LOTSOFTOYS PANDA BUILD

So I was told a long time ago to make a build thread. Her name is Panda, she's black and white, fat and slow

'98 extended cab TRD 5 speed












Engine Performance/Drivetrain:

• safari snorkel (air box is air tight)
• Magnaflow exhaust (dumped)
• P/S cooler mounted in front of condenser
• LC Engineering 15lbs heavier flywheel
• LC Engineering dual compound clutch
• rear driveshaft was lengthened 1.5" by Rocky MTN Driveline
• Marlin Crawler stainless clutch line

Suspension:

• King coilovers with 650# eibach springs
• Whiteline lca polyurethane bushings
• All pro expo springs
• Camburg upper control arms
• Total Chaos spindle gussets
• Diff drop
• sway bar delete
• All Pro 6 in greaseable shackles
• custom shackle spacers
• 5125 billies in rear
• allpro ubolt flip kit
• Marlin axle relocation plates- 3/4" rearward
• Poly Performance bump stops front and rear
• Bamf bpv bracket

Armor:

• Trail Gear low profile front bumper
• Trail Gear light tabs welded on bumper
• All Pro sliders
• Trail Gear rear bumper (drilled and tapped for license plate)
• Trail Gear rear diff armor
• Trail Gear rear frame supports
• Inchworm locker guard (painted white)
• Budbuilt skids
• Trail Gear Tube Doors with custom arm rests

Recovery:

• Warn 8500 winch
• Warn 100ft synthetic line
• Trail gear winch puck
• Poly Performance fairlead

Electronics:

• Uniden CB mounted on center console
• p/a speaker mounted under the hood
• external cb speaker mounted on center console
• 3 ft antenna mounted on front bumper
• cheaper 20" light bar with amber covers
• Ebay blacked out headlight housings
• Morimoto 55w 5000k hi/lo hid kit
• DDM Tuning FX Series reverse lights
• Garmin Etrex 20 GPS w/ RAM windshield mount
• Kenwood deck
• Infiniti speakers

Wheels and Tires and Brakes:

• 3/4" wheel spacers by Bora
• TRD TX PRO wheels
• 285/75 R16 Cooper ST Maxx
• Slee off Road extended kevlar brakelines

Misc mods:

• Trail Gear tube doors with custom arm rests and custom wrapped in canvas
• Low Range Offroad shift knobs
• 01-04 tail lights
• shorty antenna mod
• gray wire mod
• diff breather mod
• blinkers in corner lights (fog light mod kinda)
• debadged
• rhino lined bed
• weather tech floormats
• subaru forester xt heated seats
• Weather proof GT seat covers
• Custom bedrack with swing out
• Tepui autana sky
• Rotopax

I think thats it hard to remember everything!

My build is not the same as most others. I searched for 6 months for the perfect Tacoma. Being a tech im very picky. Finally found this one and it was perfect because the other guy had already started doin what i was planning.
it started with wheels, snorkel, OME and sliders....

the beginning:




Present:

 

I started off by immediately bringin it down to Farmington NM. I was going to school down there for Toyota.... so naturallly on my down time i was tinkerin and wheelin

I started with a bunch of maintenance.... im very picky being a tech, so this thing is prestine, doesnt leak a drop. It needed alot of tlc when i got it, im a firm believer in the saying: "take care of it and it'll take care of you".

I then began the mods. started right off the bat with the gray wire mod. What a great mod, 2wd locked in the sand is fun as hell. I wheeled alot down there and began to get the feel for the truck

 

Wheelin down in New Mexico was a blast, definetly plan on going back soon.... once i Graduated, i came back home to Denver and worked full time. this thing was in the shop ALOT.....

I found a puddle up in Arvada and decided to test out my snorkel for the first time:




I went through that puddle long ways (opposite of video) and found a large hole left by a bgger vehicle... the headlights dipped down and i had water up on my windsheild.... holy crap it was awesome! BUT.... got back to the shop with my truck sounding like it was super charged. diagnosed a bad a/c tensioner pulley bearing. Due to the water washing it out.... so need less to say, may not go through that deep of water much ha .


My first Moab trip. Man do i love that place!




I wheeled:
Hells Revenge
Green Day
Area BFE playground
Poison spider
sand dunes

So much fun it couldm't have been my last time.....

 

After wheeling more and more and pretty much destroying my oem rear bumper, i ponyed up and bought the Trail Gear rear and Trail Gear rear frame supports. I knew i was gonna be pulling or being pulled hard so i wanted the frame to be strong.





Then the bumper... bolted and tacked.

 

I then finally saved up for the front Trail Gear bumper. I was tired of pushing my stock up and over my obstacles I also ordered the Trail Gear light tabs. After mocking up and welding the light tabs on, bumper got a bunch of primer, flat black paint and flat clear...... I then mounted the IPF lights and wired them in. Also installed the optional 100 W bulbs in them. I love these lights because the have a dual reflector inside gthat focuses the light in the center to extend far lengths and another reflector for wide angles.

Edit: Like the zip ties? haha ran out of time before the shop closed to drill and tap....

 

Next came the winch, i got it used but in great shape. Warn 8500. The bumper was not meant to accept a full size winch, only low profile ones. I ended up trimming my grill to fit the winch, but totally worth it to fit this beast.

 

PAUSE FOR ICE CREAM LOL

 

Like

 

Looks so much better as she sits now...like night and day

 

GIVE US MOAR!

OR

GIVE US ICE CREAM

 

I wheeled alot with this setup. did great even with my worn out Cooper's. Had alot of fun though.








ok maybe not great..... ha

 

nice

 

Eventually i decided my furture plans of the shackles, and i relaized how tight my rear rear brake line was at full droop... SCARY! i couldve played a note on it! So... My dealership works alot of SLEE offroad, so i got their Extended brakeline kit. they are essentially your standard stainless steel brake lines, but have a kevlar coding around it that seems really durable. (they even make a 2nd gen kit, check out NYCO's build)

rear:


front:

 

Around this time was when i went to MOab the second time. This time with TW! lots of fun, met alot of new people and saw some sick trucks.

FINS AND THINGS
AREA BFE PLAYGROUND
SAND DUNES
kANES CREEK

 

Like i said before, i wanted to do shackles.... i was thinking about johny joints but decided against them , because this is still my dd. BUt i ordered up a set of TG 6 inch greaseable shackles and bushings. During installation i realized i needed to make some spacers. the width of the top mount and the width of the spring mount is alot different. i Took 3/4 inch aluminum round spacers and measured half an inch. Cut, shaped and rounded the spacers and they worked perfectly! I slid the bolts throught. tightened the nuts a little tighter than hand and tacked the bolts to the nuts, so they wont ever loosen.

HOLY DROOP BATMAN!!




I quickly realized to gain full effect of my new rear suspension i had to change shocks. the ome would work for daily driving for now, but not flexing. disconnected ome's and to measure for billies....

 

So i got my new measurements-compressed and fullly extended. Ordered up my new bilstien 5125's!

 

These billies were a little bit of a bit** to mount! im sure everyone else has gone through the same thing, the eyelets of the billies are a good .200" smaller than the mounts on our tacos.... after a few different methods, i found a carbide bit on my air grinder worked great. i ground out the wholes a little at a time til they measured correctly. slid them on the truck and torqued them down... holy crap are they nice! even rides better than my ome i think! I love my new rear suspension. rides nice, looks great with about an inch of rake and does AWESOME off road. first day out flexing:


Im finding, my rear tires are staying on the ground alot longer when doin obstacles, which means they are continuing to push the truck

 

When i replaced the rear shocks i also had to modify the rear brake load proportioning valve. with the rear axle being further down from the frame. the proportioning valve was allowing less brake pressure to the rear. so i had to fix that. this is my only picture i have of it, but you can see it in the top right. Its a bout a 5 inch bracket i made out of 1/8 in steel thats only an inch wide. i drilled some holes and mounted the bottom arm of the proportioning valve arm on top of it. Making it think its back to stock level- giving me more braking power

 

Obviously in the picture, i have my diff armor on as well. i had just painted it and draining and filling the diff. TG rear diff armor, it can take a hit trust me! This video shows how the rear looks now


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-o68AEPjyc&feature=player_embedded

 

That brings us about up to speed. about 5 days ago i FINALLY got my DURATRACS! 265/75 R16 10 ply. they are the shit! and they tuck quite nicely

My truck is almost right where i want it to be. For now its gotta stay semi mild because its still my dd. once that aspect goes away im thinkin a sas??????? very good possibility....

but for now all i want really is skid plates all the way back... with that ill be able to go anywhere i want and probly places i shouldnt be ha so Thanx for reading! and ill def. keey it up to date with photos and mod updates! OH! and if your ever in CO hit me up and we'll go run over some rocky mtns!!!!!!!!!! cheers