Under the Hood



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Hood Black-out and Dakar Logo

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Having driven my share of westward returns at golden hour I've wanted to black-out the hood getting rid of that double whammy reflection. The contour of the Gen III's hood lines flow nicely to the grill leaving the popped round fenders to flank the black, framing it up nicely. But I wanted to break up the mass of the black with a graphic, deciding on the Dakar logo to tie in the badges I added. Here's how I did it: I googled the graphic and projected it on a wall where I hung some newsprint. I traced the logo... ...and cut it out of the newsprint creating the template. I taped the template to the hood and masked the exposed area... ...and then trimmed the mask through the template. I masked the rest of the hood and removed it, suspended and shot it with Dupli-Color flat black trim paint, three coats. Peeled off the masking. And this is the result. I also shot the rest of the grill to blend the lines form the hood. I had previously painted the grill inse...
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Roof Rack

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I've considered alternate roof racks but for the time being want to put the serious money into suspension and recovery. The stock rack has served its purpose fine with a Thule system that holds the RTT and awning, but I want a tray in between the stanchions to hold other recovery and camping gear. To this end I removed the headliner. It's pretty straightforward, removing all the hardware of grab handles, interior lighting modules, sun visors, etc. The only hang up is in removing the sun visor clips with tabs that tend to break easily. Remove the weather stripping on all doors. The A-pillar covers snap out being careful to keep retention clips in place, and second row seatbelt mounts on the B-pillars need to come off to remove the covers. The rear covers that surround the wing windows between the C and D-pillars snap out, again being careful to keep the retainers in place. With the headliner free, the last step is to remove the electrical connection from the sunroof j...
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Middle Seat Mod

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After several hundred miles of traveling and camping with two Golden Retrievers, the non-functioning 60/40 middle seat became problematic. It took up too much space while providing little space in which Ginger and Mary Ann could get comfortable. It also encroached on cargo area, requiring some of our long and narrow kit to go up on the roof, like the double cot, tent pegs and table. Add that we rarely have passengers in that space, it was time to make a change. There's a cable that attaches to a mechanism inside the middle bench that when deployed allows the bench to fold down and forward creating more cargo room. This cable on the 60 section has busted twice on us, debilitating the seat. I removed it by dismantling it from the hardware on its flanks giving me access underneath the seat bottom to the mechanism that releases it from its mount on the floor. Not the smartest thing to do in 105 degree heat, but it's out. I also removed the 40 seat - piece of cake on that one....
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