TRD-SE

So after finding a great deal on a TRD SE, I decided to sell my Ridgeline and purchase the second FJ.  I have the Demello rails, brush guard, skid plate, and light bar, which didn't sell for the prices I was asking.  Luckily all this was stored away.  Every part will be placed on this FJ.

And the saga begins ...

Titanium FJ - Gone

Well, back in November of 2010, while going to work, a young guy decides to pull a left hand turn in front of me.  I went over him, destroyed his whole front end, and broke my axle.  Luckily no one was hurt.  I was not at fault either and since I had bought it at such a great deal, I came out with much cash.

I thought it was going to be fixed but the shop said that there was frame damage and that the fix would compromise the safety of the vehicle.  So it was totaled.  Some pics below.  Last pic was of all the parts taken off.  Looked just like when I first bought it.

I took all the parts that I had placed on it since the insurance company didn't give me anything for them.  That took me two days to do.  Much less time than placing all that stuff on it!

Funny thing is that about a month or so later I see it in a body shop near where I work.  It looked like the axle had been repaired and they had placed the 5th tire where the broken rim was.

I tried hard to find another FJ that had low mileage and was priced in the same range as my silver one.  I found a great deal on a black one and decided to hold off until I received the check from the insurance company.  They sold it 30 minutes after I was there!

I then bought a Honda Ridgeline - see handymannyridgeline.blogspot.com.  Nice truck, great flexibility of uses, large trunk and it drove better than my old Acura.  But alas, still not an FJ.

Black Out project

After looking at the forum for quite a while I found that Demello was selling off some bumper parts. I picked up a full set of wings and the middle valance in the front. Purchasing some satin black paint at Home Depot was very cheap. I did the whole set with four coats with three cans. I also re-painted the off-road rims with flat black and put on a few coats of clear coat on top.

The results:

Full black out with rims. No mall cruiser here! :)

Front bumper wing/valance with stockies.

Both wings and center valance

Rear wing

Hitch Bike Rack

After looking around for another bike rack to put on the roof and finding out that the same USED one that I had already was selling for $50-$80 on ebay I decided to look around for a nice hitch rack. I came across a website that was selling a Yakima swing arm 4 bike hitch rack that was only $200 SHIPPED! So I bought one. I wasn't expecting it to clear the FJ door but, to my amazement, it did. I was very pleased with the quality and like that I can use it for both a stand to tune my bikes and as a transport. The best thing is that it came with a hitch pin lock and the integrated bike lock!

Some pics:

Tow Hitch Wiring Harness

I finally decided to pick up the wiring harness for the tow hitch which was my very first modification. It was fairly simple to install and didn't take much time. Here are the final pics of all the parts installed:

This is underneath the dash on the driver's side. The top arrow is pointing to the converter. You have to put the packing around it(sponge looking stuff) and then screw it into the hole above it on the body panel. Unfortunately I was using that hole for a grounding point for the auxiliary light switches. Since the bracket was metal, and the converter was completely surrounded by the plastic box it was OK to leave the ground point. So once the converter was screwed in I took a look around for the plug that goes into it(second arrow). It was the white plug with all the different colored wires that was taped to the main harness coming out of the firewall plug on the right. The third, bottom arrow is pointing to the sponge packing material that the instructions said to wrap around the part of the harness that goes up near the converter. I think this is to protect the converter plug wires from rubbing. I have a bunch of wire loom from the auxiliary lights tucked in there so your FJ will probably have more room to work around.


This is beneath the rear bumper. The plug is on the driver's side and it was a pain to get that cover off. I had to use two pliers and had to be careful not to break the white tab that was holding it in place. I then plugged the harness that came with the package into the harness that was already there. After that I inserted the brown zip tie that came with it along with another black zip tie(mine) to hold the harness up higher on the bumper. I didn't want anything to hang down.

And finally the plug screwed into the plate that came with the hitch. The white zip tie is mounted on this plate and holds the harness nicely.

The final step was to put in the two fuses and the relay into the large fuse box that sits right behind the battery.

All finished in about 30 min. The longest part was taking off that cap on the rear of the harness.

Homemade Axe and Shovel Mount

I bought a couple of extra race weights when I made the Hi-Lift mount and decided to make an axe and shovel mount using these. First I made the roof mounts as shown in the roof rack mounts posting. Then I walked Home Depot to see what I could use to make something to fit them. After I came across the shelves where the Stimpson brackets were, I tried bending the metal it it looked like it would work. So I bent and drilled and came up with a mount. Here is the result:

One large Stimpson bracket with two smaller ones. Drilled a 1/2" hole in the middle of the large one and two smaller 1/4" holes on the end. The smaller bracket is bent and the same size holes are drilled with the smaller hole being on the shorter end. These brackets were painted flat black and the edges rounded since the corners were very sharp.

Side view of brackets bent into an S shape.

Put in the 1/4" bolts and wingnuts. The 1/2" holes should overlap on the two small brackets and line up with the 1/2" hole on the large bracket.

Side view.

The middle bolt is tightened with a wingnut. There is one 1/2" bolt missing. It should be placed on top of the large Stimpson bracket and below the two smaller ones. Tighten it and it should hold the bracket assembly nicely. Two of these mount systems are used and spaced about a foot apart. The shovel and axe can then be removed by taking the small bolts off and pulling on the axe or shovel. The curved end will not dig into the axe or shovel and is easy to take off. I will post a pic of them mounted later. The axe required using something around the handle to make it clamp better and not be so loose.

All this was done for about $13 for the roof clamp and 1/2" bolt and about $5 for the remaining hardware. So $36 for both.

Cheap Off-Road Wheelset

Well, after going to Green Ridge I decided to see if I could get a cheap set of off-road rims/tires that I can beat up without having to deal with scratched aluminum rims. I also wanted to keep my stocks for daily driving so they would have to be cheap. So after much research, pricing rims/tires, and some luck, I came across someone who was selling a set of 4 2003 Toyota Tundra steelies 16x7. They were painted black already, which saved me some time as well. Then I bought a locking gorilla lug set from Wheeler's off-road. Nice people to deal with. And then came the hard part - finding cheap tires. After looking at all the used tire places I finally came across one that had some tires with decent tread on them. Two were Cooper Discoverer STT's and the other two were BFG AT's - 265/75/R16. I was trying to get 4 mud tires but every place I went didn't have ones with decent tread left. Since they're for off-road use only I didn't really care that they were different. Once mounted everything fit in place without any caliper clearance or rubbing issues.

So the final result:

The wheels actually look shinier than what they really are. The rims are rough and flat black.
The front wheel with Cooper STT. The hub perfectly matched the color of the rims. The tire was used off-road, as you can see, from the mud stains on the sidewall. The tires and rims do not look this drastic in difference. It's due to the flash on the camera. I'll have to take some daytime shots to show how they actually look.

The rear wheel with BFG's AT's. The hub was a dull brown(probably from the dirt from GRSF) which I wiped clean and then sprayed black. I also sprayed all the balancing weights black.

The rims and tires cleaned up and armor-all'ed.

Overall, a set of 4 off-road wheels for $335. Not too shabby and just what I wanted - something that can take a beating off-road.

First Off-Road Excursion - Green Ridge State Forest

Larry, Chris and I decided to go out to Green Ridge State Forest out in Flintstone, MD. We had a great time and it was really muddy out there due to all the rain we've been having. It made everything more fun. I was worried that I only had my stock Dunlops, but keeping it in H4 all the time did the trick without any issues or slipping. It could have been that the tires only had 15k miles and had deep treads.

Here is some info. I collected using the GPS:



We lost our way a little on the bottom and top of the loop. The views were spectacular but the gnats weren't. :)

Some pics of the run taken by Larry and Chris:














FEAR THE TURTLE!





FJ at home:

Future Mods

My list of things to do so I don't forget.

1. Lucrum winch mount - http://www.lucrumind.com/ - might forego depending on price.
2. Winch - http://titanwinches.webs.com/tw1010000lbwinch.htm - dependent on Lucrum
3. Black Widow cargo basket - http://www.discount-trailers.com/roof_rack.htm - Basket won't fit to my standards. Need a small basket that will fit between bar lights and front bracket ~31"x39".
4. Brackets for mounting the shovel and axe - currently making a set from scratch. Might not work as I originally intended.
5. Box for all lighting relays that are under the hood to make everything look neater
6. Possible pexiglass wind fairing for the front of the light bar
7. Offroad tires
8. Hitch wiring harness
9. Subwoofer

TRD Exhaust

I found a great deal on a TRD exhaust and picked one up. Since Larry had installed his already, and I liked the look, I decided to put one on mine.

It took about 2 hours including using the rotary tool to break off the rear bolts which was the first thing I did. The front bolts with the springs were easy to take off. Next, after the 4 bolts were removed, I took some silicone spray and sprayed the rubber hangers. They were a breeze to take off. Then all that was necessary was to put the new TRD exhaust in place and hang it. The four bolts were very easy to install along with the rear gasket.

This is a picture of where the front part of the exhaust is bolted to the old pipes. The two bolts are spring loaded and torqued to spec.

This is a pic of the new muffler. The heat shield above doesn't need to be so large now. This TRD muffler is much smaller than the stock.

This is the rear pipe that bends over the rear axle. The right hand side is the tip shown in the following picture.

And finally the TRD tip. Nice!

Photo Shoot

Well, after I put everything that I'm going to do on the truck, washing it with the kids, and putting the Hi-Lift on the rack, I had Larry bring his nice digital camera out for taking some pics with the FJ. Take note of Larry's artistic abilities on the last picture. Here are the results: