'SWAMPY' MY 02 LWB 3.0 D4D GX Colorado

[sae70]

I've been wanting to refurbish and paint my 80 series alloy wheel center caps since I've had them, but wanted to strip them clean of all of the old paint first without damaging the plastic. After some investigation I decided to have a go with some plastic safe graffiti remover spray and ordered a can last week. It came this morning so I started stripping!



I sprayed some on the worst of the center caps that had clearly been repainted before and after an hour wiped it off with some kitchen towel. Success, it will need a second or maybe even a third application, but it works. The silver only center cap in the picture came clean with just one application.

 

[sae70]

OK, so the one on the left has had one application and in my mind will not need anymore, but the one on the right has now had two applications and will probably need another two. The ones with the balck centers have got alot of paint on them including a thick clear coat. I'm only playing for now as were going out this afternoon, but tomorrow I shall cover them all over.

 

[sae70]

 

[sae70]

OK, so in a bid to be less invasive with the modifications that I carry out on Swampy I asked Santa for a high power LED inspection lamp that I'd spent some time researching and he came through for me good old Santa

It's a Ring RIL4000 Professional Ultra Bright Magnetic Flexi Rechargeable LED Inspection Lamp with a 1W LED Torch and cost £50.

The idea was to find something that would work as well as fitting costly stand alone LED lights, but without the hours of installation time or invasive OE trim cutting and that would also give more flexibility. I hope that I've found the tool for the job in this LED inspection lamp.

The main lamp is a strip LED with a precision lens that gives 470 Lumens and the torch function is a 1Watt LED that gives 85 Lumens. It has a 3.7v Li-ion 2000mAh battery that gives a 3hr operating time and can be recharged from either 12v or 240v in 5hrs.




































I'm very happy with it and can't wait to be putting it to some use

 

[Shayne]

Did the boys think of that Ste how many hours have you had them holding the torch for you . Looks a very handy thing to have though

 

[Bodhi]

Want one

 

[sae70]

Been outside in the dark this evening, it was a bit scary Luckily I had my new Ring RIL4000 Inspection Lamp with me

Looking under the bonnet with the inspection lamp stuck up under the bonnet using the magnets on its back






Looking at the N/S front wheel with the inspection lamp stuck to the wing using the magnet on its base






Looking into the rear of the truck


View with the 2W LED festoons in the interior lights


With the inspection lamp on the roof looking down


With the inspection lamp on the back door looking down




With the inspection lamp on the trucks roof looking into an area as if setting up camp






Using the 1W torch on the inspection lamp




I'm very pleased with

 

[sae70]

I also had a play with another of my Christmas presents from the boys. A pair of DC Volt meters that come from the same range as my USB power outlet and 20Amp accessory socket.



I had a rumage around in my automotive electrical spares box and found a couple of leads with female spades on the ends, so connected them up and had a play. They both showed the Odyssey battery I have that's sitting at 12.47v as being at 12.5v. I then connected up my T-Max compressor and dropped the voltage to 12.44v and they indicated a voltage of 12.4v. I was aiming for 12.5v, but Hey-Ho.







I'm going to mount them and the USB power outlet in the pocket at the front of the center console just in front of the ger sticks. I'm going to mount them on a piece of flat black plastic secured to the surrounding console using sticky backed Velcro. In the gap between the USB power supply and the right hand volt meter I'm going to put a 20mm round push On/Off switch for the USB power supply so I can feed it from a permanent supply and choose when to have it On or Off. The two volt meters I'm going to feed directly from each battery through a double pole relay controlled from a switched live, so they are only on when the ignition is on.



I've also fitted a couple of permanent charge leads, one for the iPad and one for the iPhone. I bought a couple of 1.2M Belkin ones as the wire that they've used is far heavier than the standard Apple sync cables and is at least three or four times the thickness.






I've not seen one of my screwdrivers since I did the Tow Bar electrics some weeks back and had decided I must have left it behind the paneling. So I had it all apart to try to find it, but no luck though! I've no idea where that's gone! Time to start interrogating the two boys I'm thinking. While I was there I used some Duck Tape to repair a tear in the rear carpet.














I've also now permanently fitted my Fire Extinguisher.







I'm hoping to get some work done on the rear storage today and get the alloy wheel center caps sprayed

 

[sae70]

Whilst in between coats of paint on my wheel center caps and storage box today I fitted the recovery eye

 

[sae70]

Starting to feel as though I'm moving forwards with jobs on Swampy as of today

One of the jobs that I've completed is painting the 80 series alloy wheel center caps in satin black to match the wheels that Karl sorted out for me

After striping all of the old paint from off of them with that Graffiti remover I gave them a rub with some 1200 grit and a couple of coats of Adhesion Aid for plastics.



Then three coats of Satin Black.













After a couple of hours and they are on











Before fitting them I had been considering buying some black wheel nuts, but now that the center caps are on I'm not so sure. I'm now wondering if it would look a bit odd if you couldn't see the wheel nuts

 

[Shayne]

I gave black studs some thought but in the end decided the chrome sorta brings attention to the black wheel if that makes sense

 

[clivehorridge]

Very neat Steven, I'd keep the chrome nuts. Nice work on the caps.

 

[silvercruiser]

Looking good, keep the chrome nuts

 

[chadr]

Yep, another vote for the silver-chrome nuts. Adds a nice finishing touch to the black wheels.

Sent from my GT-I9100P

 

[sae70]

I think your all right, silver nuts it is To be honest I should have listened to that Karl Webster fella way back when I was on the phone to him ordering the wheels. He said very much the same then and he was right he's a very wise man he is

Now, just need to start sneaking them into the dishwasher over a couple or three nights

 

[Chris]

When I did mine, I then took some red enamel and a fine brush and filled in the T in the centre of the cap. The paint sort of flows in there in a similar way to capillary action. It wasn't hard and looked great. Then I lacquered them

 

[sae70]

When I did mine, I then took some red enamel and a fine brush and filled in the T in the centre of the cap. The paint sort of flows in there in a similar way to capillary action. It wasn't hard and looked great. Then I lacquered them

I did think about doing them in silver with some AirFix modelling paint that Rob has got I think I'll clean my nuts first and get a set of new locking wheel nuts before I do any more to them

 

[Chas]

and get a set of new locking wheel nuts before I do any more to them

A couple of years ago my wheels needed removing for a new set of boots, but I had lost the locking nut socket and had to get a local garage to remove the nuts. When I saw just how easy it is (with tools freely available from eBay Halfrauds etc) it's just a sort of socket with a reverse twist like the things for getting broken studs out and a cordless drill, I thought why bother , any tealeaf could do it at the roadside.

 

[sae70]

A couple of years ago my wheels needed removing for a new set of boots, but I had lost the locking nut socket and had to get a local garage to remove the nuts. When I saw just how easy it is (with tools freely available from eBay Halfrauds etc) it's just a sort of socket with a reverse twist like the things for getting broken studs out and a cordless drill, I thought why bother , any tealeaf could do it at the roadside.

I think that some form of locking wheel nut is better than none! If the locking wheel nut key I have for Swampy wasn't broken or I had the key code for it so I could get another I wouldn't bother replacing the OE Evo Trilock ones that most Land Cruiser's seem to come with. As I need to replace them though I shall probably go for the Mcguard Ultra's at just £35ish for a set of five and a second key is about a tenner. They are not infallible, but they've come out on top in a couple of tests that I've read. They are not only the hardest to get off, but the noisiest requiring drilling & grinding causing almost certain damage to the wheel and taking more than 120 seconds each to remove! The Evo MKV TriLock comes a close second normally loosing out on price. The OE Evo Trilock as fitted from standard on a lot of Toyotas is always way down the list getting removed very easily as you say by an untrained chimp with a tool bought from eBay for a fiver in no time at all.

 

[Vizsla]

Swampy looks amazing chap have you raised the suspension? Sorry if you've already mentioned this