Filthy Luker

Wow... illegal headlight bulbs, ehaust tip for more powerzzz, blue lighting all over interior. What's next? Bling bling bling rimzzzz? :oops:

My speedo reads 9% lower than actual speed with 32" MTs and about 4% lower with the stock 31" ATs. GPS verified.

That sounds like a 30" tire... should be no problems.

I go wheeling solo all the time... Oh noes! Actually that's some outstanding stuck man! Nicely done.

Fawkin' LOL.... Oh brother you'll be looking for an aftermarket steering setup in no time...

Yes it allows me to unbolt the idler arm and just gives me more room in general. The truck is already lifted on jackstands so it takes 30 seconds to remove and reattach the wheel (god bless cordless impact guns!).... why not, only makes things easier. I am usually like that, usually I remove a lot of the easy bits from the work area and it allows me nice open access.

Normally I am not a fan of chrome but this setup complements your bumpers and other trim bits... Nicely done! That Thule thingy is a fairing that reduces the wind noise from the roof rack. You can get it at http://www.thuleracks.com or any of their retailers (you can find the list of them on the Thule site)

LFMAO.... Pezzy I always try to wear the monkey suit while working on the truck. OK.. i have actually gotten the starter swap to take approximately 1 hour, here are the steps I take. 1. Jack up the truck and put the front passenger side on a stand so you can remove that tire/wheel. 2. Disconnect the negative battery cable and place it safely away from the terminal. Starter is always live so make sure the battery is disconnected! 3. Remove the front skidplate and any skidplate that you may have under the engine (most likely only 10mm wrench required). Also remove the front passenger gap guards. 4. Remove the three bolts holding the idler arm bracket to the frame (two 19mm sockets or wrenches required). That way you can move the centerlink out of the way. 5. Unbolt the starter from the bottom of the truck (14mm socket wrenches) I find that for the top bolt a short socket with a 6" extension works best while for the bottom bolt a single deep socket works best. I find that you can also hold the starter from within the wheel well while undoing the bolts from underneath with the other hand. 6. Remove the starter by sliding it forward under the engine mount and under the centerlink. You'll need a 12mm socket wrench to remove the constant 12v lead, and perhaps needle nose pliers to undo the ignition signal. Obviously do everything else in reverse for installation. Duh...

You seem to be making a lot of threads about changing over stuff to make your truck more like the SE model. If you want the SE so badly why didn't you buy one in the first place. Didn't you just get your XE few weeks ago? If you want to spend money on stuff for your truck, why don't you spend it on something useful instead of cosmetic to make it look like a higher trim level.

Good god what a major pain changing the starter is on my truck. The autotragic transmission coolant lines are in the way, the centerlink is in the way... the skidplates are in the way. Everything is in the way and making my life miserable! :cry: I've been having major issues starting in the cold. Few weeks ago we ran some crazy trails with deep water so the starter filled up with grimey sludge. So far my regular procedure to start the truck in the morning when the temperature was below freezing was to go outside... see if it cranks, if didn't crank (obviously), go back home, get the propane torch, crawl underneath... warm up the goddamn thing by applying flame to the starter for 30-60 seconds or so then get in the truck and start the thing normally trying to look cool in front of confused neighbours. Obviously questions were raised why I was bringing the propane torch with me to work... friends... bars... stores... parties... funerals... so I tried in the most natural manner explain how leaving the propane bottle in the truck in subfreezing weather would cause the damn thing to lose all pressure... With no preasure there would be no flame.. with no flame there is no worky trucky... so there would come my least favourite part of the ordeal... stuffing the propane bottle under the shirt for 20 minutes to warm it up while I try to look coy, which is not bloody likely with a freezing hunk of steel touching my nipples. Enough I said. I'll try to fix my starter. Which brings me to this moment. As soon as I pulled the original starter (an ordeal in itself) i noticed that my new one doesn't match the original in any shape or form. No problem I said.. I'll just take apart the original starter and clean out the mud, grime and whatever else has decided to call it home and return it to a working (at subzero temperatures) condition. Yay me! Taking the starter was fun.... little bolts and screws flying everywhere... Spring jumped out and nearly took my eye out. There is two pounds of grime on the workbench...Stage three weight reduction! Ok.. putting it back together was an exercise in mental agility I'd compare only to playing Jenga while on speed. So all was well, except that I didn't bench test the starter to see if it works. I believed in myself enough to put the starter back in as is. Guess what. NOTHING! That's exactly what I got when I turned the ignition. It was worse than before. I've created a perfect dud. :oops: Greeaaaat! So i take out the starter AGAIN... take it apart.. put it back together making some key changes in the way things work... Then I ran jumper cables to the bench and the vice that the starter is in and tested it. EUREKA! She purred back to life, whirring away in a shower of sparks (no comment)! Now it's time to put her back in and reassemble the front end of my poor truck. :Magic:

I read it now.. sounds like a completely different scenario. :confused:

LFMAO... marginal at best? Try non existent. My parking brake has been dead for ages. I hear what you're saying, though.. I'll throw something under the tires next time.

One problem... they're already on the vehicle. I have no clue how much they weigh... 100 lbs maybe?

So yesterday my set of Black Panther skidplates came in. I got the complete set. Engine/Tranny, T-Case, and Front skidplate. Comes with all new grade 10.9 bolts for mounting. The first two plates were powdercoated, the Front plate was unfinished so I could have painted it red for maximum bling factor. Also as noted by a friend it allows me to mark my territory by leaving red gashes on rocks. The plates are beautiful... I mean they're insane... 3/16" thick, laser cut... powdercoating is first rate. Here are the T-Case on left and Engine/Tranny plates on the right. As here you can also see the sexy red paint on the Front skidplate. Here they are after we just installed them with Raff (frwinks). It took us only 20-30 minutes at the most. It was so easy.... Only two holes had to be drilled, the rest was bolt on. Can't wait to bash the bejesus out of them on rocks. sly The very cool rockwashers weren't ready in time but I will be receiving them shortly.

Yea. I find Infranview makes crappy jagged lines when resizing, also you can't resize more than one image which is a pain if you have a whole bunch.... Other than that its an alright free tool. I like the PowerToy one because it's incorporated into WinXP and you don't have to start another application and it can do batch resizing.

I hate Microsoft but this time they did something right... Image resizing tool: http://download.microsoft.com/download/whi...wertoySetup.exe I think it works only with XP though. You just right click on images and select "Resize Images" from the drop down menu it's that simple. :bow:

Yea.. that's appearantly what the Skyline GT-R will look like.. Gotta remember that the current vanilla G35 coupe is called Skyline in Japan. It's the hi-performance GT-R versions that everyone is salivating over.

I was looking into getting one until I figured out that they're useless for GPS and the Javascript (that resizes pictures to fit within window) on my forum makes them display blank pages. Gay. Other than that.. they're kinda neat. My buddy just picked up an iBook and it's a very sexy object. I am still questioning his sexuality however. sly

I HAVE TONS OF BODY DAMAGE STICKERS ARE JUSTIFIED! -bounce-

YOU WILL NOT MOCK MY STICKER ARGHHHHH.... :oops:

You guys are all wrong. It's taking your rig through hell of a trail that adds character. Scars, body damage and dented skidplates are where it's at. :bow:

No scroll wheel on my laptop.

I doubt it. A decently built Toyota would be completely swamped by the time this thing would barely get it's hubs wet.

You know.. on another automotive forum that I frequent (it's non vehicle specific) if somebody asks for let's say to recommend a set of tires without specifying what vehicle or size, he'll get mocked into oblivion by responses ranging from 44" Boggers to Kenda bicycle tires until he clues in and specifies more details. The best ones are the posts that say "my transmission is dead" or something like that. Whole lot of mockery ensues and fun making of VW electrics, GM interiors, Honda Autotragic transmissions and such. I love that forum.

You don't have to worry about tranny/t-case/front diff breathers as they come up right up to the winshield wiper motor in the engine bay. The rear diff breather comes up to one of the frame crossmembers, but I extended mine up to the inside of the cab over the taillight. Go to Crappy Tire and get some ignition protectant (LOTS OF IT) and spray the bejesus out of every single plug/wire/connector/whatever electrical in the engine bay and under the truck. Just go nuts with it. You can always run your intake within the fender well such as I did before I went ahead with the snorkel: Also carry spare alternator, and a few spare air filters. They're cheap enough to have a few. When you get one wet if you do suck in some water, just chuck it and put in a new filter. Also ECU you can put in tupperware or use liquid electrical tape to seal the bejesus out of it. Proper relocation is always good though. Always inspect your brakes after runs, as water gets in the caliper sliders and they seize like crazy. It's easy enough to take the wheels off and grease the crap out of them, it's much harder to unseize the sliders. Inside, just make sure your door seals are good (spray some Armor-All to make 'em sticky) and make sure your transfer case shifter is siliconed so that water doesn't come in through the boot.