Nice job on the LEDs.

I thought I remember you guys had a link or knew where to get a decent replacement plate for the climate control panel,yeah? Mine has felt the effect of time and is crumbling away now.
Any info would be appreciated.

Jason

 

Jred. I bought my climate control right off the penske Toyota dealership in Downey CA. for a wooooooping price of $45 lol
It was a bit much but if you look through my thread page 6 and 7 you'll see how much in bad shape mine was.

BTW the year of your truck matters. I had to return mine a few times because they kept ordering ones that didn't fit mine. The one with the clock on the left side cost me only like $22 but it was the wrong one so when I returned it for the correct one they upped the price almost twice as much. I believe i also posted the receipt with the same part# on my thread when i finally got it. If i didnt ill check out my receipts and post the same one I bought for you.

 

Thanks man.
I saw some on ebay for about the same price.
I'll probably hold out on getting one until I paint the truck

 

Yea I seen those they are like $54 with shipping not included right? The only reason I bought mine off the dealership was because it was actually cheaper to buy them there then on eBay.

 

Mark you are right I think I will make another thread just for the hell of it. Call it "SuperBrightLED dashboard conversion" or something along those lines. I know i prefer watching a video then pix when i wanna do something.


Btw I found a smittybuilt front bumper off an 80's Toyota pickup on Craigslist. No mounts included but he said he'd fab some up if u take the truck. I'm not big on these bumpers but if you are interested in these he is on Craigslist. And said he'd include the bumper and custom mounts for $100. For whoever likes those.

 

Well i got a couple updates for you guys today.
First thing's first. I just broke 205k miles today:

Next i washed both my filthy little girls and left them squeeky clean. Thats my 2000 1.8L 4cyl 29.2mpg Toyota Corolla next to my Truck.

So Unfortunately, while washing my truck i came accross a bad problem that can really lead me to cause an accident. Keep in mind my tires were bought previously used and they're pretty old, have low tred, and also have some dry rot going on. So as you keep that in mind somebody must have moved my truck and rubbed the front right tire sidewall on the sidewalk causing a rip that didnt penetrate all the way but got enough to make a nice size chunk and tear.
as you can see the rip or crack is about 1/4-1/3 of the height of the tire and the whole rubbing went all the way to 1/2 the tire.
In This picture the rip is from where my thumb is to my pointing finger. My hand is hiding the rest of the damage from the rubb-age.

Now i dont wanna say any names here, but i know how to drive my own truck and the only other people who move my truck are my landlord or his son on the street sweeping day. Sooo..... i dont wanna say for sure but i think it could have been them. Then again it is possible i could have done it a while back ago and just never noticed it. After all it has been a good month before i last washed and inspected the tires.

So due to this damage I didnt feel confortable leaving those tires on like that. It's not safe and i dont wanna be at fault for an accident. So i decided to temporarily throw on my 33's till im able to find something else to replace them with. Here's the 33/12.5.15's mounted next to my 31/10.5's. honestly i dont see a hell of alot of difference in height. only looks like 1-1&1/2 inches difference in person.


It started getting dark out so i thought i'd hurry and take some full truck shots before what was left of the sun went down.





Now, get this... The truck drives perfectly fine. I drove it to the local AutoZone because my brand new cross crowbar nut remover thing broke on the first try of using it. I JUST BOUGHT THE DAMN THING LAST WEEK! CHEAP DURALAST BRAND! NEVER BUY THEIR PRODUCTS AGAIN!
Anyway i drove it the short trip to the autozone and it drove perfectly fine even on turns. What scared the crap out of me was when I was about to pull into my parking spot which, may i add, was located directly infront of the store's double door entrance. While I pulled in to park in that spot it required me to turn the steering wheel a bit more for a tighter turn and as soon as I turned to pull in you hear a loud "CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK!" as my tire rubbed on the inner wheelwell. It was so loud everyone in the parking lot and some people inside the store heard me With the doors to the store closed too lol.

I went ahead and finished my park. and exchanged my product then drove back home. When i got back to my apartment i checked out the turning radius of my tires to see up to what point they begin to rub and came to the conclusion that it if plan to keep using these 33's temporarily or not, I will have to remove the inner plastic piece to that wheel well and take a hammer to the part of that wheel well made of metal that sticks out a good 3/4's inch which is the main location to where my front tires are rubbing.

I would honestly prefer keeping those 31's on the truck but to be on the safe side im gonna keep the 33's. DONT HATE ON ME for slapping 33's on a stock truck. I didnt wanna do it in the first place. lol Anyway i figured ill probably sell my set of 31's on craigslist for like $80-90 for the 4 tires. Dont wanna sell the rims but if i sell with the rims i'd sell them for about $250 or so. Just a thought. Not too set on this decision yet because I like these rims.

Just kinda bummed out about it though. I was looking forward to just buying or trading my set of 2 spare tires for 1 or 2 used 31" bfg a/t's I'm gonna give that a shot and if i cant find the A/t's then i'll go ahead and sell the set of 4.

 

the missing thread on the side wall could be from your wheeling trip? i get those all the time. sucks when they are new rubbers but when im out wheeling. it was what i built it for so its all part of wheeling.

 

Nah i washed my truck the same day we got back from wheeling and i never seen that when i cleaned up the tires.
That's a bummer. Definitely makes me want my next tires to be something with a nice chunky sidewall.

At least I have a spare tire for this set of wheels and tires. So I'm covered there.

 

First of all.... I HATE COMPUTERS .......... many times! hahaha. For the 3,000th time, put a message down here, firefox'nt's version of Adobe CRASH, I mean FLASH player explodes.... and all is lost. All the tabs I had up? SURE, yep, they've restored em....... BUT NONE OF MY TEXT! lol... Is ANYONE but me having problems with Firefox lately? Or Adobe Flashplayer? Primarily, OF COURSE, when using Photobucket or Youtube... and often Yotatech is slow, but not nearly as bad as those two! (I know, something is wrong with my puter... AGAIN, hahahaha.

Ok, but on that tire, ... HOLY HECKLE-FIRE! WOW! That's like the crap we see all the time at PyPart. .... You know, some lil JACKHOLE with a knife going around and GASH! Sure, many are just people ticked off their wife, their car gets impounded, yadda yadda, lol. BUT WOW! That's scary, Richard! I'm so glad you didn't wipe out!

How's the 33's rollin? I swear, man... they do NOT LOOK like 33's... My 32's look bigger... But I KNOW, I KNOW... you bought em and read the side and so forth... I'm not doubting ya(remember when I said, "You SURE those BFG AT's are 31x12.50's???????" .......... And you looked and said, "HOLY CRAP, you're kidding me!" .... I think the wheels are 15x8's and the guy said they were 31x12.50's you said.. This convo was at Pick-Your-Part... and I KNOW that one you got that day was a 33x12.50 on an SR5 rim .....) Just wanna make sure you have a set of 33's to match the 33 we picked u up at PyPart.

But lastly, lemme just say, DAYUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM THAT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER! hahaa... NO, JK< honestly, I am... I liked it with those nice aluminums you have.... BUT DANG, I really love our SR5 Rims, man... They just 'do it for me', ya know?

Truck looks good, homie! ME LIKEY!

 

Wow I can't believe this is the 5th freekin time I have to type this reply to you. Wth.....
Hi Mark, well I doubt its your internet broswer or Photobucket that's causing your problems. I have the same problem with my Explorer browser and my Android phone browser. And as you can see from the beginning of my post this is infact my 5th time having to retype this. It is so annoying. I think it may be the YotaTech site that causes the problem. Just a guess because I don't have this problem on any other site. And to answer your question, yes I am sure they are all 33/12.5/15 tires. They are significantly wider when you put them side by side. And I've read the side wall more then a few times already. It's definitely the right size this time lol.

To answer your question about the 33's, They ride great. perfectly fine on the street and on turns. the only time where it becomes a problem is during tight turns such as to park in parking lots or to parallell park. And to tell you the truth i definitely have to fix this problem ASAP because this morning i seen the damage its caused already. Mark if you were to look at your 4runner wheelwell, and look toward the back of that front tire area there is a screw on the very bopttom part of that weelwell that holds your inner plastic wheelwell to the fender. and just in the little bit that i drove the truck yesterday it already began to pull on that piece. As much as i hate to take a hammer to my truck i might have to do it because if not its gonna continue to pull on that piece and then bend the whole bottom of my fender by pulling on it. First thing is first though, im gonna need to hit up some tire shops and see if they'll trade me for my 2 spare tires(pay difference) for two 31's. If that doesnt work out, then ill have to hit up a Pick-ur part to grab some off another truck and then go ahead and either keep those tires or just sell the whole set of 4 on craigslist for about $80-90. If i go ahead and sell them with the rims i'll probably let them go for $250, but im not too sure on that decision yet because i really like the way those rims look and their color.

All i know is that i definitely need to get that problem fixed this weekend. I dont want to use the truck at all till i get this problem fixed. Also something I forgot to mention is that my Corolla has been needing a new battery for a few months. It has dry battery acid dried onto the battery. But i do, however, make sure to clean the connections so it does grab the charge. Normally it wont hold a charge longer then 2 days but recently for the past few days its been having trouble starting up and last night it didnt even hold a charge over night. Not only did it not hold a charge, but while driving the car to work on the freeway after i jumped the car i noticed that my car didnt have much power. It would somewhat stall or loose power in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears. After i would reach a certain speed(not sure on what RPM because i dont have a gauge for it) I'd feel a significant powerloss. it almost felt as if it wasnt holding a charge even after i was running the car. So now im worried. I'm gonna have to buy a battery first before i buy tires for the truck. That car is my money maker. My transportation to & from work. So that problem is #1 on the list. I am gonna see if I can test the alternator too.
Anybody have any suggestions for batteries. I need it to run my car and power 2 amplifiers. Not sure what brands, color tops I should go for. I've been told the gel batteries are better then acid ones. I need to talk to my landlords mechanic son. He said he has a bunch. New and used so ill ask and see what he has before i hit up a store.

 

Just spoke to my landlords son and he said he has a couple Optimous yellow, red and blue top batteries. I know those are the best brand batteries for cars that use big sound systems. So he said he'd sell a red top optimus to me for $150 brand new. I checked out AutoZone and O'reily and both places have them for 200 for just yellow top. Red was a bit more. Plus tax. So seems like I'm getting a good deal. I might buy another one for my truck sometime in the future.

 

Have you taken a meter to the battery while running and see what your Alternator output is, Richard? I had similar problems in a Cressida on a road trip... THANK GOD, this middle of nowhere mechanic/gas station shop had one in stock... He had everything, considering anyone could break down and he got parts on resell deal with parts stores(so he wouldn't have to drive into town or have them ship the more common things via driver to the middle of the sierras, lol.) ......... My performance slowly was dying and then lights started to dim, etc. Could be the brushes in the Alternator, s'all i'm saying. Pull the battery asap or drive into Autozone and make sure they test it for ya. They can tell you right there if your alternator and battery/which one is the problem. You can have a decent battery that is not GETTING enough charge, ya feel me? Just make sure, s'all I'm saying

(You can just run a voltage meter to it when it's running and see if you're getting 14.5V when you connect to the battery while running....... If you see anything below 13V, you got a bad alternator......... I THINK yours should be 13.8 minimum when not on full charge.... UP TO 14.5V when fully charging. I would assume right now, since it recognizes a dying battery/if that's the case/ that it would be at full charge on start up. )

 

Sorry i forgot to mention that i went to autozone too to have the battery checked. they tested it and confirmed and said, "Oh damn, yea man your battery is definity shot, im testing it now and its already dead. im surprised its able to turn on." they also told me they cant check the alternator because they have to check it through the battery and due to the battery running so low on juice they couldnt check it. But i definitely will have it checked once i get a new battery. I might have to jump start the car again today because i am gonna have to wait till tomorrow for him to bring it by.

-----------------------------------------------
PS I did my tutorial video on the SuperbrightLEDs Dashboard/climate control swap.
I'm uploading it to YouTube right now. I'll make a new thread once it uploads. and i'll make sure to add it to my signature section. WOOT WOOT.

 

A real redneck way to check the alternator is to pull the negative off while the engine is running, if the truck dies, your alternator is bad, if it still runs, alternator good. Not a real good way to check, but still a way to check it.

 

HA ha haa I'm sure mine will definitely turn off. I'll be getting that new red top optima battery tomorrow so i'll just have it tested at autozone after i throw it in the car.

 

Alright guys im still waiting on the confirmation of the Staff to allow for the post of my "SuperBrightLEDs dashboard/climate control swap on 85-89 toyo pickups/4runners mod"
So While i wait on that to be confirmed. I thought id go ahead and share my 2 videos and picture with you guys first So here it is
SuperBrightLEDs dashboard/climate control swap
http://youtu.be/y43CTYnPjuk
AND..... (yes this down below is a video) Click Click

 

Hey Bud, .... yeah, sounds like you need a new one then.

HOWEVER.... No, it should NOT turn off if you disconnect the ground. That takes the battery out of the loop and your rig would/should be running solely off the alternator. That's what the good man, James Woods(known for his FINE work in "Best Seller", "Videodrome", "Salvador" and "Family Guy" spots, amongst many others) was getting at

LOVE that you used that name, James Woods! hahaha.

 

GREAT job on the lights! The videos? NOT razzing ya... But it's a lil shaky... kinda made me dizzy for a second. BUT, I COULD SEE how SICK that climate control stuff looks... and the dash looks great too, man! I wanna do it, but I have so many spare bulbs, ya know? hahaha. I WILL be using that rear dome 31MM festoon for mounting a dome light on the roll bar. Was gonna use the window wiper motor cover in rear, too.... so I want them to be COOL, not getting all hot enough to burn the plastic! hahaha.

I'm having trouble with Adobe Flash Player, badly... So I had to load the video 3 times, hahaha... But it seems that's my trouble on here. ALSO, .... every time I go on Photobucket, it seems to lock up more often than others..... And MOST often, when it does, a browser drop down pops up saying, "Firefox prevented two Pop ups" .. etc. hahaha.

I'm almost convinced that this version I have of Flash is corrupted. As others have been! It offers me an update from time to time, direct from the flash player updater... And almost every time I try to do it, it will go all the way through the 'RUN', then close up and wont open. So when I try to upload it again, it says, "Only a single instance of this program can operate" or something like that.

Anyway, sorry bout the battery.... but better now than on your first trip out to the middle of nowhere with the SAS, right? hahaha.

 

PS> The Youtube Video is deleted, "reason; too long"........ Just letting you know.

 

Thanks Chef, I am a huge Family Guy fan, hence the name.