Queen Elizabeth's Revenge

As we've been slowly nearing the 200,000 mile milestone on the truck, we've been talking about improvements "necessary" for its continued service. A few thousand miles ago, I noticed the truck was listing......well, it wasn't; rather, I was listing. Maybe I've gained weight on my left side, maybe my brain has grown disproportionately analytical over the years.....maybe I just "sit left". Regardless of the reason, the drivers seat of the Tundra has done a slow collapse. Beth noticed it quickly when she drove the truck and decided an interior upgrade was in order.

Coolio. New stuff for the truck! I'm down with that. We acquired the necessary components from various sources over the last year, and the less snowy weather of the last two weeks gave us the ability to do the install.

The old interior: front and rear bench seats, fold-down console, carpeted floor. All charcoal grey.


The first order of business: Empty the truck. How much stuff can you fit in an Access Cab Tundra?


A lot! The console, doors, rear storage hatches, under the seats, and in the "corners" beside the back seats holds a ton of crap, as you can see.

The seats came out easy-peasy. Just unbolt and lift. A few little extras had to be unbolted - the seat slide, seat belts, sill plates, etc




Beth pulled the seat belt latches from the old seats, while I was removing the few little extras


The old carpet pulled out. You can see the 10 years of kid spilled soda, mud stains, beach sand, oh...and the watermelon we took to Cape Lookout - it busted in half at some point and sat in the August sun for about 3 days before we realized we had brought a watermelon to the beach. What you're not getting in this picture is the smell of the carpet padding......no wonder I was using a lot of air fresheners....
 
The floor itself was clean, and quickly ready for some attention


We installed a small layer of ThermoTec insulation/sound deadener over the bare metal portions


Then came the flooring. The one item I wanted from day one purchasing this truck was a vinyl or rubber floor. No Way Jose. An internet search for vinyl flooring for a Tundra was nearly fruitless. WLS Headliners was the one place I found. We laid it out in the sun until it was nice and warm, placed it in the truck, and after some time moving, trimming and cursing, it was in. Granted, the molding does not perfectly conform to the trucks myriad of bumps, curves and outcroppings, but this was as close as I could get.





Beth recovered the rear seat with a neoprene seat cover we ordered from Cabelas, and I installed the new Rugged Ridge center console from 4Wheel Parts.


I did have to modify the front cupholders. The originals are not deep enough to hold a bottle, or drink from a fast food place at all. A bump in the road would tip them right out. A few pieces of wood, some glue and black paint made a cupholder with depth, enough to hold a real drink while actually driving down a real rough road.

The front seats were also from 4wheel Parts.....what can I say, they were having a Christmas sale on everything and free shipping.....can't really go wrong there. They are the Corbeau Moabs, along with Corbeaus "made for Tundras" seat brackets. The seats are nice, the brackets are less than impressive. The welds are boogers, the bracket legs are misaligned. Enough to cause trouble, not enough to cause a product return. After the not-so-easy-peasy install, they look nice. And they match the rear seat cover nicely.



After reinstalling the seatbelts and sill plates, it looks like everything is new again.







The seats have a nice feel to them. They sit nice, and level. The brackets make them sit lower to the floor than the original seats though. It's not uncomfortable. They don't put you in a straight legged, boy racer position; they're just not as tall and chair-like as the Toyotas. They feel like a cross between a Tundra's seat and a first gen Tacoma's seat.

That's that. A new interior at 195,500 miles. Hmmmm.......I wonder how long these will last?
 
The Tundra Refurbishment Project is still underway. Today was resolving an issue the truck had from day 1 of ownership and I had no idea of how to deal with it.

The first gen access cab Tundra comes with 1 sunglasses holder. It's between the sunvisors and holds 1 pair of sunglasses. I don't know whose sunglasses it would actually hold, because it is so shallow it bent every single pair of sunglasses I ever tried to keep in it - another good reason for spending 10 and not 100 dollars on sunglasses. As a matter of fact, the only glasses that ever fit have been my "hey old man, you need these to read a map" reading glasses. I needed something or someway to carry real sunglasses, and more than one pair at a time; there are 4 of us in the truck at times.

After a mere 10 years I finally figured it out.

Allow me ask a question.
Can an overhead console from a 2004 Sequoia fit a 2003 Tundra? Why, yes. Yes it can.
Is it an easy bolt-in operation? Why no. No it's not. Not easy at all.

After hours of fitting, refitting, making an extra bracket near the back, rewiring a 4 wire plug to a 3 wire plug, more refitting, cutting templates for filler panels, more refitting, cutting filler panels, more refitting, recutting filler panels, insulating the roof, and finally bolting it all up, only to discover the wiring I redid was done correctly on the first try (ie the lights come on when the door opens, automatically shut off, and come on when you flick the switch!). It's finished, all in one day. Whew!

I need to give a great big shout out to my wife Elizabeth (MostlyHarmless on this board) without whom I'd still be struggling with the second or third fitment. She's awesome, talented, and beautiful!

Here you can see the original holder/light combination, along with the stick-on "console" I picked up from Grainger to hold 2 pair of sunglasses together.


And here is the after shot. 2004 Sequoia overhead console with multiple sunglasses and other miscellaneous storage. The black filler panels (which match the new interior nicely!) are black anodized aluminum leftover from our teardrop build.


 


There it is. The 200,000 mile mark. We rolled that on route 99 in PA camping back from our 9 day camping (Coopers Rock State Park) and family visit (NW PA) trip on the 1st of July.
 
Quick tire update: The Tundra is sitting on 205,000 miles. That gives me 42,000 on the ST Maxx tires. Not bad and they are not done yet. The tread depth on three of the tires is 10/32", the fourth tire is at 9/32". Why the difference? Well, that tire was on the right rear. With 200,000 on the LSD it just doesn't transfer power quite like it used to, allowing that right rear to spin more when I get a little aggressive with the throttle.....lol.

Here's what the the tire looks like with 9/32" of tread. Even wear and the siping is still there, just not quite as full as it was new.


The depth gauge I use with each rotation.


Pretty good wear for such a heavy, rugged tire. If I go to a merely legal tread depth I could make over 60,000 miles on them.
 
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