FJ Cruiser mods thread

[Corey]

Instead of creating multiple threads over the next few years, I will try one thread unless it gets to huge.

Oh yeah, very good mod this morning, a Clifford Matrix 10.5 Alarm
http://www.clifford.com
Parts #s from Cartoys do not match up with the site, but mine has two remotes.
One plain remote, and the two way LCD one that acts as a pager too.
It also beeps when the alarm arms itself and disarms.

I also had a separate DEI battery backup alarm installed.
This way if a thief cuts the main battery wires to disconnect the Clifford, the battery backup alarm will wail straight for about 4 hours on its own internal battery.

It is hooked up full time to the main 12v battery to charge it, and if it senses no power, it will wail, and it is just as loud as the siren for the Clifford.
It has a key hole on top to turn it off for when you go to get serviced and they may need to disconnect your main battery.
If you do not disarm it, it will wail when they disconnect your main juice.

Both are state of the art, and better than my DEI Python 650 I had in the 4Runner.

OK, on with a few visible mods.
The Bandi CB antenna mount.
Mount just put on
With 4' Firestik II antenna attached
Unit by itself

Cargo box from the 4Runner.
It fits nicely, but the tie downs in the back of the rig do not match up like in the 4Runner.
There are four of them, but I will have to do some thinking here to secure it.
Do not want it rolling in case the shiny side of the rig ever does a 180.
The cargo box

That is all I am doing today, will work on more over the weekend.
Hope to get the Bentup sliderz installed, and also the Slee/Yakima brackets for the Hi-Lift jack put up on the roof rack.

[Corey]

Got my onboard air system installed.
Drilled 4 holes into the top of my cargo box and mounted the Powertank bracket, and it is rock solid.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/powertank_bracket.jpg

Powertank installed
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/powertank.jpg

I bought this tank a few months back to replace my black one I use to have in the 4Runner.
I had to let that tank go a few years back when I was on my layoff from Boeing.

I like C02 as it is very fast, faster than an air compressor.
One 10 lb tank will refill about 30 tires from 15 psi back to street pressure after 4wheeling.

You can run air tools with it too.
Here is a very old video of my taking off my lug nuts on the 4Runner to put my winter tires on.
http://pnw4runners.com/tando/impact.mpg

[Corey]

A few hours after breakfast is all it took.

Brake cable bracket you must remove first, the closest one to you.
Brake cable bracket

Passenger side slider ready to go

Passenger side mounted

Brake cable bracket back in place
Notice that these are also gusseted.

There were a few nicks in the powder coating from shipping or making them, but that is to be expected.
You can see a touchup on the front part of the passenger side.
I have not sanded it, and probably will not.
I threw some old black touchup paint on it with the brush in the bottle.

Drivers side
One

Two

14 mm socket for the brake cable bracket
13 mm wrench for the sliderz bolts.

It is to hard to use a socket on the sliderz bolts.
I have some metric Craftsman ratchet wrenches that worked perfect for this.
Ratchet wrenches are a joy to work with if you have never used them before.

[X-AWDriver]

There's nothing like modding a vehicle with under 100 miles on it;looks like your having fun and you haven't even been off road yet.

[Tacoclimber]

Looks great, Corey. And this is a totally Noob question, but here goes.... When ya gonna lift it?

[Corey]

X, I think I have 120 on it now

Taco, not sure when, but I would be going with the ARB lift which is new springs, Old Man Emu shocks more than likely.

Makes a nice combo for an ARB bumper

[Corey]

Custom iPod mount.
I am on a roll now.
Very cheap mod!

Several years ago I bought a squeeze mount at Radio Shack to hold my Garmin GPS.
It itself hooks to another mount that mounted it to the heater faceplate controls.

I unbolted it from it today, and took the inner cup holder out of the main cup holder at the front of the console.

The squeeze mount I have bolts to the inner cup holder when it is flipped upside down.

You then take it and squeeze the sides of it and gently push it into the main cup holder upside down.

Presto chango, by gosh it turns into a iPod mount.
You can adjust the angle of it too.

I am sure Radio Shack still carries these mounts, or you can find them online somewhere else.

Well, we have the Bandi mount for the CB antenna for the back door, I am going to name this the Corey mount

Here are two quick pics I just took.
I still have to bolt the mount to the cup holder, it is just resting there for now.
But it is time for bed, it can wait until tomorrow.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/ipod/DSC00005.JPG
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/ipod/DSC00006.JPG

[WillsFJC]

I like the i-pod setup Corey, your taste in music is good too. Glad to see you're enjoying that FJ so much!

[Corey]

Thanks Will.
I will get better pics maybe tonight of how it mounts to it, and they will be on my website under the FJ mods section sometime during the weekend.

Yeah, iTunes has quite a few of the old bands I listened to yesteryear.

[Corey]

CB coax is in

I tried to run it underneath like I saw a few others do on various forums, but I would need to have the rig on a lift.
I decided to drop it right down from the bandi mount and run it behind the bumper, then up through a rubber grommet inside the left rear pocket where the jack is.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00013.JPG

I was thinking about drilling a hole into the forward part of that long compartment, but I was not sure if I could snake the cable through, even with a coat hanger.
I decided to just bring the coax out the top of the access door where a slight opening by the handle you pull to take the door off.
It worked out good.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00014.JPG

From there I am able to hide the coax underneath the plastic directly in front of the D ring on the floor.
You can see the coax where it rests in the left side of the picture.
It is all hidden quite well.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00015.JPG

It runs along the side and exits underneath the passenger side rear seat.
From there it tucks underneath molding again, very stealth.
Sorry, this picture turned out fuzzy.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00016.JPG

From there it travels along side the passenger threshold moldings, and I have it tucked underneath again for that stealth look.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00017.JPG

I had just enough coax left to exit out where I will probably end up having the CB mount to the glove box.
I can not really think of any other place for now where to mount the monster Cobra 29.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00018.JPG

You can see the coax here where it comes off of the bandi mount and tucks behind the rear door where it exits behind the rear bumper and down to that grommet as seen in the first picture.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00019.jpg

Next up is getting the CB mounted, but that is for another day.

[Corey]

OK, I got up Sunday morning, took my power wire out to the rig, and I did not want to go drilling through the firewall or a grommet on the firewall.
New rig, I chickened out

I called up Cartoys and asked them if they might be able to run the CBs power cable through the firewall for me, and they said yes, it was easy.
Yeah, easy for them to say, they do this kind of work daily.

Drove up there, and also took gigantor (Cobra 29 CB radio) with me.
I told the tech I had installed the same CB myself into my '91 4Runner on the glove box, and he said piece of cake.

I also showed him how I ran the cable down behind the bumper, and up through a grommet in the storage bin on the drivers side.
He said he could bring it in right at a wire bundle, and also this would give me more cable up front, it was kind of tight.

On with some pics.
The bandi mount he cleaned up the way the coax comes off it it, you can not hardly see the coax.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00020.JPG

Here he has the coax going into the cable bundle for all the wiring for the rear door.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00021.JPG

Here is the coax inside of that storage bin again.
I am not sure how he ran it from there, but it is all stealth.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00022.JPG

Couple shots of the CB on channel 4.
Remember, channel 4 for 4x4
That is the channel we always run when out wheeling.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00023.JPG
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/cb/DSC00024.JPG

I did not snap a shot of the hookup to the battery, I forgot.
But I am sure it is stealth, just like when they wired up my alarm system a few weeks back.

Now it gets better.
They use to do CB installations long ago, but they got out of it.
They have no SWR meter to tune it.
They did not even attempt to tune it, I said I would since the Cobra 29 has its own built in SWR meter.
Just another reason I wanted to keep big bertha.

I fired it up on channels 1, 20, and 40, and my SWR match was .50 to .75.
A good match is considered 1.5 and below.
I am getting just as good a match as I did when it was on the ARB bumper.

Now it gets even better.
In Bandi's installation instructions for his "bandi mount", he says to scrape away a little paint to get a good ground.
I did not scrape anything.

I did not have to tune the tip at all on the Firestik II antenna.
I lucked out, and a few days ago after getting my new antenna, I even screwed out the screw on top a bit for kicks.
I guess I got it right

I hated to pay for this today, but it is a lot more professionally done than I could have done.

Now all of you know that the glove box is a good area for the CB, even a monster like mine.

I ran it this way in the 4Runner for years, and never had any complaints from passengers about leg room with the CB.
At the angle it is at, no problemo.

[Corey]

New iPod mount installed.
Yes, I am doing away with my homemade one.
The base on it had a crack in it, and the iPod sat pretty low.

With this new Arkon CM330 mount, the iPod sits higher in the air, thus easier to reach the controls on the iPod.
Here is the URL to it
http://www.arkon.com/ipodaccessories.php
Scroll down to the CM330.

Here are a few pics of it.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/ipod/DSC00031.JPG

http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/ipod/DSC00032.JPG

It is totally adjustable for tilt back and forth, and the clamps on the side to hold various MP3 players besides the iPods.

You also use the inner cup holder to insert the Arkon unit into, then insert the whole assembly into the larger cup holder hole.

This is a lot nicer than the homemade one I made a short time back.
You can see the old one on the passenger floormat.

Go ye forth and buy one now, you will not be disappointed.

[Corey]

Dang, I be on a roll tonight

Lund Vent Visors
Good gosh, I just got the email today that these were being shipped.
FedEx pulled up right at 5 PM, and here it is 5:45 PM and they are completely installed as I type this.

It was so easy.
Roll down your windows all the way.
Take a small scrub pad and clean the window channels, then swipe it down with some alcohol pads.

Peel back the sticky tape a bit, then insert into the channels.
Once in the channels, push the visors up into position, then peel the three pieces of tape per vent visor.
Roll up your window to hold them in place while the sticky tape cures.

You can order these vent visors from
http://deflectors4less.com/toyota-fj...entvisors.html

I ordered them a week ago, not to bad on the shipping.

They were really to easy to install, and I like the in channel ones much better than the tape on ones I ran on my 4Runner.

Here are a few pics.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/index.php...j/vent_visors/

[Toddski]

Not to shabby
Sure wish i had an iPod

[Corey]

iPods rock Todd.
Nothing like cuing up the unit and selecting artists, then it loads all 5 albums of AC/DC I have, about 52 of their songs and plays them all back to back.

I still have not burned a pure MP3 disc to play in the FJammer stereo since the iPod has my entire music collection on it.

[Corey]

OK, just took a trip to the dealer, was itchin' to get out, as I spent 5 hours washing, claying, the waxing the rig this morning.
First wash since I took delivery.

Dealer had my plates in, and I drove there with both windows down.
It is a lot less windy in the rig with the vent visors on, but you are still going to get some wind, but not as much.

Before I was getting tons with both windows down only half way.
I hardly getting any at all now with the windows half open.

I emailed my parts manager there too last night to see if they can carry these.
People should let their dealers know about these, as they are top notch quality, and only take 10 minutes to install both.
Probably less for some, but I am super anal when it comes to doing stuff, so I take my time.

[Corey]

Finally bought a 4' ladder today at Lowes, as I could hardly reach the roof the other day when I washed and waxed the rig.
It is a lot higher than the 4Runner was.

With the ladder I was able to put up the Yakima 10V mounts and Slee's Hi-Lift mounts.
I did not however put the jack up there to test it yet, to much to do here, I will try to snag a pic later this week with the jack up there.

Yakima 10V mounts on the rack slats

Slee's Hi-Lift mounts mounted up to the Yakima ones

Where to purchase parts
Yakima 10V slat mounts
Slee's Hi-Lift mounts

You want the ones in the lower right corner, not the ones at the top of the page.
Also you can order his as seen with Yakima Mighty Mounts, but I am not sure if they are the 10V ones or not.
You would have to drop Christo a phone call or email to find out.
If they are, you can get it all in one shot.