Three Pack of Tundras

Time to do a bit of clearancing.

 

Looks great!

 

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/ctd/d/dallas-1979-toyota-pick-up/7660971950.html

 

I’m glad to have found this thread

 

Goals:

 

The 2000 is having intermittent starting problems. Maybe bad starter motor or maybe a bad battery?

@RedGradeRunner I pulled the battery from the wreck. Maybe swap it in?

 

How do the battery cables look?

 

Look good. But we are gonna do a closer inspection.

 

I have my original starter if you want it to do a rebuild and swap.

 

It’s rarely the starter. And when it is, the starter motor is usually fine, it’s the copper contacts inside. The battery and or the cables tend to be the most common fail points. Then maybe the contacts in the starter. Then maybe the ignition cylinder or worn out key. What does it do when it intermittently fails?

 

The 2000 got a few mods recently. One of them was revamping the headlights to projector bulb units. I’ll be posting pics and explaining the process.

 

Just know there are two threads on mini projectors here already: link and also link

If you did a full bake-out/bake-in projector setup, I'm totally interested. @JakeJake knocked out a pretty sweet setup recently in that arena.

 

I'm the OP of this thread, and the author of the content, but this mod was done by my son. Basically, I am doing the write-up of his work. If I fumble the ball here, don't flame me. I'm not sure of all the tech jargon. My son is 17 and I'm pretty impressed with what he did here. He researched headlight mods and I think he found that the 4Runner and Taco guy have plowed this ground, or similar, before. He wanted to do this on his 2000 Tundra. We have the wrecked Tundra that we've scavenged parts from. I think he started there and used one of the headlights as a guinea pig.

Make sure Mom ain't looking, then bake the headlamp in the oven at 225 for about 10 minutes and then pry the lens off the body.

 

He removed the factory light bulb and socket and replaced them with these projector units. They actually attach to the headlamp body with no modifications. The screw pattern matches.

 

Above is what it looks like.

He had to add a wiring adapter gidgy between each of the projector units and the truck's wiring harness.

I am going to try and find out all the parts and pieces that he used. Stand by.

 

After he completed the guinea pig, he hooked it to the truck and determined that it worked. Then he modded the actual units in his truck.

 

The projector units are Astra Depot H1 Bi-Xenon 2.5 inch units off of Amazon.

The wiring harness adapter is XtremeVision H4/9003 Bi-Xenon Hi/Lo plug & play Relay Controller.

 

That's the write-up as far I can understand. I will have the kid read it, and I will make edits if I have messed anything up.

It's really cool to see his enthusiasm.

A while ago, he replaced that seal at the firewall where the steering column passes thru. I was worried that he was gonna mess something up, but he went real careful and got it done. It worked fine.

 

Ive always gotta be tearing Into something to keep me busy and out of trouble. I’ve done a lot of different projects on my truck and I love working on it. These headlights were a big undertaking for me but I’d say it was a big success! Overall it was about $80 worth of items (I used my existing headlights) compared to $500+ for a premade set. Overall really glad with how it turned out and how they work. I used to have some led bulbs with the power of the sun that would bright everyone, but these have a nice crisp line where the low beams end.

 

cool shit on the headlights. Can you post night pics? I'm sure people (including myself) are interested in the output.

 

Here are the low beams.

Here are the high beams.

I pulled up to the garage here to show the crisp lines achieved by a projector housing. You can see the left one is a bit crooked, but easily fixable.

 

Only constructive feedback here - do you have any way to clock the projector now it's baked together? You may already know, but if not, you should be parallel to ground and left/right like ______/¯¯¯¯¯/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Given the opposing-traffic side of the beam is low, it's not as critical as long as the passenger isn't kicked too high.

Output looks awesome. Good job.

 

Good question. The pattern does look a little bit sloped. Post 46 shows how the projector is clocked. There's a keyway in the threads back of the housing.

 

The fastening point between the projector and the headlight housing has a bit of play in it. It’s possible to loosen it, rotate it, and tighten it back up. Without opening the headlight back up, that is.

 

The boys are installing spindle gussets.

 

The FJ40 has been my dream vehicle for easily 30 years. I grew up in NY where they're very, very rare. First time I saw one was visiting family in Idaho, when I was still in highschool. Wanted one ever since. Then they became collectors items...

I know a guy who was threatening to sell me his for a while. I believe it's a 72. But he backed out. I figured he decided he could get more selling to someone random, or decided to sell it to closer friend, but nope. Last time I was at his place, it was sitting there, with the snowplow on.