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

Nice job! Been looking into this as well. Where'd you get that awesome shift knob? Looks like a 6MT TRD, but it's a 5MT!?

 

Looks like it could be from speeddawg.com I've got one of their knobs and love it.

 

Do you have a pic of the bed stiffeners you made?

 

Yep I just started with a piece of 3/16 angle, I cut it, bent it and only had minimal welding to do






This was my second set the first set I made with 1/8" angle and it seemed sturdy enough but heavier is better. It may not have any fancy bottle openers in it but it works

 

Thx for the info. How is it in the cold? Looks like I may need to purchase some driving gloves for the winter

 

Ordered a pair of 884's with Bilsteins set at 0 and a 1/4" spacer for Taco Lean and a set of 5100's for the back as well from Wheeler's Offroad. Should be here on the 10th. Should have time to get it installed before my trip to the mountains in February. Did a transmission flush and the rear diff this past weekend. Still have the transfer case and front diff left to do, but that can wait until it warms up a bit.

 

Thanks Chris!
Its made by a buddy of mine who has a local business. He built my bumper as well

 

So the KM2s performed much better as more snow fell and I actually put it in 4wd. I was able to play on the hunting trails a little and I retract my previous statement. 2wd with a light dusting they were terrible.

 

Taco got an ass upgrade and some more light behind the new Grill Craft.

 

Got iced...

 

Can I ask how much you paid for the setup? Looking to get more or less the same thing.

 

I do not want to speak out of turn, but if you go to their site and put the items you want in your shopping cart and PM that information to their TW account, they will tell you what the discounts are and then you can go back to your shopping cart and paste the information from the PM you get back in the notes section and they will hook you up. It was a pretty good discount and they shipped really quickly.

 

Oh, and go Gamecocks! I just saw you are in Columbia. I am originally from Lexington and went to USC....MANY years ago.

 

Yea its laughable to me that some people have to bring me PC's to fix, and pay me lots of $$$. Some people do not weld, or have access fabrication tools of any kind. So it makes it impossible for us to make items like these.

 

Okay, I’ll check out the site and do just that. Thanks for the tip. Go Gamecocks!!

 

Love the Billie sticker just peekin out under there.

 

Base color is almost finished on the headlight surrounds. I found a few pinholes that I had to sand out and touch up, waiting for the first coat on those areas to dry now then I'll hit them all over once more before moving my focus to the reflector bowls. These are before the sanding and touch-up work, pinholes above the turn signal on the right surround and the lower front edge of the main bowl on the left surround.

 

Question for y’all! I’ve seen tons of people with color matched front grills. Is this something that can be done “from Home?” I’ve got the 2011 honeycomb grill. The chrome bothers me.

 

Definitely get those welded, Bondo doesn't have enough adhesion to resist torque. If you attach anything heavy to Bondo patches they will crack.
If you can't afford a welder, then at least grind off the rust and use something like Steelstik https://www.jbweld.com/products/steelstik-epoxy-putty-stick Your best bet is a good welder if you want long term reliability.

 

I like Plastidip, but for large paint jobs I would use real paint. Honestly, I do like the convenience of Plastidip, but the stuff isn't durable enough for the front of a vehicle. If you're going to remove the grill, separate the surround, clean, prep and paint; then you only want to do it once. Plastidip is great for emblems and other stuff, but front ends take rock and bug impacts. Those will mess up Plastidip pretty quickly. Also chrome needs to be super clean if you are using Plastidip, cause the surface doesn't provide much adhesion. Dip-your-car sells a prep/adhesion spray, but that adds more complexity and time.
If it was me, I would try Plastidip but only if I could paint the item ON the truck with minimal effort. If I like the color, then I would get it painted or buy a color matched surround. By that time, the Plastidip will be banged up and ready to remove.