Ode to FGT; a refresh story

Makes sense. That's how our RAV4 is. Even since new, the AC has always underperformed. On really hot days here I have to use the recirculate button. My truck gets way colder.

 

I use recirc to get the air cooled down and the humidity removed. Otherwise I’m sucking in super humid air constantly.

 

Like a LandFill in July, same here.

 

Got some door sill protectors from Toyota.
Part number PT747-34010.
Easy install, prep with alcohol, windex or 3M surface prep. Apply so that it lines up with the pattern on the plastic door sill trim.

Before



after

 

Driver side. Note the amazing fit of the weather tech mats

Before



after

 

looks great. I didn't know Toyota made such a thing

a little heat won't make that WeatherTech mat lay down? Mine seemed to lay down perfectly on the front

 

I'm pretty sure it's been 130 plus degrees in the truck in summer and they haven't relaxed. Have not tried a heat gun or anything though.

 

I have he door sill thingies too. Previous owner must have installed em.
As for my weather techs, I never thought to hit em with my heat gun. Might do that this weekend

 

It didn't do shit for mine. It just made it ripple.

 

Falling behind on the rehab documentation. Here’s my Light bar install. Not sure if it will stay here (who am I kidding, it will be there till it gets knocked off). Drilled two holes in the lower bumper brace and used the same hardware I used to mount it to the previous bull bar. Wired it up to come on with the ditch lights. Might separate them into two switches at a later date. May need to add a spacer to the mounting bolts to get it to peek out from under the bumper a little more.

 

Some jack wagon at the hotel we host trainings at must have backed my truck into some bushes. Thanks.

 

Big project today. Sound deadening. After finishing my son’s big stereo upgrade, we had about 50sq.ft. of kill mat left over. So I tore into the Tundras interior and starting applying to any panel with appreciable resonance to it. Front and rear doors and rear cab wall got the bulk of it.

Stripped all the trim, rear seats and factory insulation out


rear doors got killmat inside the door itself applied to the inside of the outer door panel. This was the most resonant area of the door. The interior framing of the door wasn’t so bad, so it got some applied to the largest open panel areas. Applied some to the flimsy plastic door card / panel too.



rear cab wall was the worst offender and got lots of killmat. Probably more than it needed, but the exhaust really makes that panel ring.



Front doors got killmat inside the door shell on the inside of the outer door panel, and it took a lot. About 3 full sheets a piece. The inner door frame was mostly stamped with ridges for stiffness and didn’t have any open flat panel areas to resonate, so it didn’t get any. You can see the killmat through the moisture barrier. Door card got some killmat as well.

 

Looks great! I really want to do this to my truck. Quieter inside? Noticeably?

 

Haven’t driven it yet to hear. Since I had it all torn apart, I got sucked into a new sub box build. Haven’t finished.

 

Sub box finished today, waiting for the glue and caulk to dry before firing it up. Went ahead and installed it after the finish dried. Will load the sub tomorrow. This has been 15 years in the making. Always wanted to build a box in the storage cubby. This Solabaric 8 is a good candidate. Needs 0.44cuft of airspace. I used caveman math and trial and error to build this box. Old skool with my skillsaw and jigsaw. One 2x4ft sheet of 1/2” mdf, some glue, brad nails, caulk, bedliner and a speaker terminal.

started with leftover materials from 3 previous speaker boxes and came up with a box that wasn’t using the space very well so it was short on cuft, and it also looked like ass.


Not that anyone will be able to see it, but I hate doing shitty work, so I grabbed a sheet of mdf and started over. Improved the angles to use more of the space and added a brace to the inside of the box to help with flex since it’s only 1/2” material



built a “trim piece” of sorts to fill in the space of the opening and flush the speaker to prevent damage when the seat is closed.



Then pulled all of the pieces and finished them in bedliner.

 

Came out awesome! How's it sound?

 

First sentence of post….

 

" Sub box finished today, waiting for the glue and caulk to dry before firing it up"

Bust out the heat gun

 

Pro work, my guy

 

Install complete, interior back together, carpet cleaning at a later date. Sounds great! Better than the other box, which I discovered was smaller than recommended. The box Crutchfield forced you buy with the Solobaric cause they knew you would screw it up.

 

You need to Edit/Copy/Paste your reply over here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/subwoofer-in-an-access-cab-the-right-way.77900/

Because you just did it the right way, IMO. Looks better than most.

On the airspace calculations, did you factor in your stiffener and the driver volume?
(j/k)

And on the C-field box reference, are you talking about the Q-logic box? They show the volume as 0.7ft³. I went with a pair of 43CWRT8 CompRT8 DVC's and they show the min/max as 0.2ft³ - 1.0ft³ airspace. I'm expecting the bass to be a little on the tight side with only 0.35ft³ per driver, but with how much rock/country/EDM/hiphop stuff I listen to 80% of the time, I'm expecting that to hit just about right.

If I'm not thrilled with the sound, I may baffle the 2nd hole in the Q-logic and wire the dual-1ohm driver in series for a 2ohm load to a single driver. I specifically went with DVC 1ohm so I'd have the option to play around with loads.

(Of course, these #s are only for the CompRT I'm referencing above to point out the range, not your driver)

​

 

Also, interesting your picture reveals how the rear door driver sits - apparently firing down directly at someone's pelvis - in the rear seat. I feel like Toyota should've reversed the position to fire up and toward the dome light.

​

 

The 0.44cuft is the recommended box size, without driver. Mine is 0.456 minus the stiffener, so should be dead nuts on.

The Crutchfield box I am referring to is the original box the 8" Solobaric came in when I bought it in 1996 from them after my 10" JL got stolen out of my 1995 S-10. They would not sell the driver without their special box. Which turned out to be only 0.386cuft by my calculations.

I've looked at that Q-Logic box several times and didn't want to spend the money, or hack into my truck to install it.

 

Yeah, I was sketched about cutting the carpet, specifically, but used an extremely sharp blade and made two precise vertical lines, then rolled the piece of carpet downward so it'd be super-easy to melt a standard patch into the backside and tease the tufts to (hopefully) fully conceal the carpet ever being cut.

Seeing your install, it makes it pretty clear there's really no way to plop a single shallow-mount 10" in there, at least not without angling the driver so the widest part of the sub's basket lip was sitting lower than the cubby trim ring.

 

Today’s adventure, new battery terminals.

The old ones are the factory, they are stretched, deformed, mangled, overloaded and don’t really stay tight around the posts. I’ve added some electrical accessories as well and do not have a distribution block (would be ideal) so I need some extra terminal attachments for those.

Current state of affairs. Also some corrosion of the battery hold down and the body support beneath the tray.




Battery removed, cleaned up, water level inspected, terminals test fitted, and placed on the charger while I restore the rusty bits and attach the new terminals to the wiring.



Hold down and body panel rust remediated and painted.



Battery reinstalled and cables rerouted. All good now.

 

Link, please

 

Which ones did you go with? My battery situation is …terminal

 

I've considered buying a set of these battery terminals but then always see a review showing a photo of a cracked terminal made apparently of some sort of pot metal. Maybe these are made of legit metal

 

Link below, but might wanna wait for the 1 month review or something to make sure they aren’t shit


https://a.co/d/0j0fTGF