My local junkyard got a Tacoma in, so I woke up early to go take parts off of it lol. Snagged a hub, valve cover, tailgate latches, interior door handle, visor clips, etc. May go back tomorrow and get the tailgate too, we shall see. My visor clips broke years ago, as did one of my visors, so I had gotten one from the junkyard.
Turns out, the visor I got is the wrong length. I realized it because I put the clips in and it did not reach. I may have taken it from a 4Runner now that I think about it. Oh well,
the plastic on it is the wrong color anyway. I will have to hunt for a new one. 20210626_112349 by Jose, on Flickr
I did wrap both of these in microsuede way back when, so I will have to redo this once I find a new visor 20210626_112405 by Jose, on Flickr
The other thing I got at the junkyard is this SC300 brake booster. I am going to be swapping my master cylinder out for an SC300 one, but doing so requires you use the SC booster as well. I ordered the master cylinder from Rockauto, since I wouldn't be confident running a master cylinder from the junkyard (that and I hate yellowed out brake reservoirs).
Well, I finally felt confident enough in the curing of the epoxy on the hood. So, I took the hood outside and sanded it down. Starting from 180, then moving on to 220, 400, 600, 800,1000, 1200, and 1500 on the epoxy itself got the thick epoxied surfaces down flat and even. Then, I did a final finish sanding on the entire hood. I wanted to go with 1500, but had run out, so the final finish sand is at 2000 grit.
Well, I got the mesh glued on with some plastic bonder epoxy. Same stuff I used to glue the mesh on my Miata's hood.
I had the hood upside down and supported with 2x4s so it would sit off the surface of the work table. 20210629_184948 by Jose, on Flickr
The epoxy was mixed and spread all over the inner edge, followed by placing the mesh down and adding weights to keep it in place. I used some cuts of wood to distribute the load from the weights. 20210629_184954 by Jose, on Flickr
Some epoxy came through the other side and will need to be cleaned up, but overall, I am happy with the outcome 20210629_213015 by Jose, on Flickr
My SC master is finally here! Time to paint and refresh the booster, and then this sucker is going on the truck! The most complex part is going to be bending the lines, since the SC master has the lines on the opposite side.
It's a cool looking, dual cylinder arrangement. I expect this will handle all my 4 wheel disc braking needs lol. 20210630_130709 by Jose, on Flickr
I started freshening up a couple of things before putting them on the truck. As per usual, there is no way anything with rust is going on my truck. So, I sanded down the SC300 brake booster and then painted it with self-etching primer. I followed that up with a coat of Rust Reformer and am planning to finish it off with a urethane Black Sand Pearl and clear coat. 20210704_174431 by Jose, on Flickr
I also removed the silver trims from the IS300 steering wheels that I have. I wet sanded those down to about 600 grit and then did self etching primer, more sanding, and about three coats of VHT roll bar and chassis black. They look much better in the semi-gloss black than they did in the faded, factory silver. I also generally detest silver plastic. If you want something to look like metal, just use metal lol. 20210703_173419 by Jose, on Flickr
Now I just need to redo the leather on all of them. I have like 7 of these steering wheels in total, three Supra ones and four IS300 ones(steering wheel buttons). Re-wrapping steering wheels has apparently become another one of my weirdo hobbies lol. I just love the transformation once they are all freshly leathered out!
All this messing around with steering wheels has me wanting to build something custom. I am thinking something a little wild, like flat bottom and flat top. Something like the MS paint mockup I have below, just with the corners more rounded, and possibly with some Carbon fiber. THeory by Jose, on Flickr
One thing I don't like about the IS300 steering wheel buttons is having to push one in front and one in back of the wheel. I am thinking of building custom buttons that go up front. It will look something like this:
I also thought it would be cool to add a push start button to the steering wheel, like what Audi and Ferrari do. I have placed a poor MS paint concept of what I am going for below. Just need to imagine it with carbon fiber in place of the alcantara parts. Steering wheel idea by Jose, on Flickr
...and so it begins... I drew a line on the bottom of two of the wheels I have and scored them with a cut off wheel. From there, I went ahead and cut through with a band saw. Here is the result of that 20210724_190633 by Jose, on Flickr
From there, I did some finishing work using a belt sander 20210724_203140 by Jose, on Flickr
Not that it really needs to be perfect right now. I still have to build up and round out the cross section of the flat portion.
Alright, I went and got myself some epoxy putty by JB Weld and got to work. I basically comes as a tube that more or less looks like clay and there is a white epoxy inside a beige colored one. You knead the clay until it becomes one uniform color and then apply it wherever you want. It really reminds me of wood filler. It does dry rock solid with a sort of plastic feel.
This is the result after two tubes of the stuff. I will definitely have to build up more of it on the bottom. The second tube I applied on this one seemed a little old and it got really hot and dried out too quickly. 20210725_184438 by Jose, on Flickr
The other two tubes I used on the other wheel did a better job, and I improved my technique a bit. This will still need me to add more later. 20210725_184453 by Jose, on Flickr
My push start button finally arrived. It is a little smaller in diameter than I expected, but not a deal breaker as I intend to print a bit of a shroud around it. 20210726_212839 by Jose, on Flickr
Here's a little mockup of how I plan to set it up 20210726_213015 by Jose, on Flickr
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