Gramps 2.0 - Gen3 Montero Budget Build

[Soupy]

Took a short trip to Los Padres National Forest yesterday with my mom and siblings. None of them had been in years but have been begging me to take them. So I picked a really simple site; short drive, bathrooms, non-extreme temps, short hike to a waterfall, good scenery, not much offroading. It was great other than having to do everything because they know nothing about camping haha. On the way there I realized I left my inverter (to blow up my moms air mattress) in my old car when I sold it, so we stopped at harbor freight and picked one up. After getting to the campsite, I realized it didn't come with any cables. Luckily, we had also bought jumper cables at harbor freight because I also needed that and they were cheap! Unknowingly solved the problem before we even got to it!

 

[Soupy]

Haven't done much but took another trip, this time up to the Eastern Sierra. Started early at Red Rock Canyon State Park to check out some of the crazy rock formations before getting melted by the heat.



When we left the Mojave around 9-10am, it was already almost triple digits. So we headed North and stopped at our next spot, Hot Creek Geological Site.



From there it was only about 45 min to Mono Lake.



Finally, we made camp in Inyo National Forest just off the 120 above Mono Lake. When we got there, it was around 80f and mostly sunny but out of nowhere a thunderstorm rolled through. Heavy rain and thunder constantly booming... for about an hour. Sun came back out and then right back to 80f.



On the way back home, we stopped at Convict Lake to swim and eat and all that.



Only issue the whole trip, the service engine soon light turned on while driving up a long hill. Being miles away from any auto parts store that could diagnose the code and with no immediate issues apparent, we just kept chugging along. After restarting the car during a gas stop, the light turned off so I'm hoping its not urgent. I got a code reader on the way to check it out.

 

[Soupy]

Removed the 3rd row today. One of the sides did not want to let go and after about an hour of lubricating and prying, I said ******** it and took out the sawzall. Less than a minute later, it was out. Doubt anyone would want to buy it now but I don't think there was a big market for them before either, so oh well. I plan to put a second battery down there along with the inverter and a shelf over all that to hold other tools and whatnot.

 

[Soupy]

Stopped by the junkyard the other day to pick up some bits from an 06 montero. Unfortunately, it was the dvd version so no sunroof parts. I got the upper and lower gloveboxes (since the latches on both of mine are broken), the sun visors (slightly bigger and cloth instead of that weird brittle plastic/rubber), the center console lid (different material but at least its clean and in one piece), and a bunch of gauge cluster lights! The 06 did have an intact power antenna but I'm thinking about scrapping mine completely. I don't ever listen to the radio. Anyone else done this? Do plugs exist for the antenna hole or am I gonna have to make something/bondo it. I don't know how I'm gonna wire up the little light on the sun visors, since mine didn't come with one. I probably should've pulled that plug from the junkyard car but I'll think of something.





I also finished the tailgate water jug holder. Borrowing heavily from Saber and others, I basically just put a slab of plywood on hinges, burned it with a little torch, sprayed clear coat, tied some paracord and called it a day! God I love paracord. Total cost: $7 for hardware, $10 for water jug.





I'm getting a pretty decent sized oil leak so I went ahead and ordered some camshaft seals and an unrelated oem radiator cap from Luso Overland, so that'll get done next week. Still gotta change the diffs/trans/tcase fluids, but I peeked inside each orifice and the only one that looked even a little dirty was the transfer case. All were full. Another job for next week.

 

[DenTar]

Hi, Soupy. Enjoying this thread. Thank you for the pics and progress.

I'm not much of a poster here but I will tell you what I did with my antenna. I also have a 01 Limited and they come with two antennas: the power one and one in the driver side rear window. When my antenna failed I left it down and bought one of these (SCOSCHE MDAB 1988-05 GM Micro/Delco Antenna Adapter). That hooked up, with a little pushing, to the rear antenna cable and then hooked up to the double din I had installed. Have not noticed any difference in reception for all of the stations I listen to.

My skillset precludes me from considering filling the hole so I just have a useless antenna on the fender. Thanks.

 

[Inyo_man]

The rig is coming together nicely!
Good score at the pick-n-pull! I'm in need of a new top portion of the center console as well (broken plastic latch).
If you don't want to entirely delete your antenna, you can put in a switch that will control the power antenna. I did this many years ago.
...just splice into the power between the head unit and the antenna, and install a switch.
Cheers

 

[Soupy]

Hi, Soupy. Enjoying this thread. Thank you for the pics and progress.

I'm not much of a poster here but I will tell you what I did with my antenna. I also have a 01 Limited and they come with two antennas: the power one and one in the driver side rear window. When my antenna failed I left it down and bought one of these (SCOSCHE MDAB 1988-05 GM Micro/Delco Antenna Adapter). That hooked up, with a little pushing, to the rear antenna cable and then hooked up to the double din I had installed. Have not noticed any difference in reception for all of the stations I listen to.

My skillset precludes me from considering filling the hole so I just have a useless antenna on the fender. Thanks.

Nice, I didn't know about the second one! Does it connect to the power antenna behind the radio somewhere?

 

[Soupy]

The rig is coming together nicely!
Good score at the pick-n-pull! I'm in need of a new top portion of the center console as well (broken plastic latch).
If you don't want to entirely delete your antenna, you can put in a switch that will control the power antenna. I did this many years ago.
...just splice into the power between the head unit and the antenna, and install a switch.
Cheers

Also a good idea! But now that I know about the second antenna, I'll probably go that route and delete the power one completely.

 

[DenTar]

Nice, I didn't know about the second one! Does it connect to the power antenna behind the radio somewhere?

Yeah, you'll find two antenna cables behind the stereo (stock Infinity stereo has two antenna connections, never saw that before). The standard connector is for the power antenna while the mini connector is for the window antenna. You should be able to see the actual antenna in the driver's side rear window to confirm. Have to look real close towards the outside of the window if it's tinted. I threw some electrical tape around the standard connector and tucked it away.

 

[Soupy]

Have been lurking the forum while I catch up on maintenance, piece by piece. In the past month and a half I've replaced all the speakers, the driver side abs sensor, built a sleeping platform, and today I'm doing the inner boots on the front cv's. Today has been the hardest by far, sometimes they just don't want to come out.

Speakers:
-4x Rockford Fosgate Prime Series (R1525X2) Speakers
-2x Rockford Fosgate Prime Series (R1T-S) Tweeters
-1x Polk DB 842 Sub
Total Price: ~$240



Notes: Crutchfield will send you harness adapters for each speaker that they say will work, but they don't. You'll have to switch the positive and negative wire due to the size of the connectors. I didn't take any pictures of the sub install because it was a ********** and a half, I was too busy cursing at all the broken plastic clips. All that work was probably for nothing as i'm just going to remove it and replace it with a shallow mount box. Used rambopenguin's build thread to reference because crutchfield's instructions also aren't great. Shame, everything they sent for my subaru install was perfect! Woes of having an uncommon car.

 

[Soupy]

Sleeping Platform:
-8x4 23/32" sheet of plywood
-10ft 2x4
-2x continuous hinges
Total Price: ~$80



Notes: Probably going to redo it at some point. I'm not super happy with it but we'll see after a few trips. Went with just paint over carpet because I found that carpet slides around more with sleeping bags/pads. That might change too with the next iteration. An unintended side effect in the last picture, makes a decent couch hah.

 

[Soupy]

Front CV inner boots:
2x Dorman Universal Silicone Boots
Total Price: ~$50



Notes: Pretty easy once you actually get the axle out. Mine was stuck as hell, so I wrapped a strap around it, used vicegrips to secure it, and gave it a good pull. Out it came, after about 3 hours of struggling earlier... Inside the boot was pretty dirty, as you can see, makes me think it was probably torn for a while. After you get the boot off, there's a large locking ring that you gotta pull out. Mine was buried in grease so it took a while to find. Then you can gently tap the outer cup off with a rubber mallet. Wipe all the grease off then you should see a little circlip holding the last piece on. Remove that and go at it with the rubber mallet again. Then you should have an empty shaft to put the new boot on. Then just follow the steps in reverse. I ended up only doing one side because the other was intact (albeit cracking) but I have the ADD ball joints on the way, so I might as well do that all together.

 

[Soupy]

Welp, haven't done much due to unemployment but I finally have a job again! So the mods should start rolling in soon. In the mean time I made this diagram to start planning my electrical (mostly sound system related for now).

 

[Soupy]

Tackled the tiny project that is my broken battery tray! Basically I just made a simple L bracket to hold the tie down rod on that side.




Then while I was doing that I figured I might as well replace the rusty/corroded tie down strap as well!




And the finishing touch...




Made the sticker just 1mm or so to tall so the very tip is cut off but its not very noticeable. Also cleaned up the tie down rods with a sanding disc.





Also replaced the absolutely mangled positive terminal.





And just as I thought I was finished...





So after another trip to autozone, the finished product... in the next post because apparently I can only have 10.

 

[Soupy]

Here. I wanted to paint the bolts on top of the strap red too but I couldn't find the paint and didn't feel like buying more.





Side Note: Found this grounding point very corroded and black so I made it look vaguely like copper again. Also sprayed some electronic silicone waterproofer on it so it should stay that way for a bit.