Nomad's Lexus GX 460 - aka - Land Cruiser Prado 150

Full size roof rack mounted, a time consuming DIY My goals with this rack: DIY, full roof size, able to stand on, as low profile as possible, can connect to stock rails and be quickly removable.  The heavy duty cross bars I made work fine for hauling beach items and lumber from the 'Depot. I was planning on making a fairing to eliminate the little bit of wind noise and adding flat platform material to it. The larger issue I ran into was they were not long enough to support a full 8' sheet of material, leaving the front to bend down toward the roof, and the curve of the roof track made them uneven for a flat cover.  Reality is I felt the itch to do a project and weld more. I want a solid platform to mount items to that are odd shapes or heavier, like max tracks, an awning, or a spare 5 gallons of gas for offroad excursions in this thirsty truck.  But really, who doesn't want to look like they are on a safari, rolling curbs in the Target parking lot? After looking at severa...

 Just for fun I decided to figure out a way to add Paracord Grab handles to the Lexus GX460.  Is it an essential mod? No.  Does it solve a problem? No.  Is there a good reason to do it? Yes! Mods = fun. My method is completely reversible if I don't care for them or need to put it back to stock.  Problem 1: When the factory handles are removed there are odd shaped holes left behind. I measured then modeled some finish plates to mount the handles to. 3D printed a set and will see how they fit.  Problem 2: The factory uses clips in 3/8" x 3/4" square holes to attach the stock handles. This makes it tough to just "bolt on" another option. I had to get creative in how to mount them. I settled on what I hope is a simple/strong enough design. A little garage time whipped these up. Inserted into the hole is a 1"x 3/8" drilled and tapped tab. A "C" shaped spacer is then entered into the hole to position and clamp the tab to keep it from spinning behin...

 Without getting into arguing about Toyota "Lifetime Transmission Fluid" claims, or the ususal debates... Lets just say I read and made my decision based on logic, mechanical knowledge, coupled with experiences of my own and others and my comfort/time/budget levels...  I chose the quick maintenance option of the ATF drain and fill method. Why? It is quick, easy, least intrusive, and introduces nearly no known issues. I have high mileage vehicle: 170k and I have no record of the ATF being serviced before I bought it.  I plan on getting another 100k out of it but with all the other maintenance time I've spent recently I wanted to hold off on a full pan/filter/gasket job. I can tackle all that later. 3-4 drain and fills will swap out a lot of the old fluid and only takes about 30 minutes and uses 2 sockets.  You can do this on a cold vehicle all in 1 day (drive a few miles and let it cool) on consecutive days, or with each oil change or whenever you find time.  Jus...