zacattack20's Matte Blue ‘98 to '02 Sport Edition - Not the normal build thread

[infamousRNR]

If I have time one of these days, I'll fix it.

I'm most interested in the things you've done that not a lot of people have done.. like the push to start button.... the painting of the interior black..

IF you have time, please focus on those things. I wished I would have saved your build thread for offline use.. bummer photobucket. I will never use them. Another good reason to post directly to the forum. Not that any of us knew this would happen.

I'm glad you responded ZAC. I appreciate it greatly

 

[zacattack20]

I lied.

I’m keeping it.

More updates coming soon...

 

[zacattack20]

Three things have always bothered the hell out of me.
1. The location of the radio
2. The height of the 2WD shift knob
3. The 2WD shift knob

Swapped the location of the a/c controls and the radio. Was actually not too difficult. Would have been much easier if it was all electronically controlled. There are 4 manual cables attached. Two for the cold/hot air. One for outdoor/interior air circulation. And one for the direction of air flow through the vents. All the cables were able to be moved without any lengthening or shortening of the cables. The air circulation cable is kind of tight and isn’t smoothly operated but I never mess with that so I can just set it and leave it alone, but it’s still operational.

Also I replaced my pioneer radio with an eBay Chinese brand 10.1” touch screen android head unit. This thing is amazing, especially with how large the screen is. Bluetooth. Internet. Screen mirroring. It’s pretty much an android tablet that is connected to a radio unit. There are so many ideas and infinite amount of customization to how you would like it. I’m currently using Car Launcher AG for the controls. There are many different launchers in the play store to download. This was my favorite so far. You can customize colors and design how you please.


You can change the loading screen logo to your car brand. Or add a custom animation which I’ll possibly do later

For this car launcher you can swap the center information with an analog clock, current music playing with album artwork, turn by turn navigation, car speed and trip distance, car brand logo, or compass. Here are some of those.

The only negative about these type of radios is that startup time can take around a minute. There is a setting that delays full booting at a max of 1 hour. So if you turn off the car and get back in within the hour then the radio will start immediately. But anything longer then it will have to do a full boot. Not that big of a problem for me because if longer than an hour, I can always just remote start the car a little bit before so it can be started by the time I get to the car.


Added a Panavise phone mount bracket with a wireless gravity charging dock. It makes for easy one hand removal and inserting of the phone to charge.





Also hooked up a backup camera. There isn’t really good mounting options for the back of the 4Runner. I found this camera on eBay that is mounted with the license plate light lense. It’s not the greatest camera but it’s the cleanest mounting option I found.

Next the shifter.
I chopped down the shifter and replaced the knob with a new TRD shift knob. Added blue vinyl inserts over the Red and added a leather shift boot. This has taken a lot of tinkering and isn’t perfected yet, but is operational. It works by instead of pressing a button to operate the spring inside, you push down on the knob.

 

[infamousRNR]

Andddddd he’s back!! Welcome back my dude! Are you going to try to fix all the broken Picture links?

 

[zacattack20]

Andddddd he’s back!! Welcome back my dude! Are you going to try to fix all the broken Picture links?

Are they still broken for you?
They show up for me just fine.

 

[Koba Sho]

wOOOWwww I love your 4runner! I went through everything lol so inspired, I just purchased a 2000 4runner I really want it to look like yours!! Please keep it forever!

 

[zacattack20]

Smaller Update. Larger updates coming soon.

Updated the stupid meep meep wimpy horns.
From what I believe I have gathered, these are the horns that come in 2001 and 2002 4Runners. MAJOR upgrade and only cost $14 +shipping from Summit Racing. LINKY


Old tiny stupid wimpy sounding horns.

New larger awesome strong sounding horns.
The light is GREEN. GTFO of my way, without being too obnoxious.

 

[zacattack20]

My intentions were initially to sell the truck. Just seemed like something always was wrong. The paint looked like shit after all the years in the sun. The hood was peeling and had surface rust spots. California smog was annoying to deal with the supercharger. So I pretty much sold everything off the truck that was worth any money and returned it to stock. It really looked like shit.

Sold my BFG tires and Tundra wheels and bought some worn Tacoma wheels and tires.

Drove it like that for a while but then I had a change of heart and decided to fix it and build it back up. A couple of things I sold, I wish I hadn’t but for the most part it doesn’t bother me.

I made money on the supercharger. Bought it for $700 and then sold it for $2000. Wish I still had that and just run it stock but oh well. One day in the future I will have one again.

When I sold the suspension I put on NEW but cheap coils and shocks. It will do for now until I get some better stuff. It had a major drivers side lean so I added a spacer for now.

First thing I did was get some new wheels and tires. I’ve been eyeing these TRD wheels since they were just a concept. I blacked out the red TRD. The tires are Falken Wildpeaks.

Major thing that was a real put off was the paint. I had been wanting to vinyl wrap it for a while now, so now that I was keeping it I went ahead and did it myself. It is far from perfect but I think I did a really good job considering I’ve never done a full car. If you get up close and inspect it you will see some flaws but from a couple feet away it looks great. I’m completely happy with it for the money I saved doing it myself. It’s a matte metallic blue with a gloss black roof. Gloss black side mirrors as well as tinted blinkers on the mirrors. I also finally hooked up the puddle lights on the bottom of the mirrors.

It took about a month to do from start to finish. Just doing a panel here or there when I had the time. Also took a vacation in the middle of it. It was very time consuming and tedious but not hard. I don’t want to ever see vinyl wrap ever again. Haha.

Now I’m going to have to build some new blacked out projector headlights.

 

[sogoood]

damn that looks good.

nice job with the wrap!

 

[zacattack20]

damn that looks good.

nice job with the wrap!

Thank you

 

[zacattack20]

Forgot to mention this. I like symmetry so before the wrap I removed the antenna and then filled in the antenna hole.

I then ran the antenna to a shark fin on the roof.

 

[zacattack20]

I have been trying to get a good color for a long time from the ac controls. Turns out the problem was the face plate. Looking at the back of it, the coloring was kind of yellow and had certain spots that were darker than others. Decided to buy a new face plate for around $35 from Toyota after seeing some pictures of new ones. It made a world of difference and makes the lighting much more evened out.

Also had soldered in a new blue LED in the AC button.

And to give the controls a more updated look, replaced the slider knobs with some black aluminum knobs

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PIECE-BLACK-BILLET-ALUMINUM-VENT-FAN-CONTROL-DASH-KNOBS-4RUNNER-PICKUP-TACOMA/182803471622?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

And then replaced the turning knobs. They are not a direct fit. Had to trim/cut down the size of the control on the 4Runner side and then put some putty around it and shoved the knob on. Works with no issues. It picks up the lighting behind and makes the knob glow.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3PCS-Car-Air-Conditioning-Heat-Control-Switch-Knob-A-C-for-Toyota-Tacoma-Vios/263680945469?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=562815027608&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Also added blue accent footwell lights that come on with the headlights. One in each footwell, and then one under the ash/tray in the center dash. All the lighting looks brighter in the picture than it actually is. It is very faint in person.

 

[Sal R.]

That shark fin antenna any good?

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Talk about night and day!!! That wrap looks awesome.

Between the wrap and the new wheels its hard to believe it's the same rig. Nice work.

 

[zacattack20]

That shark fin antenna any good?

Not at all. It was a cheap one off eBay. Haha. At the same time I also added the splitter with the diversity antenna that is in the cargo window. I believe I have read sometimes that splitter makes reception worse. So I’m not sure if it’s that or the antenna. Thing is I never listen to the radio anyway so I haven’t dug into it yet

Talk about night and day!!! That wrap looks awesome.

Between the wrap and the new wheels its hard to believe it's the same rig. Nice work.

Thank you. It’s gone from looking pink(red) to semi gloss black to flat rusted black to blue. I already have plans for the next color. Haha

 

[zacattack20]

Been wanting steering wheel controls for a long time as well as a sportier steering wheel. Put on a 2000-2005 celica steering wheel from an automatic that has gear shift buttons for up and down.

The Up buttons are wired together and the down buttons are wired together. I separated them so that each button operated separately. Afternarket radios usually require an extra module for steering wheel controls but this radio already wires for it. You can then program the buttons to whatever you like. I have the right buttons for volume control and left buttons for previous and next.

Steering wheel control inputs only have three wires. One ground and then two inputs, either key 1 and key 2 or SW1 and SW2. All the buttons need to be wired inline with those two wires. They are read through resistance in the wire. So for each button, each power wire before the key or SW wires, needs to have a different valued resistor wired in line.

I also had to move the location of the cruise control so that it didn’t go through the clock spring.

I ended up getting the steering wheel and airbag from a celica. And a six pin clock spring from a Lexus IS. Our 4runners and the celica only come with a 4 pin. It could probably work with the 4 pin by adding the resistors in the steering wheel before the clock spring though.

I repinned the clock spring connector with the horn for one wire, ground for all the buttons, and then for each button one power wire each.

The up button on the back of the wheel

And in action

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bHuZcox0TKg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Lamer]

The Up buttons are wired together and the down buttons are wired together. I separated them so that each button operated separately. Afternarket radios usually require an extra module for steering wheel controls but this radio already wires for it. You can then program the buttons to whatever you like. I have the right buttons for volume control and left buttons for previous and next.

Steering wheel control inputs only have three wires. One ground and then two inputs, either key 1 and key 2 or SW1 and SW2. All the buttons need to be wired inline with those two wires. They are read through resistance in the wire. So for each button, each power wire before the key or SW wires, needs to have a different valued resistor wired in line.

And in action (can we not embed videos anymore?)
https://youtu.be/bHuZcox0TKg

lovin the steering wheel controls. can this be done with the stock radio/stereo set up?

also, LINK to embed video

 

[zacattack20]

lovin the steering wheel controls. can this be done with the stock radio/stereo set up?

also, LINK to embed video

No I wouldn’t believe so. The 4runner had no steering wheel control wires/interface. You would have to get an aftermarket radio.

And thank you. I seen that and tried that but for some reason last night when I posted it, I couldn’t get it to work.

 

[zacattack20]

Keyless locks.

Had my old broken remote laying around

Wired the remote buttons to a waterproof momentary switch.

Removed the lock cylinders from the door handles from both front doors.

Put the buttons in the old lock holes.

The remote has a rechargeable battery. It is plugged into a USB port behind the dash that will only charge it when the truck is running.

Hid the remote.

Now just turn off the truck, jump out, push the button to lock the doors and arm the alarm, and then walk away without having to mess with a key.

In action

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2_HBSa0OnY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>




Going to work on a way for keyless entry too that will work with the RFID push start button. Once the antenna gets a signal from the RFID in the key fob it will send a signal to a relay to send a signal to the remote to unlock and unarm the system. As well as allowing the push start button to work. Just waiting on shipping for a longer range antenna. Currently the key has to be a few millimeters away from the antenna for it to work. Want to get further distance but not more than 6” away. That way I don’t accidentally unlock it unless I’m really intending to. It’s a lower frequency RFID so far distance reading range can be a little hard to do.

 

[zacattack20]

I love anything TRD, real or fake.
:girl:
I’m a TRD whore.

Got a set of 4 TRD stickers off eBay for $10 plus shipping.
Only needed one.
Came from Thailand. Only took six weeks to get here.

Goes right on top.