JHickey's Build Thread

Hey guys, here's my truck! This is what it looks like now:








Mods

Suspension
Rough Country 3" Suspension Lift - strut extensions, rear 2" blocks, N2.0 shocks found here

Tires
Previous: Falken High Country A/T - 265/75R16 - Terrible
Now: Mastercraft Courser HSX - 265/75R16 - So far, so good

Wheels
Raceline Raptors - 16", 4.5" backspaced, bought at Summit Racing

Exterior
Rhino Lining applied to rocker panels and fender flares. Here's the review
Window visors - came with truck
Nasta step bars - came with truck
AVS taillight covers found here, they look different from the picture on the site.
OEM roof rack
Decals/bumper sticker
Bass Hitch Critter
Avid Offroad light bar
Satoshi Mod -

Universal Aluminum Diamond Mini Mesh Grille Insert 48" x 12" Black (3 Pack)

here's the mesh I used.
Auxiliary reverse lights - $18 at walmart
TOYOTA tailgate decal - James Dean Creations 89-95 Toyota decal

Interior
Browning camo seat covers - front bucket seats
Browning camo floor mats - front & back
Browning steering wheel cover

Lighting
6000K HID low beams
3000K HID fog lights
6000K color led license plate lights - Walmart
6000K color led map and dome lights
Spec-D halo projectors
Anytime fog lights found here
Low-beams with high-beams found here
Raptor styled LED grille lights
DTRL mod found here
Tuff Stuff LED light bar flood/spot combo - pretty bright, but moisture is getting in.

Audio
USA Spec PA15-TOY iPod/Aux input for stock radio - the sound is great

Now for some photos from throughout the years:

First day: August 2011



New decals


AVS covers for the headlights - They didn't stick too well.


AVS covers for the taillights- They actually have stayed on well, still have them on


Rhino Lining - December 2, 2011


Rough Country lift - February 2012


New tires: Falken - March 2012


OEM roof rack - August 2012


New rims: Raceline Raptors - December 2012



Spec-D Halo Projectors - February 2013


HIDs - February 2013



Bumper Sticker


1st hitch critter, birthday gift but didn't work out of the box. A few months later a kid at my school rear ended me and broke it as shown here. No damage other than that, but my hitch put a hole in his bumper


New hitch critter I picked up at Cracker Barrel. Everyone gets a kick out of it


Led interior lighting


Center bumper paint - March 2014



Avid Offroad light bar - April 2014


Fog light anytime mod - June 2014


Low beams with high beams mod - June 2014


30" LED light bar spot/flood pattern from Tuff Stuff and OTRATTW switch - June 2014



Tacomabeast decals from tacomabeast.com - August 2014



Satoshi grille mod with raptor styled LED mod - September 2014



DTRL turn signal mod - October 28, 2014


Sharpie on the 3rd brake light lens. It actually came out pretty good. - November 2014



New set of shoes, Mastercraft Courser HSX 265/75s - November 14, 2014


Auxiliary reverse lights mounted on bumper - November 24, 2014



TOYOTA tailgate decal - January 4, 2015


That's all for now.

Offroading
One day when I can afford it and have another reliable daily driver. I'll upgrade to maybe some Bilsteins later on.

This is from the geocaching.



Future Projects
Flowmaster 50 series muffler?
LED headlights/foglights
Dash cam wired to the fuse panel
Plasti-dipped emblems
285s or 255s
Air intake?
Paint rear bumper
OME 3" Lift
Relocate 7-pin connector
Heated nerf bar mod?
Led switchbacks?
Front hitch receiver w/ winch?
Tool box?
Black Tail Light Mod?
Viper remote start
Hyperion Eos light bar?
Bed bar
A lot more stuff

Thanks for reading!

 

LED light bar and switch has been added

 

Just added:
Tacomabeast decals from tacomabeast.com - August 2014

 

Satoshi mod with raptor style LEDs. It took me about two months to finish. It's definitely not perfect, and I ran into some trouble with it a few times. The color matched paint does not shine like the rest of the truck, but it's very close, just about unnoticeable. From cutting out the center part, the bottom of the grill is less sturdy which made one side bend up a little when putting on the mesh. Got the FJ emblem off ebay for 35 bucks. I painted it to look like some of the other symbols with off-white paint. It was a great learning experience, but took a lot of work. Just glad I didn't ruin it.

 

Just did the DTRL mod - #6 on the cheap/free mods list. I am thinking about replacing the turn signal lights with some white/amber LED switchbacks, to have brighter running lights while retaining the amber blinker.

 

Stupid, but it worked. I took the 3rd brake light lens off and colored some of the chrome housing with black sharpie marker. Wasn't dark enough for me, so I scribbled on the back side of the lens. Good enough for me.

 

Just mounted some new tires from Summit Racing. Replaced my Falken A/Ts with Mastercraft Courser HSX tires. Those Falkens did not last as long as I thought they would have. So far, I'm happy with these tires. They're much quieter and smoother. Hopefully they won't wear as much, since they are more of a road tire. They've been doing great in the little snow we had today. I have noticed that they rub a lot more on the wheel wells than the Falkens, which I thought was odd, since they're the same size. Looks like I'll have to do more trimming.

 

Sweet truck dude! I like the light bar up front. Just recently added one to my bumper to compliment my roof light bar.

 

Thanks! Nice build you have BTW. Very impressive! I'd like to build mine up as an expedition truck one day, but that'll have to wait for now. Glad I put that light bar on. Well worth the money. It makes the low-beams look so dim lol! I'd like to get one for the roof sometime. I think it might shine further down the road having it mounted so high.

 

Haha thanks man. You'll get there, it's a slow process unless you're made of money which most of us are not. Yeah dude the light bars help a lot. Check out Hyperion Eos light bar on Amazon. That's where I got my rooftop bar. I recently did the Mojave trail here in Southern Ca and the first night we were kinda lost finding a spot to camp and those light bars came in handy big time!!! I agree well worth the money.

 

It definitely is a slow process when you're broke haha. Money will be pretty tight for a while it seems! I'll keep that brand in mind for later; I'll make a note of it up above. I like mine and all, but it has been getting moisture in it lately when it rains. Yea I bet that thing helped out big time. They cover a good amount of area. I know it has saved me from hitting some deer that were waiting to run in front of me late at night lol!

 

Haha I hear ya. Definitely when youre ready check it out. Havent had any moisture issues. Dang thank goodness. I always see and hear things about people hitting deer and see pics of how effed up peoples trucks get from the impact. Living here in socal all I really ever come across are stray cats and skunks haha.

 

Already sounds like a good brand if it doesn't leak. It's even at a better price than the one I bought. Yea those deer can break more than you'd think. You always gotta drive with caution where I live. They're active around hunting season. Haha sounds like you don't have anything to worry about hitting over there! They're just a thud under the tire!

 

Yeah man been super happy with this brand so far. And yeah man I've seen people's trucks look like they got into an accident with another car only to find out it was a damn deer that they hit. Yeah not much to worry about over here haha. I hit a cat once and it rolled under my truck and bounced up and ran away haha. Tough little cat.

 

That's good to hear. That'll definitely be my next go-to brand. Yea those deer can easily total a car. It sucks because they are just about everywhere. I know so many people that have hit one. Costs them about 6K to fix haha. Dang tough cat indeed. Never heard of an animal escaping such a blow haha.

 

Damn that's a ton of money! Definitley don't wanna hit a deer!!! Yeah it was crazy dude I can't believe the cat sprung back up and kept running!

 

Added some new stuff. Added some cheap auxiliary driving lights from Walmart for $18. I tapped into the wires on the hitch adapter. The light output is so much better than what they were before. They have really helped me out during the nights.




Next thing I did was get the tailgate decal. I took the plastic chrome "Toyota" badge off of the tailgate so it doesn't look redundant. I heated up the badge with a blow dryer to loosen up the glue holding it on and then used fishing line to cut through the glue underneath.




Also, I removed the bed cover. It's becoming more of a pain when I need the bed to load up larger things...and the locks freeze in the winter, so the only way to break it open is with a blow dryer and some channellocks.