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Well, the R50 offroad market is small, cheap & diminishing here in the U.S. Sadly, while Pathfinders are common here (I literally see a couple on just about every drive I make), they’re rarely used as offroad vehicles. In almost 20 years I NEVER ran into another one on the trail (AZ, UT, CO, NM, CA, OR, WA, BC, ID) & think I only saw one other one and it was as minimally modified as mine at the time. In the last 5 years or so, there’s been an explosion of interest in offroading in the US and at the same time these trucks are now dirt cheap. Sadly, they’be become a bit of a throw away vehicle. It doesn’t take long on FaceBook to have a very sad impression of the R50 community these days. Conversely, offroading has been a part of daily life for alot of Australians. My Australian friends here talk about things like how their Mom, as a teacher, checked a Land Cruiser out of the district motor pool for her teaching duties. Following PCoA & corresponding with a couple Australians, R50s offroad are fairly common there & suppliers are numerous - many of them laugh at us buying ARB because that’s the most expensive of more than a handful of options they have. IronMan is just one of a few of many Australian brands that already have a domestic product but are only now considering distribution in the US. That said, I concur that they are unlikely to find a market willing to pay their prices (anyone familiar with the Toyota market would find our products ridiculously cheap but our options virtually non-existent. Everything on my Pathfinder cost a literal fraction of what something similar costs for my 5th Gen 4Runner). The Toyota world is full if 20 & 30 somethings willing to throw gobs of their disposable income at their truck. I’d love to see more Australian manufacturers bring their products here. The video that sparked the IronMan debate was rife with oddities & we already have an example of a successful application. I suspect we’ll soon have a second. If the guy who decided to distribute IronMan products here has an employee with an R50, I expect it’s a personal purchase. Given our tiny market, buying an R50 would likely exceed any profit margin they can expect on ALL R50 products they’ll sell here. I imagine our best avenue to more R50 products is a personal interest by the staff who will be deciding which products to bother importing. Frankly, I’m impressed with a professional response on their part in the face of a non-compliant customer. I don’t really understand what that truck owner’s goal was? All complaint, no attempt to fix or get his money back. I doubt any of the forum regulars would have responded similarly. IronMan already has a rep outside the R50 community & it’s pretty good. It’s my hope that one guy, and an overreaction on our part, doesn’t get us labelled as a community not worth supporting. I have to admit I responded from a jaded perspective. I spent more time on FaceBook R50 sites in the last 2 weeks than I ever had before. The level of immaturity, ignorance & stupidity I observed was mind numbing & depressing. The NPORA forum is typically a respite from all of that & has tended to make me feel superior to what I read on the Toyota forums - FB negated all that.

So I did a thing with the second stimulus money, and got a new Apple CarPlay capable head unit. Went with a Sony XAV-AX5000 off a recommendation from another guy in a local overlanding group. I completed the install today and am pretty pleased with the results. I have 21st century tech now, and the sound quality is significantly improved over the factory unit. The nice thing, and one of the motivating factors is that Gaia GPS works with CarPlay which should come in handy while off grid.. I also went with a backup camera. I couldn’t really get perfect placement for the camera with the Wilco spare tire carrier back there, but I mainly wanted to be able to see where my tire and hitch/shackle were if I’m in a tight space. Ended up placing the camera where most new factory cameras would go. Again the view isn’t perfect but it’ll get the job done... It was a total pain running the camera wire through the hatch and through the rubber conduit that connects the body to the hatch wiring but I got through it.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up, and I'll do my best to keep everyone posted there. I'll definitely play with the app on the head unit before trying to rely on it while off grid.

With the latest news of someone within the company picking up an R50 maybe it'll encourage them to open up more offerings specific to our platform. We can only hope, right? Let's play nice and encourage them diplomatically. Maybe someone can inform them about the power valve issue and throttle body coolant leak that fries ECU's without frightening them off...

Find a new mechanic for the brakes or do it yourself. They are just like any 4x4 of the era where the rotors are bolted to the bearing hubs. I can do both sides in about 1.5 hours and that's working slow. You'll need to repack the bearings ( well you don't HAVE to but should) so that would take some additional time and a new grease seal for the inner bearing. The rears are dead simple and just like any other car, rotor slides off after removing the caliper. I change the discs every time I do the rear pads because they are cheap. For some reason I seem to go through 2 rear sets for every front set.

It’ll be a fun game to see if I spot it as R50s always catch my eye & yours is truly unique. I might just look into the vinyl - happy to take any pointers on YouTubes, articles you found useful & where you bought it (you should have my contact info in your PM). I’d like to do my central hood. If that goes well I might do my G’s diffuser & even roof. I also have thought about the fenders in a charcoal. Part of my worry was the creases so I’m glad to hear that’s fixable. Your Raptor application plan sounds good & should avoid the pitfalls I encountered. I like the 2K in theory & wanted it on the sliders. I’m planning on trying a different brand of 2K primer & paint I’m going to try on my SFD parts. I tried the spray paint U-Pol as I thought it would be easier - but it wasn’t. I have an hvlp gun but my only experience with it has been cleaning up the disaster my wife made with it while painting some shelving units. The 4Runner in my IG feed is a friend on Redmond Ridge. I helped him out his sliders on & was really impressed with how his Rustoleum textured turned out - and I spent over an hour with my face only inches from it. He’s since banged it up & spot repaired it - those touch ups are essentially impossible to identify. I changed over & used it on the T4R sliders & a temporary winter coat to protect my bumper. It’s also nice that you can get it at Home Depot for $6 instead of the ~$25 I think I paid for the Raptor. I still have 3 cans staring at me which makes me a little angry at the wasted $ until I figure a project for it. My main unhappiness was that it was laying down the texture but not filling the spaces between. I had started with just the steps & realized the fan applicator was going to be even worse on tubes & was going to require more than the 4 cans I allotted for the project which meant more time & money. To their credit, I contacted U-Pol & they confirmed the Rustoleum would apply fine over the 2K - obviously, just not as hard. You can see the texture differences in these photos - unfortunately I don’t have one of just the U-Pol on the detached steps with the grey primer underneath (I was too angry to document).