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

Considering I did it less than a year/less than 10,000 miles ago, I think I’ll pass on it

 

Pretty much this. Also there's a gap in between the two bearings that allows the pivot to drop a bit. Mine was too tall for the bolt to close the gap so I bent it a bit and now it goes snug. You're going to have to support it some way, possibly gussets on the sides and like @Squeaky Penguin said support the underside. Or cut it off and weld it on the face of the bumper, that's how I did mine.

 

First portion of Raptor lining the truck. Went reasonably well. I wound up with a bit of streakiness across the top. Mostly, the fault was with the spray gun that came with the kit. It was not adjustable to get a low flow of material. However, half way through, I switched over to the Professional version of the gun, and it was like night and day. Should have just started with it, but..... But the streaks remained a bit even after the second coat, but greatly diminished. Fortunately, they will be hidden under the basket rack anyway. This was a great trial run for when I start doing the remainder of the truck. Up next will be the new bed that I acquired in Florida. A little body work to do, mostly just bumps and dings. Fortunately, the bodywork will not have to be absolutely perfect, as Raptor will hide a lot of my sins.


This is after sanding and cleaning, ready for Raptor.



Here is all of the materials that I assembled



And here is the end result:

 

That came out great! I plan to do this to my shell and then the whole truck as well.

What color did you end up using? Did you tint it to a toyota white or is that the standard raptorliner white?

 

That is actually tinted to Lunar Mist silver, same as truck. The sun and shade didn't work well for photography. But it is a pretty good match to the factory paint, color wise, but the metallic doesn't show, as they had advised on the website.

 

Installed my rear suspension. OME Nitrochargers and Dakar leaf pack with add-a-leaf.

Here's before.

Here's after.

Went from this in the rear...


To this.


So I got about 3.5 inches on the driver's side and 4.5 inches on the passenger's side. Hoping it settles another inch or so. Next up is front coilovers, lower ball joints, lower control arm bushings, and SPC UCA's.

 

Looks good. Dakars are known to ride high at first but they'll settle some

 

Reference my rear frame rebuild:

Got my General springs and Monroe shocks mounted. Used ratchet straps to pull the rear diff into proper alignment to get the spring datum pins into place: one strap preventing diff from rotating down in front; the other pulling forward off the trans crossmember.

Frame still has some minor things to be done, but it is already a lot stronger than original, even with no rear crossmember (spare tire mount) bumper, or trailer hitch.

I bumped the right brake line near the drum with cutoff wheel while cutting off the u-bolts. Fluid leak (see spot on concrete RH side near wood block). Will be replacing the line feeding the right wheel cylinder. I was going to drain and refill brake fluid anyway, but still disappointed I hit that line. I got the bleeders and the line fittings broke loose. Had to use the heat + candle wax trick on one line fitting.





Also, you can't buy rear spring mounts anymore. That's not the worst news. The inner diameter to match the rubber bushings is not SAE: 1 1/4" is too big and 1 1/8" is too small. Believe it or not, I had a salvage yard scrounge swing out spare tire carrier from a Rodeo and the inner diameter of the tubing was perfect.

 

Looks good! Where did you get the tint from? I'm trying to tint mine the factory natural white but was having trouble finding the tint without the binder.

Are you planning on painting your door jambs or leaving them since you're color matching your factory paint?

 

I'm almost out of parts, so I hope it runs.

 

I know this is in the 1st gen forum, but how much rear diff fluid is needed? I’m looking for this answer for a 2014 Tacoma 4x4 manual. Not sure if the answer varies across gens and model variations.

 

Changing differential fluid - A step by step "HOW TO"

 

Awesome, thanks!

 

I just went to the local automotive paint store, told them I needed to tint Raptor Liner, and they knew exactly what I was talking about, and took my paint code and mixed it up.

No, I am not painting the jambs, under hood, etc. since it will match up well enough, and there is no need to paint those areas, no rust, etc. I'm not sure about painting the back of the cab and the end of the bed area. Right now, I am leaning to just mask off a line below the top of the bed and stop at that line on the cab, and not do the front of the bed.

 

New Rims! #20

 

We'd just been to the Owyhee area, but when the opportunity presented itself to get together with Mike, Zane, Ben, and Kirsten for Memorial Day, we knew we had to go back - the lure of getting together to enjoy the outdoors with friends, greater than the desire to explore somewhere new.

Plus, even though we were in the same general area, we were able to come up with an itinerary that wouldn't exactly repeat what we'd done just a few weeks before. That is, if all went according to plan.

Like all trips, this one wouldn't go exactly as planned, but as usual I'm skipping too far ahead.

Keep reading the rest here
One, Two, Three Strikes We're Out - Owyhee Redux #1​

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Keep reading the rest here
One, Two, Three Strikes We're Out - Owyhee Redux #1​

 

Rolled 285k at about 1:30 this morning, then jumped in some puddles, caught this little chick and let her go. Now time to nap.


Also, it’s June in Utah just like the rest of the world, but we still got a fresh 8-10” the last couple of days

 

Crazy, gonna be 98 here today lol

 

93° high to 53° over the weekend haha

 

Man I'd love some of that weather about now.