What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Nope, that's the stuff right there. Just has to be some type of high temp paint, to hold up, because of the radiator.

Can't remember what I used when I did mine, but it was something I picked up at autozone.

 

Exactly what I did. I just blasted out the radiator with a hose/pressure washer, let it dry, and sprayed it with some bbq paint. Didn't even bother taping off anything

 

BBQ paint and a disposable trim pad work great. Spray the pad and then use it like a giant magic marker. Saves time masking the truck.

 

OK so thought I'd share my saga with you all.
My 4WD quit.
Read every post on here about it. (5X)
Soldered front actuator.
fucked up the rear one. Pulled the pinion gear out and after about a thousand attempts got it in place so it will drive in 2hi.
Shop(s) tested the 4wd. The actuator tests "bad" "$1300 dollar part , $1200 labor" says the various shops and transition guy. . Apparently the actuator is 2 parts, the motor and the parts that are inside the T-Case, so the T-case has to come apart.
"Bull-Shit!" says I
So I have been playing with the pinion gear and find that if I crank it by hand I can activate the front driveline. So I tried hot-wiring it to run by switch but the motor won't work when it is installed. It will when it is off the transfer case, but...whatever.
So I set the actuator on the T-case to 4Hi, unplugged it. Then hotwired the front actuator to engage the front differential and left it unplugged.
BAM! 4WD!
It's full time but at least I can get up my driveway in the snow. and it is really just one wheel front and back the differentials are not locked.
I think I will just leave the rear actuator engaged and maybe ill put a switch on the front so I can use it when I want.
For now, as it is snowing I am driving limited miles anyway, its staying 4wd for a few days. when I want it back to 2wd I will just plug in the front actuator and it will disengage.
Eventually I will have to buck up and get it done right but for now I'm pretty pleased with myself.
Does anybody have any concerns that I may not be aware of? Things like: bad idea to... IDK, leave the T-case active like that?

 

Turned 40k

 

Read page 42 on this Thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...12-dcsb-borderline-clusterfuck.455075/page-42

 

Well, I pulled my stereo head unit out last night because my driver's side speaker was cutting in and out. I figured it was because I used butt fit crimp connectors to attach the wires from the h/u to the harness adapter and something jiggled loose from wheeling...

Oh my GOD what a clusterfuck. Not only had the left front speaker wire come almost all the way out, but several others. I guess using pliers instead of a proper crimp tool wasn't the best idea?

Well, I "liberated" an old crappy soldering iron from one of the tech benches at work and set out to do everything correctly, with solder flux and heat shrink and everything.

I suck at soldering. The smaller wires (20ga?) were simple enough but when I got the the 12V and ground wires which were bigger (18-16ga) it was a BEEOOTCH to get them the way I wanted without shit cold solder joints and of course I only had one size heat shrink which wouldn't fit over my terrible solder joints.

11 o'clock last night and I was done, put everything back in the truck and turned on the stereo...
REAR left speaker doesn't work! Guess who thought "oh, those rear speaker wires are probably fine, no need to solder them..."?



Guess I'll pull everything apart again and finish the job like I should have last night.
(Tempted to get some tools and just fucking do it at work here today at lunch on one of the extra soldering stations back in the tech EE lab)

 

That looks like insulation and not sound proofing?

 

Roof rack over the weekend!!!

 

It's basically an insulation. I bought it because the other stuff (peel and seal) wasn't available at the time. But there's no way I'm paying $150 for 20 ft of dynamat....

 

Technically it's vibration dampening. For sound proofing you also need to add high density foam which will absorb the sound waves from the outside.

I'm going to do the full PeelNSeal treatment too when I don't have 10 other things going on and am going to add some stuff for the sound proofing as well. It's definitely more work but I guess there's a significant difference in sound quality?

Chasing rattles in a vehicle to make it quieter sucks. Even if I get the entire cab dead silent there's the bed which rattles like a mofo including my tonneau cover... Meh.

 

I've definitely noticed a difference in the back with that stuff. I'm excited to do the peel and seal and right there with you on the 10 other things to do in my time haha

 

Yeah, butt connectors are hit & miss. I learned car audio installation from a guy who loved those old crimp connectors. He only used one side of the connector since he would twist the wires together then jam both into one side of the connector. That way he was sure the wires were connected and properly mashed together by the connector. It also gave him a way to add a third cable or reuse the other side of the connector. It works, but I hate seeing all those connectors hanging off a harness. I prefer to solder using the hook and twist method and heatshrink. I use an old solder gun which produces a ton of quick heat. Never had a failure.

 

There are cheaper alternatives and comparable to dynamat. 18sqft of Noico is only $35.

 

Nice almost bought those!

 

What did you end up going with?

 

Found a good deal on some 2.5 fox's extended length with remote resis. So I went with those. The reason I was thinking icon is because later down the road I want to get the icon bolt on hydro bumps.

 

Peel and Seal is 17 bucks for 6" wide by 25 feet... I'm a cheap bastard so I couldn't pass that up.
If @trdsport6 did what I did, he researched the crap out of the material before buying any. There's a brazillion threads all over the internet about the stuff...

 

Not really but I had seen a couple of guys with them off and asked why and they said better ride on and off road makes it a true ifs lol but the ride is better more front body roll but I like it lol

 

Peal and Seal will work but it's asphalt based vs butyl based.