Land Cruiser windshield washer issue

 When I traveled down to Austin to get the canoe, I accumulated a lot of bugs on the windshield.  Trying to work the windshield washer I found it to not be working, and just dealt with the bugs collecting.

When I got home I filled up the washer reservoir and found it still not working.  I followed the hoses and they went around to the drivers side where there's an electric valve.  I pulled the hose out of the valve on the pump side and fluid would flow, but when I pulled the hose out of the exit of the valve, nothing came out.

I did a search on the ih8mud forum and found that this is the diverter valve that determines based on your button presses, whether the fluid goes to the windshield or the rear window.  Seems that these crud up on the inside after a while and aren't worth trying to repair and should just be replaced.  Some folks will just replace them with a T fitting and just let the fluid flow to both.  I looked up the part number and found a brand new one on ebay for $40 and ordered it up.  Got the new one in and all swapped out.

Checking the system again I now had flow out of the valve, however no flow out of the nozzles.  I do have fluid raining out of the bottom of the truck though.  I broke the clips holding the insulating blanket on the hood, which apparently is common procedure because you have a better chance of winning the lottery than to pop those out without breaking them.  Looking behind the old crumbling blanket, I find the hoses aren't connected to the nozzles.  

I connect them back up and test and the hoses pop back off again.  Seems that the nozzles are so clogged they pop off the hoses when I try to use them.  I got the nozzles out, used a safety pin to clean the exit holes from the nozzles and then dropped them in an ultrasonic bath of hot water and dish detergent.  They came out looking almost brand new.

Got them popped back in and they work great.  The little nozzles are ball valves so you can adjust them.  During my cleaning they got moved around and two were spraying the hood right in front of them so I realigned them.  It's fiddly to get them aligned but I ended up with an odd looking but very effective spray pattern.  All good now, ready for Texas bug season.

Trip to get a canoe

 I found a good deal on a canoe on Two Wheeled Texans.  I'd been looking for one for a little while and the deal kept getting better and better, the only thing bad about the deal is that it was about 200 miles away.  Finally, I had to go and get it.  I decided to make it the first "Adventure" and road trip in the Land Cruiser.

I took off bright and early with a full cup of coffee, a malfunctioning GPS and some hastily laid plans that involved as little interstate as possible.  I intended to find a few dirty unpaved roads and hit those to see if I could get the truck a little dirty.  I did manage to hit about 30 miles of this south of Ennis.  A few surprises and a little slide, but all good, got the truck dirty, mission accomplished.

I continued on paved roads from there till I got down near Thorndale where I was to pick up the canoe.  Little did I know, it's all dusty dirty roads to the guy's house.  Awesome!

Made my way over and picked up the canoe.  I followed the seller back into town and we found a nice socially distanced table out on the patio and had lunch before I shoved off and headed home.  I took this picture on the way back.

Minor cosmetic updates

Nothing too terribly exciting compared to what else is going on round here. Guess that's what happens when you get a vehicle already in great shape. Not to be deterred though, there were a few cosmetic items I needed to take care of.

First up, getting rid of this thing.  It's known in the Land Cruiser community as the "Useless Cubby" because it's pretty useless for storing much of anything in it.

Fortunately there's a company called "Wits End" that makes a lot of useful items for the Land Cruiser so I picked up this that allows for you to install some RAM ball connectors there.  I have a lot of this stuff for the motorcycle so it'll be handy.  I'm already testing a phone holder there.  He's got a notch in the top of the insert to allow you to run a power cord out of there which I'll likely do in the future.

Next up, I'm missing a lot of the fancy wood trim panels. I'm ok with that as I am most assuredly NOT a fan of wood trim. However, the glue left behind is rather annoying.

I haven't vinyl wrapped anything in a long time, and wasn't great at it, but it's a nice way to dress things up. I'd previously seen some nice brushed metal black vinyl and wanted to try it. I figured I'd try on the wood around the window/lock switches first.

I'm not overly happy with it. Because of the straight line pattern it really shows where I'm not good at stretching the vinyl uniformly and ends up with some waves in places. Also, when the sun hits it, it's a very annoying bright silver color. I'll likely chalk this up to practice and try something else. Also, I noticed the door trim is wood with black paint over it around the buttons, and some of the paint is worn off. Might have to rectify that as well.

Also, I kinda broke the clock trim. I also need practice on these contours. I went back and watched some more videos and feel I can do better next time. Also, my hand was shaking when cutting and came out badly. Will redo later.

And then there was this annoying thing. 

Someone did a good job with cutting and trimming the foam stuff but really, the part is cheap. I've done a lot of fiche reading to order parts for my motorcycles but a car fiche is a different animal. This gave me some experience looking up and finding parts I need. I found the part number, checked ebay and found I could get a used one for $17 or I could order a new one for $20. Franklin Toyota had the best price to my door so they got the order.

That's it for today, I've been making a list of tiny things that need doing. It's going to be a fun truck.