This is a picture of my car stock. Nothing done to it yet.

 

First thing I did to my car was to get a nice tint. It's actually illegal here to get any kind of tint but I thought it would be worth the risk getting one. I got one from Huper Optik About HuperOptik

I had all the windows tinted in C40 while the front a C70. C70 is basically practically clear, no tint. Here are some pictures although it's hard to make out the tint. At night it's very dark and you just see a silhouette of the person driving. During the day you can tell its tinted but you can see the person inside.

That's my Wrangler on the right

 

Scosche TA2076B 2007 Toyota FJ ISO/Double DIN With Pocket Kit $19.58
Amazon.com: Scosche TA2076B 2007 Toyota FJ ISO/Double DIN With Pocket Kit: Electronics

Do not get that for the W407, W404 and I am assuming any other Alpine double din unit. The fit was terrible, my alpine unit was too recessed and there were gaps on both sides of the device. it felt cheap and looked terrible. Luckily my installer had a Metra 95-8202
Amazon.com: Metra 95-8202 Toyota DDIN Multi Dash Kit: Electronics

This fit MUCH better. Check out the pictures below, the first 3 are the Scosche adapter. The other 2 are the metra.

 

wiring. I was hoping to post a detailed step by step instruction on the wiring but i didn't end up doing it myself because it just overwhelmed me. I had to connect the TR7 and the SWI-JACK plus run a wire from the reverse light to the head unit, it was too much for me to handle. The picture below is how the cable setup turned out:

 

I installed the rear camera inside the rear hitch since I am not planning on pulling my yacht anytime soon

I got the Alpine HCE-C107D Rear View Camera. I originally wanted to place it in the rear tire but this cam costs nearly 200 bucks and i thought it would be too risky to put it up that high in front of people just in case someone decides to mess with it. Inside the hitch its practically invisible. I was able to push it in enough so it's not sticking outside the hitch (just in case i get rear ended). The quality of the camera is great, driving on the roads i wish i could just record everything the rear camera shot it looked very artsy. In the dark the camera was very cool, everything was extremely clear.

 

Here is just a quick review for the Alpine W407.

It works great with the iPod as expected. I previously had the single din Alpine iDA-X001 in my Wrangler and the Alpine X001 loads up the artist name/album and album cover noticeably quicker than the W407. One annoying thing in the X001 was searching for an artist. When you have 60GB worth of music I am sure you know how annoying that is. It doesn't get much better in the W407. You can't search using the keyboard to type an artist name for some reason. You need to scroll down to the artist u want. You can scroll down by letter as in if you are looking for Smashing Pumpkins you can press page down when u r at A and it will take u to B and u keep pressing till u get to S. A painfully long process which I do not recommend while driving. Once you get to S you then have to scroll down regularly till u get to Smashing Pumpkins. Takes forever and not practical at all

Thats the only negative though. The system has a lot of features and options. On the X001 you really didn't have much just bass treble and a bunch of preset equalizer settings for example. on the W407 it gets a lot more detailed, you have high pass filters you can turn on and off, you can see how wide you want to lows or highs, and a bunch of other stuff which I am still figuring out how to use and setup.

The multi display screen is cool, wish I could add more widgets though, weather would be great (could use my phones 3G connection to stream), an RSS reader would have been perfect as well.

Bluetooth feature is cool. I've connected it to my iphone and making calls and receiving calls is easy. I wish it would connect to my iPhones favorite list though because at the moment it doesn't, just dialed, recieved and phonebook etc..
When i select the bluetooth source on the W407 all the sounds my iphone makes gets sent to my stereo which is cool. Playing canabalt or NIN Tap tap revenge is a lot more cooler when your car system is blasting the music. I can now stream music from the web over 3G and onto my car stereo using the app WunderRadio. So for example I am living in Kuwait but I am listening to radio station from Lebanon (my home country) which is great specially since the English music stations suck in Kuwait.

What else is there to talk about. I think I am definitely going to be upgrading my speakers and installing an AMP soon. Probably going with the 6.5" component Type-R Alpines.

Here are some pictures:

 

Very nice! Thanks for sharing. That tint shop is the cleanest I have ever seen!

 

Thanks again for the demo Mark. I think I might have the wife sold after I told her about streaming US radio stations via bluetooth and all the other very cool features.

Troy

 

Man thats a pretty sweet deck! I want one

 

nice rig !

 

Here is a shot to show the quality of the night shots with the Alpine rear view camera. This was taken in my underground parking. That day there was a power outage in the building so the parking was pitch black. The camera works really well at night, the picture i took doesn't do it justice, it looked even brighter and clearer on the screen.

 

picture of my fj without a lift

 

I had my lift installed 2 days back. Ordered it from toytec:

OME Full Suspension

OME-884
*(2) OME 884 Front Coils

RCC2.0
*(2) 2" ToyTec Lifts Super Flex Rear Coil Springs

90000 Front nitrocharger sport shocks for 05^Tacoma / FJ /03^4Runner
(2) OME 90000 Sport Shocks

60020 OME Rear sport shocks for the FJ & 03-09 4RUN
(2) OME 60020 shocks

TOP1-T Top plate spacers/studs
*(2) 25912 top plate spacers
*(1) 25996 (6 top plate studs)

OME full suspension -- Click here for details - Toytec Lifts: Toyota Lift Kits: FJ Cruiser Lift Kits, Tacoma Lift Kits, Tundra Lift Kits, 4 Runner Lift Kits, Sequoia Lift Kits, Toyota Truck Lift Kits

Toytec were great, very helpful. I installed the lift at a place here in Kuwait called ORP | Off Road Performance |. they were recommended by a member of the FJ Club in Kuwait. When I dropped off my FJ they were working on another fj and when i went to pick up my fj a day later i saw 3 other fjs there. Guys there love fjs.

anyway i haven't changed my tires yet since they get here next week so i can compare before and after the lift install with stock wheels and tires.

The ride before with stock was very soft and comfy. Now 2 days after the install the ride is harder. i am hoping it will soften up but not sure it will. one good thing though is before when i used to press on the brakes the whole fj would tilt forward and i used to hate that. made every braking too dramatic and in traffic it would feel like i am riding on a boat. now the car no longer nose dives which is great.

For alignment I went to this guy ORP had recommended. The guy not only fixed my alignment but also adjusted the caster so when i get my 285/75 R16 tires they don't rub the body. Anyway here are some pictures of the FJ after the lift and pictures of the lift.

 

Ordered black door handles for my fj since i am going to start blacking all the silver out.
ordered them from "Toyota Parts" | "Toyota Accessories" | 1stToyotaParts.com
Part numbers 692100C010 and 692170C010
you need order x2 from each
with tax and shipping it came out to $55.03

I used the following link for the install. Very easy.
Project Toyota FJ Cruiser - Trail Teams Black Door Handle Swap / Install

 

Really like what you've done. Good job.:cheers:

 

Enjoying your build. Looking forward to seeing the new rubber!

 

went and bought a shorter antenna today since the stock one was hitting every single pipe at my apartment buildings underground parking lot and also hitting pipes in my underground parking next to my office building.

i didn't have much options, just different sizes of All Sales Manufacturing (http://allsalesmfg.com/) antennas. Got the longest one available which is practically same height as the roof. didn't want something too short because i wanted some kind of early warning system in case the roof is going to hit the ceiling.

here is the product page
Part Number: 6221K
http://allsales.iwebcat.com/_Member...?hdnPN=803162&hdnSts=0&hdnUK=71407&hdnQ=2&hdnLK=754&hdnLT=2&hdnAPFlag=&hdnWN=1&

fits without any drilling, just unscrew stock antenna and screw in new shorter antenna. its currently glossy black, will probably paint it matt black.

note: although the antenna looks like its higher than the roof its not, its just the angle the picture was taken.

 

My tires arrived today, BFG M/T KM2 285/75 R16 on stock 16" wheels
They're AMAZING. Really glad i went with them.
They are noisier on the road compared to the hankook DynaPro's I had on my Wrangler but who cares, the FJ was too quiet anyway. I got my tires from tirerack.com
I have ZERO rubbing, nothing at all, not even a slight rub.

I heart BF Goodrich!

 

My tires arrived today, BFG M/T KM2 285/75 R16 on stock 16" wheels
They're AMAZING. Really glad i went with them.
They are noisier on the road compared to the hankook DynaPro's I had on my Wrangler but who cares, the FJ was too quiet anyway. I got my tires from tirerack.com
I have ZERO rubbing, nothing at all, not even a slight rub.

Is your vehicle lifted by a couple of inches? I'm also considering upgrading tires in the future, but was also concerned about rubbing.

EDIT: Missed one of your posts. Both the front and back were lifted by 2 inches?

 

looks great now get rid of those stock running boards!

 

first thing i need to get rid of is that stupid emblem on the gas cap. very tacky, not sure why all fjs in kuwait come with that. second thing i need to remove is the transparent plastic X on the side mirrors

 

first thing i need to get rid of is that stupid emblem on the gas cap. very tacky,...

Pics! No idea what the emblem on the cap looks like.

 

you can see it in this picture, it looks like a Hummer gas cap

 

I think the gas cap looks good!:rocker:

 

Mark, your blog isn't good enough anymore! ...nice having you around...

regards.
A fan

 

? you're creeping me out now lol

 

Finally removed the fake gas cap sticker and those weird X's on my mirrors. Since the weather is like 120 degrees here they peeled off extremely easily.

 

Looks good!!