Lux's '01 Build

Hey I like the gunmetal paint on the grille. I just got a all black truck and I want some contrast. I might do my center grille with it. What sheen is that?

 

Id say its like a semi-gloss, Im not a fan of the black on black on black thing that everyone and their brother tends to do with black trucks, planning on doing dark matte bronze wheels sooner or later

 

Yeah same here. I might do something with the grille but my UCAs, coilovers, and wheels are gunmetal. And I think I’ll either leave the stock nerf bars chrome or blast and paint them gunmetal as well.

 

Couple updates, Ive been waiting to get the sliders on so I could have some real progress to show but oh well, thats taking longer than I anticipated.
Washed and borrowed @04yota 's buffer to get some of the deeper scratches out, worked great. Also Painted the rear diff and axle tubes with a coat of primer and a couple coats satin black. Also touched up parts of the frame that were peeling a bit.





Painted the sliders with a couple coats primer, I put some adhesive grip strips on after the primer under the top coats so it'd blend in better but they've been sitting in my house and are peeling up already so I may have to look for different strips. These are not yet installed... Trying to avoid a shop but I might just price it out at this point.


Picked up an ARE Mpulse bed cap for $200




Had to move the cb antenna so I made a new bracket. If I was to do this again Id probably use thinner steel because I had to shave a lot down to get the thing to close without hitting it. This was with 3/16"


Tested it out at AOAA, slept in the back with an old mattress I found in the attic. It was probably high 40s-low 50s with lots of rain and wind and I was pretty comfortable. @Roody has a great trip report here, my front diff actuator ended up going out AGAIN, so I went home defeated by muddy shackle but the place I got it from honored their warranty and replaced it no questions asked.



Secret santa got me some AWESOME stuff, absolutely love all of it, thanks again @Shibbyjeep ! Also put a wreath on there. Also got a rear recovery point finally after being nagged by @Subway4X4 Huge thanks to @sente3 for giving it to me, it was a real bitch to get on with the bent bumper but I got 2 bolts in.




Went wheeling and my CV must have popped out a bit letting some gear oil leak out, tried to do a trail repair but was unsuccessful. Luckily it wasn't a huge issue so I parked it and rode with someone else for the rest of the day, my writeup is below:

Washed her and did the boot slide mod on the old axle and put that in there, used SDHQ high angle boots I got awhile back and some sort of special CV grease from pep boys I believe. I used the old inner rubber part of the old CV boots with a clamp to hold the new boot forward. Pretty significant difference just looking at it, but I might have to try popping it in more because Im not sure I got it fully seated in the diff. I later read that the way to do it is to put grease on the clip with the open side down so its easier, apparently the drivers side is harder to get in than the passenger side.



Thats it for now, hopefully the sliders will be on within the next decade

 

oh yea, and Im kind of obsessed with this thing (which I just found out was built by @Dissent86 )
Its just beautiful

 

No doubt. That's awesome

 

I like your goals truck!

 

Never seen that rig before... He have a build when he had it?

 

I think he started on here with his third gen. He makes some cool stuff for it!

 

not much information on it, all I found was this
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/128929-2001-double-cab-tacoma-feeler
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/129182-Selling-the-double-cab
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/124182-Exo-roof-rack-over-shell-Help

 

Got new wheels mounted and balanced. Vision D windows, 16x8 with 4" bs, picked them up for $125 and then got a fifth one off Amazon for free (got approved for their credit card). Finally I have a full size spare with a matching wheel. Im rubbing more plastic since the bs is shorter so Ill have to trim that soon. Also got the sliders welded up by @Arcticelf he did a really awesome job and they are exactly how I wanted them, nice and tucked up. They are hitting the pinch weld a little bit so I might have to hammer it in.

 

Looks good.

 

I really like the no fender-flare look, took mine off as well but I haven't figured out how to deal with the clip holes. What'd you fill yours with?

Dig the gray on black btw, really slick.

 

Thanks man, I'm not a huge fan of totally blacked out trucks so I'm gonna have to do something to fix it lol.
The clip holes I just used the old clips that were still in one piece and shaved the tops off so they'd be more flush. Then I just painted with touch up paint from eBay. Although my paint is chipping off so you should also prime them. You can get loads of extra clips for cheap off eBay too, I only have half the truck done because I ran out of clips.

 

I usually love stuff blacked out but this looks unique, as you said everyone blacks stuff out.

That's smart, I thought about using the clips but I was afraid it would look bad. Yours looks great though, and you're right they're cheap on eBay, I bought a bag of red and a bag of blue for like $3 total.

 

I had this weird idea to get a bunch of really strong magnets and put them behind the fender to hold a small piece of steel on the hole but Im not sure if they'd hold and getting behind the fender is a pain so I just did this, it looks alright though lol

 

Another thing you could do is like @Fernando did on his 04 double cab. Looks like they're bolts painted black or something.

his build: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fernandos-2004-dc-build-the-tank.285648/

 

Just sweet man! Great looking truck!!!!

 

Yea I did see that, just don't know how id feel about having something sticking out like that.

Appreciate it!

 

Looking good dude!!!!! can't wait to wheel again!