Keef's Car Thread | Wheels on the Bus | 09/08/23
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Keef
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Wow, I completely forgot about this thread...for almost 7 years. Quite a few life and car updates have happened since then. I'll have to dig through my old photos and summarize but honestly my sporty spendy car phase is pretty much over, and has been over for years, at least until my career advances further. My current car is definitely not what you'd expect given the history of this thread.
Keef
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That's awesome! At the time I was about 21 and thought I was onto cool things, big things. As it turns I was onto big things, in my opinion, but big things are difficult things and it definitely didn't translate to car things.
2014 was one tough year after another. In 2012 I started my flight training but the two years after that were the most difficult of my life. I lost both my parents during that time, in my early 20s, and focused my energy on car things and plane things. The moment I chose a color to paint my RX7 wheels, that was all a coping mechanism. Everything after that was a coping mechanism. In the second half of 2014 I transferred schools to The Ohio State University (for my Michiganders) where my car and racing passions evolved a bit and ultimately withered. They haven't disappeared per se, at least not as money disappears, but I'll be honest, I'd rather be up there flying planes and making money than down here spending it on cars. At some point in my career I hope to strike a good balance between those two things but for now my real desires are in the sky. I made the ultimate mistake, I put all my eggs in this basket, and it has to work.
Anyway, this is a car thread, not a therapy session. 2014...2014...where was I.
Oh yeah, airport life. Coffee, ice, papers. Doesn't matter how cold it is, rich people need to be places. And my secret weapon for a next couple years (which will probably be ten years):
Woo! A 1993 Corolla. Manual, blue fuzzy interior. Perfect. My cousin still has it to this day, in fact. Everything is wrong and yet it still works, figure that logic out. But don't worry, the RX7 was still around.
But in late 2014 my interest in cars and racing took a turn. I stumbled upon an engineering school display at OSU and noticed the FSAE (Formula Student) booth with an old car sitting next to it. I thought, "I recognized that car, I use to read about those in Car and Driver". It had been years since FSAE even crossed my mind but bang, here it was right in front of my face. I had never even considered that a huge university like OSU would have a team, but there it was. So naturally I went up to the kid at the desk (I was 24 at the time) and asked, "How do you choose your drivers?" Six months later, after discovering I was allergic to carbon fiber resin and annoying the hell out of the team captain for a driving test...
...we had designed and built a real race car. About halfway between the size of a kart and a V10-era F1 car, the entire chassis and all the aero were hand-laid carbon fiber and virtually every mechanical piece was designed, engineered, machined, and assembled by engineering students. Except me of course because I was a pretentious pilot who put my skills to use on the aero team (I know how wings work!) and ultimately making the car go fast. That's me in the diver's seat in the last two photos.
That's Technical University Graz for any of our Austrian friends. We actually host University of Stuttgart regularly but I don't have any photos of them from this year. I believe either Stuttgart or Graz is currently #1 in the world for Formula Student rankings. Yes, Graz is actually sponsored by Red Bull, and Stuttgart is actually sponsored by both Mercedes and Porsche.
Us and Michigan @Joey D (they didn't build their own chassis, they outsourced it
)
Me under the umbrella not pulling as many nerdy engineer girls as I thought I would (because they're all dudes, shoulda stuck to the flight team).
Exhaust regs were a pain in the ass. FSAE measures on the dBC scale (even weighting) not the dBA scale (relative to human hearing) which means low frequencies are heavily weighted and extremely difficult to eliminate. This switch actually occurred in 2014 and numerous teams had difficulty dealing with it. Allegedly, low frequencies are actually more damaging to human hearing precisely because we can't hear them, so we don't realize they are doing damage. Because we can hear high frequencies, we feel their pain. This is the essence of dBA, but dBC weights everything equally and ultimately due to lack of knowledge we, and several other teams, not only muffled the hell out of our engines but tuned them specifically to pass the exhaust sound test. Our engine could actually barely run at high enough rpm to even execute the exhaust sound test (it was running at about 1/4 power due to tuning) but once we passed we simply flicked a switch and boom, back to near full power. After 2015, FSAE got rid of this idiotic and industry-irrelevant rule.
Not long after I joined the team I made what I still believe to be one of the absolute worst financial decisions of my life...
I sold my Corolla to my cousin for $1200 and bought a 1999 GS300 for $4000. Unbelievable. It seems like an impressive and mature upgrade for a steal of a price, but no. Absolute dogs, these cars. Would not recommend to anybody for any reason, except to strip and turn into a drift car. The engines are dogs that eventually burn oil, the undersides (exhaust etc) are prone to unusual rust, the electronic climate controls are extremely fiddly points of failure, the drivetrain produced weird vibrations that I never managed to fix for years. Also, I crashed it. I don't see any photos of that on my computer at the moment.
That's enough for tonight. I'll cover the next year of FSAE and my car life another time as I've got to dig through my phone for most of these pictures.
2014 was one tough year after another. In 2012 I started my flight training but the two years after that were the most difficult of my life. I lost both my parents during that time, in my early 20s, and focused my energy on car things and plane things. The moment I chose a color to paint my RX7 wheels, that was all a coping mechanism. Everything after that was a coping mechanism. In the second half of 2014 I transferred schools to The Ohio State University (for my Michiganders) where my car and racing passions evolved a bit and ultimately withered. They haven't disappeared per se, at least not as money disappears, but I'll be honest, I'd rather be up there flying planes and making money than down here spending it on cars. At some point in my career I hope to strike a good balance between those two things but for now my real desires are in the sky. I made the ultimate mistake, I put all my eggs in this basket, and it has to work.
Anyway, this is a car thread, not a therapy session. 2014...2014...where was I.
Oh yeah, airport life. Coffee, ice, papers. Doesn't matter how cold it is, rich people need to be places. And my secret weapon for a next couple years (which will probably be ten years):
Woo! A 1993 Corolla. Manual, blue fuzzy interior. Perfect. My cousin still has it to this day, in fact. Everything is wrong and yet it still works, figure that logic out. But don't worry, the RX7 was still around.
But in late 2014 my interest in cars and racing took a turn. I stumbled upon an engineering school display at OSU and noticed the FSAE (Formula Student) booth with an old car sitting next to it. I thought, "I recognized that car, I use to read about those in Car and Driver". It had been years since FSAE even crossed my mind but bang, here it was right in front of my face. I had never even considered that a huge university like OSU would have a team, but there it was. So naturally I went up to the kid at the desk (I was 24 at the time) and asked, "How do you choose your drivers?" Six months later, after discovering I was allergic to carbon fiber resin and annoying the hell out of the team captain for a driving test...
...we had designed and built a real race car. About halfway between the size of a kart and a V10-era F1 car, the entire chassis and all the aero were hand-laid carbon fiber and virtually every mechanical piece was designed, engineered, machined, and assembled by engineering students. Except me of course because I was a pretentious pilot who put my skills to use on the aero team (I know how wings work!) and ultimately making the car go fast. That's me in the diver's seat in the last two photos.
That's Technical University Graz for any of our Austrian friends. We actually host University of Stuttgart regularly but I don't have any photos of them from this year. I believe either Stuttgart or Graz is currently #1 in the world for Formula Student rankings. Yes, Graz is actually sponsored by Red Bull, and Stuttgart is actually sponsored by both Mercedes and Porsche.
Us and Michigan @Joey D (they didn't build their own chassis, they outsourced it
)Me under the umbrella not pulling as many nerdy engineer girls as I thought I would (because they're all dudes, shoulda stuck to the flight team).
Exhaust regs were a pain in the ass. FSAE measures on the dBC scale (even weighting) not the dBA scale (relative to human hearing) which means low frequencies are heavily weighted and extremely difficult to eliminate. This switch actually occurred in 2014 and numerous teams had difficulty dealing with it. Allegedly, low frequencies are actually more damaging to human hearing precisely because we can't hear them, so we don't realize they are doing damage. Because we can hear high frequencies, we feel their pain. This is the essence of dBA, but dBC weights everything equally and ultimately due to lack of knowledge we, and several other teams, not only muffled the hell out of our engines but tuned them specifically to pass the exhaust sound test. Our engine could actually barely run at high enough rpm to even execute the exhaust sound test (it was running at about 1/4 power due to tuning) but once we passed we simply flicked a switch and boom, back to near full power. After 2015, FSAE got rid of this idiotic and industry-irrelevant rule.
Not long after I joined the team I made what I still believe to be one of the absolute worst financial decisions of my life...
I sold my Corolla to my cousin for $1200 and bought a 1999 GS300 for $4000. Unbelievable. It seems like an impressive and mature upgrade for a steal of a price, but no. Absolute dogs, these cars. Would not recommend to anybody for any reason, except to strip and turn into a drift car. The engines are dogs that eventually burn oil, the undersides (exhaust etc) are prone to unusual rust, the electronic climate controls are extremely fiddly points of failure, the drivetrain produced weird vibrations that I never managed to fix for years. Also, I crashed it. I don't see any photos of that on my computer at the moment.
That's enough for tonight. I'll cover the next year of FSAE and my car life another time as I've got to dig through my phone for most of these pictures.
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You're not going to mention that Michigan placed higher that year, are you? 
Keef
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We had to let them have something after taking the football championship.You're not going to mention that Michigan placed higher that year, are you?
Keef
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We switched up our aero formula quite a bit during the 2015-2016 season. Less weight, less drag, better downforce, more efficient overall. Much less ridiculous looking.
Even my helmet got any update @Eunos_Cosmo
We hosted Stuttgart for testing and the Michigan competition as usual and my GS (first or second, I can't remember...) did the coolest thing it's ever done, which is transport German carbon fiber worth more than the whole car.
I got very wet while driving and was ripping off times above our quali group but was ultimately let down by a silly failure, too many to keep track of. Stuttgart went on to win the whole event, no surprise there.
We went to Canada as well where the pits were in a hockey rink
@Biggles
We were invited to Ford's wind tunnel in Detroit to do some real aero testing.
And all the while, my poor RX7 was just sitting at home doing basically nothing besides losing paint. I rarely drove it since Flavortown's roads were a nightmare. Did I mention I had made poor financial decisions around this time, in particular buying that (those) GS300s? Gah, what an idiot.
Even my helmet got any update @Eunos_Cosmo
We hosted Stuttgart for testing and the Michigan competition as usual and my GS (first or second, I can't remember...) did the coolest thing it's ever done, which is transport German carbon fiber worth more than the whole car.
I got very wet while driving and was ripping off times above our quali group but was ultimately let down by a silly failure, too many to keep track of. Stuttgart went on to win the whole event, no surprise there.
We went to Canada as well where the pits were in a hockey rink
@Biggles We were invited to Ford's wind tunnel in Detroit to do some real aero testing.
And all the while, my poor RX7 was just sitting at home doing basically nothing besides losing paint. I rarely drove it since Flavortown's roads were a nightmare. Did I mention I had made poor financial decisions around this time, in particular buying that (those) GS300s? Gah, what an idiot.
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How is the paint just peeling off like that? Did you respray it at some point?
Have to say I'm surprised you had such trouble with the GS too. I'd always assumed they were like any other Lexus and just went on forever. Are the problems unique to the model, or unique to the 2JZ ones in particular?
Keef
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We drove past your city on the way to Barrie! I'm a fan of small town Canada. It reminds me of small town America except less...crap.I'd like to point out I'm not responsible for everything that happens in Canada!
Various cars during this time period were notorious for certain colors peeling like crazy and white paints were especially problematic. Maybe this isn't a problem in the UK but in North America it's extremely common to see late 80s through 90s cars with paint flying off down the highway. White FCs were some of those cars.
As far as I can tell, the GS300 has unique problems. I had two of them, from two different years, both in pretty good condition, but both with similar problems. The climate control servos go bad which is weird because numerous other Toyotas from this era also had electronic/auto climate but I've never heard of failures among the 200k+ mile trucks I associate with now. Both cars' engines burned oil at above 160,000 miles which while for some cars would be typical, with all the Toyota V6 and V8 engines we have in the US that is disappointing. The exhausts were about as stout against road salt as an old Honda Civic. Both of them had loosening battery terminal problems which I've literally never seen on any other car before. The GS is the only Lexus besides the LX that wasn't specifically designed for the American market and I have a feeling many of its design decisions were simply carried over from the Japanese market. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I've never heard of these issues with LS, ES, RX, any of the other models. My current Sequoia has 180,000 miles and one of the buttons is sticky, that's about it.
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In all honesty, where I live is VERY unlike most small towns in Canada ... or the US. However, regular small towns/cities in Canada are not that unlike regular small towns/cities in the US. I have been to Dayton a few times & my impression is it is quite similar to St. Catharines, Ontario. St. Catharines was, & still is to some extent, a GM town.
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Not really, because Toronto is in a class of its own. Population growth in Toronto has been dramatic over the last 60 - 70 years. And that growth has been mostly driven by immigration. Over 50% of the population of Toronto is foreign-born. Southern Ontario has been affected by that influx of immigration in a way that isn't true for most US mid-western cities. It's led to a much more dynamic, growing, post-industrial economy than is the case in places like Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo etc. The spill-over effect is now dragging places like Hamilton & St. Catharines up. Urban renewal is starting to happen in some US cities too - like Pittsburgh & even - at last - Buffalo.
Keef
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Nearly two years later I finally dig this thread back up again. I see never actually posted what my current car is! Must have put it in a different thread somewhere. Anyway, since late 2019 I’ve been driving a very exciting 2006 Toyota Sequoia SR5.
Wow, exciting huh? Massive, 4.7 V8, 4x4, low range, ATRAC, massive. And it handles like a big Camry, totally adequate, relatively composed, does 4x4 drifts in the snow, fits many people and many things without complaint.
I can camp in it (yes that’s an entire mattress, and yes I’ve collected lots of gear and storage lately):
I drove it through water:
Did sick drifts in the snow:
Put somebody else’s doge in the back (I like cats):
Towed an unreliable European car:
Established legitimacy in the Kanye docuseries (I only own cars that have been rapped about before):
And then I did absolutely nothing with it. It’s basically been a grocery getter for two years. But today that changed. It’s a good time to be a pilot as I got a substantial pay raise recently which means that Project Minivan has officially begun. First step, big tires.
Funny thing is the truck is so big that 33s look stock lol.
The whole purpose of getting this thing was as a future project. Back in 2017 I fell in love with the idea of exploring nature and camping in the wilderness, overlanding, while I was working in Wyoming. I'd never seen anything like that wilderness here in Ohio. Since then I've done a ton of research on how to explore effectively but unfortunately it can get pretty expensive and time consuming, and although I had all the time in the world while unemployed during Covid, I had zero money. Then when I became an airline pilot I had both no money and no time, so I just drive it back and forth to Detroit several times, cracking 200,000 miles recently. While they've finally decided to give me the money, I'm still working on finding the time, although at least I can repair things and bolster others while I get ready to use this thing as God intended. I've already got various service parts waiting to go in, planning a front suspension rebuild, lift kit, more camping gear, underbody protection, all sorts of stuff. She's finally getting rigged out. Currently I'm still relying on other people's garages and tools which makes getting useful work done difficult but barring something catastrophic happening to my career it seems I've finally got the means to see a project through to the end.
Browsing some other threads makes me want to clarify something about Toyota quality. This truck just broke 200,000 miles recently and besides one common Sequoia rust issue behind the rear doors I am really struggling to find things to fix on it. I've got plans to handle normal services like the timing belt water pump, etc, but some other "normal" wear items simply don't go bad on these engines. The starters are almost good for the life of the vehicle because they're buried in the engine's V where they stay clean, dry, and away from temperature variation. All the bushings are totally find despite me itching to replace them. The chassis is undercoated and in spectacular condition given the age. The interior has way less wear than you'd expect - while the driver's seat is worn, all the plastics and dash materials are super durable and again may last the life of the vehicle. The engine bay is clean and I don't know why because I haven't cleaned it in two years. The paint feels like sandpaper and definitely needs love but the clear is fine. I bought it with some body damage because it's going to get abused anyway but besides that there's absolutely nothing wrong lol. Hoses? Fine. Radiator? Fine. Engine bay plastics, everything that is exposed to heat, rubbers, gaskets, seals, clamps...they're fine.
This Toyota will be glad to tow your highly engineered German vehicle thousands of miles across the country to the best service center you can find, tomorrow. Let's go, it'll be fun.
Wow, exciting huh? Massive, 4.7 V8, 4x4, low range, ATRAC, massive. And it handles like a big Camry, totally adequate, relatively composed, does 4x4 drifts in the snow, fits many people and many things without complaint.
I can camp in it (yes that’s an entire mattress, and yes I’ve collected lots of gear and storage lately):
I drove it through water:
Did sick drifts in the snow:
Put somebody else’s doge in the back (I like cats):
Towed an unreliable European car:
Established legitimacy in the Kanye docuseries (I only own cars that have been rapped about before):
And then I did absolutely nothing with it. It’s basically been a grocery getter for two years. But today that changed. It’s a good time to be a pilot as I got a substantial pay raise recently which means that Project Minivan has officially begun. First step, big tires.
Funny thing is the truck is so big that 33s look stock lol.
The whole purpose of getting this thing was as a future project. Back in 2017 I fell in love with the idea of exploring nature and camping in the wilderness, overlanding, while I was working in Wyoming. I'd never seen anything like that wilderness here in Ohio. Since then I've done a ton of research on how to explore effectively but unfortunately it can get pretty expensive and time consuming, and although I had all the time in the world while unemployed during Covid, I had zero money. Then when I became an airline pilot I had both no money and no time, so I just drive it back and forth to Detroit several times, cracking 200,000 miles recently. While they've finally decided to give me the money, I'm still working on finding the time, although at least I can repair things and bolster others while I get ready to use this thing as God intended. I've already got various service parts waiting to go in, planning a front suspension rebuild, lift kit, more camping gear, underbody protection, all sorts of stuff. She's finally getting rigged out. Currently I'm still relying on other people's garages and tools which makes getting useful work done difficult but barring something catastrophic happening to my career it seems I've finally got the means to see a project through to the end.
Browsing some other threads makes me want to clarify something about Toyota quality. This truck just broke 200,000 miles recently and besides one common Sequoia rust issue behind the rear doors I am really struggling to find things to fix on it. I've got plans to handle normal services like the timing belt water pump, etc, but some other "normal" wear items simply don't go bad on these engines. The starters are almost good for the life of the vehicle because they're buried in the engine's V where they stay clean, dry, and away from temperature variation. All the bushings are totally find despite me itching to replace them. The chassis is undercoated and in spectacular condition given the age. The interior has way less wear than you'd expect - while the driver's seat is worn, all the plastics and dash materials are super durable and again may last the life of the vehicle. The engine bay is clean and I don't know why because I haven't cleaned it in two years. The paint feels like sandpaper and definitely needs love but the clear is fine. I bought it with some body damage because it's going to get abused anyway but besides that there's absolutely nothing wrong lol. Hoses? Fine. Radiator? Fine. Engine bay plastics, everything that is exposed to heat, rubbers, gaskets, seals, clamps...they're fine.
This Toyota will be glad to tow your highly engineered German vehicle thousands of miles across the country to the best service center you can find, tomorrow. Let's go, it'll be fun.
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Keef
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Earlier in October I went on a one-night "overlanding" and camping trip with some friends down in Kentucky. The weather was excellent, sunny and warm during the day, low 40s at night, and it had been dry the week before which meant we didn't have to contend with much mud on the trails. I'll post some photos later but here is a video they put together on their Youtube channel. The best part of my truck is at 21:00 where you can see the ATRAC working really hard with wheels in the air.
We did another trail immediately after this one which was considerably more difficult, a bit too difficult for the Sequoia resulting in some bonfide trail damage underneath. Suspension was fine but I've got myself a nice dent in a mount
. That's part of the game - the whole reason I got this truck was to tear it up eventually.
We did another trail immediately after this one which was considerably more difficult, a bit too difficult for the Sequoia resulting in some bonfide trail damage underneath. Suspension was fine but I've got myself a nice dent in a mount
. That's part of the game - the whole reason I got this truck was to tear it up eventually.
Keef
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First step in really using the truck was good tires, so I slapped on the used BFG K02 tires off my buddy’s Wrangler Rubicon. Some photos of the trip:
The terrain in Kentucky was stunning.
Glamour shots. Obviously I couldn't drive over this rock lol. And I wasn't about to take the high line because it had about 20 degrees of camber. The Jeep did, and it slid a few inches downhill while doing it.
Official trail pinstripes. This is part of the reason I bought the truck with various cosmetic belmishes, because I knew they'd get worse!
And the reason I wanted leather seats. Toyota plastics and leathers from this era are super durable and easy to clean which is nice because it was already covered with dirt before we even stopped for lunch.
These photos don't really do justice to the undulations and articulation required. My ATRAC was put to good use in a lot of situations, some of which it couldn't quite handle. There is one video in particular I'd like to post where ATRAC clawed itself out of a hole with a front wheel two feet in the air. Pretty impressive tech for an old truck with old sensors.
Lunch spot at the campsite we'd return to later.
This damage isn't from the limestone wash above. That trail was actually easy - the damage is from the next trail that I forgot to take photos of which I would not do again without a lift and protection. The second trail was a bit gnarlier than any of us had expected. I took a rock to a suspension mount but structurally it's fine.
The sleeping setup. Yeah, the Sequoia is massive so I just slept in the back with little tent nets on my rear windows:
A wild Sequoia amongst family:
The terrain in Kentucky was stunning.
Glamour shots. Obviously I couldn't drive over this rock lol. And I wasn't about to take the high line because it had about 20 degrees of camber. The Jeep did, and it slid a few inches downhill while doing it.
Official trail pinstripes. This is part of the reason I bought the truck with various cosmetic belmishes, because I knew they'd get worse!
And the reason I wanted leather seats. Toyota plastics and leathers from this era are super durable and easy to clean which is nice because it was already covered with dirt before we even stopped for lunch.
These photos don't really do justice to the undulations and articulation required. My ATRAC was put to good use in a lot of situations, some of which it couldn't quite handle. There is one video in particular I'd like to post where ATRAC clawed itself out of a hole with a front wheel two feet in the air. Pretty impressive tech for an old truck with old sensors.
Lunch spot at the campsite we'd return to later.
This damage isn't from the limestone wash above. That trail was actually easy - the damage is from the next trail that I forgot to take photos of which I would not do again without a lift and protection. The second trail was a bit gnarlier than any of us had expected. I took a rock to a suspension mount but structurally it's fine.
The sleeping setup. Yeah, the Sequoia is massive so I just slept in the back with little tent nets on my rear windows:
A wild Sequoia amongst family:
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Keef
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Jeez almost a year goes by until I get around to adding anything to the Sequoia. It’s been a busy year for sure. Things are starting to come together, starting with this:
Old Man Emu two-inch lift. It was a bear to assemble the front struts but I did it myself with a trusty ol spring compressor. Not sure why people are so scared of those things.
Old Man Emu two-inch lift. It was a bear to assemble the front struts but I did it myself with a trusty ol spring compressor. Not sure why people are so scared of those things.
Keef
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Finally got the hardware installed. It was surprisingly easy and none of the bolts gave me any trouble besides the rear shock uppers which are always a pain on Toyota. Eventually I caved and did the classic notch-and-snap trick. Literally have to break the damper shaft to get them off.
All my goodies loaded up in the back. With any luck I won't get stranded inside my buddy's garage and have to Uber home...
Stock rear damper and spring. They may be ugly but they work fine. Not much travel though, in fact this image shows the rear shocks at max droop which is pitiful. The new shocks at another 4+ inches to droop which really enhances articulation...
Finally settled on cutting the rear shocks off but we didn't really have a good strategy for the first one. This took a while. The second one went way quicker...
Saw this trick online which worked wonders. The new springs are both stiffer and about 3 inches taller than stock so to create enough space to avoid using spring compressors, the OEM bottle jack and a couple blocks of wood come in handy to power through the control arm bushing bind...
Finished front hanging in the air...
And a finished rear...
Now both myself and my truck look like we skipped leg day. I looked positively homeless by the end of this and suffered though 95 degree heat and soaking wet humidity for about 6 hours. Honestly not as bad as expected...
The good news is the truck rides better than stock. Bad news is I'm still not done because I need to replace the front upper control arms and balljoints to create enough clearance to actually use this thing as intended, and all alignment angles that will rectify front tire rubbing. It'll get there, I'm just glad to finally be making progress on this rig after four years of ownership. Still the best overall vehicle I've ever owned.
All my goodies loaded up in the back. With any luck I won't get stranded inside my buddy's garage and have to Uber home...
Stock rear damper and spring. They may be ugly but they work fine. Not much travel though, in fact this image shows the rear shocks at max droop which is pitiful. The new shocks at another 4+ inches to droop which really enhances articulation...
Finally settled on cutting the rear shocks off but we didn't really have a good strategy for the first one. This took a while. The second one went way quicker...
Saw this trick online which worked wonders. The new springs are both stiffer and about 3 inches taller than stock so to create enough space to avoid using spring compressors, the OEM bottle jack and a couple blocks of wood come in handy to power through the control arm bushing bind...
Finished front hanging in the air...
And a finished rear...
Now both myself and my truck look like we skipped leg day. I looked positively homeless by the end of this and suffered though 95 degree heat and soaking wet humidity for about 6 hours. Honestly not as bad as expected...
The good news is the truck rides better than stock. Bad news is I'm still not done because I need to replace the front upper control arms and balljoints to create enough clearance to actually use this thing as intended, and all alignment angles that will rectify front tire rubbing. It'll get there, I'm just glad to finally be making progress on this rig after four years of ownership. Still the best overall vehicle I've ever owned.
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Keef
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New front upper control arms to maximize alignment adjustability and tire clearance.
The factory UCA mount bolts on Toyota trucks are extremely long and strong:
The most notable thing about these SPC (technically Eibach-branded) UCAs is that they move the entire balljoint from being mounted into the upright facing upward to being mounted in the UCA facing downward. Also not that the balljoint is mounted to a carrier plate off-center, allowing the plate to be spun 180 degrees into various positions which is how caster is adjusted. It also has a left-right sliding function which separates camber completely, allowing both to be adjusted with the UCA in combination with the factory LCA adjustments. Ultimately this freedom allows the front tire to be moved nearly an inch forward within the wheel well, enhacing frame clearance for bigger tires and lower offset wheels.
The new bung which the new balljoint mounts into. Yes, the entire system hinges on that one C-clip but so did the OEM balljoint.
The factory UCA mount bolts on Toyota trucks are extremely long and strong:
The most notable thing about these SPC (technically Eibach-branded) UCAs is that they move the entire balljoint from being mounted into the upright facing upward to being mounted in the UCA facing downward. Also not that the balljoint is mounted to a carrier plate off-center, allowing the plate to be spun 180 degrees into various positions which is how caster is adjusted. It also has a left-right sliding function which separates camber completely, allowing both to be adjusted with the UCA in combination with the factory LCA adjustments. Ultimately this freedom allows the front tire to be moved nearly an inch forward within the wheel well, enhacing frame clearance for bigger tires and lower offset wheels.
The new bung which the new balljoint mounts into. Yes, the entire system hinges on that one C-clip but so did the OEM balljoint.
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Keef
Premium
- 24,538
- Dayton, OH
- GTP_KeefRacer
- GTP Keef
Yes I know it's not September 8th yet but I'm excited, I can't help it. Tomorrow I'll be getting my truck aligned post-lift and installing my current tires on new wheels.
But first, some images of not my car. Here are some shots and still of myself and a couple buddies exploring a rural Ohio county this past weekend. We were pretty lucky that it's been fairly dry in the Midwest and Appalachia lately - our trails are significantly different than anything west of Arkansas, with deep ruts, mud pits, plenty of running water because the trails run through valleys, heavily forested, plenty of bugs, humidity, and say goodbye to your paint because you're going home with pinstripes. They might have rock crawling in the Rockies but we've got everything else out here. We avoid the hardest trails, our trucks aren't built for that.
And finally a couple glorious photos of Ohio forests and sunsets.
We've got a trip an overland trip planned for late September at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky and Tennessee. The trails are pretty easy so we're focusing on exploring and camping. I can't wait to ruin my new wheels lol.
But first, some images of not my car. Here are some shots and still of myself and a couple buddies exploring a rural Ohio county this past weekend. We were pretty lucky that it's been fairly dry in the Midwest and Appalachia lately - our trails are significantly different than anything west of Arkansas, with deep ruts, mud pits, plenty of running water because the trails run through valleys, heavily forested, plenty of bugs, humidity, and say goodbye to your paint because you're going home with pinstripes. They might have rock crawling in the Rockies but we've got everything else out here. We avoid the hardest trails, our trucks aren't built for that.
And finally a couple glorious photos of Ohio forests and sunsets.
We've got a trip an overland trip planned for late September at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky and Tennessee. The trails are pretty easy so we're focusing on exploring and camping. I can't wait to ruin my new wheels lol.
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Keef
Premium
- 24,538
- Dayton, OH
- GTP_KeefRacer
- GTP Keef
Unfortunately it's still not aligned correctly. Modifying things causes problems lol. We found out my right front lower control arm eccentric bushings are seized (the only bolt-related issue so far) so I've got new control arms in the mail. That requires new eccentric bolts so those are in the mail. My axle boots are slanging grease so I've got new axles with high articulation boots in the mail. Apparently my steering rack is now leaking so I've got a seal kit coming. And I've got new brakes with Hawk LTS pads - my rears are worn out anyway so I may as well upgrade.
Anyway, once I get all that replaced we can finally truly dial in the alignment with all the adjustment we have available. The goal is to move the tire forward in the wheel well to increase clearance...maybe enough to enjoy some 35x10.5 tires eventually. But that will require regearing...
I forgot how much work this is!
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