Beaverton area help/advice

By help I mean possible pictures, meet/greet or whatever.
I have to type this fast as I am at work, sorry if its long and doesn't flow well.

Basically I would like to widen the stance of my 2009 Tacoma.
I've been steered 50 different ways from LT kits to Bare bones lifts/spacers and everything in between.

I would like to go with a Glassworks fender with a 3" lift and run 33's or maybe 35's.

However the farther I dig into the idea the more issues I seem to uncover.

I am mechanically inclined, I lifted my '85 toyota myself (been a while), build cars etc...

Maybe I am over stressing everything, but I am just now starting to get out of being ripped off on a $15,000 build (different car) that I was pretty much 100% screwed over on so I am probably over-thinking it all.

Most recently I have been told that painting just the fenders will not result in the truck being all the same color. I have the black metallic paint and my friend, which paints some pretty nice hot rods, said that the way the paint is applied at the factory and the way it will be applied in the shop is different even if the paint code is 100% the same. Mainly due to the way the metallic will 'lay' in the paint. It will take a lot of blending, and since doing all 4 fenders pretty much means blending the entire truck.

So does anyone near Beaverton have a metallic, preferably black, truck that's had aftermarket fenders installed and painted the factory color?

Truck is 100% stock right now except for TRD supercharger.
Doesn't see off-road much at all, might change after a lift but unlikely, it has to remain my reliable daily driver.

Thanks.

 

Your auto body buddy is right. Metallic paint is a bitch to blend, better to repaint the whole truck. There are other options, like vinyl wrap or just do what I did and squirt the whole thing in bedliner and then a few coats of flat black industrial paint. If you need help with the suspension I have lots of experience, I've ran several different types on my truck over the years before going LT.

 

Yeah I don't doubt him, it was just another blow to doing something other that the normal lift/tires. Obvious why 99% of the people just go that way.

I don't think installing anything will be an issue for me, it's just selecting the right things. Like I said I been steered 50 different ways and the options are vastly different than my '85 .

 

Well what do you want to do? Go fast, rock crawl, go on expeditions, or just have the "look"? Once you answer that figure out your budget. Long travel gets expensive when you do it right. Even my hillbilly built truck has an easy $15K in it, and I did all of the work myself and bought used parts where I could. http://www.polyperformance.com/shop...06-4Runner-2WD-Long-Travel-System-p-2195.html

edit: upon further investigation I'm into the build almost $20K (forgot about wheels, tires, and gears). And I'm not done yet. Still need to do the interior, get a better rear axle, put bumps up front, get a winch, a bunch of other little stuff and maintenance! This truck eats parts...I'm not trying to deter you, just wrap your mind around it before you start your build. It would be considerably cheaper to buy one already built- http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/trucks-buggies/153412.htm

 

Well,
Like I said this is my daily driver.
I don't go off-roading except for the camping trips. Would that change if my truck was no longer stock? Maybe, but again as the vehicle that gets me to and from work and I can't risk that.

I want to make the truck look different than every other lifted truck out there so that is why I was considering fenders with a lift, but as mentioned that also seems to be turning into a can of worms.

Yes LT, although cool, I think is far too expensive and the wrong solution for what I want.

I was considering a 3" lift w/glassworks front/rear. This would let me run 33's pretty easily I think, even maybe 35's without going real tall (6 inch lift).

As mentioned it seems that even swapping out the fenders will end up a pita because of the metallic paint.

I have a reasonable budget, and I don't mind spending on quality parts.

 

I used to rock 33's with almost no lift. Just Icon coilovers and rear resi's and it did well. Another issues with glass and no LT is that the fenders flare and if you don't have that extra width it looks kinda silly. You can throw a lot of abuse at Icon's setup with TC arms, and if you trim right there is no rubbing with 33's.

 

Nope, that's my beater before I went LT.

 

Yes. It was also in a Toyota commercial. (26 seconds in) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS0JkKa3FdU&list=FL2StmywuCt-xTUCVQ0N1GRA&index=2&feature=plpp_video

 

Nice to see your truck in a commercial.

Yeah I wanted to go a little wider with the glassworks fenders to fill up the gaps, but as I said it seems going any other way that the regular 3" lift and call it a day is turning into a pita.

I felt that with the glassworks and 3" lift that 33's would be no problem and even 35's would fit.

Another reason is that if you go more than a 3" lift toyota will no longer stand behind the power train warranty.

I was looking at some lifts and some say they are +2, in addition to the lift height, or something like that. Is that 2" wider each side? It's not a longer travel right?

 

Are you talking about the All-Pro set up? If so, yes it is 2" wider per side, longer travel, and works great with 33's although lots of guys are running 35's. They also sell glass fenders that don't have such a large bulge as the glassworks. It would be a better solution for what you are looking for and a lot more affordable.

 

Yeah I think that is about the same as what I was shown.

The picture of these fenders don't seem to large of a bulge, pictures can be misleading I guess?
http://www.glassworksunlimited.com/20to20totafr.html

Here is the kit I was shown:
http://www.chaosfab.com/86002.php

Says it won't work with TRD rotors, I have a TRD sport so I guess my rotors wont work?

The +2 kits still handle well on the street and retains the sway/anti-roll bars correct?

 

The glassworks flares are 4" wider per side. It would look goofy with stock arms, and ok with the 2" wider kits from chaos or allpro. Either kit is good, but the chaos is designed a lot stronger. The TRD rotors they are talking about are the performance big brake kits available as an aftermarket part, they don't come from the factory with them so it will fit your truck fine.

 

This is my opinion until you fill the gap or necessitate the larger sides.

The reason we all start looking more or less the same is because there's a general formula to all this, and you have to be ALL in to be unique. Be ready to do body work.

About the only unique 2nd gen builds in the northwest I can think of is username, who more or less rebuilt the entire truck frame, and all.on.black, who is picking up parts in Greenland.

Daily driver and unique are rarely in the same sentence.

 

Well I want to do everything at basically the same time or as close to it as possible.

I have an MR2 project I need to finish before I can move forward on this in seriousness, I was hoping someone local had already had bedsides so I could see how well the paint was matched and get a good look at it.

I imagine later this spring there will be some Tacoma meets? That would be the time frame I would realistically be looking at doing this.

Hopefully anything like that will be posted here so I can go check it out.

Meanwhile if anyone with fenders and a lift sees this I sure would appreciate letting me take a look at your truck.

Thanks!