txbonds 97 4runner limited project

love the direction your going. I thought when you first talked about the color change it might be a little bold but it looks great. cant wait to see all the goodies youve got installed, looks great now but its only going to be better.
 
The past few nights I've been playing around with the pioneer head unit and the uniden CB. They will not fit the stock brackets.

Couple of issues

> The CB is about 1/4 inch wider than the pioneer radio
> The CB is a good bit deeper than the pioneer radio and has the antenna and power connections on the back.
> with the pioneer radio on top and the CB spaced out the front door to access the CD slot won't open without hitting the CB
> with pioneer on bottom the CB shields view of the radio
> pioneer rcs connections are on back of radio which means even with short plug RCA wires they still are hitting the vent somewhat


So far, my solution looks like it will involve spacing the two out of the dash an inch or two with a custom made bracket and then a trim ring around them as needed to dress it up a little. I purchased some aluminum stock to tinker with it that's as far as I've made it so far. I'd really like this to work rather than putting CB in another spot but we will see I guess.
 
So given the desert tan color, would something like this be totally wrong, goofy, disrespectful, etc?

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Just looking at the many historical military vehicles and the modern day Oscar Mike jeep, I was thinking a similar theme might look neat on the runner using vinyl graphics. This would just be for fun and not an attempt at anything historical obviously but just curious what others think about the idea.
 
txbonds said:
So given the desert tan color, would something like this be totally wrong, goofy, disrespectful, etc?

p1672087758-5.jpg



Just looking at the many historical military vehicles and the modern day Oscar Mike jeep, I was thinking a similar theme might look neat on the runner using vinyl graphics. This would just be for fun and not an attempt at anything historical obviously but just curious what others think about the idea.
Click to expand...

Personally not disrespectful. Actually I have seen a few Jeeps don't this ways ZRVs (Zombie Response Vehicles). I think having a classic looking, retro style 4Runner would be pretty sweet, my brother is NG and would probably do something similar
 
Okay, I think I finally have a plan of action on the CB / Radio mounting situation. Rather than space the units out of the dash via custom brackets, I'm going a different route. Understanding this may not work out well and will kill the warranty, it still seems like the best option.

Took the cover off the Uniden Bearcat 880.
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If you look here you can see the power, speaker and antenna connection points.
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My basic plan is to convert the hard antenna connection to an external pigtail, the hard power connection to an external pigtail and possibly route the speaker connection out the same way and create an external speaker out of it. This allows the CB to sit flush in the dash with the Pioneer and not worry about space needed behind it as much.

Easy, right? What could go wrong? LOL. Fingers crossed. :)
 
Fairly certain that I've made a mess of this. I'm not happy with the way it has turned out for the moment as I don't have a good way to keep to coax pigtail from moving the fragile antenna solder joint.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the destruction for your entertainment

Couldn't get the connector to unscrew without damage to the wire soldered to it so I clipped the rear panel like on the slee website
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Solder removed but since I couldn't get the connector nut off, I had to clip this solder joint to be able to removed the connector

Connector removed
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Prepping the pigtail wire and connector
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Soldering the PL-259 connector onto the RG-8X pigtail wire
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Pigtail taking shape
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A little dressing
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Untangling the braid for a ground to CB chassis.
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Chassis ground prepared and ring terminal soldered on
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Ground strap attached
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Hard to see it but center coax wire soldered to antenna connection wire that I clipped earlier
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Power wire pigtail
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And finally, the way the back currently looks.
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The grommet I used isn't quite tight enough to provide a real strain relief for the wire and as such the wire can move which moves the internal connection. I think I have an idea to solve it but got tired of playing for tonight. If I can pin this down, ill seal up the hole with some sort of glue or sealant to add some additional strength and strain relief. Then on to the speaker and hoping this all actually works out well without compromising the radios communication range and what not.
 
I wish I had the confidence to try something like this. Looks like you did a great job. I think it will work fine for you.
 
Phase one of wire strain relief complete.

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Took off the techflex and most of the heat shrink to make the coax as flexible as possible. Only left heat shrink for part passing through the grommet.

Then carefully pulled it to one side and wire tied it to chassis and then using standard JB Weld did my sloppy patch work to tie chassis back together where I cut it and to seal grommet in as well.

Once this stuff cures solid, I will come back tomorrow and install either clear epoxy or maybe just hot glue into the grommet to hold the wire in position so the part inside me case doesn't move when the part outside the case is flexed.

Hopefully all this effort pays off into a radio that fits my space and still works well, but I still have my doubts. LOL. :)
 
Sealed up the space around wires with hot glue. Did the trick nicely. Need a little more but had to get more glue sticks. Pics to follow..

Fired up CB connected to wire and antenna but it was only able to pick up a weather station. Not sure if that's bad, but the antenna was not mounted, grounded or tuned so its hard to really say.

Also got my black vinyl corbeau sport front seats ordered to mount on the planted technology brackets ill be customizing to fit the runner. Just need to get two sets of seat sliders ordered now.

Corbeau: Sport Seat
Planted Seat Bracket Technology - Planted Technology Seat Brackets for aftermarket seats OMP, Recaro, Sparco, Cobra...
 
With out the antenna grounded you won't get any reception, the fact that the weather side worked is a good sign, great work.
 
jason in tn said:
With out the antenna grounded you won't get any reception, the fact that the weather side worked is a good sign, great work.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. Do you know if I can run a simple ground strap from antenna mount back to the radio chassis to test it, or is there some other way to ground it for testing? May be a while before I get it mounted on truck but would like to confirm operation before doing to much fab to my dash.
 
You can try that, I'm not sure how well it will work but it should atleast give you an idea if your conections are good etc, at this point just remember static is a good thing the more the better not bad connection static but noise you can squelch out.
 
jason in tn said:
You can try that, I'm not sure how well it will work but it should atleast give you an idea if your conections are good etc, at this point just remember static is a good thing the more the better not bad connection static but noise you can squelch out.
Click to expand...

Thanks. It was trying to pick up someone talking but all I got was static like they were out of range. Will give grounding a try to see if it changes anything.
 
First run at painting my hood blackout. I think it turned out nicely so far but am thinking of bringing it a little further down the hood towards the front to the end of the two centerline contour points, if that makes sense. This is meant to be functional to limit glare while using roof rack lights.

Any opinions?



Taping of area
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Sanded with green scotch brite pad to rough surface
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Painted with flat black rustoleum (still wet)
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I cannot believe you just painted over a fresh paint job! I would of done plast-dip first to see if you like it and if it is worth it for the glare issue.
 
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