"The Rock" 2013 TT FJ

[wikid]

After a few changes in direction about doing some major mods to my FJ , then deciding to change the motor and s/c , then a few other ideas, After the new TT came out in the Cement color. I toyed with the idea of getting a new one. Then, one came in and I decided to look at it.
12/12/12, I went down and signed the papers .
Here's where the build begins.

2013 Cement TT. Notable mods that are new to me are, Crawl Control and Rear View Camera

"The Rock"
It seems like I rack my brain trying come up with a a name and the meaning behind it. This time it was simple, FJess, thought it looked like a rock . Thank you Jess.

Current picture 03/03/13

Mods list

Factory

2013 TT
Crawl Control
A-trac
Locker
Rear View Camera
All the TT Garnishes

Suspension

All of this needs to be moved over
Radflo 2.5 Coilovers
Radflo 2.5 shocks
Camburg 1.25 Uniballs
Toytec Rear Lower links
BMC
Armor
Total Chaos Spindle gussets/with swaybar
Ricochet Full skid plates
Ricochet lower control arm skids
Demello Hybrid Sliders
Road Armor Bull Bumper
Bulldog 9500# Winch
Viking Winchline

Wheels
Stock TRD (SOLD)
Method 17x8.5 Split Six Matte Black



Tires
Stock a/t's (SOLD)
Hankook 285/70/17 RT-03 M/T

Electronics

Kenwood 9990HD Head Unit
Alpine PDX V9 5 channel amp
Infinity Kappa 60.11cs component speakers
Focal cvx coaxials
JL Audio 12" Stealth box
Kenwood 710 Dual band
Engel 45
portable cb, somewhere
Scan Gauge II
Dynamat Extreme and insulation of ceiling

Performance
Airaid CAI

Lighting and stuff
Baja Racks Utility Rack
Spylight Articulating Light Bar Actuator NEW
Baja Designs 4o " Stealth bar
Vision X Soltice lighting
Vision X Soltice Prime rear lights

Other stuff (to come)

New and improved camera system

 

[wikid]

And the modding begins here...

Since I have basically unassembled my truck many times to install all kinds of different stuff, I decided I would not do it this time. However, certain mods will need interior dis-assembly. The stereo is my first goal. I am using the Head unit out of Wikid , Kenwood 9990HD and the Subwoofer ,12" JL Audio Stealth box . The rest will be new purchases

Since I am going a different direction with how the inside of my truck will be configured, the last stereo components were going to take up too much space.
I am replacing both of the kicker amps with a major upgraded single 5 channel amp

Alpine PDX V9 D class, which provides 100 watts to each of the four channels and 500 watts to the sub channel. This is a big improvement. The Kicker 500.1 delivers 500 watts at 2 ohms, but since my JL Stealth box is 4 ohms, the Kicker only provided 275 watts.
The Alpine puts out 500 watts regardless of the ohms.

Looking at the Alpine verification certificate , the actual wattage was much higher 571 watts, for the sub channel and 113 watts, for each of the 4 channels .

Since I have this piece I will go ahead and install it. If it goes as planned it will be installed under the drivers seat. I can go ahead and prewire everything to the specific locations as well .

How do you like my new truck? Sorry for the grainy picture , it was dark out.
As you can see the seats are out . I will be mounting the amp under the drivers seat. I can pre run all the wiring for speakers, amp, frig, radio's and install o few more usb plugs. Hopefully when I switch the head unit over, ot will just be plugin in all the cables and wires

 

[wikid]

Here are a few tidbits I did while installing the Stereo

Industrial Forming cubby roll top cover that locks
Pure FJ Cruiser donated this for the raffle at the 2012 Summit but I never installed it

Blue Sea 2 USB charger socket pn 1016. I made it always live but fused

Just a pic of the head unit

 

[wikid]

Made some mad progress today
Lift installed

Timing was perfect
These showed up while I was doing the rear lift

A quick peak before I finished the back

I figured I need the bumper on for the alignment. I will have some better fitting to do when I have time

Then of course, "the rest of the story"

Alignment tomorrow

 

[wikid]

I'm working on another update.
I wanted to mount the ham remote , overhead along with incorporating the new scan gauge I couldn't resist on a Amazon deal so here is what I am almost finished with.

It is basically a flat bar about 1/8 thick, that is bent for the angle of the rear view mirror mount. It is long enough to slide under the crawl control console for stability, then I welded another piece of stock to create a bracket that holds the Ham mount. I had to be careful with the requirements of the ham mount so the gps puck, for APRS could attach to the back of the ham remote

You can see the bracket coming down from the bar here. I also ran all the wires through the existing hole for the wire harness that goes to the rear view mirror. Down the drivers side pillar to the respective locations. The rest of the ham will be mounted under the passenger seat

I'm just not going to be able to hide the wires that come out of the side of the unit. They are necessary. I also have the Microphone to mount for the hands free system. That is hanging down yet. I got called on a dog emergency so my pics happened after dark I will finish it all up tomorrow and make everything neat.

Ergonomically, it is perfect. My long arms can reach all the controls, without having to reach forward and the viewing location is perfect for the driver or passenger for all of it, the crawl control partially hides the scangauge , from rear passengers, but there will rarely be rear passengers other than 4 legged ones

 

[wikid]

I never did install the rear speakers, because life went on and other things were more important .
Yesterday I decided to make some progress to get mounts made . Earlier last week I used some clear film to trace the area under the B pillar. In wikid I just cut a board to fit inside that area, covered it and called it good. I was inspired by another FJ I saw that had flush mounted speakers and thought it looked more like what I wanted to do this time.

My first attempt was absolutely a failure . My idea was to line the inside of that pocket area with plastic cling wrap , then Put the board up and use some expanding foam to get the correct shape. Wrong , what a mess and it just didn't work. I should have taken a picture of the mess, but I got it all cleaned up and ground all the expanding foam back off of my face plates.

You can see remnants of it , on these pictures. next plan was to use molding foam. Glue it to the faceplate and form it by trial and error.

Here's were I'm at right now

The one day in Phoenix it rained all day and I couldn't get my truck in the garage, so I got a little wet with all the test fittings and filing the foam, but it fits well. Now I will cut the holes for the speakers, cover the face plates and mount them .
I will throw up a few more pics throughout the rest of the process

 

[wikid]

The speaker pods are done, but not exactly the way I wanted them. I will leave them for now so I can focus on a few other things before I make a few modifications.. I have an idea, but my frustration needs to cool before I go back to it:lol:

My engineer friend at Airaid , sent me a care package.
The new CAI for the 2010-2013

Presto, it fits perfectly

I will be doing a complete install/write up on it.

I really like how these are put together, from the packaging to the fitment.
Since I don't have an aftermarket exhaust, as soon as I installed it, I could here it. It really sounds nice. I romped it a few times and was happy to hear it growl a little . So far, it hasn't made any impact on mileage, as far as I can tell, but the negative battery cable was pulled, so I suppose it needs to learn some.

 

[wikid]

A big brown truck dropped off a bog brown box
Ricochet skids will be protecting, The Rock from, well... rocks and stuff . Thank you Brad and Ricochet

New front HD skid and front LCA skids. Off to the powdercoater they go tomorrow , for a color that looks strikingly identical to cement. The only ones that won't be cement color, are the LCA skids. They will be black

This means I can actually start getting it dirty in a few weeks :lol:

 

[wikid]

Today
I took it out and got it a little muddy

. This is a hill I tried the crawl control on. It's actually pretty steep and slippery . I have no actual pics of the event, since I was alone, but you can see my tracks
I was impressed with letting it do everything. I just aimed :jester:

After a 30 mile trip on a rainy highway, she almost cleaned herself off

A little snow in the desert
These are the Superstition Mountains

Just cell phone pics

 

[wikid]

I awaiting my big brown box from the ups truck today. It will have my Baja Racks utility rack with the Spylight System .

In anticipation of it's arrival, I decided to start taking the factory rack off.
It seems these used some type of gorilla sealant to keep it from leaking. I actually broke 2 of the captures trying to get the roof off.

That's the lemons

Since I love lemonade, I'm pulling the headliner and putting dynamat on the roof. I could have just fixed it by pulling the headliner down on one side, but I was eventually going to do this anyway, so what better time than now?
I think I may set up a tripod with my camera and just hit the button during the process.

I can now figure out how the crawl control box is mounted

Tap into the exciter speakers to run both channels of my Ham radio

Run some additional wiring to the back of the truck

I'm sure I can think of something else, but I will add it if I do

 

[wikid]

road block
headliner ready to come out except for 1 little thing. it seems the crawl control is somehow attached to the roof and I cannot figure out how to get it off. I am on the phone with toyota now They will be sending me the simple drawing . I hope I can see something from it.
just think. I'm doing the trial and error for you guys in the future

 

[wikid]

I figured out the crawl control I will post up details and pics when I have time tomorrow
Things accomplished today
Interior torn apart
Dynamat installed on ceiling
Baja Racks roof rack arrived and is installed. It was too dark to get any pics. I still need to install the light bar and all the other goodies to go with it

Main power ran to rear of truck, for accessories

Tomorrow I will run some switching wire, then put everything back together.

The Spylight System looks good. I can't wait to burn some desert dark with it. :cheers:

 

[wikid]

Here are some pics of the dismantling and end results of a a few days.

I didn't start the pics right away.
Here I already have the rear upper inner panel on the right down, to inspect what happen to the captures

Tools of the trade include my cordless , 10 mm socket/ ratchet will get most of the interior pieces off required for removing the headliner. The plastic container is for all of the pieces. The I-phone is optional :lol:

I worked from the back to the front, leaving the 2 button clips in the center of the ceiling to keep the headliner supported

Here's where I dealt with the new Crawl Control box . As you can see I figured out how to take it down. You just need to get something large and flat, to pill down on the corners. it just snaps into place, without any fasteners to actually loosen or move
The 4 holes line up then the white button snaps just pop into place

Here is the housing for the crawl control . That answers my question of whether it would be easy to move Probably not
I was hoping to add a sun roof, but I think I can come up with a different option . As you can see , I took this after the dynamat was complete.

There are a few suggestions , at this step.

As you can see I still have the headrests in. Take them out prior to this. Also the upper rear side pieces should be completely removed so you can weasel the headliner in easier. I found the the seat belts that go through the panels, extend far enough to slide the panels out the side doors , without disconnecting them. I missed this step and it was harder to do with those items in the way. On re-assembly the headrests and panels were out of the way. Much easier this way

Since the headliner is about 1500 bucks you want to be careful removing it. It takes a little patience, especially alone, but it can be done. I found that wearing clean latex gloves for this part keeps the headliner relatively smudge free

You do need to clip the wire harness for the exciter speakers and interior lights, to get the headliner out. Afterwards, I just used some wire connectors to re-splice them back together. The exciter speakers will be rewire to use as Ham radio speakers. Since there are 2 of them, I will wire them individually, for each band of my dual band, so I can tell which station is transmitting, without having to look at the radio

Poof !!, its out resting on a garage table .

Here's what I bought for the ceiling
Dynamat Extreme 36 square FT pack It was $159.00 The roof is approx. 8' x 4' =32 square ft So I have a few pieces left over for doors etc.

In the interest in getting this done quickly I just snapped a few pics on the tri-pod while installing. You can see the dynamat pieces here with a paper backing. You can cut it with scissors, but they get sticky

Presto!! It's done

I happened to have some of the 3/4 inch insulation, left over from my last roof project and used contact adhesive to attach that to the Dynamat.
No pics of that, since I was in work mode

Everything is the same on re assembly

The results are actually immediate. It doesn't feel quite as hollow in the truck now. Since I always do these in stages, it's funny how the higher sound level moves down , toward where the dynamat isn't . The stereo actually already sounds better

 

[mhiscox]

Thanks for taking going to the effort to share the writeup and the photos. That's a really fine truck with some really skillful mods, and I appreciate you sharing.

 

[wikid]

After a few days of additional work for the install here is what we have

From the beginning
Here is the page in my build thread that tells some of the other things I did while doing the new rack

I have not wired it in yet. (Only so many hours in a day). I will need to get a few things from Baja Racks to complete the wiring. It was shipped to me as soon as it was ready. Some of the controller stuff is not here yet. They also have my pigtail for the light itself. I hope to have it all wired in this week or next weekend

Here's "The Rack" for, "The Rock"