Still here, but spending a lot less time with the Rover these days. I've got a baby on the way and now that the Land Cruiser is back in my hands, most of my little free time has been spent working on that.
However, I did manage to get some small things sorted on the vehicle in the past few weeks.
It took a while to figure out the best way to install my HAM radio, but I think tucking the unit under the passenger chair was the best possible place for it. Plenty of airflow and really nothing else under there since I removed the factory CD changer.
To mount it, I screwed the unit into a 1/4" piece of wood and then used double-sided tape to lock the thing to the ground. I placed SecondSkin down first so I had a flat, even surface to work with. On top, I put some extra Gorilla Tape to keep it held in place. I know this isn't ideal, but I didn't want to drill through the body again and I didn't have any adhesive spray on me. After some testing, i'd say this thing is going nowhere no matter how many hits this truck takes.
The wiring was straight forward, though I did blow a fuse by tapping into the CD Changer's power source. So instead of using that (it kept blowing), I just pulled the wire through the firewall and took it to the battery; ground is on the center tunnel under the seat.
Now, these radios usually have the speaker built into the unit. This one is particularly loud, but I didn't think it would break through the exhaust noise while wheeling so I looked for somewhere to install an external speaker. After a bit of trial and error, I found out that the Uniden BC20 Bearcat speaker is a nearly perfect fit for the center rear air vent. This requires you to remove the plastic ducting that carries the air above the headliner so I wouldn't recommend doing this if you plan on using the rear air feature. You will also need to get creative with zip ties to keep the unit nice and taught against the headliner; otherwise, it'll pop itself out over time.
So with a buddy and lots of curse words, we got the headliner from ol Blue (the parts truck) into Outono and installed the speaker. I think it looks pretty damn good.
To mount the HAM faceplate, I just used a RAM mount phone grip. Works a treat.
The other mount you see there is a new MAG charging QuadLock that I just love. Seriously so much better than my old RAM setup as it makes taking the phone off much quicker, as well as moving it into portrait mode. Highly recommend it even though it is $$$.
At this stage, all I need to do is finish installing the headliner, wrap up sound proofing the truck, and then install the RTE rear bumper when it arrives this summer. Oh, and I have some minor brake repairs, some new rubber seals, and new injectors to install. But after that, i'd call the truck more or less complete. And that's a good thing because with a baby arriving in August, I just don't foresee myself being able to take whole weekends to work on this truck anymore. Im not selling it so it'll have its day again, but things will inevitably slow down for the foreseeable future.
