What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Just my two cents, I’d buy the $60 grill off eBay and hack it up instead of stock. That’s what I did and glad I did because the more I look at mine the more I don’t like it. I’ve got the undamaged original in the garage.

 

Finished grinding welds on the center section and started assembling the wings. Drivers side done, tackling the passenger side after lunch.

 

I have one of those Amazon grills to practice hacking up first. It's busted up pretty bad and never really lined up properly in the first place .

My original is already cracked on the lower left where the corner light housing snaps into the grill.

I hear you though. The OE grill is $$

 

PhotoShop to the rescue:

 

You're a badass!

But, I went in yet another direction. All black with a body color match outline.

(Pretty much the biggest pain in the ass way to go ftw)

 

Yes, Amber LED subdued black

And that is an eBay grill. My stock chrome grill is safe.

 

I’m really digging that grille!!!!! Want to do something similar on my 04 DC, can’t wait to see how it turns out!

 

Nope, nope, nope.

YEP:

 

Yeah I like the look of the satoshi grille on the earlier tacos and the pickups but the 01-04 grille is pretty perfect in its stock form imo, made to look like the older pickups. Pretty unique in that Toyota never really did anything like it since.

 

They are attached to the frame. They are made of 3 parts, the plate that bolts to the frame and then there are 2 outer plates that are surface mount that make up the recovery point as you see them. They are pretty stout. Better than the front recovery points until I add more material to them. Nice thing with these DIY bumpers is that you can make changes as you are building them, if you really want or need to.

Got both the wings tacked together and started finish welding them. Finished the top side on the passenger side and then started on the driver's side, wanting to get that done before flipping the bumper over to finish all the welds that I couldn't reach otherwise. Got almost half way with the drivers side and my 11lb spool ran out of wire and no spare on hand. Then I check the gas and see that the bottle is almost empty again. So, I'm done for the weekend now. Oh well, I got enough done that I bolted it to the truck again (that was a bitch by myself!) and I'm not worried about it falling apart when I drive it.

 

Here are a few pics that bretter show what I am describing here. First one is one of the side plates that bolts to the frame, this makes up the main center piece of the recovery point.



The main face of the bumper slides over those plates to help connect them.



And here you can see that I've added the 2 outer plates on each point. They thicken the recovery points up and make them stronger. Everything is then welded together.



Hope that helps.

 

@xtremewlr that rear bumper looks hott !!

 

Thanks!

 

emblem came out looking damn good

 

Thanks brotha!

 

All that work and you can't even see it

 

But it is actually REALLY good stuff!

 

Mighty nice rear you have!

 

It's all about squats... wait... not that one...