Kane's 2010 150 GXL Prado

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Hello fellas/ladies

Well after not having a 4wd for about a year and a half, due to selling my beloved 100 series and buying a work van, I am now a profundity owner of a 2010 TD GXL 150 Prado. I got the new rig January 2014 and I have been reading these forums a bit before I bought the car and have found the info really helpful. And now that I am starting to do a new things I decided it's time to post a build up.

To do list:
Roof rack - Done
Dual batteries - Done
Suspension lift - Done
DIY Rear Drawers - Done
Mount Arb compressor -Done
Mount UHF -
Make bracket for rear work light and uhf antenna -
Snorkel -
Exhaust -
Some sort of power chip (depending on cash) -
Double din radio/GPS -Done
Fit alpine stereo -
Powder coat bullbar white -
Sure there is some other things but this will keep me busy for a while!

So when I first bought it, it pretty much just had and arb non winch bar on it. Since then I have added the Rhino Rack 3 bars across the top(had the same in my 100series and it worked great for what I do).
After my first trip (Steep point) in the prado about a month after getting it I quickly decided I deffinatley need a suspension lift. So after a bit of looking around I decided to go with the Cal Off Road 2inch kit with the bilstein shocks. Turns out it lifted it about 2.5"-3" as I did tell them I wanted a bit heavier duty springs as I carry a bit of weight when camping. Very happy with the setup though. Responds really well on and off-road.
So to go with the lift I also got some new rubber. I went the the cooper AT3's in a 260/70/17. I am happy with them. They are nice on the road. Not too noisy. I am yet to try them off road yet but I'm sure they will be fine.

There is a bit on the list to do atm as there always is. I bought a new arb compressor and gme 3345. So have to mount these still. I'm going to mount the compressor in the back in some DIY drawers I'm making atm. I'm building a sub into the drawers so I will have one big and one small drawer. It's coming along pretty good so far. Will go into some more detail later on in the week but here are some pics as she stands now. Hopefully the pictures work. If not again I will sort it out during the week

Regards

Kane

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Sorry the pictures aren't in proper order but you get the idea. Here are a few more

[Spilsy Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Spilsy]

Nice looking set-up in the back. I am yet to see too many with a sub in the back!!

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Nice setup Kane. How do you plan to protect the sub?

Spilsy, the Kakadu has a sub as standard. It goes in the spot where the accessory bin is in a GXL.

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Thanks Spilsy, yeah I like some music and I like to have some nice bass to it.

Hey Fido. Well I have allowed enough room to be able to put some 10mm or so Perspex on top of it. So you can still see the sub but can store stuff on top and also not worry about getting sand and possibly water on top of it.

Got a bit more done on the drawers this arvo. They are pretty much made up now. Just have to carpet them and then get some angles bent up to bolt everything down nicely. You can see in the second image the back of the drawers. Well that where there well be an angle bent up following the slight angle. My amps will also be mounted here. Then once that's all in place I will measure the wing sections and get them all made up.

Kane

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Hey Fido. Well I have allowed enough room to be able to put some 10mm or so Perspex on top of it. So you can still see the sub but can store stuff on top and also not worry about getting sand and possibly water on top of it.

Cool, was just curious. Will it still work the same if covered by a solid piece of perspex?

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Yeah I was also worried about that. If I cover the top I will put a port hole on the side. But I'm planning to go down to an audio place and see what they say. Another option I had was put some stainless steel mesh over it with maybe some fine foam under that to try stop sand falling on it. I will most likely go down this weekend and have a chat so will let you know :-)

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

I know it might be a bit late now, but when my brother built draws for his cruiser he did the same for his sub, but mounted it out the front (faced into the back of the middle row seats). That seemed to work really well and no issues with sand/crap falling onto it. Just put the standard grill over it that you can get from JB Hifi. The other option is to put the stainless mesh over it and then use some material over it like surround sound speakers in the living room. Draws do look great though, when are you flying over to do mine??

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Hey Andy, yeah I had thought of that but I wanted to put my amps along the back. And also it was going to make the drawers higher then I wanted. I think it will work out ok. Will see on the weekend.
Haha this is my second set I have made. And yeah that's enough for me :-P

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Well was able to work on the drawers most of the day today. Bought carpet yesterday to get started on covering them. I have never covered a box in carpet before so this was a bit of a learning curve. Watched a few you tube videos and then slowly started. Doing the carpet has been the most time consuming job I think so far. I am very happy how it has turned out though. I only have to cover the sub box now then I can start fitting it up in the car.
I do have to cut out a little more on the catch for the latch because I didn't allow enough for when the carpet went on. So will be a bit of messing around but I want them to close nice and solid.

Also got the angles bent up on Friday. I haven't got any pictures of them yet because I have been too occupied with the carpet. They are bare metal at the moment but I am just going to paint them up once I have all the holes drilled where I need.

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

So I went and chatted to the guys down at the audio place and they recommended to have the top open. So I will get some sort of metal mesh made up for over the top of it.

Fitted up the angles today and painted them. Fits perfect. Very happy with it. Makes the back end of the base really nice and solid. I just bolted it to the existing bolt holes from the rear seats.

Finished all the carpet work today as well so put it all in there to see how it looked and fitted and got to say I'm pretty bloody happy. So now just have to make sure they are fixed done nice and tight and I'm good to go. Re-adjusted the catch for the handle too so now it's still a nice solid close and doesn't rattle from what I could hear today. But I guess he corrugations will tell the real story.

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Got the rear drawers all fixed down in the back of the car now. Feels nice and solid. I'm hitting the sand dunes this Saturday so will see how it goes noise wise while bouncing around.

Going to day fitting the compressor up now that the drawers are all sorted. Want to get this done before the weekend so I don't have to beg one of me mates to pump my tires up

Also got home yesterday to my front recovery points. Got them online. So I will be fitting them up today too hopefully in time for the weekends fun. Not that the Prado needs recovering :-)

Kane

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Hey guys

Just found out that the Arb switch doesn't fitted in the spare slots. Just wondering where other have mounted their switches. Can you open the hole out a bit more on the spare slots to fit the switch in? Or just cut a new separate hole into the dash it's self.

Cheers

Kane

[slimf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close slimf]

Buy one from eBay - they now sell 150 specific switches.
AOB Is the company I thinkZ

[eNaK Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eNaK]

Cheers slimf I did have a look but yeah I wanted to fit the compressor in by Saturday so I can go wheeling.

Ended up fitting the switch under the radio on the spare double slot next to the hi and lo button. Actually fit in pretty snug there. I cut the insert that was in there in half and fitted it back in next to the switch. Could fit another button for a locker or so.

Took a lot of messing around last night but got all the wires run from the compressor in the back to the main battery. The compressor I ended up mounting it to the side of the drawer in stead of on the floor because I couldn't get in there to tighten it all up. It's not an issue. Works pretty well because It just comes out with the small drawer.

Fitted the recovery points this arvo. They would have pretty easy to fit if all the bolts for the bullbar weren't so rusted. Also when I was doing the top bolt on the recover point the nut fell forward into the chassis and is sitting in there and it's got a rod attached to it. I couldn't get them out so they are going to rattle around like crazy. So I'm going to have to take the bullbar off I think to get them out. If I do I will get the bullbar powder coated white while it's off I think. Bit of a paint but what do you do.