Paul's TRD Build Thread

Nothing fancy or to elaborate, but I know we all love to see pictures.

Before the lift


Before lift, but with trailer mounted and Motorcycle loaded




Now for the lift:

Specs: 3" EZ spacer lift with AAL in the rear. Actually doesn't ride all that bad and it took me and couple of buddies 5 hours to install front to back.

Wheels: 951 Moto Metal 18" x 9"
Tires: Goodyear Wrangler Kevlar 275 / 65 / 18. These you can hear a little when you start to take off, but once at highway speeds, no difference.









More to come later on, but this is all for now. Need to replenish the bank account.

Edit: Added per Benca1 request - "There is only rubbing when i'm backing up and the wheel is turned in. I haven't trimmed yet, but know exactly the spot that needs to come out and thats probably about 3" worth of that plastic lining in the wheel well. Again only rubbing when backing up, and not at full lock when rolling forward."

Added 07/03/2010 - Prestige two-way paging Security Alarm with remote start. This is actually my third one I've had installed on two previous trucks of mine. Love and performs great.

 

truck looks good. i like those wheels on your truck

 

Looks great..especially those white letter tires on the Moto Metals. That's what I'm going to do once the stockers wear out (and the bank account fills up again).

 

Yeah, at first i was Kinda hesitant on the white letters out,but since these are only outlined letters, now I think they look pretty cool. So...they are staying that way for now.

 

Oh yeah, forgot about that. There is only rubbing when i'm backing up and the wheel is turned in. I haven't trimmed yet, but know exactly the spot that needs to come out and thats probably about 3" worth of that plastic lining in the wheel well. Again only rubbing when backing up, and not at full lock when rolling forward.

 

Nice looking SW DC LB!! I agree the white letters look good! Keep us updated on your mods.

 

Looks great!

 

Looks real good man, awesome look with those wheels....and I really like your tires!

Maybe some window tint?

 

So.............I just finished my Satoshi mod yesterday. Came out pretty good. I took my time doing it. I purchased a seperate grille to do the work on in the meantime I could still run the stock one. It probably is about 3 days of work with curing and sanding. One valuable lesson i learned on this mod, is that wet sanding is your friend. As I was putting down the last good wet coat of semi-gloss paint and went and grabbed the damn painted part with my fat fingers. So, i had to go back and wet sand that part real good let dry then hit with a new coat and perfect. The paint i used was a ceramic semi-gloss black that is used mainly for painting engines, but this came out real nice.





Then I had ordered my cb on monday and it came in on saturday, weird, anyways as i was doing some wet sanding and allowing for non touch dry time, I decided to install the cb. I picked the Cobra 75 WX ST. So far I'm loving it. I did get myself a SWR Tuner, and I believe i tuned correctly, when i get more time I will read more into it. Here you go a few pics.





That's it for now.

 

Paul,

Wow, great job on the grille!

Where did you get the perforated metal from? Is it aluminum? Did it come black? How much did it cost you?

I want to do the Jamoshi style grille on my Taco with a white color-matched Toyota emblem centered. I found a local metal shop here, but they want to sell me a 40" x 14" piece of perforated steel for $60! Seems a bit expensive to me.

Also, would you be willing to sell your stock grille? I didn't get the TRD Sport package, so I'm rockin a chrome grille and need to really want to get rid of the chrome on my truck. The cheapest color-matched grille that I can find online is $175 shipped.

Thanks!

 

The perforated sheet I got from Ebay from a seller that goes by metrorestyling, if you type in the search engine on ebay, put "perforated mesh grille" and it will pull up. It is aluminum and it comes painted black already and comes in 12" x 48" sheet. One thing I would have like more about the mesh grille that it be a bit thicker it's a little less than a 1/16" thick but thicker that 1/32nd. Now as for the grille, I am thinking about selling it. Let me explain what is........it is the insert that has those cross members that hold the toyota emblem, stock painted that metallic gray color and then the outer sorrounding part, the part your saying is still chrome on your truck, well that peice came in just the plastic black and thru one rough coat of semi-gloss black paint to test a wet sand. I'll get a picture of that soon.

 

Here is one other shot on how I attached my mesh grille to the plastic housing part. used some aluminum angle and drilled holes one side and cut 1" long pieces. I used gorilla glue to adhere, make sure you rough up the plastic so it makes a good bond and there you go. pretty simple.

 

Nice grill work. Are the screw heads exposed or hidden?

 

well, they face towards the engine. from the looking at the grille head on, you can't see a damn thing. It's a ninja now.

 

Looks great dude, great job on the grille!

 

Paul, what's the specs on those wheels (backspacing, etc) Thats the exact tire size and wheel I would like to put on my taco.

 

18 x 9 with a -12 offset (4.5 backspacing), tires are 275/65/18 Kevlar's.

 

How do you like your Kevlars now that you have had them longer.

 

Oh, I love the Kevlars. I have put about 3000 miles on them so far and they run great on the highway and even in rain they grip good. As for wheelin, just can't seem to get stuck . But they do handle great on and offroad. I've always run Nitto TG on all my other trucks, but this time I wanted something different and man I was not dissapointed. Granted they are a little more expensive, but they are supposed to give anywhere from around 40-50K from what i've read from other tacoma owners as long they are rotated regularly. Woulnd't trade them for anything else.

 

Really Nice Ride