New tundra owner

Hello,
My name is Rick, I’m retired Air Force 100% disabled. I am no longer in a wheel chair and improving. My wife bought me a 2013 Toyota Tundra limited and as I gain mobility and health I want to slowly customize it when I can but I will never be able to do heavy work on it like I did in the old days on my 73 ford 250.

I am more interested in the inside of the truck, dash, center console, etc...The truck is the 4 door with sunroof and JBL sound. I call it my mobile office.

I love the truck because although disabled I was injured years ago and as I keep healing and improving I have opened some businesses. One of those businesses is an A-List entertainment company in film. As an executive on the board I look sharp in my suit and the black tundra limited when arriving on site or to various meetings. This coming year I am creating a foundation for vets so if there are any other vets on here thank you for your service.

I don’t plan on spending much as this is more a project to move around more. Like physical therapy with a truck. Right now I wish it was easier to get to the cab side of the firewall where the trunk of wires pass.

Thank you for this forum!
Rick Baker(not the makeup artist, I’m not good at makeup.

 

Welcome from SoCal!!

 

Welcome from CO.

 

So Cal here too, currently in the Mojave desert hiding and healing. Nice to meet you.

 

Welcome to the fun! Congrats on the Tundra.

 

Nice! West Covina here! Gonna be in Anza Borrego next weekend with a lot of members from here!

 

Welcome from Colorado

 

Welcome from NY.
Thank you for your service.

 

Welcome from CO.

 

Thank you, I am loving it!

 

A few of the folks on here helped me out of my shell. Great site with great people.

 

I hideout in Ridgecrest which is where that 7.2 earthquake hit, epicenter was 8 miles from the house and the fault runs right through our neighborhood. I am down in West LA all the time because of film and UCLA and cedars Sanai for health. The fire has the 14 at the 5 closed so I am cut off from LA right now unless I detour a couple hours out of the way.

The truck bed makes a nice sleeping spot too which we discovered because of the earthquake. My sons pitched a tent and my wife and I tossed a twin mattress in the bed and slept outside. Our house slid almost 2” on the slip plates.

 

Yeah you had quite a bit of rollin around not too long ago! And now we have fires goin on north of LA, where I work downtown.
You have a bit of a commute! But you do it in a Tundra so you’re good!

 

That is great news! It’s a different feeling working on them now than in the past, 73 Ford F-250 with a 352 in it. 91 Ford F-150 extended cab with the Windsor 5.8L.

My first car though was a Plymouth turismo that at stop signs you had to put it in neutral. That car ended up catching fire. Then the 73 ford, which I loved even had granny gear. Then a Nissan pickup 1986, then a Nissan pulsar and my ex wife’s Chevy truck lifted step side, to a Kia Sportage which lasted for years, Kia Optima which was my old car that looked nice at the time for meetings(traded it for a rare 1981 Suzuki moped, 49cc so most states it can be ridden in the bike lane. Kia Sedona(I have 4 kids and it was most cost effective at the time).

Well two are adults now so we don’t need the van so I purchased a Toyota RAV4 2018 new for my wife. Too small for me to sit in comfortably for long times. She wanted me to be comfortable and got me the Tundra because I can get in and out and the heated seats fit me well for my fractured spine and I’m able to drive hundreds of miles again without stopping. I have had business partners for years telling me I would love Toyota but was hesitant. I’m glad I caved and went with Toyota.

In the Air Force I was a weapons specialist including nukes and have my missile badge for ICBM nukes along with tomahawks with special warheads. F16 was primary plane, f15, f22, f117, a10, ac130, helicopters, b1b, b2, b52. We dealt with all the electrical systems for firing 5 out of 7 computer systems on the f16 is ours, program, troubleshoot, chase wires, replace classified equipment, along with all the wires in the jet, loading and unloading bombs and missiles, working with the 20mm and 30mm Gatling guns. Now I love art and freedom!

 

I can get most done at the home office as executive level in film is different. We have a conference room at my house too. The house was trashed from the earthquake but is structurally sound. It has a basement before they made it illegal in this area because of earthquakes.

I was worried but the navy base(most weapons come out of this base and a lot of patents, research is what they do) out here helped with these houses and they did a great job and used slip plates. The only issue is the 1-2” it slipped is causing our walkway outside to crumble because it moved towards the front yard.

 

Welcome to the party!!!

 

Welcome from Nevada

 

welcome from Southern California

 

Welcome to Tundras.com

 

I see the name, you from ely area? I have a cat we rescued from the forests out that way, was feral now a lazy bum. I have family in Reno and Fallon area.

 

I see it shows Santa Clarita, you guys doing ok with the fires?

 

no I'm not from the Ely area, that is actually my son’s name.

 

I didn't see it shows Sparks as your city. I miss Schoops there in Sparks.

 

Schoops ? , is that a restaurant. If your in town, let me know ill get the first and last round of beer.

 

I am not in town, my daughter lives up there so I am in and out a lot. Schoops is next to the highschool there on Prater I believe. It is a burger and malt place. Really good food. I would accept the beer but cannot drink. I am an open person and it is in the past, who knows maybe it might help someone.

I had to go to rehab last year because I didn't want to quit drinking. This place made it awesome, you could surf, ride horses, golf, free and open, just drug and alcohol test when entering the dorms. My liver already had cirrhosis from radiation, I was in a lot of pain and just kept drinking, liver is reversing now, and I am sober. It does not bother me to be around it, so I don't mind it, I know some that it does though.

My best friend lives in Dayton, he has two rare mitsubishi's I think only 1000 were made it shows the numbers on the side. I don't remember the model, he connects his laptop up for all the tuning.

 

Where is a good place to start if I want to look into modifying the center console where the nav system is at. Is there a way to modify or "hack" the display/radio? I have a ton of electronic engineering parts. Expert level on wiring and systems I have used before, I just have never played with a in dash display setup.

I am also curious how difficult, or pain in the ass it is to remove parts of the dash to access areas. I remember my fords having what seemed like a billion screws.

 

Sorry about that, maybe a burger at scooters. That place is called Scooters.
Regarding the mod for the center console, checkout AJT Designs, or tufskins. Its not that hard all you would have you to do is insert a pry tool on which you want to take out, they are only held by clips.
I go this on in Amazon

$7 GOOACC Car Clip Panel Audio Video Dashboard Dismantle Kits Installer Removal Tool-4PCS

https://www.amazon.com/GOOACC-Dashb...ds=pry+tool&qid=1570996024&sprefix=pry&sr=8-4
On the display i have seen one in YouTube about how you can modify your screen.
Someone will chime in that knows more about it than i do.

 

Welcome from NC!

 

You are right, I got it crossed with a place in Chicago. No worries on being sorry, I am doing great and feel more alive. It ended up making the doctors get me on a better regimine. I cannot take narcotics because of organs repairing, so we have neuro finally helping from UCLA for the VA that found a set of meds that my pain is now always around a 2-4 instead of 9-10, my nerve trunk is damaged from the spine being crushed and it is still degenerating. So I am going to get my truck sweet, pray I don't lose movement from waist down, and this way it is done for days I cannot hardly move. Still worth every experience, I would not change a thing in my past.

Awesome, I have a set of pry tools for taking the screens off iMac's to fix parts inside.

 

Welcome from southern NJ.

Thank you for your service and best wishes for your continued recovery.