My covid 19 taco project down the rabbit hole I go

Hi all, I purchased my concrete Tacoma double cab off road short bed at the end of January of this year. Little did I know that it would give me an outlet to keep myself occupied during quarantine. First I want to thank this forum and you tube for keep giving me new ideas on what to modify next. Here is the list of the modifications:

Before I left the dealership I picked up predators side steps that I installed that day. Next came a tonneau cover (it rains a ton in the pac nw). I purchased a alternative to the backflip. I watched the tech install it and that must have inspired me to do the rest of the projects myself. I removed the 4x4 sticker and completely debadged the truck. Plus I remove the crappy sticker on the drivers door. I was annoyed with having to use the key from the fob to lock the tailgate and that led me to this forum.

I purchased the pop a lock and installed it with help from taco twonz video. Then I purchased the center console and glovebox organizers from Amazon. Both are must haves. I got annoyed about having my gas cap dangle against my truck when I went for gas a discovered mesos gas hole. This is something that Toyota engineers should have thought of.

The interior yellow lights had to go so I purchased a led kit from amazon. FYI the rear license plate lights are a pain in the ass to replace (that is until I found a much easier way to do it online).

I hated the Charlie Brown chrome zigzag on the wheels and I found a vinyl kit on Etsy to cover them up. Since now the rims where black I decided to replace the lug nuts with black ones as well.

I am used to much faster cars and quite frankly the Tacoma is so unresponsive so I purchased The orange virus tune which makes a huge difference. I started with beta 2.0 and now that the final has been released I upgraded to that. Here is a tip disable your virus protection so that you can get software to work.

Then I went a little crazy and order a bunch of stuff. It made every few days feel like Christmas while I was stuck at home. I can’t remember the exact order but here are the next mods. I got the Mountain hatch tail gate in concrete from tacomabeast.

I installed led strips under the tail gate that work using an adapter that connects to the inside of the trailer hitch power. They are five way lights that work in conjunction with brake lights blinkers ect.

I installed the Black chrome trd exhaust tip. I can’t believe Toyota can’t make that stock since the regular tip looks pretty weak. I purchased an oem bed lights (first time I had to remove tail lights). Super simple mod.

I purchased a bunch of stuff from Cali raised. Their bed stiffeners (second time I removed tail lights). I trimmed the bed Matt to accommodate the stiffeners. I installed cali’s rear Molle bed panel. The side ones won’t work with my tonneau. I also installed the Cali raised hidden led light bar with a factory looking switch. This was a little intimating but again with help from some you tube videos it was not big deal.

I ordered a Chinese nock off trd pro grill with a garnish. That was a disaster as I had to dremel the grill and garnish and still did not get it to fit. So I scraped that junk and order an oem one. One thing to note the fake one looks flat black and oem is glossy fyi.

I installed redline hood struts this was easier then I thought it would be plus this certainly should have been stock. Come on Toyota. Maybe they thought Toyotas are so reliable that no one will ever have to lift this heavy ass hood.

I installed some Baja designed fog lights from running 4 tacos. Yesterday I installed raptor lights but for some reason I can’t get them to turn on? Today I got led reverse lights and hopefully that will be the last time for awhile I take that tail lights off.

Tomorrow I am receiving the bed side Molle panels from victory 4x4 they should work with my tonneau cover. I am awaiting some survival gear to come in the mail to attach to the Molle panels with quick fists.

On Monday I received a trd skid plate that I am spray painting black and I found a company that makes concrete stickers to replace the red trd.

Though out this process I had to up my tool game, purchasing a dremel, metric socket set, heat gun, shrink wrap, bullet connectors, add a fuse, ring wire conectors, Torx bit set ect.

This has been really fun. If their is something you think I should do next please comment. Or if their is any questions on how to install any off these items let me know. I will post pictures and videos in a few days after I wrap up the Molle panels and skid plate. Thanks for reading

 

That’s a crazy long paragraph bro

 

It sure is, most writing I have done in years.

 

That's a hell of a shelter-in-place upgrade list...and here I was proud of organizing my garage.

 

They say writing is a lost art. Any thoughts about wheels, tires, lift? Since you've been up to research, have you looked at a new head unit or audio package? If you are looking for lots of labor and low cost you could do sound dampening on the entire cab. Cheers OP, glad you're having fun.

 

Soundslikeaveryveryfunprojectkeepusupdatedandgoodluck!

 

You lost me at concrete.

 

Can you go back, with the "edit" button and put in some paragraph breaks? Very hard to read and most people will not read it.

 

Cue the 'this thread is worthless without pics'

 

Would love to see pics! I got a access long bed concrete OR in early January. I'm having the same problem with the responsiveness, will be looking into software fix. Any info/tips on that?

 

Sorry I meant cement of course, I wrote this prior to falling a sleep.

 

OP post pics man. Let’s see all this hard work.

 

Krew, I would go to https://www.ovtuned.com/ to solve the responsiveness issue. It’s like a different truck.

 

Wow, that’s quite the upgrade list. Congrats on your mods.

one suggestion, if you ever plan on taking the truck where the skid plate will hit rocks, hard, do not get the Toyota plate. It’s too weak. I caught a rock shelf and it bent the shit out of the skid. There are a lot of steel ones out there that would be much stronger. You may check into those.