that both bends are on the same plane.
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Once all bending was complete, I then trimmed the ends to get my light bar piece!
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At this point I started to lay out my lights to figure out where I wanted to put tabs to mount them. I used 1/8th flat bar for the bar mounts, and the mounting tabs for the LEDS themselves.
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I tacked it all together, and immediately ran out of shielding gas. I took it to work and finished it there. I was really liking this bar, but then I had to booger it together with flux core. .030 Flux core + super thin galvanized EMT = not as pretty as I would like. I just rolled with it, primed it, and painted it.
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I put it up with some tape to get an idea of where I wanted it, then marked the holes, and bolted it to the bumper. It is pretty solid, as the bolts go thought the steel substructure of the bumper. I then wired the lights in series to the switch I installed a few weeks earlier, making use of the auxiliary fuse block.
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Final impressions, wow, these lights are bright! They have been useful on many occasions, and I think looks pretty slick on there too. Not bad for being made out of crap lying around the garage. If I did it again I would have welded the bar mounting tabs on at an angle, not in line with the bar itself, I think that would have looked better. A potential downside I guess would be that someone familiar with EMT conduit could look at the galvanized texture on the bar and realize what it is, and how hack I am for using EMT. Oh well, it’s very rust resistant!
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[zcruiser]

That looks really good!

 

[Mark_BC]

Sweet, that makes me feel not so bad about my EMT flux core welds for my roof rack! I'll take a grinder to them to clean 'em up and then fill in the holes with bondo...

 

[BrianSD_42]

Looks great man. Very nice projects.

 

[96RedRunner]

I can't tell in your pics for sure, can see shiny places tho. The prep for EMT welding is to remove galvanized coating, flux or gas.
Best way is to use muratic acid, sanding won't get all of it off. Soak it till color turns light gray, rinse with baking soda 50/50 mix, water, dry, use spray on spatter control. doing this saves a lot of finish work.

 

[thenightman]

That looks really good!

Thanks! I specifically picked a picture with a breathtaking background to make it look good for the final picture. It's all about presentation!:lmao:

Sweet, that makes me feel not so bad about my EMT flux core welds for my roof rack! I'll take a grinder to them to clean 'em up and then fill in the holes with bondo...

I like that rack! It is full length, nice and wide, and my favorite thing is it is low profile. You also used one of my preferred building materials; EMT. I seriously looked into dashing up to oregon for the eclipse, drive up sunday, sleep in the back, view the celestial splendor, and come home. I am sure it would be awesome, but I just can't make it for this one. What do you plan to see in california? California is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Looks great man. Very nice projects.

Thank you! you have a badass runner that has inspired me, and I am sure many others!

 

[thenightman]

I can't tell in your pics for sure, can see shiny places tho. The prep for EMT welding is to remove galvanized coating, flux or gas.
Best way is to use muratic acid, sanding won't get all of it off. Soak it till color turns light gray, rinse with baking soda 50/50 mix, water, dry, use spray on spatter control. doing this saves a lot of finish work.

Wow, that is a great idea. I never thought about dissolving it off with acid. No matter how much you sand the outside, there is still zinc on the inside. Not as big of a deal while just putting something on the outside of the EMT, but joining EMT together or to something else, it does matter. I will have to get some and try it out the next time I attempt something aesthetically pleasing. :tea:

 

[thenightman]

The next thing I needed to mount was my hi-lift. I could have bolted it to the steel of my storage/ sleeping platform, but it takes up a decent amount of room. I knew I needed a flag pole mount for this car still (every vehicle we own has a removable flag pole) and I wanted a spot to mount a sand flag. I decided to kill all three birds with one stone. All three things are one item that bolts onto the roof rack. A rack basket with all three mounts on it would have been good too, but this was faster. Belive it or not, I haven’t actually had a need for a roof basket yet either. I started with a sand whip mount, ¾” ID square tube with two jam bolts to pinch the pole in place.
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I used a piece of bed frame (what else?) for the back bone. I set cut offs of 1 ¼” square on top of it for the jack to sit upon.
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I have had these two plates for years, and since this was a super rush job, I used them to sandwich the roof rack crossbars with the bed frame. I had to cut off one face of the bed frame to get it to sit flat on the rack bars.
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I am kind of working it all out here. Note that a wooden topped workmate is a surprisingly good welding table. Except for the whole flammable insulator thing.
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The vertical 1 ¼” tube is the flag mount. It is the same design as I have on the tracker. The flag pole slides in the tube and two lynch pins hold it in through the two holes.
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The beam of the jack sits on the pieces of 1 ¼” tube, and some fairly long m8 bolts go through both the tube and bed frame angle and stick up. A swaybar bushing rubber and washer pinch the beam down with a nylock nut. This seems to work fine. The hardware bolting the bed frame to the cross bars is 3/8th, with nylocks as well. Nylocks are a pain, but I trust them more then I trust a lock washer.
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Installed.
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Final impressions: Bleh. Not really liking it. I think the idea is pretty good, but the materials and execution is poor. For starters, I put the flag pole mount perpendicular to the angle iron, but the cross bar has an arc to it, so it doesn’t stick up straight, it leans to the left. But the big issue is noise. Wind noise is not noticeable, but rattling is. I originally took the foot off because I thought it was the culprit. The carriage of the jack has play on the beam, and it shakes all over. It wiggled to the point that the carriage would hit the angle. I put a ¼” spacer in the front, and it no longer hits, but still rattles. Attempted tensioning with zip ties didn’t really help. I wonder if one of those daystar handle isolators would help stop the rattles. Anyone got experience with that product? I might cut a wooden wedge and pound it between them. Not helping is the fact that the angle is cut down to one face where it goes over the crossbar, and that can potentially flex a bit there, maybe making it worse. If I did it again (and I might) I would use 1 ¼” tube for the main beam to discourage flex.
I fly the flag when I can.
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[96RedRunner]

There is always version1, you done with V1.2 yet?

Looks good to me

 

[thenightman]

There is always version1, you done with V1.2 yet?

Looks good to me

It is going to stay for now. I put four zip ties from the jack to the crossbar, that seemed to stop the rattling for now. It gets the job done, and as much as I would like to make everything perfect, who has the time? Besides, I just got my hands on 8x .120 wall 2x2 pieces a little over a foot long. Looks like it might be about time to put my cherokee rock sliders on the 4runner, just need to stretch them about 9", as they are only 59 5/8" long.

 

[96RedRunner]

It is going to stay for now. I put four zip ties from the jack to the crossbar, that seemed to stop the rattling for now..

If it's the jack handle rattling, a urethane gizmo can be purchased for just that, to elminate handle rattle, last forever, cheap.
Yep onto next project!!:thumb:

 

[thenightman]

If it's the jack handle rattling, a urethane gizmo can be purchased for just that, to elminate handle rattle, last forever, cheap.
Yep onto next project!!:thumb:

The thing is, the handle isn't actually rattling, it is the carriage part that rattles on the beam. I put four zip ties from the end of the lifting arm to the rack, that put an end to it for now.

New problem, for the past few weeks there has been no '99-'00 4runners in the local junkyards. I need the rear plastic license plate bezel. There are a few part outs on craigslist, but the hatches are sold already. Does anyone know if the piece on the '96-'98 will fit? There are plenty of those around. Anyone got one for sale?

 

[96RedRunner]

The travel/weather cover you can purchase for jack muffles the rattling. I played with motorcycle inner tube pieces till I found one that fit tight for rattle and weather control.

 

[thenightman]

I think this was the last thing I did before leaving on our long trip. I ordered seat covers. We knew we wanted them, and Wet Okole is widely known as one of the best brands. Having seen their product on vehicles owned by others, I had confidence that we would be satisfied with the product. The impetus for this purchase was that the seat leather was falling apart, tons of wear, and a rip over 4 inches long on the driver’s side. I ordered them three weeks and a day before out leaving date. The order confirmation stated that they took four weeks to manufacture, as they are all custom made to order. Doh! I sent the company an email, asking if I could do anything to speed the process up, including paying extra. I got a supremely courteous and understanding reply where the guy said that they can’t let someone jump the line, as it would be unfair to the other customers. He was able to keep me posted on the process, and eventually let me know that they were done over a week early, then shipped just in time for me to install the night before we left! I have to give credit where credit is due, Thank you Wet Okole, and Manuel Leiva for the excellent customer service! I would not hesitate to recommend this company to anyone.
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The big rip in the driver’s seat has probably been there a while, as the area around it had lost a lot of foam. It would fall out in little pieces, a bit every day. Before putting the covers on I cut a piece of foam to fit the hole and shoved it in. the foam ended up being slightly more dense then the stock seat foam, but my undiscerning posterior can’t tell.
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They look awesome
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We got the gun and cell phone pockets in the front, and the non-zippered map pockets in the rear.
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These seat covers, being waterproof, don’t solve the main problem of leather seats, the build up of moisture in the pants region on a hot day. I still recommend them though, and am very happy with this purchase.

 

[thenightman]

The travel/weather cover you can purchase for jack muffles the rattling. I played with motorcycle inner tube pieces till I found one that fit tight for rattle and weather control.

I just gave the beam part a rub down with wd40. After only about two and a half months in the elements, there is flaked off paint and surface rust in a few places. I am not too concerned about a little surface rust, so long as it will work when I need it, and continues to be rattle free.