Joining the Imperials Build Thread

Okay, so I did all the lights from the maps back. For the relay replacement, no one was right!! Watch the video below guy nails it nice and quick. It is inside near the fuse box by the steering wheel, but its way up back in there and you don''t need to remove anything

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replace-your-turn-signal-relay.518338/

Anyways now they are working! My trim replacement pieces for the window where the chrome is showing came in as well. So I might put those in after lunch. At least the one I'm having the issue with.

New battery today and its starting much stronger.

The new windshield was done by safelite but they seemed to do a good job and take their time. The new one has a light tint like new cars and is much more quiet with the new seal. Overall I am happy with the replacement and it was made in the USA. Might post a few night pics later, but not sure as its just lights...

 

Good to hear hermano Nice job

 

I guess, but thats more work IMO. Also, I can palm a basketball with both hands pretty easily, so I don't think I have "tiny hands"

But whatever approach works for people works for me! Either way the video gives people a better idea of what exactly they are looking for, Noobs like me need some help!!

 

So I pulled most everything out except the ceiling. I need to figure out how to get the rear grab bars off. Anyone do it before? I still haven't spent anytime searching, will do that tonight.

Really happy with how things look under there, a couple bolts I'll replace with nice new ones, and I'm going to wire brush any rust looking spots and hit them with a quick touch of rustoleum. Tomorrow is going to hit 50 or so and be sunny, so finally a nice day I have off that I can get sound deadening done. Pretty excited as the cab is a bit loud with nothing. I have tile,foam and some mlv left over from other vehicles and will do as much as I can.

 

Finished up the sound deadening. Did some tiles then covered it completely in Noico foam type stick on stuff. I only did the stinger road kill for the 20-30%, and covered the noico about 95% of the interior. Next up is doors, but I'm gonna take a week or two off before I do another day of this.

Forgot to take photos after I did the tiles. Was able to take it all apart and put it together with only one bolt breaking off on me, happy with that.

 

Ordered a head unit off of Crutchfield. Went single din as I got into this truck for a fun, simple and reliable vehicle. Double din is great, but it's "too fancy" for what I want. I don't want to be looking at a screen. I am however sick of the horrible rural radio options we have here and I'm on replay 10 of the Frank Sinatra CD that came with the truck.

Ordered a : https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158XB120BT/Sony-MEX-XB120BT.html This will do everything I need, I probably won't even connect the microphone because I don't want it connecting to my phone calls. Who knows might do it just because though. It also comes with a storage compartment for underneath as I would have some open space.

I'm going to try to install this and do the door sound deadening this weekend, or latest the end of next week. I have a plan for some door speakers, but I want to see how it sounds with just this.

Biggest plus to that HU is that its 45rms, with its own D amp inside. I will be wiring directly to the battery for full power. This will allow me to do some pretty nice speakers down the road without adding a bunch of crap to the truck. I want to be able to pull this stereo when I sell and return things to stock.

Anyways, I will post photos of the installation and door deadening install when I get to it!

 

Good selection on the single din. A couple of folks on here (myself included) added wireless charging to that storage compartment.

 

Thanks!
how hard is that to add? any link?

 

Here you go.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/medicmutts-main-machine-aka-bolt.299746/#post-21024237

 

Got the front doors done today, it was raining so I called my parents and asked if I could pull into their garage for the morning, got the and went over. Didn't take a ton of photos, but will attach two. I put a ton of the damper tiles on the outer skin and back of the inner skin, then tapped around and filled the holes on the front. With the foam stuff, I did better on the second door, and I cleaned up the one in the photo a bit before I put it back together. I broke 7 clips pulling the doors off, even though I did it slow and steady, just old plastic. I had exactly 7 left over from doing my 2018 taco and 2016 4runner a while back. So all back together! Made a big difference, will do the rears soon enough, waiting on temps where the stuff will stick well



Then when I got home, the UPS man came with my HU and wiring. So I just finished up crimping those together. The HU has a micro Amp, and requires a battery connection, so I had to call up Crutchfield and see how they wanted that. Shout out to them for quick easy info. Going to pick up my wifes 4runner in the morning from a service, and then will instal this thing after that. Anyone know if that hole in the firewall is accesible from the HU area without messing with more trim?

 

Noooiiiice now that's the stuff that I believe would make a difference too. It's so hard to put a number or value on how much it helped or lessened the sound..... BUT if you had to how would you describe it? Cut the noise in half?

 

I'd say its definitely worth the $250 I will have spent on material by the time I finish the rear doors. If you pay someone to do this it can easily get over 1k just because of the time involved in taking everything apart, and then if they do a clean job, the time it took to cut and install it all. Even so, I'd still consider it worth it on an older truck like this.

There is nothing between you and the road except some sheet metal and a very thin carpet or piece of plastic for 95% of this truck. To me it was really loud driving around compared to the other cars I've had, especially since Ive done something like this to all of them in the past 7 or so years. Between how loud I had to turn the radio and the road noise it wasn't comfortable to me, and sometimes even almost painful if I had the radio too loud. It literally feels different inside now, you feel secure and almost cocooned. Things are significantly more quiet, I'm not sure what it would be technically, but the "butt dyno" feels like at least a 50% improvement in noise, and add a 20% bonus for the added comfort I now feel in there. I can go 60 and have a regular volume conversation with my wife. The speakers sound better and I don't need to turn them up as much, and I even think it seems to trap the heat a lot better now that I have most of it but the roof done.

If you have a weekend or two, and $200 bucks or so (if you use noico tiles it's probably cheaper than the stinger roadkill I used and basically the same) I'd do it. Even just do the doors first as a trial, when you close them and hear that super solid *thunk* and the difference it makes you will want to do the rest. I've never met or talked to anyone on a forum who has regretted doing this. It just takes some patience and get some instructions. I have the "master" instructions from crutchfield with removal instructions for any 1st gen. Feel free to send me a pm and I can send it your way, but there are also some great threads on here I used to see photos and real examples.

 

Alright, head unit is in action here! Really relieved that I didn't mess it up bad and run into issues, this is the first time I've done something like this. I am fine ripping apart things that don't have electricity, but don't usually feel comfortable messing with it. My cousin has done a handful of these and talked me through the initial wiring, which was the only confusing part.

I used the Crutchfield instructions which were A+ and also this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-2001-1st-gen-aftermarket-cd-player-install.303835/ Shout out to @zacharypaul89. You're old ass thread is still helping folks!


So as I think I mentioned in an earlier post, this has a built in D amp and needs to wire direct to battery. Luckily it was super easy getting there! You can run the power cable behind the stereo and down by the gas pedal, then there is a rubber plug just waiting for your wires! Upper right corner of photo below:

Ground that bitch out! First I cleaned up the area with a quick wire brush to make sure there wasn't any paint messing up my day. I've seen and read about people with big confusion over why things didn't work and that was the problem.


Then put it all back together and jam out


I can also get rid of the stupid charger, as the USB on this HU charges my phone, AND I have a place to stash my phone and wallet with the tray that came with it. But best of all is how this thing has woken up the speakers. Between the sound deadening and this new head unit, it's a whole new truck and sound experience. I am excited to do the rear doors, and eventually replace the speakers, but this is going to hold me over for a while I think

 

Played with the settings and set the hi and low pass filters and some staging ones, then went for a drive. I will want new speakers at some point, but I'm pretty shocked how much of a difference the headunit made. As long as it holds up I'm gonna give it a 10/10. The little controller makes changing songs and such on the fly simple and easy, I'm gonna mount it with velcro on the dash.

 

@Bridge4, Nice Truck, great color. I really wanted a hunter green truck when I was looking for mine. I ended up buying a 03 DC limited edition in lunar Mist(Silver). Truck only had 80k miles back in 2009 or 2010 when I purchased it. Payed 15k for it and have no regrets. Love my Toyota. These things will last a lifetime with good maintenance. You found a cherry in your part of the world which I here is the Rust Bucket part of the country. I'd suggest getting some Eastwood internal frame coating, and either painting the frame or putting some good rust protector on it. I know a lot of TW members use fluid film. Lucky for me I live in NC and don't have to worry to much about frame rust from salt. I also don't drive a lot during the winter months. I'm hoping to do some serious upgrades on my frame in the next year or so. but I'm seriously limited physically as to what I can do myself. Take care of your 1st gen and it will take care of you. Welcome to the 1st gen world, you'll find quite a bit of useful information and help from these 1st gen scalawags.

 

Hey there! I lived in NC for 6 years and had some land out east, loved it down there, but came back up for family.

I plan on getting some fluid film or wool wax going in April at the next meet up! Some internal coating on the frame might be nice though too since I have heard they rot from the inside. I plan on keeping this truck in great shape and replacing all the little things that need it slowly over the next year, but finding one with a newer frame was a big part of the issue, and this one is in great shape!

Keep in touch! Do you have your own thread or anything with your truck on it? How many miles do you have on it now?

 

@Bridge4, No I don't have a build thread. I'm keeping my truck pretty much stock. Just doing the needed maintenance to keep it running good. I've got many small projects that need done, but they'll have to wait a couple of more months. I have a local Garage that I'm going to pay them to install my new Bilstein 4600 shocks, maybe next month. Truck has about 136k miles on it. I figure the rings are just about set by now. I plan on making this my last vehicle that I ever own. I'm only averaging about 5k miles or so a year right now, so I'm not worried about wearing it out anytime soon. keep up on your work and that truck will last you for years. Just treat your frame with something that will keep it from rusting out, and you'll be fine. There are many posts here on this forum with quite a bit of information on rust prevention. I'm going to coat my frame with Stop Rust from Ace Hardware. It seems to do a very good job of protecting the frame. keep us posted on what your doing on yours.

 

Replaced the turn signal lamps today and put leds in the new ones. Super easy to change, these trucks are so easy to work on!
Old:

new ones:


my passenger light is next in that department but not really rushing since I don’t drive a ton at night

 

Okay guys I have a ??

When I go to start the truck up there is a slight hesitation. Usually you turn key and VROOOOM. With this truck its been (and worse when cold) a 1-2 second hesitation where its turning over but doesn't start.

Battery is new, spark wires are new...but don't know if the plugs themselves are. Is there anything else that I should look at? Or is it just how the trucks start up and I should get used to it.

Thanks!!

 

Mine usually rolls over for a couple of seconds before taking off. The time has almost imperceptibly increased over the years. No doubt the quarter-of-a-million-plus miles on the completely original motor contribute to it. The truck has never failed to start.

If it really concerns you, or as others chime in, it may be a good idea to take a video of your truck starting up.