Florida B.S. Thread

That's Leem, not Leeb.

 

Indeed

 

I traded that for a fj case and a stock tacoma case

 

Anyone here join in the Wet Okoles GB, or considering Wet Okoles?

Just received mine today and now with these and my snorkel I am fully ready for the next camp and ride, lets get dirty!!!

I chose mine to be black on black, can't stand stains and keeping those light grey perforated cloth seats clean was a huge PITA. No worries now. I also wanted to darken the cab up a bit. I think they look pretty good with the other black panels and what not that I've installed.

Mine took just shy of a month to arrive which is still ahead of their 6 week projected turnaround time. Considering I was late on the list of a huge group buy and am in Florida, about as far away from Hawai'i as you can be and still be in the U.S. I think that's pretty good.

I ordered mine 3-27 and received them today 4-30.

Took a little figuring to get them installed, only really got hung up on how the factory bottom wrap around flap has to be folded up against the seat back under the new covers so the Okoles can velcro to themselves, was expecting that to be left in place. The Okoles have their own flap though.

I highly HIGHLY recommend removing the seats from the vehicle to install the covers, it made it much easier to stuff everything under trim, and remove trim in some cases being able to flip the seats upside down etc. It's an extra step sure but saves time in the long run I think. Plus it's a good opportunity to vacuum the carpet under the seats.

Not crazy about the airbag slit, I may put a stitch or two with some fine black thread to keep it closed and less noticeable but not enough to hinder unlikely deployment. I have met a side airbag once, feels like a solid slap to the ribs/kidney area but I guess it sucks less than your ribs and kidneys meeting the crumpling door panels. Thanks drunk guy who ran the red light for that experience.

Anyway, pics:


Nice and dark on the inside.

First impressions, I've only driven with them to the gas station down the street in the afternoon and then again to work this evening for about 20 minutes but they are definitely more comfortable. I didn't have any real complaints about the stock seats but these covers do add some plushness. They look fantastic too. Very happy about that!

They have a bit of chemical smell, rather noticeable when first entering the cab after it's been sitting in the sun but that is supposed to fade quickly, windows down riding for the time being to let them off gas, and leaving the windows cracked when parked. The already pretty darn good fit is supposed to improve after a little wear in, there's one or two spots where you can see a half-dollar sized splotch of gray, specifically on the lower sides near the pivots on the seat back parts, and of course where the airbag slits are. Would have been nice if there was more material there to overlap, a slight velcro enclosure, blowable stitching or if the material could have been tucked into itself tongue and groove style. The "OEM" style seat back pockets seem like they wouldn't support as much load as the stock seat back pockets but I don't use them much for anything anyway. Usually just a sun visor or the like. I don't think I would want to store my road atlas in there long term in fear of it stretching out the pocket or tearing stitching.

The extra padding does seem to boost me up slightly, though that may settle. Not really a complaint but an observation. For what it's worth, I'm just over 5'9" and roughly 190lbs.

Even after sitting in the sun for several hours the seats were warmer than the cloth would be but not hot like leather would have been, that may be due to just the fact that they are dark coloured.

Not enough data to extrapolate on breathability or sweat generation yet.

Looking forward to seeing how they ride during a long hot day trip and how easy mud cleans off of them.

 

In non-Taco related news, I spent the last 2 weeks in Dallas then flew to Pittston, PA on Sunday for the next 2 weeks. I found myself with nothing to do this past Saturday, so I was flipping through the channels. As a closet HGTV junkie I ended up watching a little Fixer-Upper. Then I got this great idea. Why not drive down to Waco (where Fixer-Upper is based out of) and grab some souvenirs for my mom for Mothers' Day! A quick 2 hour drive down and I pull up to what I expected to be a gift shop but instead found a dedicated city block of downtown. Holy. Crap. It took about 30 minutes to find a place to park. They had a bunch of food trucks and other stuff set up around the area. I managed to get into the store and it was like fighting through a Disney gift shop on a rainy day. I managed to snag some stuff for mom and a few pictures for posterity.
20180428_135756 by lmarshall73, on Flickr
20180428_141624 by lmarshall73, on Flickr
20180428_140008 by lmarshall73, on Flickr
20180428_140011 by lmarshall73, on Flickr

Ultimately, it was a pretty cool place to visit. On my way out of town, I figured I'd check out the other reason that Waco is famous and swing by the site where the Branch Davidian church once stood. I guess with the recent press (25th anniversary of the siege, the Paramount mini-series, etc) they had been dealing with a lot of visitors and as they have a security gate blocking the road that accesses their property. The 'exit' side of the gate was open, but I opted to just take a quick picture from the road. The church that burned was located just to the left of the church in the top left of the picture below:
20180428_144349 by lmarshall73, on Flickr

 

Anyone going offloading in the central Florida area this weekend?

 

Remind me what that metal cross thatched is behind your rearseats? I've been trying to find those again but cant remember what the crap they are.

 

Sure! It's called a "molle pack rack" Molle being the military acronym for the system of holes that webbed gear threads into to secure it.

The one I have is made of aluminum and was designed and sold specifically for Tacomas by member @docloco

 

Oh im familiar with Molle lol. Thanks, I just was drawing a blank on where I had seen the rack before!

 

SEBRING OR WINTER HAVEN

FREE to anyone that wants to come pick it up. 265 / 70 R 16 off of my 1st gen that i traded in back in February. It has about 15,000 miles on it. I bought it new back in January of 2016, and last fall ran over a screw driver and had it patched to use it as a spare, but never put it on. It’s been sitting in my garage ever since, and my new tacoma has 17” wheels, so it’s useless to me. Its not dry rotted at all, and is in pretty decent shape. If you wanna make the drive, I can meet locally near my home in Sebring or you can come by the sire station I work at in Winter Haven and pick it up.

Either PM me, or text (863) 393-6593

 

K, Imma put this little nugget out there for debate. I got my bumper prepped and primed ready for the top coat which was going to be semigloss black, save for the diamond plate panel which is green. However, I got to looking at it and started thinking that it might look good with the whole top plating green. The tubes and lower portions will still be semigloss black. I just dunno if I want to go through the effort to tape the thing off so I can two tone it. Opinions?

Some pics to help...


Everything gray in the last pic would be black.

 

How much masking are you going to be willing to do when it comes time to touch up? Personally, I'd go with everything black and just the diamond plate green.

 

That's an excellent point. I hadn't considered that.

 

everything green is my vote except the door handle

 

I did consider that, but the Krylon Ultra Flat green stains really easily. I mitigated that on the diamond plate by spraying it with clear gloss. If I painted the whole bumper green, I'd have to clear coat the whole thing and it'd be a real pain to touch up when it gets scraped against something. I was willing to risk it with just the top plating because I figured that wouldn't be too prone to getting hit by anything, but not the whole bumper. Now, if I had some cash I didn't have anything else to do with (not bloody likely in my lifetime, haha), I'd be willing to have it shot with the same paint the truck is painted with since it seems more resistant to stains, but then I really wouldn't be able to touch it up when it gets scraped up.

 

All semi gloss black. Don’t think all green would look good

 

My vote would be to have the top plates green, a little color goes a long way to making the whole truck look thought out and professionally done. Just my .02 though.

Fortunately for me my truck is black so making all add-ons full black is an easy choice.

 

That was my thinking too. It's the details that bring things together. Lee M. had a good point though. This is mostly a trail rig so the bumper is going to get scraped up at some point and it'd be a lot easier to just remove the access panel, throw a drop cloth over the front of the truck, and touch up the black than it would to have to mask off the green panels before spraying. If it was a pavement princess, there's be no question, I'd paint the top plates green.

Even though most people think I should just do it in black, I'm still a little on the fence. I could do it green and then when the bumper gets scraped up I could just spray it all black (except the access panel) just to see which I liked better. On the other hand, I could give in to being lazy and just shoot it black and save myself some masking, lol.

 

Lee If you do it black look into the appliance paint by rust-oleum appliance paint shit is super durable it has epoxy in it and its like 5 dollars a can.