R09sters Kinda Overland/First Taco (learning lots of stuff) Build

So here's my build thread. I'm hoping it gets more interesting as i move on to bigger and better improvements.

The obligatory "How she sits today" pic,
Current as of 30 July, 2018 (OME Dakar EL095R with Fox 2.0 resi)



Current as of 7 March, 2017 (added Method NV rims 17x8.5 0 offset with Falken Wildpeak AT3W 285/70/17)


16 June, 2016(added US Offroad bumper, some Drings, and .75 Bora spacers to the front)
(did a little camping at a Mustang ranch while my wife ran a half marathon)


(with AAL)




As of 5/19/14:


Mods:

Suspension: (Updated Mar 2018)
(front) Bilstein 5100's @0"-OME 885 springs
(rear) Fox 2.0s w/ resi (117) and OME Dakar El095R.
Measrements (from fender to center of hubcap) *Mar 2018
F: 22.6" (20 3/8 stock)
R: 23.5"

Tires: (Updated 7 March, 2017)
285/70/17 Falken Wildpeak AT3W
Method NV 17x8.5 0 offset

265/70/R17 Nitto Terra Grapplers (removed)
on XD Crank 17x9 (removed)

Exterior:
US Offroad winch moun bumper**New Apr 16
CVT Tent!! Sept 14
Bed rack by Anna Sept 14
bedliner'd step bars Oct 14
debaged
grillcraft grill
Syper Auto headlights (LED corner markers, LED DRL--read further on the pain of that)
blackedout LED taillights
K&N drop in filter
bed extender (Bed linered May 16)
Smitty Built tonneau cover (for when I take the RTT off)
Smitty Built trailer hitch shackle
anytime fog light mod
plasti-dipped bumper
Bedliner'd TRD skid plate **Deleted Apr 16
Rugged Ridge floor mats
Diff breather mod
Painted engine cover (Iron Man theme)

Someday:
Brute Force Fab rear plate bumper (someday...)
Aluminum IFS skid
Sliders

My Story
I love cars and working on them. i don't have a picture of my very first truck. it was a 1989 blue SCSB S-10 complete with lots of rust, lol.

then i got this beauty from my grandpa for free. well i don't have the original pictures...but it was UPS brown...yeah, that had to go, and with it began my bug for working on cars. And the first bite was really bad.

Here is my first vehicle I really built with my dad. A 86 S-10. (I know it's not a taco, but it's pretty unique). Just sold her to a guy with the intention of getting a Chevelle or something else to work on. Ended up getting a '66 Skyhawk 172, lol. Probably wouldn't have sold it if I would have known my grandpa was going to pass away two months later, but I'm sure he didn't mind.

Oldest picture i have.

but we couldn't just leave it with a nice paint job, so i did a 2" spindle drop in front and a 3" block in back and got rims and tires a few things.

and then right before i left for college a guy at work said he was selling a V8 he'd had for years, and i had always wanted to put one in an S-10....=D
Yup...Chevy 350 from a camaro =D



then i needed a more practical car for college and got this sporty little thing, a 2004 Mazda3 hb


then some dude didnt' know what a flashing red light at midnight meant and did this to me with his 95 silverado 2500


then i drove th S-10 for a while before i got married and we needed a more fuel efficient option.
(i had a brief love of Mazda 3's...)--2007Mazda 3 hb


but i didn't really have it long enough to do all the things i wanted to it before i got my orders to Alaska and decided i finally NEEDED a real truck.

Ok,sorry for the trip down memory lane, on to why I'm really here: my first real truck, my SSM DCSB TRD sport Tacoma!

I got my orders to Alaska and decided my little 07 Mazda 3 just wouldn't cut it up here. My wife had been wanting a Tacoma for a while, so I checked some out and fell in love with this beauty. Sold on my first drive.

Closest to stock pic I have. (sorry these are all cell phone pics...)
blacked out the yota emblem and ditched some crappy little 4x4 emblems the previous owner put on...they were all painted teal...

So no joke the day after I bought her some jerk in a mustang smashes into my rear diver side rim trying to cut inside of my left turn. Don't have any pics of my damage (it merely scratched the rim and busted the center cap) but he wrecked his bumper, new paint job and headlight.

I needed new tires and wanted new rims anyway, so this is what I got.

Some XD Cranks with Nitto Terra Grapplers

And this is how she sat for quite a while.




First time playing in the mud.


Then the 2,100 mile treck to Bellingham, WA; 3 day ferry ride; and 750 mile drive from Haines to Anchorage. (good way to break in a new truck). Had to get a tonneau to carry my stuff up to AK and keep the weather off of it. (better gas milage too i suppose)


middle of nowhere Idaho or Utah or Colorado somewhere....don't remember.

AK in the summer

Got a house, got the wifey up here and settled in (we had been stationed 4500 miles apart for about a year)

I love my wife of almost 3 years very much, but she drives a 2 door jeep and those things turn around on a dime (really a shortbed taco isnt much, but her whole jeep almost fits between my wheelbase)...well, she was moving my truck one day and didn't see the mailboxes across the street... But God bless her, she felt so bad she said I could get new taillights AND headlights! I had been eyeing these things for a while, and I know many people here have some dislike to them, but I like the look and I think I'll get some brighter lights in there eventually. But, first big self mod.




**UPDATE** All LED =D






Before

After

(didn't quite have them lined up right.) I was really surprised how bright the stock ones were. probably should have left them for practicality, but I like the blacked out look with the LED lines. I also think this picture is a little misleading; I don't think the stock ones were that much brighter

*****UPDATE****
ok...I'm and Iron Man fan...





SNOW SHOES!





I kind of got used to the 265/70's and now that I have my regular tires back on, they look a little puney. The 265/70's look pretty decent, but I'm not sure if I really want to make the jump to 285's.... I love the look of everyone elses, but it is quite the jump in work and drop in MPG...

Except I found a compromise. The Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 285/70/17 only weighs about 50lbs, and the Method NVs weigh 28 lbs (78ish lbs overall). The XD cranks weigh 36lbs, and nitto terra grapplers in 265/70/17 are about 41lbs (77lbs overall). Haven't had time to check mpgs, but hopefully it doesn't make a huge difference.
Here's the before.


And After

 

Thought I would try something different. I've seen tons of people paint their lower valance. It looks nice, but I thought it would be fun to paint the upper portion of the bumper. Just to be different. I've always liked the big Audi grills, or the new Charger SRT8 or Evo X grills where the upper and lower grill are blended into one. let me know what you think of the look. I think i'm going to go back and paint the bottom little lip on the grill surround so it's all black.


First time using Plastidip. Weird stuff, but I like the final. I wanted something not 100% permanent incase I didn't like the look and wanted to return it to stock easily. If this peals off soon I might go back and just paint it.

 

That's a good start man, welcome to tw and ak. I knw how you feel my wife and I were stationed about the same distance apart while we were at our specialty schools on opposite sides of the country. So what's next to the build, and have you checked out the ak bs thread yet?

 

Hmm... Definitely checkin' it out.

 

Next is painting the TRD skidplate, replacing the DTRL and corner markers with LED's, black Grillcraft, and some survival gear. (kinda late for the needing the winter survival gear, but i got some birthday money i wanted to use). I've been debating some 5100's set around .85" or something. just to make it a little higher. I'm not really into huge lifts and I really like how it rides now, but i've seen some really nice looking leveled our tacos so i might fork over some money for them eventually. Maybe Christmas. My wife has a jeep, so if I start getting too crazy with my truck, she's going to want some stuff for hers, lol. (love my wife!)

 

I like this better.


She's all snow covered but hey, it's AK in the spring...Thoughts on the look?

 

cool headlights

 

Painted the skid plate. Got my grill, just need some time to install it.



getting my flasher unit soon, then i'll be able to install my LED DTRL! hoping that will make the LED line around the bottom of my headlights look nice and smooth.

 

Got some stickers! saw this and it made me laugh, so I got one



flexin'


you can see my shackle hitch here too. got it locked in there too so no one gets any funny ideas of walking away with it. I need to get a locking handle for my tailgate too. right now i have my shovel just bungied to the bed extender (should get some nicer brackets for that) but i want to put some more recovery gear back there and at least make it more difficult for someone to take it.

at work



Feeling really slow for not getting my grill in. I was kind of hoping i could install it overtop of my stock grill, but i'm thinking i need to cut out the stock center. grillcraft claims you can do either, but i don't think it's going to sit right over top. (call me a wuss, i have a hard time cutting my truck, lol). I know it would be as simple as a quick trip to the junkyard or ebay to get a new stock grill, but still. more pictures when i get some time and some guts to do some cutting.

Also going to do something with my engine cover (when i have time)

 

lookin good! Just a few comments...

That pic in idaho/utah reminds me a lot of my pics in idaho/utah....

Good choice on the nittos. I have those on mine and like them a lot!

Do the fog light anytime mod as soon as you get a chance. It is a great mod and even for the electronically-challenged takes about 30 minutes. Probably should be a 5-10 min mod if you aren't me and don't make everything take way longer than it should

hope you had as much fun on the Haines/Bellingham ferry ride as I did when I went to the lower 48

I have seen a lot of grills on craigslist lately for $40ish or so... just if you do need another one or having that "insurance" makes you feel better about cutting your truck I did my grill last January and it wasn't so bad

Nice lights!

Lookin good! see ya at some of the meets!

 

so i finally got my F***ing LED's finished. it's a lot more of a pain to do the DRL's as LED's than i thought. but this was the look i was going for,



solid LED line around the bottom of the headlights. Used this awesome thread, http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...placement-stock-drl-flasher-no-resistors.html to get my turn signals to not hyperflash. a bit of work. (that fuse box is a pain to take out, and you have to half take it out to get the flasher out) anyway, about 3 hrs into that thing. was wanting to do the foglights, but that will have to wait for another time. i need to do some reading for my class before i head to bed.

 

this dude, was my issue for like an hour!



couldn't get it off the fuse box. holy cow! had some hang ups. i put them here http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...acement-stock-drl-flasher-no-resistors-6.html

 

Looks good man!

 

pics!





Really happy with the way they turned out. during my driving today i had no issues with hyperflash or anything. (i was slightly worried after running them the first time in my garage about a slight electrical burning smell, but haven't smelled it since.)

Time for some wheeling!

 

First time out wheelin' in the 907!





Here we go, finally a little dirty


so....weekend...?
Projects!



oh man! actually made some cuts!


now, hopefully i get them all done this weekend =\ Got house work to do too!

 

Nice mud.

The satoshis are fun to do... Given you arent rushed to finish!

 

project 1 complete!





project 2 may take a little longer...haven't decided how complex i'm going to get with it.

 

any thoughts on how to mount my toyota emblem (besides gluing in on or something)?

 

You going to do the all black front valence mod? I too love the Audi look, I'd be curious to see how that would look on the Taco!

 

Check out Brenden's page (below). he did it a few days after i did this.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-builds/269748-brendo-ballz808-taco-project.html