NewHilux.net

Cwaddy wrote:Nice work. You lux has come up real good with the mods, looks great.

You have given me some ideas and Inspiration I think Ill get those headlights and also look at that head unit you installed.

Cheers, I really love the headlights my favorite mod for sure, head unit is great as well been very happy for far I had a pioneer in the previous car and the screen on this kenwood is so much better.

Critter350 wrote:Nice work lerroy. I’ve got a very similar Fusion sub under the passengers seat, borrowed from the bro, definitely helps out. Great maiden voyage too!


Cheers
Crit

Cheers Crit

Yeah it really does, been pretty happy with the unit wasn't that expensive and really helps, highly recommended.

Good job man!

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Hey mate, great build. What modifications did you do to the bulb holders to make the harness work with the newer style tail-lights?

apSlain wrote:Hey mate, great build. What modifications did you do to the bulb holders to make the harness work with the newer style tail-lights?

Hi apSlain

The tailights came with its own wiring harness but the plug itself was completly different even though it was advertised 2005-2011. So I just chucked the packaged harness away and used the old wiring harness.

Just had to cut away some plastic on the actual light for the bulbs to fit in tight (the tabs in the holes were slightly different) works well though now only on one did I apply some silicone fill a small gap.

I did have to change the bulbs to orange ones as well.

these are the ones, pretty cheap - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pair-Tail-Li ... SwgGdZnUyA

Planned a bit more in the rear of the car for the 12 volt install and storage.

Going to try and keep it fairly simple, really want to keep a flat base for carrying gear and sleeping if needed (will have to extend for legs though)



Above image at the top shows with all the cubby holes open no doors, you can see the second battery and all the switches and plugs.
image above bottom shows what i want to achieve with doors on, flat surface, whilst trying to use all the space I can for storage.

The left and right cubby holes in front of wheel arch will be hinged so they open backwards with kitchen door hinges and push to open magnets catches.
the back left and right cubby holes behind the wheel arches are hinged the same
the middle section although one big space will be 2 doors, hinged on the wall behind the back window, also hinged in middle so the door can fold into two thus not obstructing the back window



More detail of the brains of the 12v, below all the outlets will be and Inverter, I'm going to make it accessible from the from with a little door.

Ok tested the HID and full beam tonight...



UPDATE : Bulb wasn't sitting correctly think that's where the shadow is coming the return wire have rotated, see image below working well now have edited post pros and cons to reflect.






Not sure how I feel at this stage happy but now I have another issue, might need to play with passenger bulb and play with adjustment screws. There seems to be a dark/dead spot on the passenger side and an alignment issue

HID

35Watt 5000k HID, around $150 delivered online, fairly easy to install, they do take a couple of seconds to warm up and in that first few seconds there is a slight flicker.

Pros

Much brighter
Much whiter
much more spread
proper cut off

Cons (some of these are to do with Mars headlights I imagine)

Flicker on startup
2 second Warm up but not huge issue
There seems to be a dead spot on the passenger side (fixed with bulb rotation)


I'm still happy with them they are allot brighter which was my main aim if i can remove that dead spot somehow I would be allot happier. (all fixed now happy)

Full beam OSRAM Night breakers

For 40 bucks online they are worth the upgrade, brighter and whiter.

Pros:
Brighter but not huge difference
Whiter
Better spread (slightly)

Cons:
Not as white as I wanted but hey they are halogen still.

Here are the images of the headlight compared and the pattern on garage door, anyone have any thoughts ?

Hey mate, that dull spot on the passenger side looks like a bit of crap either on the projector lens or the bulb its self. I had the exact same thing and yeah it was a tiny bit of grass or something on the lens


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Tyler1993 wrote:Hey mate, that dull spot on the passenger side looks like a bit of crap either on the projector lens or the bulb its self. I had the exact same thing and yeah it was a tiny bit of grass or something on the lens


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Thanks, I had a look but couldn't see anything but I got it sorted the bulb return wire was casting a shadow, I rotated the bulb slightly so the wire is facing down all solved now pretty happy.

Hey mate, nice work. Lux is looking great.

I've been wondering how those mars headlights with halogens compare to the stock lights? Been thinking about getting a set for a while.

where'smycat wrote:Hey mate, nice work. Lux is looking great.

I've been wondering how those mars headlights with halogens compare to the stock lights? Been thinking about getting a set for a while.

Hi wheresmycat

The Mars headlights are pretty similar to Toyota stock output with default halogen bulbs inside, slightly different patern, the mars headlights seperate the hi and low beam, so you now have 2 bulbs h7 and h1

They really improve with the hids installed though I'm very happy with lights now

Cheers mate!

Excellent thread, Lerroy! Cheers. I reckon the matt black bull bar looks good. Whole thing looks bloody good actually, making me wish I had some cash to work on mine. Nice to see a new build thread cranking along too, cheers. I'm familiar with that part of the world, pretty rough! Looks like you're building a truck to handle it though. My old girl is out there and rather than "The Great Victoria Desert", they call Ngaanyatjarraku "The Great Australian F#%K All", hahaha.

Can we spot you in this clip somewhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUjK5M9R8o

Sam Gribley wrote:Excellent thread, Lerroy! Cheers. I reckon the matt black bull bar looks good. Whole thing looks bloody good actually, making me wish I had some cash to work on mine. Nice to see a new build thread cranking along too, cheers. I'm familiar with that part of the world, pretty rough! Looks like you're building a truck to handle it though. My old girl is out there and rather than "The Great Victoria Desert", they call Ngaanyatjarraku "The Great Australian F#%K All", hahaha.

Can we spot you in this clip somewhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUjK5M9R8o

Hi Sam thanks mate

It's pretty rough out here on cars, Toyota pretty much rule the desert though so it's a good starting place. Few extra bits deffinately help though.

Who's out here mate? What community?

Oh yeah there ain't much out here I can deffinately agree with the f all statement lol. Nah I didn't get my face in that video they do one every year and I try to avoid them not one for being in front of a camera.

Cheers mate

No mail for two weeks out here so not a huge amount of progress.

Just been tinkering and working out the rear of the car.

I worked out that the battery wont fit in the side sections so moved closer to the front, I searched the local tip for a battery tray and found and Holden with a battery mount in the rear, modified it with a grinder to suit the marine battery, touch of paint and a mounted.

before pain quick clean.

Installed some seals in the rear of the tray as dust was starting to creep in, rubber seal sourced from ebay, works pretty well dont have any issues now



Modified the Kenwood startup screen to a quick image I made up, was more and experiments will working on something better in the future, but pretty cool.



Rear of the ute filled in behind the draws and covered the battery, I'm waiting on hinges and carpet to make it look like the draws but you can see how its coming along.
I gave the chrome on the draws bit a spray of flat black paint to spruce it up a bit as well.

Have made the boxes to fit into the space behind of the wheel arches, passenger side will house the inverter, power outlet, and navra fusebox, just waiting on the bits to finish off.

Time to upgrade the spotties, the halogen spotlights weren't doing much and the mounts had become loose, my attempts at tightening failed, heaps of wobble whilst driving with them on.

Decided to go LED spotlights these ebay Cree units with DRL light bar in the middle looked interesting so gave them a go. They are red in color and wasn't sure if they would go with the front-end but I can paint if need be.

The new mounts are much better 3 bolts to the bullbar each light and two bolts to lock the angle in place. The lights didnt come with any wiring just bare ends but was fairly simple to wire up with my previous loom in place.



here is the before and after image

I tried the DRL function of the light, connected to my parkers but its fairly bright and a little bit wanky, plus my parkers are on all the time with car so decided against the DRL, just wired them to the spotlight positive so they all come on together.



I took the car out for a test with the new lights, some shots from above.
Very happy with the light output, I blew the 15 amp fuse straight way though, tried 20 amp same result have since bumped to 30 amp and it seems stable, seller recommended 40 amp didn't have any handy will see how the 30 goes.
The mounts are allot better no wobble at all very strong see how they go over time.

With the lightbar in combination I have shitloads of light output very happy.



Well after a few days I decided the red was not really my thing, off with the surrounds and on with the flat black paint, same as the bar.





I'm much happier with the results now, they stand out less and match the color of the rest of the car.

Good write up Lerroy, I’ve been looking at eBay leds wondering if they were worth the money. The drone photos really show the difference.
Should you be upsizing fuses on existing wiring though? Do you know the wires are good for the ~40A? Can be expensive to find out the hard way.


Cheers
Crit

Thanks Crit

I failed to mention that the wiring was pretty large already, 8 AWG for the spotlights, Its actually fatter than the cables from spotlight. Should be able to handle 40amp fuse as is, but I;l stick with the 30amp fuse as it seems to be working well and I don't want to push it.

My brother got some supercentre illumniators and to be honest I think these have more light output but its pretty close, these ones were a bit more expensive ($200) than the super-centre ones though.

So I’ve just ordered two sets, Chrissy pressy for me and the boy. Went with the combo spot and flood options. My sons mentioned the Kings, but the eBay ones seemed to have slightly better specs.


Cheers
Crit

Critter350 wrote:So I’ve just ordered two sets, Chrissy pressy for me and the boy. Went with the combo spot and flood options. My sons mentioned the Kings, but the eBay ones seemed to have slightly better specs.


Cheers
Crit

Awesome