CoastieRon's Progression of Idiocy journal & BS

Just because I like this picture....

 

Quick hits:

I love going back and reading this whole thread. It's a reminder that:

1. My truck is almost a year old - I took it home on Dec 30, 2018
2. Half the shit I said I wasn't going to do, I did anyway
3. I still need to retune the gains on the amp, especially the rears
4. I've spent a lot of money on this truck

A few things on my radar:

1. I'm starting to like the @CaliRaisedLed led fogs, and might switch to those (the amber).

2. I think I would like to get different bulbs for my head lights.

3. That TSB helped some issues, but I still think the truck could use a little help, so:
a. I'm still seriously thinking of regearing, but I am going to wait on that until after I hit 36k miles, which should be sometime next summer
b. OVT tune is going to happen as well. I'm just waiting to pull the trigger when 1.05 comes out, and there is feedback from it

4. I have somewhat of a shutter/vibration/harmonic sound going on between 57 and 68mph. It seems to be coming from the back of the truck, so I am going to attribute that to either needing to shim the rear with at least 2* shims or have all of the tires/wheels
re-balanced. I think that the place that balanced them to begin with used a shitload (technical term) of balancing weights, so I am going to take the truck somewhere else. I probably should shim the rear though.

5. If I am considering to do any real off road exploring next spring/summer, I need some recovery/safety gear.

6. I still need to measure my truck's height now that it has been almost 6 months since the lift went on. I'm pretty sure I promised a few people I would do it soon, but in order for it to be accurate, I need to take the bars off the bed as well as the bed cover. I swear I'll get to it soon.....

7. The Lexus Key Card is awesome, and I now trust it enough that I have taken the key fob and put it away. I only use that now in the morning for the autostart to warm the truck up.

8. Due to the bed bars and the ski rack (which both are not aerodynamic in any way), I am struggling to hold 19mpg.

 

I think my ski rack can hold more skis than I have....

 

Buy more skis!

Semper Paratus.

 

Have to have room for my BiL and son. LOL

Always.

 

So I decided to put in Amber pods where the fog lights are. I purchased a set of the @CaliRaisedLed fog pods with the brackets. Very nice.



Holy crap they're bright.

 

Nice build! Was the Lexus foglight mod easy? any chance yours are forsale?

 

It's a quick swap out, the fogs fit just like the OEM fogs.

I'm going to hold on to them for now, but there is a chance I may sell them in a few weeks.

 

Today's little project was switching out the headlight filler plates with the @mesojdm color coded plates.

This was a pissah of a little job, and I'm pretty sure I broke a wheel well trim tab, but everything went back together, and there are no spare parts left over....

What was replaced:


What was added:



All done:



Truck needs a wash, but I'm feeling lazy now.

 

So you did a 1 to 2 inch suspension lift? I am thinking about a body lift to get a little more clearance for my front end to eliminate the rubbing when backing up and when I use the full travel of the suspension.
I too am very, very happy with my truck. I git a ton of money in it as well. I was going to sell it, the dealer offered me 32k for it. I said hell no! Was advertising it here and on craigslist for 38k.
Love my wife, she complains about my truck all the time, especially when I start wanting to get more accessories. When I told her I was trying to sell it, she said no way, that I love it. Wasn't expecting that. New job with pay cut was pushing me to lower my expenses.
She said we will cut elsewhere!

 

Yeah, I got a little over 1-1/4" in the front, and more in the rear. Got rid of the rubbing. The post is I think on page 7

 

Happy birthday Lil' Silver!

Dec 30, 2017



Dec 30, 2018



What a difference a year makes.

 

Well, starting the year off with a bang...



I was going to hold off, I really wanted to do the vinyl on the hoods first, but fuck it.

 

Wait, what? Adam......

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA! There's a couple guys over here I believe. One of them has the MA plate DATA....

 

All right now. So after reading extensively into low beam bulbs, I decided to order a set of Osram H11 Night Breaker Silvers for my truck. I wanted to keep the beams focused, with a sharp cutoff. I got the bulbs in, but I wrecked my back doing shit I knew better than doing (putting stuff in attic with no help), then didn't listen to my body and went skiing, because my brain still thinks I'm in my early 20s.

Osram H11 Night breaker Silver:



I finally felt well enough to get the bulbs in yesterday, so I popped the hood, pulled the driver's side out, and found that the truck came with Osram H11 bulbs already:

OEM on Left, Night Breaker on right:



OEM Only:



I didn't get the chance to compare them at night to get pictures, but they are easy enough to remove and re-install, so I will try to do so when I get the chance to. My overall impression so far with the night breaker? There is a minimal difference in brightness and color. However, until I can get them side by side, that is a "butt dyno" assessment.

 

Quick hits:

1. Still waiting on OVTune to come in. I know they just got back from vacation and have a backlog, so I'm not worried.

2. I still need to do a better comparison of the new headlight bulbs, but I can tell that the lighting is definitely "whiter" (?).

3. Sent out a feeler/request for quote to a local vinyl/detailer. I'm looking to get the hood and roof done, but not in matte black, I'm gonna have it done in matte gunmetal gray to match my wheels. Which means the B pillars will either need to have the vinyl removed permanently, or replaced with gunmetal as well. This goes for the inserts in the tailgate as well, and I will probably have the bed stickers removed too.

4. The Blackvue DR590-1CH has an AWESOME picture.



(Don't send me a friend request. I only accept them from people I have had at LEAST 4 drinks with LOL). I thought the guy behind me hit me, but the second crash noise was my heavy duty hitch in the bed of the truck.

 

This is progressing. The shop I found quoted me $125 for the hood, and $300 for the roof. I chatted with my multi-talented cousin about the quote, and asked if we could do it for less. He said "of course we could, but that's a good price, besides, I'm straight out for a while". I can dig it, and if we did it and it became a shit show, it would suck for both of us. So now it's just finding a day where I can leave the truck with the shop to get it done without impacting vacation time or work schedule.

I'm going to revisit the color choice. I think I'm going to just match the pre-existing film on the B-Pillar (satin black). It just so happens that the former occupant of my office left a pile of 3M sample books in one of the drawers, and I'm going to see if satin matches better than matte.



Still waiting for my OVTune.....

 

I don't think I have taken as many pictures of any car or truck as I have of this one. Honestly. I was digging around a couple of the Tundra web forums I had belonged to see if there were any pictures of my old trucks, then remembered the old photobucket account I had. Here are the two best pictures I could find of my last Tundras:

Here is my old 2000 Tundra TRD Offroad 4x4. I called this bitch Barney because the paint had a weird purple hue to it. I ended up trading it in 2011 for a 2007 Audi A4. The frame had rusted, and Toyota did the frame recall that included scraping the frame and re-coating it, but everything else under there had gotten rusty AF.


You can see the attachments in the bed for the Softtopper that was on it. It had 187k miles on it when I traded it in.

Here is the truck I traded in for the Taco. 2009 Tundra TRD Offroad. I can't find any good pictures of it with the cap on it though:


That thing was a BEAST, and passed everything BUT the gas station it seemed. Just thought I would post them in here as a "compare and contrast".

OVTune gets here on Monday.
Vinyl gets done on the following Monday.

 

My OME diff drop came in today. I'm hoping that helps out with the vibration I seem to be getting above 60mph in the rear. As soon as it gets warmer, I'll get under there.

I stopped by the place that will be doing my vinyl work this past Friday. Place is really cool and informative. Guy (Hunter) loved my truck and couldn't wait to work on it the 21st. We looked at a bunch of vinyl samples, and it looks like I will be getting Deep Black Matte for the roof and hood.

This weekend my son's boy scout troop did their annual ski weekend at Cannon Mountain. It was cold AF (-3 when we got on the mountain Saturday).





We stay at a place called Copper Cannon. In the summer it's a camp for under privelaged kids. In the winter it's closed, but they open a cabin for us for a donation from our troop.

I had snotcicles it was so cold.




Anywho, the OVTune comes in tomorrow and I can't wait. The transmission transition up in the high country sucks again, even with the latest tsb.

That is all. Now it's beer time, and the Pats are coming on.