Tyler's Mods

[tysamigo]

It's been long enough. I should have kept up with this thread a long time ago. I've taken the last couple of weeks and worked extreeeemely hard in getting all this info together. So here we go...

TAILGATE - 1/2" DynaLiner, 1/4" DynaLiner used for trim

SIDE WALLS & CENTER CONSOLE - 1/4" DynaLiner with 1/8" DynaLiner connecting side walls to roof and in tight areas (trim)

DOORS - 1/4" DynaLiner on exterior panel & interior panels

HOOD - 1/4" DynaLiner

CARPET - DynaPad

- I scraped off the OEM padding, but did it extremely carefully so that each piece was like a "mold" that I could use to make a new one from DynaPad. I managed to keep EACH piece of padding in such great condition, almost new-like. I had the carpets professionally cleaned and then I cleaned the backside of the carpet surface (has kind of like a plastic coating on it to hold all the fibers together) with the same surface cleaners used w/Dynamat using the same process. I made a duplicate of each OEM padding out of DynaPad and using 3M Spray Adhesive I attached each piece back to the carpet.

During this process I wanted to make sure that the carpet areas that don't have the DynaPad will still be "comfy" for people so any area where the carpet touched the floor and there was no DynaPad for cushion, I used 1/4" DynaLiner on the floor and used 1/8" around any tight area and along the edges.

If you use 1/4" around the edges, the carpet will be to THICK for the side wall panels to fit properly (been there done that). You must use 1/8" along edges where wall panels or headliner meet and attach.



Note: On the last image, it looks like the padding is not attached. This is because this part of the carpet is not flat. It is purposely curved, so I decided to wait until I actually put the carpet back in until I sprayed it together. Moving the carpet around a lot caused it to come unglued the first time I tried.

[tysamigo]

Wiring

I paid a hefty price a couple of years ago to the same reputable local company that installed the Dynamat to install a very nice and loud system (both at the same time). Once I started pulling everything apart I noticed how sh*tty of a job they did...So I decided to rewire myself and making it better than before.

- Fixed all the wiring problems from the previous audio installation (1 week for this alone) and rerun most all of aftermarket wiring.
- Installed new Stingray SPV44 660 Amp Power Series Dry Cell Battery w/ Protective Steel Case (for Systems up to 1320W) along w/all new heavy duty connections, fuses, blocks, etc.
- Color Code Wires - Purchased 3M Colored Electrical Tape. Each bundle of factory wiring was re-taped with black, any wires related to the sound system taped with blue, any wires related to interior led lighting system (UFO ICE LED KIT from Europe & other interior led accessories) will be taped with red, wires related to exterior led lighting with green and so on
- Used wiring that notes "+" and "-" all the way down both sides of the wire. Labeled each wire connection with water-proof labels so that each wire when disconnected is labeled as to what it goes to.

BEFORE AFTER

- Purchased new OEM Adjustable Wire Holder Zip Ties. The adjustable holders are IDEAL as you don't have to pull them and replace them for every wiring job or install. Just release the tab, put the wire through and rezip, LOVE IT! Replaced all wire holders with these new adjustables and added a few along the way.
- I found that there were not enough holes drilled for these zip ties that mount into the holes, so I drilled new ones. For the majority you will need to drill 5/16" hole and they will fit perfectly.
- If you need more along the piece of frame where the headliner/windshield meet (going to rear view mirror), you will notice Isuzu used a smaller hole and zip tie. I found some online and used 11/64" hole and they fit perfect.





- Replaced all door panel retainers and interior panel retainers with new OEM retainers (update: due to the installation of the Dynamat & DynaLiner, the original retainers were to short. The subsitute needed is Auveco # 17102)
- Relocated bluetooth box and established location for near-future Car PC
- Install new Rear-View Mirror (update: I decided to change the mirror to another model that has a sat link, so this one will be sold soon)



- Learned that you CAN completely disconnect the Airbag Module including the safety "RED KEY" and nothing will go wrong (the battery was disconnected). I did this to reroute wiring issues done by previous installers



- Established new Grounding Points
- Established new Power Ports

At about this point, Robbie at RWG Automotive called and said he had an opening to paint the VX coming up so I stopped wiring projects to prep the VX to be painted and will resume wiring projects later

Exterior

Remove Bumpers & All Cladding

- Removed both bumpers and all cladding. I'm going to have Linex spray all cladding, roof rack, and all 3 door sills
- Remove all light housings
- Remove adhesive residue from the body in preparation for new paint
- Remove adhesive residue from all cladding
- Remove antenna
- Remove Roof Rack
- Completely strip the outside so that everything is repainted including bumper supports and Hitch

[tysamigo]

New Paint

RWG Automotive did lots of work on my VX including the paint. They are known for taking care of show cars, custom jobs and maticulous work ethics and workmanship. They are not the cheapest in town, but you can't expect them to be with such PREMIUM work. I wanted the best and this is who I use. One thing I've learned is their website does NOT do them justice. I'm sure one day it will be revamped, but one thing is for sure when you go to their facility you know they take their job seriously and professionally. I HIGHLY recommend anyone to use them for ANY type of body work, custom work, welding work, mechanical work. They are the first I go to. I'm not sure where I would be without them. They performed the following work (and other work that will be shown later). I cannot stress enough...

RWG AUTOMOTIVE IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST ANYWHERE NEAR LOUISVILLE, HANDS DOWN, BAR NONE...PERIOD!

Everyone that sees my VX and has a problem down the road with their own car, they always ask me... "hey what's the name of that place that did your truck?"...

RWG Automotive
113 Rogers Dr, Shepherdsville, KY 40165
(502) 957-7880
http://www.collisionrepairlouisville.com/



- Painted entire VX including all 3 door jams
- VX exterior that is not covered by cladding has 5 coats of paint and 6 coats of clear.
- Painted front and rear bumper supports
- Painted Hitch
- Powdercoated the Windshield Cowling, replaced new cowling hardware (screws, seals, fasteners) so the entire piece looks brand new
- Powdercoated the wiper arms, replaced blades w/new RainX, replaced washer arm caps w/new caps
- Powdercoated all 4 Rotors
- Painted Calipers Red

Prep Cladding for Linex

- Clean cladding and remove 3M tape and adhesive
- A few of the "Support Arms" on the backside of the cladding broke off during detachment. Using PC7 Epoxy I repaired not only the broken arms, but I reinforced every single support arm on every piece of cladding to make everything stronger and to add additional support for the extra weight from Linex
- Isuzu used small pieces of weather strip at the screw holes on the cladding. I decided to remove those and go down the whole side with new weather stripping. It has a much better seal and is uniform. I decided to NOT replace 3M Tape on any of the cladding pieces except for the tailgate and the rear portion of the Rear Left cladding and Rear Right cladding. Everything else instead is using the weather strip (Camper Seal Foam Tape 3/16' x 1 1/4", description: prevents drafts, noise and vibrations)
- Sent all pieces off to Chris at LineX of Louisville (now owned by Jordan)

LineX of Louisville
6501 Shepherdsville Rd, Louisville, KY 40228
(502) 961-0404
http://www.linexoflouisville.com/

3D Logos by Jason Mooney (jasonm621 on the forum...one of the best vx enthusiasts)

- I wanted an "embossed look" so I asked Jason (ie the 3d and led man) to help. Using his 3D printer, he made special VX logos that I glued onto specific cladding parts before sending to LineX. The results are AMAAAAZING! This is by far one of my favorite mods!!! He also made me some proton yellow knobs for the tire cover, flaps for the roof racks and a custom keychain! We are now working on a new project (I can't talk about atm) which is going to be amaaazing when he's finished! KUDDOS TO JASON!!

[tysamigo]

Grommets, Fasteners, Screws, Body Bolts, etc.

- Replace ALL grommets w/new, replace all fasteners w/new, replace most screws and body bolts with stainless steel. (I have separate documentation for item numbers on the parts I used, if you need part numbers email me or I will eventually post it to this thread. it's a long spreadsheet for every thing I've ever bought for the VX)

Seals

- Replaced seals on doors and around door frames, around windshield, tailgate, headlight assemblies, under hood. Replaced all seals that I've seen. Very expensive to do this, I ordered from Merlin all new seals.

Carbon Fiber

All Carbon Fiber Dipping was done by
Kentucky Hydrographics
3917 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40218
502.265.3258
http://www.kyhydrographics.com/

I love their innovative high-tech process of water-dipping ANY pattern you want on just about any type of surface!! AMAZING COMPANY!! Yes, you can ship items to them to have professionally dipped and then returned to you! I have MANY more carbon fiber pics in my photobucket (look under Phase 10 - Carbon Fiber). The guys at Kentucky Hydrographics do such an amazing job, look at some of the side views... you won't believe your eyes. It looks just like it came from a factory and NO SHORT CUTS!

To see it in action (skip to 1:50 for the cool stuff)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADq96RGRf00








Note: 2 items were a challenge to carbon fiber. The outside mirrors must be completely separated from the bracket (including wiring) in order to be dipped. This meant you have to remove the 3 screws from the underside which are put in there with LocTite. Once removed (was a b*tch, thank you Robbie) the screws were replaced w/stainless. The hardest item were the door handles. Again, the handle must be separated from the "lever" that actually moves. To do this you have to remove the "pin". I put pin in quotes because it's a very odd item. Like most other things I've experienced while restoring this truck is that MOST people have no idea that Isuzu really does have QUALITY craftsmanship throughout the VX and in places where you would never ever notice. This pin is one example. It is much thicker than any current door handle pin on the market and is made of steel (while most today are not, some are not even a type of metal any more and are a type of plastic). After thorough (and I mean thorough) research I found that this was about the thickness (just a little larger than) the largest hvy duty nail that is made. It's 2 gauges larger and of course the length of the pin is the tricky part. To get something this size and of that length you need to go to a Steel Rod Dist. and even then the size is so out of the norm, that I had to special order them. Because it was a special order I had to get 5 rods of 12' each. So now I basically have the rods necessary to make the pins for the door handles in case someone ever wants to take theirs apart for any reason. You will need welding experience or a welder in order to properly disassemble and reassemble the door handles.

[tysamigo]

Misc Projects

Momo Items (Atomik Theme)

- Brake Pedal, Gas Pedal, 4WD Shifter Knob, 4 Seatbelt Covers, 4 Custom Stainless Plates (debossed & inked)

Illuminated Door Sill

Well I actually did it!!! I talked about it for a while, but I actually fell through and did it. This is the FIRST set ever made for VehiCross!

King Penn Industries
Custom, Innovative Auto Mods
http://www.kingpennindustries.com/default.aspx

One product is Illuminated Door Sills. They make VERY fancy stuff for cars that are on the road, but for something like ours they won't be able to do the same thing. So now they have a "basic" illuminated door sill template that is universal. You give them the graphics, tell them what color and they make the door sill.

http://www.kingpennindustries.com/DS...l.aspx?dsid=15

They are no where near as fancy as the OEM versions they do ... but they are still nice!!! Ask for Stephen. I had to undergo the expense of doing the first one, but from now on any VX owner can get the VehiCross Illuminated Door Sill (just like mine, but in any color) and only pay the cost of a pair of door sills.

NOTE: I will have to modify my current Isuzu door sills to accommodate the illuminated ones. I plan on cutting out the area so that they fit together and obviously it will look factory when finished. I will post once completed. Also, I wired these and the projector lights (shown later) to the same Power Port. They will come on when the doors open, but if I want to disable this feature, I can with the touch of a button on a specific Power Port under the passenger seat.

Front Grill Badge- Stainless Steel VX Front Grill Badge from Ron (thank you!!!)

Halo Rings & LED Strips in Headlights

Oracle Lighting in California
http://www.oraclelights.com/home? (MAIN PAGE)
http://www.oraclelights.com/automoti...hting-products (REALLY COOL STUFF THEY DO)

A very reputable company (even in the movie industry as producers use them all the time) that does special lighting mods for vehicles

I installed color changing led halo rings along with 3 white led strips on top. The led strips are dimmable (15 steps) AND there are 3 sets. Each set has its own switch (top row, middle row, bottom row) so that it looks like "evil eyebrows" when they are illuminated, or I can change the design by switching between the 3 different sets. The halo ring bulbs can change to over 1.2 million colors with many different patterns.

UPDATE: I don't have pics of these illuminating because I am working on a "hybrid product" that combines 2 amazing products together. This other company ICE LED (who is even MORE futuristic in terms of products and effects) is in Scotland (www.iceled.co.uk). This will be a WORLDS FIRST once completed. That's all I'm saying for now, but I'll post once the project is completed.

LED License Plate Holder

I've seen lots of these in the U.S. but they are always red. This is the ONLY one I could find that is blue and it's from the U.K. (like many of the other items I get). This also has a remote control so that I can control the messages that display when I want. The plate holder is wired to turn on and stay on, or to turn on only when the brake is pressed or turned completely off. I felt that I had to make it more sturdy so I added silicon for more water-proofing and like most other LED accessories I modified the wire ends so that it has a REAL OEM WEATHERPROOF QUICK DISCONNECT. Robbie from RWG "tapped" 2 new threads so that the plate holder was held against the tailgate with 4 screws instead of 2 (since I have a loud system and to avoid vibration as much as possible). All screws/washers/etc are stainless steel. I also replaced the License Plate Light Wiring Assemblies along with new lenses and blue led bulbs.

[tysamigo]

Projector Lights

These lights are installed on the bottom side of the door. When the door is opened, the projector light will illuminate the ground with the displayed logo. I've also modified the wire ends so that they have the OEM waterproof disconnect. There are cheapies out there... I know because I've bought them and tried them. Bottom line, get a 5W Cree (3W cree min). If it's not a CREE I wouldn't get it. You will spend upwards of $65-70 (direct from Hong Kong like I did) or $100+ if you buy more locally. Once again, this was the FIRST SET to have an Isuzu logo on it. I spent lots of $$ on getting these just right, but from now on if anyone else wants the Isuzu Projector Lights you won't have to pay any set up fees as I've already done that. Email me for more info.

Tunnel Lights

These are originally meant for Towing & Emergency Vehicles. I modified the wire ends to have the oem waterproof disconnect and used 2" rubber seals. I tapped into the parking lights for power. During the daytime they look like round mirrors (cool!) but at night, they look like a tunnel of lights that goes on and on and on...

Lights-Other

I am currently working on SEVERAL different led and lighting projects, so I will leave this pretty much blank for now, however I can show the "5-star" led towers that are now installed for the blinkers and brakelights. Each bulb "flares" out once you push it through the opening of the housing. Each "arm" has many leds both on the front and back for a very unique look. The only problem is that our taillight lenses diffract the light so bad that it's hard to see the outline of the bulb (which was the whole point), but it's still kinda cool.

Wiring and WeatherPack Disconnects

Throughout this whole process I made sure that all connections were VERY sturdy and waterproofed. I custom ordered specific connectors that I needed each step of the way. I will document a full list of what I used and where to get it sometime in the future on this thread. I used OEM 2 conductor wire for most wiring and some special OEM 6 conductor wire for the leds and halo rings (each headlight has 9 aftermarket connections in addition to the stock connections) and I wanted everything to look stock, professional and be water proofed.

Roof Rack

The Roof Rack and all components were also sprayed LineX. They made sure that things didn't "clump" together. There are still all the little spaces necessary for everything to work, screw together, flaps (3d printed by jason) go in just fine, everything fits. I don't have it installed on top of the vx yet so those pics are not available. I removed and replaced the 3M tape on the bottom (necessary for a good fit to the curvature of the roof) and installed small squares of thin weather strip around the areas that are screwed in so that it won't touch the paint directly. The "feet" were painted with a "texture" by Robbie at RWG. I love it! And yes, the crossbars are also LineX but not pictured here. I will post those once everything is on the roof.

[tysamigo]

I have more done to the VX than what I've got posted, but at least I've updated this thread and hopefully can help others with it... I will continue to update this specific thread in the future with anything I do to my VX.. stay tuned

[tysamigo]

Oh yea, if you want to see more pics (different angles of the same thing or just more pics of work done in general) then visit my photobucket shared album called VehiCross Restoration. I've named everything in phases so that you can scroll through step by step instead of wondering what to look at next.

http://s90.photobucket.com/user/tysa...%20Restoration

[JoFotoz]

AWESOME!!!!

Big

jo

[EVO]

Full Tilt Sound Dampening!!! Sweet!!

[vt_maverick]

I know we all want our VX's to be unique, but you really should consider packaging some of these mods and selling them on the board. A lot of this stuff reminds me of the products Tone and Rudy (ron) used to sell through their websites. Will you get rich quick? Almost certainly not. But could you make some nice extra $ to fund more mods? I certainly would think so.

Regardless this is top notch work dude. I look forward to seeing more great stuff in the future!

[VXorado]

Impressive!!! I look forward to seeing everything in person this May.

[eternal21]

That's a pretty thorough sound deadening job. How many lbs of sound deadening was added?

[tysamigo]

Thanks guys!!! I really appreciate it! Everyone else around me thinks I'm crazy

I know we all want our VX's to be unique, but you really should consider packaging some of these mods and selling them on the board. A lot of this stuff reminds me of the products Tone and Rudy (ron) used to sell through their websites. Will you get rich quick? Almost certainly not. But could you make some nice extra $ to fund more mods? I certainly would think so.

Regardless this is top notch work dude. I look forward to seeing more great stuff in the future!

Thank you very much. I'm serious... I couldn't do what I do in terms of VX projects if I weren't single. When I'm not working, I am working on an idea, or documentation, or finding memorbilia from around the world, or doing a new mod, or restoring another part, it's always something with the VX. It really is an obsession for me.

I've thought about selling stuff... thought about it a lot. Obviously it wouldn't make a living, but there's so many things people have emailed and asked me for, I thought maybe I could have a few handful of the most commonly asked for items (screws, grommets, fasteners, a few mods, etc.)... I dunno... if I continue to get the feedback... maybe I will.. dunno.

Impressive!!! I look forward to seeing everything in person this May.

Yea, same here. I can't wait. I was just thinking tonight about getting something booked... and made a comment about it on the Moab thread. Can't wait! I get so excited just seeing 1 other VX, but more than one... omg I am going to go nuts!

That's a pretty thorough sound deadening job. How many lbs of sound deadening was added?

I just started the process tonight, of putting everything in a spreadsheet. I've done it before, but lost all my data and had to start over.

She still gets up and goes and still has a punch, but you can definitely tell the weight is there. It feels more sturdy, very quiet on the inside. Conversations are very clear. It makes the VehiCross feel like a much more expensive vehicle, better made in a sense. It's hard to explain. Since I'm still not on the road yet, it's hard to say if I'll really like all the pros vs the cons (noticeable less mpg I'm assuming).

I don't have the exact figures yet, but I used (2) whole packages of :

Dynamat 10465 Sound Deadener Xtreme Mega Pack-9 Sheets
9 (24in x 48in) pieces of Dynamat Xtreme
http://www.streetsideauto.com/search.asp?keywords=10465

I've searched everywhere and NOTHING has the documentation of the weight. Even the technical sheet isn't helpful. It has weight of small pieces, but you would have to do the math I guess.

Tech Specs
http://www.dynamat.com/technical_spe...at_xtreme.html

Spec Sheet
http://dynamat.com/download/specs/22...mat_Xtreme.pdf

I emailed tech support and am waiting to hear back. I've always wanted to know myself, so I'll post when I hear an answer.

[darrog01]

Really cool stuff you are doing to your VX. I have major mod envy. If you need someone to "oh and ah" your work when it is all together PM me and I will drive from Nashville to pay my respects.....really cool.