Salvaged 2005 GX470 Project - Now with Rebuilt Title & Plates!

^^^now that would be a dang good thing to replace,, no fuss no worries! ,,, of course that is after you get all the old ones out. Best of luck!! So far you have been doing all the good!

 

I'll be damned. I had no idea those were available! I'll have to get some for my MR2, since they're the same size.

As for the exhaust leak, it seems to not be a matter of if but when - Sequoia, Tundra, GX... no one was safe, haha. In my experience (and backed by research on Ihatemud) it's very subtle and on cold start up, usually going away after it warms up. If you don't have it, then you are definitely one of the lucky ones!

 

He also has a CEL eliminator on his site, but no pics. Wondering if it's just the spacer, or the signal sender version. Will email him and find out. Else will get these spacers.

https://jcarpart.com/products/copy-...or-mini-catalytic-converter-o2-sensor-generic

 

That would be sweet - would probably work perfect if you go with LT headers. Which reminds me that I misspoke earlier: I had the Doug Thorley SHORT tubes with the old cats welded on. I didn't want have to deal with not passing CO's CARB crap (which didn't matter, because my vehicles ended up getting registered in El Paso County).

Anywho, let me know if you ever need a hand!

 

I feel like every bolt is gonna be a fight. Got the front two nuts off the shock tower after several heat/cool/wrench cycles. No idea how I'm going to get the last one off, it's in the center behind everything

 

Ah ha! Third one is accessible, somewhat, from the engine bay. Will need to remove the airbox on passenger side

 

UCA' were toast

 

^^^^ yup looks toasty!! . Stop messin around and get that thing on the road!!



ha I don’t even see toast above!. Weird
To busy looking at the pictures

 

Man I'm glad I've never had a rust belt vehicle, spoiled by So Cal/AZ cars.

 

This is my first one. Tbh, had I known about all the rust I would've passed. Last time I'm bidding on a vehicle without going to the yard ahead of time!

 

F*ck those electronic struts! That metal bracket with the sensor sits on top of the struts and has to be removed before the strut can come down out of the tower. Spent about 2-3 hours just removing the two struts

 

Uh, ya I knew I was supposed to leave the UCA's in for a reason. I meant to break loose all the bolts before actually removing them. Had to reinstall in order to get the LCA lower nuts off. Even had to break out the angle grinder for the passenger side nut.

 

Surprisingly, the brakes seemed pretty good. Lots of material left on the pads, and no grooves in the rotors. It does look like the passenger side caliper is newer than the driver side.

 

Took way longer than it should have. Had to cut out seized bolts on both sides. But the LCA's are out!

Going to pick up a needle scaler tomorrow, and get all of the front end rust addressed.

Have some goodies arriving Monday!

 

After wire wheeling, looks worse in picture than it actually is. Still haven't found any holes in the frame. One edge of the rotor dust plate is eaten up though. Plan on doing the Tundra brake upgrade or Stoptech at some point and will replace that plate then

 

Teaser pic lol

 

Forgot to post the rear bumper cross member outcome. Came out ok. Good test run. Been putting a lot more effort into the rust removal part on the front end.

 

^^^^NICE!!!!

 

Por15 metal prep treatment on the front for 20 minutes. Supposed to keep it wet for that 20. Gonna try and get the front end painted tonight. Takes two coats and 2 - 6 hours cure time between coats.

 

After metal prep

 

First coat freshly on. Giving it about 2 hrs till the next coat. Have heater running in the garage so hopefully that helps

 

Old vs New UCA's

 

New vs old LCA's

 

Por15 second coat went on pretty sloppy. Should have let first coat cure longer. I don't like that it's brush on tbh. Doing touch ups in missed spots with black spay on rust converter.

 

Someone's been chewing on your brake shield.

 

Impressive amount of work so fast for a project.

 

I'm between jobs atm so I've got a lot of time on my hands lol. Start my new job as Data Center Engineer on Nov 27th. Holding off on naming employer until after I start, but I'm looking forward to it. Been on "vacation" for 1.5 months already

 

Actually I just signed my offer letter. I'm officially a Data Center Engineer 1 at *redacted*!

 

Whoo hoo! Congrats!