vwhammer
Adventurer
I recently sold off a lot of my projects in preparation for a move from Ohio to Colorado.
Thought this would give me time to chill and sort things out while acclimating to a new city in a new state.
Well, I started working for a friend of mine who just happened to be parting ways with a well-used but also pretty well taken care of LX470.
I have been wanting a 100 series for a long time so when he told me what he wanted for it I scooped it up.
Pretty much stock other than a roof rack, some sliders and a rear drawer set up.
The day I bought it.
I had never driven a 100 series let alone taken one off-road so it seemed only fitting to give it a whirl.
Here is a cheesy poser shot flexing the unit out on some mild trails not too far from my house.
Ok I'll admit, I don't know if this was "flexed out" but it was the biggest thing I could find to climb within a fifty foot radius of where I was standing when I decided I wanted a pic.
OK so, it had 215,000 miles when I drove it home.
It was mechanically sound but just beat up enough (you can see the not-so-great bodywork on the fender) that I would not have to be too concerned about a scratch or bump or six while hitting the trails.
Naturally, with 215k miles, it would need a good looking over and maybe even a couple new parts.
Obviously, the right thing to do is upgrade worn parts where I can so that's the loose plan as it stands.
I noticed an occasionally squeaky ball joint so a suspension overhaul was at the top of the list.
I didn't need anything too crazy so I kept it simple with a tried and true OME 2.5 inch kit and added some of Nitro Gear's upper control arms.
Surprisingly, the active height control that was available on this rig still functions the way it should most of the time but it will be all getting removed for the suspension install.
Oddly enough, the suspension lift does not fix the noisy lower ball joint so I still need to sort that out.
Can't decide if I want to get complete lower arms from Toyota with the joints or just get some decent lower joints and try to change them out.
I will sort that out next week so let us move on.
The tires that are on the truck are from 2018 and the Colorado sun and harsh winters in the mountains have not been kind.
They are completely dried out and hard as hockey pucks so some new tires were in order.
The tried and true mantra still rings true here but my go-to for "tried and true" in the world of tires usually falls to General tires.
This will be the 5th vehicle on which I have used the Grabber ATs and have no real fear of any issues.
I really struggled with my tire and wheel combo.
I have always been a fan of the tall skinnier tire and I really dig the steel wheel set up.
Some 255/85R16s might have been nice but there are no 16 inch steel wheels available for the 100 series.
I contemplated having some custom 16x7 steel wheels made but decided that I did not want to take the time to do it.
There are 17 inch steel wheel options for the 100 in other parts of the world (I think) but I was not willing to spend what that option seemed to cost.
I feel like this is the point that I should mention that this is not a credit card or bottomless wallet build.
I am willing to spend some money on decent affordable parts but I am not going with all top-of-the-line stuff.
Heck, I might even break the internet and slap some budget junk on a 100 series.
Shoot. Who knows. I might even sneak some Harbor Freight junk in here somewhere.
OK back to wheel and tire business.
This really only left me with one steel wheel option but I was not sure how I felt about it.
I am speaking of the 18x8 tundra steel wheels.
Here are three of the five I bought after getting back from the sandblasters.
A little sidebar here.
Some may notice that the address on the box that that particular wheel came in is addressed to Ohio.
That's right.
I had five wheels shipped from four different places all over the country to... MY OLD ADDRESS.
Boy was I embarrassed.
Fortunately, I knew the people that bought our old house in Ohio and they stashed all the wheels as they showed up so that another friend could grab'em and ship them to me in Colorado.
Of course, shipping five big and heavy steel wheels from Ohio to Colorado just doubled the price of my budget-friendly steel wheels.
-End sidebar-
It was planted in my head from somewhere many moons ago that 18 inch wheels had no place on a trail machine.
"yur sidewalls will be too low profile and you'll just git flats all the time when ya air down", " yur sidewall flex will suck" and so on.
Since I am fessing up to all my mistakes here, I might as well be honest and tell you that this will get driven on the street a lot.
It currently does and will still also see a lot of the twisty canyon and mountain roads that fracture the landscape all over the west so perhaps a little shorter sidewall will be better for the twisties.
Meh. Who knows.?♂️
Dang, I am all over the place here.
OK, deciding on a 275/70R18, which is about is about as tall and skinny as you can get for an 18 inch wheel, I also had my concerns about the width of the wheel.
I did look around to others with similar tire and wheel sizes and eventually just said "F it" and decided I would try it and if somehow it sucked for whatever reason I would move on to plan B or C or where ever we are now.
Back to the wheels.
Generally, some paint or, even better, some powder coating would follow a good blasting...
Yep. I went with paint.
Nope, not good paint, just some spray bomb rattly can work.
All the wheels got some spray can primer and a little sand afterward.
I decided on a dark gray (grey) for the outer surface but decided to just use some gloss black on the inside of the wheel to keep junk from sticking to it too easily.
I managed to blacken the inside of two of the wheels today.
I will do this to all the wheels then the outer faces will get coated in this.
I have had pretty good luck with the Hardcore line from Montana Colors and they have tons of colors to choose from.
Back to the primary theme of this thread.
In the three months since I moved here, I've decided to build a rooftop tent camping trailer situation to pull behind our 5th gen 4runner and I plan on building an electric motorcycle over the winter to lessen the commuting cost back and forth to work when the days are warmer.
I also have a Vanagon project that I have been working on for the last three years which was the one project I decided to keep and bring with me when we moved.
The last thing I needed was another car/truck project but here we are.
Thought this would give me time to chill and sort things out while acclimating to a new city in a new state.
Well, I started working for a friend of mine who just happened to be parting ways with a well-used but also pretty well taken care of LX470.
I have been wanting a 100 series for a long time so when he told me what he wanted for it I scooped it up.
Pretty much stock other than a roof rack, some sliders and a rear drawer set up.
The day I bought it.
I had never driven a 100 series let alone taken one off-road so it seemed only fitting to give it a whirl.
Here is a cheesy poser shot flexing the unit out on some mild trails not too far from my house.
Ok I'll admit, I don't know if this was "flexed out" but it was the biggest thing I could find to climb within a fifty foot radius of where I was standing when I decided I wanted a pic.
OK so, it had 215,000 miles when I drove it home.
It was mechanically sound but just beat up enough (you can see the not-so-great bodywork on the fender) that I would not have to be too concerned about a scratch or bump or six while hitting the trails.
Naturally, with 215k miles, it would need a good looking over and maybe even a couple new parts.
Obviously, the right thing to do is upgrade worn parts where I can so that's the loose plan as it stands.
I noticed an occasionally squeaky ball joint so a suspension overhaul was at the top of the list.
I didn't need anything too crazy so I kept it simple with a tried and true OME 2.5 inch kit and added some of Nitro Gear's upper control arms.
Surprisingly, the active height control that was available on this rig still functions the way it should most of the time but it will be all getting removed for the suspension install.
Oddly enough, the suspension lift does not fix the noisy lower ball joint so I still need to sort that out.
Can't decide if I want to get complete lower arms from Toyota with the joints or just get some decent lower joints and try to change them out.
I will sort that out next week so let us move on.
The tires that are on the truck are from 2018 and the Colorado sun and harsh winters in the mountains have not been kind.
They are completely dried out and hard as hockey pucks so some new tires were in order.
The tried and true mantra still rings true here but my go-to for "tried and true" in the world of tires usually falls to General tires.
This will be the 5th vehicle on which I have used the Grabber ATs and have no real fear of any issues.
I really struggled with my tire and wheel combo.
I have always been a fan of the tall skinnier tire and I really dig the steel wheel set up.
Some 255/85R16s might have been nice but there are no 16 inch steel wheels available for the 100 series.
I contemplated having some custom 16x7 steel wheels made but decided that I did not want to take the time to do it.
There are 17 inch steel wheel options for the 100 in other parts of the world (I think) but I was not willing to spend what that option seemed to cost.
I feel like this is the point that I should mention that this is not a credit card or bottomless wallet build.
I am willing to spend some money on decent affordable parts but I am not going with all top-of-the-line stuff.
Heck, I might even break the internet and slap some budget junk on a 100 series.
Shoot. Who knows. I might even sneak some Harbor Freight junk in here somewhere.
OK back to wheel and tire business.
This really only left me with one steel wheel option but I was not sure how I felt about it.
I am speaking of the 18x8 tundra steel wheels.
Here are three of the five I bought after getting back from the sandblasters.
A little sidebar here.
Some may notice that the address on the box that that particular wheel came in is addressed to Ohio.
That's right.
I had five wheels shipped from four different places all over the country to... MY OLD ADDRESS.
Boy was I embarrassed.
Fortunately, I knew the people that bought our old house in Ohio and they stashed all the wheels as they showed up so that another friend could grab'em and ship them to me in Colorado.
Of course, shipping five big and heavy steel wheels from Ohio to Colorado just doubled the price of my budget-friendly steel wheels.
-End sidebar-
It was planted in my head from somewhere many moons ago that 18 inch wheels had no place on a trail machine.
"yur sidewalls will be too low profile and you'll just git flats all the time when ya air down", " yur sidewall flex will suck" and so on.
Since I am fessing up to all my mistakes here, I might as well be honest and tell you that this will get driven on the street a lot.
It currently does and will still also see a lot of the twisty canyon and mountain roads that fracture the landscape all over the west so perhaps a little shorter sidewall will be better for the twisties.
Meh. Who knows.?♂️
Dang, I am all over the place here.
OK, deciding on a 275/70R18, which is about is about as tall and skinny as you can get for an 18 inch wheel, I also had my concerns about the width of the wheel.
I did look around to others with similar tire and wheel sizes and eventually just said "F it" and decided I would try it and if somehow it sucked for whatever reason I would move on to plan B or C or where ever we are now.
Back to the wheels.
Generally, some paint or, even better, some powder coating would follow a good blasting...
Yep. I went with paint.
Nope, not good paint, just some spray bomb rattly can work.
All the wheels got some spray can primer and a little sand afterward.
I decided on a dark gray (grey) for the outer surface but decided to just use some gloss black on the inside of the wheel to keep junk from sticking to it too easily.
I managed to blacken the inside of two of the wheels today.
I will do this to all the wheels then the outer faces will get coated in this.
I have had pretty good luck with the Hardcore line from Montana Colors and they have tons of colors to choose from.
Back to the primary theme of this thread.
In the three months since I moved here, I've decided to build a rooftop tent camping trailer situation to pull behind our 5th gen 4runner and I plan on building an electric motorcycle over the winter to lessen the commuting cost back and forth to work when the days are warmer.
I also have a Vanagon project that I have been working on for the last three years which was the one project I decided to keep and bring with me when we moved.
The last thing I needed was another car/truck project but here we are.
