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

YesSiRr!

 

Aaaaaand, do we have a pick of the skid plate?

 

I automatically assumed it was wire wheeled because of the lack of silica.

Preheated on the grill and then slowly cooled again haha

 

Did you do new seals after?

 

Yeah this was a spare set I bought. So when we did the gussets (back before I had my own welder) we did the gussets and then I got new backing plates, bearings, seals, everything. In retrospect I wish I got tundra backing plates.

 

Gotcha. Smart way to do it.

 

Looking for suggestions to reattach all of the lettering/badges that I pulled off my truck prior to the Raptor Liner. I let them soak for several days in WD40 to get the adhesive off. Plan to paint them black, and put them back on. Since the raptor is rougher than paint, I was thinking something on the order of a thick adhesive, on the order of rubber cement. I could probably do double sided foam tape on the bigger ones on the tailgate, but not sure that could work for the small ones (SR5, V6) that are on the tailgate and also on the rear doors. Thanks in advance!

 

I just ordered new ones for like 50 bucks, flat black

 

You can probably get an emblem adhesive from advance, VatoZone, or Napa

 

Put up my 300K commemorative patch!

 

If you’re referring to Big Sky Toppers in Bozeman, do it. That guy is great to deal with. Great customer service.

 

yup, that's where i've been looking. think i've decided on my options too: interior headliner, Vented Windoors, and a fold-down sliding front window. I might also see if they can just put the Yakima roof rack tracks on the topper. I don't want to spend the $550 yet to get the full roof rack but it's deff a future plan. all the pricing info i have is from previous quotes i got from ARE last year, but i'm assuming the price will be about the same. What do you think about trading the canopy in versus selling it? i figure i can get about 500-700 bucks for my current one on FB marketplace or CL but i'm tempted by the convenience of trading it in. worth it?

 

Get the vented windoors, for sure. I just got the windoors and wish I had the vented ones. I’ve never really understood the fold down front window for our trucks. It would make sense for a tundra or something where the entire window rolls down. But hey, it’s your rig! The liner is really nice too. I’m happy that I put that in mine.

I couldn’t give you a very educated opinion on trading versus selling. I suppose if you felt there was a strong likelyhood you could sell it and were fine with storing it for a while, sell it! They probably won’t give you what you want for it on trade. They’ve got to make money off of it too!

 

yeah, the only benefit of the fold down front window is cleaning between the cab and cap. on my old quotes they offered me an upgrade for only 10 bucks more so it seemed kind of like a no brainer. for 10 bucks the convenience of cleaning out leaves and shit from the gap is worth it. if it was like 50 bucks more expensive then i wouldnt go that route because, as you said, the windows on our rigs don't roll down like a tundra. if the price has changed i'll just tell them to order one with a plain slider. My trade in vs sell decision will really depend on what they'll give me, yeah they have to take something off so they can make money but some places give you a discount if you do a trade in. I know that at the sporting goods store i used to work at we would give something like a 5% discount on the whole purchase if the customer was selling something to us too. not sure if that's the same in the truck cap industry but i figured it was worth asking about. i'm just waiting on the quote at this point, then i'll give them a call and see. as far as the liner i actually did that myself in my current cap. my goal with a new one is to get something at least as good as my current one so the liner was a given. plus I think that ARE is doing a summer promo where it's a free add on for the CX series caps.

 

Question, do you need to preheat? Or use special filler?

 

if i recall correctly the spindles are cast steel. you shouldn't need to use any special filler (someone correct me if i'm wrong on this lol) but as with all cast stuff you'll want to preheat.

 

Finished up this install with a few things up my sleeve with the switches.

 

So you put a standalone ecu in it?

 

Piggyback ahead of supercharger install.

 

Depends on your budget and comfort zone spending a fair amount of money on the topper.

By the sounds of what you are describing in terms of your wants, you can expect to pay $3000+ out the door for the topper. At least that's the going rate down here.