40 Guy builds a 100 Series

[Rezarf <><]

I decided that I liked where the rear lights were but wanted them wired into my reverse lights but had put off all the necessary wiring to make it permanent. Well, yesterday I got after it and installed the trigger from the brake light to the rear lights and decided to go ahead and do all the wiring for the final time.

I started out by running the wire through the upper third brake light lens, there is enough space between the actual light housing and the mounting flange to drop the wires right through. This does require a new hole, but I made piece with drilling holes in my vehicles a long time ago.

This is where I dropped the wiring through from the rear spoiler into the upper hatch.

Then I used the lens as a template to drill a new hole directly below the lens. As usual I used some touch up paint followed by silicone sealant to seal up the new tight fitting o-ring. I've used this a lot on my cruisers and haven't had any rust nor leak issues yet... knock on wood.

There was a little juggling getting the lense mounted and the wires pulled through without boogering everything up.

Pure silicone, eliminates the potential for leaks. Its messy but worth it if you not afraid to knock out a few holes into the cruiser.

This is all that is seen from the outside. I bought this wire which is a double run of positive and negative inside an insulated sheath. It was intended for the marine application, two 16ga wires.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I tied the lights together in a "Y" configuration connecting both lights leads with the main power wire output. The master wire is what runs through the brake light, into the hatch and into the interior, where it splits off into two separate switches, one up in the cockpit, and the other being triggered by the rear brake light lamps so they illuminate when reversing.

This is the wires before they got mounted to the rear of the spoiler with zip-ties and adhesive mounting tabs. Now that the install is finished all the wires are snug, and fully out of sight.

I find one of the most frustrating and yet most satisfying things about vehicle wiring is making it disappear. For me this means running it along side of all the factory wiring through the factory grommets, looms, holes etc. For this run I repeated how I hid my HAM radio antenna cable. I ran the wires through the factory flex tube on the drivers side of the hatch. Its pretty full now so I want to make sure this was the last big fat run of wire.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Switching the lights on using the backup lights as a trigger is really quite simple. First you need to splice into the circuit I added another "Y" connection by cutting the wire and using a high quality crimp with built in heat shrink, then I added a longer than needed section of adhesive lined heat shrink since this connection is on the exterior of the truck. Waterproof-ness is the critical factory for me on exterior splices.

This is a diode. This is run in-line from the tail light to the LED lights, for those that don't know I diode allows electricity to flow in only one direction, in this case, from the tail light to the rear LED lights. If I didn't use a diode then every time I used the in-cab switch to power the lights on the reverse lights would also illuminate. This little diode "blocks" the flow of electricity to the brake lights when powered from another 12v+ source or in this case the switch in the cab.

This one is a 6 amp version, the line on the diode determines which way the electricity flows through the unit. I think of the line indicating the direction like the front of an arrow... ------>

Here it is in line before I add an additional full coverage piece of heat shrink.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Here is the result of the lights right at twilight. My neighbors motion light is on to the right in this picture, this is the factory amount of light when reversing.

Reverse lights now! BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE! When off road, reversing on trails at night, or setting up camp, these lights are awesome!

Lots of light, cold night, warm exhaust.

 

[Rezarf <><]

We have had some nice weather and I had a little time to work on my 100 this week. I took another look at the dual battery system and decided to move forward with popping in a dual tray from Slee that I picked up second hand from a local club member. Bolt-in for the win. The bad news is I already zipped off the J-hook mount... awesome. Gotta weld that back on at some point.

The work to fab up and pop both batteries in the same spot seemed overwhelming, so I chose to move forward and pop the dual tray in with 3 bolts. I am stoked to move this forward again. I am hoping to knock out three big projects before the wheeling season starts here in Colorado. This is one of them.

Thank you Mr. Toyota for leaving all the space needed to drop in a second battery!

Here is the Slee dual battery tray bolted into three factory holes. It is solid as a rock and has a bracket bent off the side towards the engine where I will mount up my Blue Sea Systems dual battery isolator.

Here is the battery charge manager I picked up for this project. It is the Blue Sea ML-ARC or Magnetic latch- automatic charge relay. It allows the dual batteries to charge off the alternator, then I can draw the second battery all the way down to dead and the main starting battery remains isolated and fully charged. This model comes with the in-cab switch to monitor the system and override the system if I need the power of both batteries to start the cruiser or for a heavy winch session etc.

Looks like it is going to bolt right up to the bracket on the battery mount. I bought a pure rubber pad to put on the battery tray but I need to cut it to size.

Here is the mock up, Optima yellow top, ML-ARC and the Slee battery tray. I have everything in hand accept for the terminals for the 2/0 wire for the system. Once that arrives I will knock out the rest of the system which will include, a 12 circuit fuse block, 5 relays, and a few terminal blocks to run all the auxiliary lighting, HAM radio, Fridge, solar and stereo system off of.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I also got started on fabbing up a custom roof rack. With a growing family of 5, we need all the available space we can get. Tim @Gamiviti is a personal friend of mine and he makes some amazing racks less than a mile from my home. However, I have two friends who recently purchased 100 series and they thought it would be fun to make custom racks that fit our needs... and enjoy the ride of building them.

Tim was gracious enough to sell me his mounting system, which is high-quality and proven. THANKS AGAIN TIM! This made our planning and creating a roof rack much easier knowing the mounting system is bomb-proof. We built a jig and started building up the racks this weekend. Lots of tubing, lots of bending, and lots of notching... later there will be lots of welding, grinding and fitting.

3 custom racks... some assembly required :bounce:

Bender all set up with a fresh stick in, you can see the temporary jig set up to frame up each of the racks.

I have a JD2 bender and a few dies, for this rack we picked a tight radius of 3.5" center line radius. It makes for clean tight bends in the 16 gauge tube. I love this machine, there is something cool about watching steel bend before your eyes. I get a kick out of it every time.

Here is one of the bases mocked up, I still need to sleeve and weld in the front and back sections that are missing. I need to track down some .875" tube to sleeve the sections I need to fill. We had some fun notching on the milling machine, we still have a lot more tube to notch. I think one friend wants a front halo to guard a light bar but leave the back open for a RTT. One of the other racks will likely have a short hoop similar to the look of the Gobi stealth rack and I might opt for a flat rack. But we will all have a base rack, this is the one without the sunroof cut out. The other two will have a removable sunroof panel. This is just a mock up the front mounting plates actually will mount one section forward from where they are pictured now.

The fit-up is coming along nicely. This should make welding the rack up a snap, and tight gaps make for stronger welds.

 

[AdventureSilvy]

Sub'd i love everything about this build! Thanks for commenting on my thread and leading me to your bad *** build!

 

[Rezarf <><]

Thanks man!

Picked up a new set of shoes today. Bought them from a fellow cruiser head here in Denver. They are the Toyo' Open Country MT's on 18" Tundra steelies... I want to run some of the new 18" alloys from the new Tundra's as I picked up 5 on Craigslist for a song. I am gonna spin these for a week or two and see if I like the tires enough to move forward with them, or if I should resell them. First impressions are they are HEAVY! Snap, they have got to weigh 100 pounds a corner if not more.

Anyhow the black wheels make a big difference in the look of the rig... but I for one am excited for the black wheel craze to pass over. I much prefer silver to black, but it is a fun change for a week or two. That is my finger in the shot, if you ask really nice I will let you know where to put your finger to make it really stand out on a shot

 

[Rezarf <><]

I picked up a 42" Light bar of Amazon. It's a Cree based 42" single row light bar from the company Arsenal. Here is the link:

Amazon.com: #1 42" 7D DIAMOND PRO SERIES Single Row LED Light Bar Flood/Spot Combo Beam CREE 40 5W LED's 200w 16,500LM Off Road Polaris RZR UTV Raptor Jeep Bumper Rock FREE LED Light Rocker Switch Kit Harness: Automotive

It's really well built. IP68 waterproof, breather to regulate heat and condensation, good wiring harness, solid mounts etc. It was hard to figure out the difference between the bottom of the barrel cheap bars and the uber-high end light bars... and what was worth the cost. I did a lot of homework and landed on the bar above. I hooked the light bar up at night the other day and I was thoroughly impressed. I am a Hella 4000 Rally guy with big hot halogen bulbs. This LED bar was pretty impressive. The center spot beam pattern is achieved with an actual optical lens, with the flood pattern achieved through the cut of the reflector.

I tossed it up on the cruiser to get an idea of its overall dimensions before mounting it up on my newly fabbed roof rack.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Here is a buddies rack that is getting close to done. I have it all tacked up, tubes bent, mounts are ready to go and the hardware just showed up today. He plans on adding flooring to the front, and a RTT onto the rear of the rack. We will knock out a few mounts for his HiLift and MaxTrax. He got the same light bar as me but the double row verses the single row.

Here is the base model of the rack... it is basically like one of the amazing Gamiviti racks.

Obviously, we are using a different mounting system

The light bar fit up and stuff's inside the tube work to make sure it is protected from the rare Colorado/Utah/Wyoming trails where this Cruiser plays. The whole thing will sit down lower than it is pictured.

Light bar in daylight... uh it is BRIGHT!

A look from above. The fit is really nice front to rear and side to side. He plans on adding flooring for the front 1/3 or so of the rack and leave the rear open for a future RTT.

 

[Rezarf <><]

So I have been on a wheel and tire adventure lately. I have been wheeling and dealing. I sold the black Tundra wheels with the Toyo Open Country MT's on them. They were just too heavy for the size and they were loud on the highway. They drove nice enough, looked good and balanced well. Anyhow I decided to resell them, so I did, and landed a set of BF Goodrich AT tires in 305-65/18's... this allowed me to mount them on my Tundra alloys I have had sitting around from a recent craigslist purchase. I REALLY LIKE THIS SIZE. It is roughly a 33.5" by nearly 12.5" tire on an 18" wheel. They look just about perfect on a 100. The wider tread seems to fill the width of the wheel well nicely where most tires seem skinny under the 100. Anyhow, I have to hunt down a spare but other than that I am stoked about these wheels and tires and will be dumping my GY Duratrac's to put some coin towards an ARB Old Man Emu lift. I still gotta bore out the hub cap to fit the axle dust cap on the 100.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I had a beautiful day here in Colorado and a hall pass to crank on my roof rack. I got to really work on my own today as I am wrapping up my friends. I started off by getting all my pieces fitted up and tacked.

With my floor design I decided to box in the mounting plates with additional tubes to give me an area to weld my floor to all around.

You can see how I fabbed up a removable panel for the sunroof. I decided to bend the corners instead of mitering the corners, this will make it a little stronger and it gives me ready-made "pockets" to create a mounting system. More on that later.

I need to figure out my light bar mounting system before I can figure out how to attach the front of the sunroof panel. I am heading to the local metal mart tomorrow to see if I can find a specific size tube to make my idea work.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I keep a clean workstation when I get going! :lol:

Here is my current idea for mounting the sunroof panel. I will create something similar to the tab shown in the picture but I will attach the bottom gusset to the sunroof opening and another matching tab to the bent tube and toss a captured nut on the bottom so I can just use a simple bolt on the top. I'd like to figure out a way to "slide" the front into a locking system to keep it out of the wind and keep it from rattling. I am open to suggestions!

I started bending up the upper hoop for the rack. I am going to space it 1" inside the lower hoop on the sides and rear, and 2" from the leading edge of the bottom hoop. My hope it will look like a GAMIVITI and GOBI had a baby. I am not looking forward to cutting and welding 22 spacer tubes to connect the upper and lower hoops. It is funny that even though they are only like 1.5" long, they take exactly as much time as the main cross-bars do per piece. Time to set up the mill for repeatable cuts and see if I can't figure out a way to fast track them.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Well, I am closing in on finishing my rack. We got one done but I was hung up on how I wanted to mount mine. I wanted the following things in a mounting location/design for the 42" bar:

• I wanted to mount it under the rack to not take up any space on top.
• I wanted to mount it under for protection from branches
• I wanted to be able to mount it far enough BACK from the leading edge to prevent as much hood glare as possible.
• I wanted to be able to rotate the direction of the beam pattern up and down.
• I wanted light weight, simple construction.

I found all that I wanted in the Auxmart Universal mounts for 1" tube on Amazon:
Amazon.com: AUXMART 1 Inch Bullbar Nudge Bar Mounting Brackets Tube Light Clamp for Hid LED Light Bar: Automotive

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These are simple enough, they are very adjustable as they rotate around the tube, and spin 360* around the "L" bolt. They would work for a large number of different mounting options.

Before I could mount them though I had to modify the mounting end caps on the light bar itself. There was a threaded M8 x1.25 area but the exterior hole would only accept the diameter of a M6 diameter bolt. So, I chucked a tap into my drill and opened it up and threaded at that same time.

A quick tip for tapping aluminum is to use a little cutting oil, a cordless drill with the clutch set about 1/2 way and drill on in... it makes quick holes and works really well. Obviously you gotta back it out and clean up the chips but this is the fastest way I have found to make quick, CLEAN threads.

The end result is about 3/4" of solid threads to hook into. I might add a rubber washer to clamp down and give me some friction on those geared teeth to hold the adjustment tight... thoughts? Thread locker for sure but I think a little friction with a thin rubber washer might do me some good?

 

[Rezarf <><]

One things I like about the mounts is it allows me to set the LED light bar back from the front of the roof rack, this should cut down on the amount of hood glare I get as well as, how many branches it comes in contact with. Here is roughly how it looks on the truck. The rack isn't level so it looks like I am cutting it close but there will be about 3/8" between the bottom of the light and the sunroof. I will likely lose the ability to tilt my sunroof but since it drops down to slide rearward I should be all set for it to still open.

I had to use a 3/8" washer to space the mounting arm to clear the Gore-Tex breather. I have since bought a few 3/8" spacers that allow me just the right amount of clearance to rotate the light where I want it without hitting the breather nor the wiring.