200k miles!

Still running great!

Cargo box

I had some extra plywood lying around after building a base for a shed.  I had thought about buying a manufactured cargo box but all of them ran for $1000 shipped.  As a result I took some measurements and figured how much extra plywood I would need.  After all of the extra materials - plywood, rails, lock, handle, turnbuckles, eye hooks and spray paint, it came out to about $100.  I had screws and nails for the nail gun already, so these would add extra cost if I didn't have them already.  It took a while to make the box since I took pieces back and forth between the truck and saw horses.  The result looks great and is functional.  I had to raise the box a bit so that the drawer would not snag the rear mat when opening.

Rails and hooks.

 Drawer and box for testing purposes.

 Drawer extended.

 Closeup of rails.

 Finished and painted with tie downs.

 Bottom with rubber feet.

 Turnbuckles installed

Installed with lock.

Stereo Install with Rear View Camera

The Sony stereo that I will installed five years ago began to have issues and kept resetting itself.  As a result I bought a JVC DVD/touchscreen unit with a rear view camera input to replace it.   I purchased the camera for $12 on ebay since the stereo did not come with one.  I also bought the wiring that allowed me to use the steering wheel controls and the factory auxiliary port.  The wiring was a little complicated but not too hard to understand.  I soldered all of the connections and put on shrink tubing to make it look professional.  The camera was a little harder.  It require passing the wire down the door channel and using a wire coat hanger to pass it from the rear seat to the rear lights.  Once this was done, I used a wire split connector to the rear light wire and placed the black wire to ground where I had done so for the CB radio.  I then passed the wires from the access hole near the jack and under the bumper where I zip tied them.  I passed the camera wire right above the hitch and below the hitch valance.  I had someone print a camera mount with a 3D printer that I also zip tied around the hitch.  This worked well as can be seen in the pics below.

                              Stereo installed

                            3D printer camera mount.

                  Camera mount above hitch.

                  Camera mount above tow hook.

Rear view camera on stereo screen.

Seized caliper pistons

After 192k miles, the brake calipers on the right side had two pistons that seized up causing one of the pads to wear down to the metal.  Luckily, it had not been that long since the other side of the pads were ready to be replaced.  As a result, I took it in to have new calipers, rotors and pads to be installed.  I figured it would be best to replace the entire front end because the current plan is to keep it around for quite a while.  I kept the old calipers since I can rebuild them both for about $40 with new pistons and seals.

Seized calipers on right side.  Can clearly see rust on both pistons.

Close up of seized pistons on right. Pad on left was doing all of the work and wore down to almost metal part.

New rotors and calipers on both sides.