tchuck's 04 FX35

tchuck

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Location
Portland, OR
Yo dudes,
I just got home today from a 900mi+ road trip with my wife and our 3 dogs during which we took a bunch of FX pics. Hence I thought it a good time to start a picture thread for my FX. We drove the entire length of hwy 101 along the Oregon coast, from the Washington border to sunny California over the course of 3.5 days, stopping along the way for random viewpoints, tourist attractions, and camping (we slept in the back of the FX one night.) Anyway, I'll start the thread with the pretty vacation pics then continue with mods, customizations, etc as they occur.
Enjoy.

This was our first pit stop, just as we entered Washington, to let the dogs out. Luckily we weren't driving a truck otherwise parking may have been an issue: :tongue (2):
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Viewpoint crossing back into Oregon on our way to Astoria (northernmost city in Oregon):
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Bridge from Astoria, OR to Washington:
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Cool old church on the southern WA border:
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Random viewpoints along hwy 101:
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The next few are from a viewpoint just north of Humbug State park, where we camped at the end of day two. We had to hang out here for a while so my wife could close a real estate deal before we headed out of cell phone reception land and to our camping spot so I had time to take some nice sunset shots:
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The next morning... The FX was surprisingly comfortable for the two of us and our 3 (small) dogs. We had the rear seats folded forward and the front seats leaned back with all the headrests removed and a bunch of blankets under our sleeping bags for padding. I've definitely slept much worse while camping, that's for sure. One huge bonus was not waking up in a superheated tent from the morning sun. The FX roof is very adequately insulated in that respect.
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The Prehistoric Museum in southern Oregon:
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Cape Blanco, the western-most point in the contiguous United States. The pics really don't do this one justice at all. It is an amazing location. (The FX didn't move for these next three pics. Note the coastline...)
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Lovely California, at last.
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Haha no truck parking. I can see some guy coming up and being like, excuse me sir but no truck parking.

It's NOT a truck!
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Looks like it was a great trip! I did that drive in a rented FX and agree that it suited it perfectly! Did you stop to see the Redwoods too?

I hope to do that drive in my own FX someday.
 
Thanks guys! It was awesome. I'm a huge fan of road trips without time constraints and this one was of of my favorites for sure. The FX performed flawlessly and even managed to average 19.8mpg for the entire trip! This I think was mostly due to the fact that I couldn't really push it at all for fear of tossing our dogs around in the back. :laugh:
We didn't get far enough to see the Redwoods, but both my wife and I have seen them before. Our goal for this trip was to drive Hwy 101 along the entire Oregon coastline, so we went from about a mile into WA down to about 1/2mi into CA.

Also, I forgot to add this one. It was my FX's "hill climb" debut! It handled that rock pile like a champ. You can see the pride on my wife's face... :tonguey:
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any future plans? as far as rims body work or anything....I like it its simple and clean :)
 
you're right about trips without a time limit. then you can enjoy any moment of your trip as long as you want. i see you're trying to do too much off roading in that last pic.
 
Very cool pics and nice trip. I've been wanting to take a road trip up the coast. Think I might do it now that I seen your pics. Long trip and your FX still managed to stay clean. It does not look that dirty.
 
Very cool pics and nice trip. I've been wanting to take a road trip up the coast. Think I might do it now that I seen your pics. Long trip and your FX still managed to stay clean. It does not look that dirty.

We drove it through an auto wash (:zip:) just after reaching the southern border. It's the lighting that makes it look so clean in the early pics.

Outstanding pics bro!!

Thanks!

Great road trip. Never thought about camping in the fx. Though I do know they sell a trunk tent for the fx. Its $300.

We brought and had planned on using a normal ($150) tent but were late getting into the camp site. Gathering wood, building a fire, unloading the car, and making dinner in the dark after a long day were enough to decide against setting up the tent. It really wasn't bad though, we slept well. That said, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone over six feet tall.
 
My wife and I have done that trip twice now (before our daughter of 2yrs old) - it was a blast. We departed through Astoria down 101 - all the way to the Redwoods. Camped along the way a few nights - and stayed in randoms hotels the other nights (6/7 nights total). The other we went all the way to SanFran...
We had a Tacoma 4x4 with a canopy - and a Chocolate lab - it was loaded. I can't imagine how you did it in a FX! LOL....
It looks like you got some good pics - and had some decent weather given how it has been around here lately.
I'd do that as many times as possible before/if you have children - it gets MUCH harder with a little one. lol....
Trevor
 
My wife and I have done that trip twice now (before our daughter of 2yrs old) - it was a blast. We departed through Astoria down 101 - all the way to the Redwoods. Camped along the way a few nights - and stayed in randoms hotels the other nights (6/7 nights total). The other we went all the way to SanFran...
We had a Tacoma 4x4 with a canopy - and a Chocolate lab - it was loaded. I can't imagine how you did it in a FX! LOL....
It looks like you got some good pics - and had some decent weather given how it has been around here lately.
I'd do that as many times as possible before/if you have children - it gets MUCH harder with a little one. lol....
Trevor

Our three dogs are under 30lbs combined and we only packed for 3 days. The dogs were behind the rear seat and all the supplies fit in the rear seats, no problem. When we went to sleep, we just transferred the stuff that was in the rear seats to the front seats. It was actually pretty comfortable. :smile (2):

The weather was beautiful the whole time we could see the ocean, we were pretty lucky.

Astoria to San Fran huh? Now THAT is a road trip!
 
Our three dogs are under 30lbs combined and we only packed for 3 days. The dogs were behind the rear seat and all the supplies fit in the rear seats, no problem. When we went to sleep, we just transferred the stuff that was in the rear seats to the front seats. It was actually pretty comfortable. :smile (2):

The weather was beautiful the whole time we could see the ocean, we were pretty lucky.

Astoria to San Fran huh? Now THAT is a road trip!

I guess your arrangement makes more sense now...lol...yes, you got very lucky on the weather - especially coastal weather.
The SanFran trip wasn't as much fun as we were on a time limit (we were in a civic that trip - 7th gen civic meet - back in 2002) - I had to convince my wife (back then girlfriend) that this was "our vacation" and not just a car-meet. LOL. The downside was supplies - no cooler, tent, bbq, ect. (no 90 lb lab, so that helped to stay in whatever hotel we stopped at) - we couldn't do as we pleased though because of the schedule. MUCH better with no schedule and an open mind.
 
I posted this on another thread but figured I would add it here in the interest of having all my mods in one place...
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As with most of you, I have noticed the underwhelming performance of the stock Bose subwoofer unit. I cracked it open the other day and found three things.
First, the amp inside the sub box is pathetically small, and rated at 100watts (probably peak wattage). I could go into more detail but suffice it to say, that amp is the product of space constraints and is insufficient for it's intended use. The end.
Second, the two 6" speakers are of a much higher quality than I expected. They aren't meant for ear splitting volume levels, but that considered they could be a lot worse.
Third, the box itself is very well designed. It's a ported enclosure utilizing a relatively simplified version of the proprietary Bose "waveguide" design, has almost no internal right angles, is surprisingly rigid, and very light. Plus it fits into the spare tire, which is a huge bonus IMO.
Anyway, just as I was thinking about replacing the pitiful sub amp, I happened upon a 200watt monoblock JL Audio amp on craigslist for $35. Giddy-up. I picked up a PAC adapter for $25 to avoid running wires from the back of the head unit, an 8AWG Phoenix Gold amp install kit from a local stereo store, and began modeling the removable tray on which I was going to mount all this stuff. The reason for mounting everything to the tray is so it can all be removed quickly and easily if I want to throw the spare tire back in to go somewhere outside cell phone range. I finished up the modeling last night and woke up early this morning eager to get started. All in all, it took about 4 hours and just under $100 for the whole thing. I don't know how to show you the results beyond the following pics, but trust me when I say the difference is night and day. I adjusted the input levels on the amp according to the manufacturers instructions, then dialed it back a bit so it runs with the "bass" adjustment at -0-. The sound quality is drastically improved, the volume only slightly. I also timed a full removal, which included pulling the fuse @ the battery and unplugging everything from the tray, at a little under 4min.

Here are the pics:

Solidworks model of amp tray with amp and adapter - top view:
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Solidworks model of amp tray with amp and adapter - iso view: (The three "O" shaped spacers atop the tray enable the oem sub mounting bolt/plastic washer system to hold the tray in place as well via compression without having to actually mount the tray to the car. The reason there are three thin spacers instead of one thick spacer is that they are made from the same 3/4" plywood as the tray. The little "tail" on the tray interlocks with the plastic trunk liner to keep the tray from rotating.)
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Pic of the whole thing installed: (I'm going to hide all the wires tomorrow) EDIT: I still haven't properly hidden the wires but I did replace the 20' RCA cable with a more suitable 18" version and cleaned up the wiring a bit since this pic. I honestly haven't even looked at it in a couple months now.
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Also, this DIY help tremendously: https://www.infinitiscene.com/search/1/?q=s...ead.php?t=2811
 
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