Cyberhorn The Dragon

i did thank you one thing ive wanted to do messy as it is is spray down the inside of the frame with used oil after a bath to get salt ect out but i dont have a sprayer able to handle it

coryc85

I was off work for 2 weeks and I finally managed to do one little project on my truck. I've been wanting to follow Bryan's steps here http://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota...n-project.html for some much needed interior lighting for a LOONG time. Nearly a year ago I bought the fancy rear view mirror/maplight combo from Chef and it's just been sitting there. I read thru Bryan's thread again, then went out there and tackled it. The first thing is that the square buckets on the back of the maplight will NOT fit up into the older 4Runners without either trimming the metal inner roof skin or making a spacer that is the thickness of the buckets. I looked at the roof skin and I decided to make a spacer. I had a piece of plywood that was perfect, I think it's 3/8" but not sure. First I made a cardboard template outline of the maplight. Then I transferred that over to the plywood.


I just sanded the edge and spray painted the spacer black. I also drilled the 3rd mounting hole just like Bryan did in his thread.

Next step is wiring. My dome light wires go into a connector right on the side of the fuse panel, so I unplugged it, pulled the little terminals out of the connector and soldered wire right onto the terminals and then shoved them back in.


I fed my wire down the A pillar trim and it popped out right between the dash and the front door and I could reach up under the dash and grab it and pull it in there. I pulled down the rubber headliner trim between the visor and the windshield and fed the other end of wire up through there and out the hole for the mirror.


Soldered the maplight connector on there and done.



I did have to go get some longer M6 1.0 machine screws because of the spacer.

Next step is to get LED bulbs to really brighten up the cab and I'd like to follow Bryan's thread for cargo area lighting as well.

Cyberhorn The Dragon

that looks a lot better than id expected it to did you put the spacer under the headliner? or on top

twistedyota

iTrader: (1)

Nice job cory

It looks like he put it on the ouside of the liner

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

The extra light up front makes a big difference and that is a much better setup then what came from the factory. The dome light in back just isn't enough. Looks great.

coryc85

Dragon - yeah it doesn't look bad at all. The spacer is between the maplight and headliner, you can just make out the black edge of it in the pics.

Thanks Twisted!

Terry - yeah very weak lighting from the factory. From what I see in Bryan and Chef's threads, adding these lights plus changing to LEDs makes a huge difference.

coryc85

I guess I am on a mirror kick lately. I have what I think are the towing style side mirrors:


You can see that I have a hose clamp around the stem of the mirror. The driver side mirror has always been a bit floppy. The PO put a screw through the plastic stem, but I don't think it went into the inner metal core, so it was doing nothing. I took the screw out and the plastic was cracked and finally it started to crumble. This hose clamp is my attempt to keep it together, but now it is REALLY flopppy, basically useless right now.

I really need a new plastic stem I guess, but even then I really don't see what keeps the inner metal core from rotating (other than tightening down the screw up thru the base). Trying to decide if I should make one out of a wooden down. Just drill a hole in the dowel and push that metal core up through it.

RAD4Runner

Nice job on map lights, Cory! Is mounting for SR5 fixture direct fit on the dlx?

hmmm... my dlx has all metal side mirrors. Could be different from year to year?

coryc85

Ray - this maplight/mirror combo is from a 2nd gen 4Runner. When you say is the mounting a direct fit....the maplight has 2 mounting holes that mate up directly with 2 of the holes in your existing DLX rearview mirror. The DLX mirror has a third mounting hole that this 2nd gen maplight does not, so following Bryan's thread, I drilled through the aluminum body of the maplight to create that 3rd mounting hole. With all 3 holes now matching up, the maplight still will not sit flush with the roof because it has these 2 square light buckets sticking up on the back of it. Your options there are to peel back your headliner and trim the metal of the roof inner skin so that the buckets will recess up in there or do like I did and make a roughly 3/8" thick spacer out of a piece of wood. Trimming the roof metal would probably be a better solution, but I did not want to do it. I think the spacer is barely even noticeable, and if I had gray paint it would look like factory.

Oh and when you say your mirrors are all metal, do you mean even the part that my hose clamp is around in the above picture?

RAD4Runner

Hi Cory,

Yes (I guess there are so many variations among the trims of the Pick-up and 4Runners). Mine looks like this.


Stem that holds mirror on bracket is metal



... and I do not see evidence on door mounting that anything has been modified.

AND thank you very much for thinking of me Re: Wiper arm tip. However, I'd like to research some more and see if I can find one from a newer generation (fatigue/exposure to the elements) that would fit

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

I intentionally installed the doors for this type of mirror just for the purpose of towing on my 86 runner. I had a set on my 2wd and now the brackets are hard to find. Kind of regretting that decision now. Some will eventually pop up but they are slow to find. I have heard of using a Fords truck mirror on the bracket but have never tried it myself.

coryc85

Ray - aha, I see the type of mirror you have. I was not aware of that type, so apparently there are at least 3 types of mirror. And no problem on the wiper arm piece. If you decide you want it just let me know.

Terry - no kidding, these mirrors are hard to find apparently. I'm thinking of just making myself a new stem from a wooden dowel, that plastic got pretty brittle on mine.

coryc85

Decided to take both mirrors off the truck and get a look at the parts to see why the driver side is so floppy.

3 12mm bolts hold the mirror arm onto the door, and then you need a Torx T40 bit to get the bolt out that holds the mirror onto the arm.

Here are the driver and pass side plastic stems side by side. You can see that the one on the right is cracked and has some holes drilled by the PO.


Here is a closeup of how the plastic sleeve has some little tabs that go into a pie shaped cutout in the arm bracket. I guess this keeps the plastic stem from turning.


And here is the plastic sleeve slides onto the inner metal stem. From what I can see, nothing actually prevents the metal stem from turning against the plastic sleeve, other than tightening down the Torx bolt as much as possible.


There is a lock washer that sits between the metal stem and the mirror bracket that has teeth on it, I suppose by cranking down on that Torx bolt, it will keep the metal stem from turning...maybe the plastic sleeve is just for some wider support...I don't really know.

I'm going to see if it's made of ABS plastic, if so I can use MEK to glue it, and I have some small ABS beads that I can dissolve in the MEK to make some paste to help hold it together better. I'll give that a try since I have everything.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

High tech mirror repair! Lol... I need to do mine... Of course, its 20 years older at least..., but the bottom line is that mine is sloppy and I have very tight donor housing. I have begun to really plant roots in the habit of not slamming the driver door! It makes a huge huge huge difference in how quickly my power mirror(at least in my era of power mirrors)... grows floppy. Haha

coryc85

Mark - it's really amazing how something so simple as a floppy mirror can cause such headaches.

Cyberjunk gave me a great idea to make a new piece out of a "polytetrafluoroethylene rod" as he put it. Some kind of plastic, which they do surprisingly sell on Amazon. I think that's a fantastic idea, but I want to first try to fix mine with MEK and the dissolved ABS. If I was one of those guys with a lathe and some real machining skills I'd probably whip up a new one real quick...but I'm not. Anything I do will be a lot of hand cutting, drilling, and sanding/filing to get it shaped right.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Like Mark said about slamming doors. One of my pet peeves. It is not only hard on mirrors but hinges and latches. I had a truck for 20 years and my third gen doors still open and close like new.

As soon as I can find the same mirror brackets as yours, I am going to have to find a way to make them work most likely and will follow your lead.

RAD4Runner

OMG! M.E.K! I remember finding a can of that while cleaning our paint locker on the U.S.S. Tripoli in 1990, and that was not supposed to be there anymore, because it was nasty stuff- LOL!

Cory,
I hope you could find an all-metal one like on mine. I guess that's one thing we Yota brothers should all be looking for at the yard. Too bad, the junkyards are 45-minute drive from me

Anger management tool. Still cheaper than going to the shrink - LOL!

coryc85

Ray - yeah that MEK stinks...maybe a good thing, but I could not find my can anywhere. So I used Acetone to dissolve the ABS pellets....and it did not work:


I don't think the thing is made of ABS, my dissolved ABS did not stick very well it. After it dried, I tugged on it and it broke in half...oh well. This old plastic is so brittle. So my next step is to get some Delrin or that poly rod that junk4u told me about.

The original piece is roughly 1.25 inches in diameter


And I'll have to drill a 3/4" hole in it to fit onto the mirror shaft.


I did go ahead and paint the arms and bracketry so I can at least put back one of the mirrors for now.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

I responded to your PM, just wanting to make sure it went thru. I think your part of the country and the west coast is about the only part of the country that isn't froze out. The build threads have slowed down. Was out in shop for a minute and that was enough for me. It was cold!!!

coryc85

Not a lot to report, but a few weeks ago I ordered a 1ft long, 1.25in diameter Delrin rod from Amazon. It was like $10. I took it out in the garage and cut off a piece with the hacksaw that is the right length for the plastic mirror support piece. Next I drilled a pilot hole, then a larger hole (45/64ths) in the piece. I really needed the hole to be 3/4", but I did not have a drill bit that size. I want a tight fit anyway, so I'm going to work the hole with a round file to open it up a bit so it will slide onto the metal shaft of the mirror.

Here is the piece of Delrin with the hole drilled


So I need to open the hole up a bit to fit onto the mirror stem, and then trim one end of it to have the moon shaped tab that sits in the metal mirror bracket. I think this is going to work to be a suitable replacement for the brittle plastic piece.

On a side note, I took the top off the Runner a few weeks ago and I've been keeping it in the garage to keep it dry. It was a beautiful day here on Saturday, so we installed the car seats and took both boys out for lunch in the truck.