What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

i miss mine already!

 

thanks man appreciate it

 

Very true. Exact reason I won’t do the oil changes there lol

 

Thought Would be ready for my trip to Moab today. 6112s front, 5125s in rear gave me a 3 inch boost. Then went from 265 70 16 to 285 75 16s. Not quite, discovered i need lower control arm and ball joint. Will have to wait till Monday for alignment. I also bought a used trd skid which i still have to paint.

 

Same headlight. Led H7 weak so upgraded HID H7.

 

Added some bf richies today. Love them but have some highway rubbling. Work at a dealer going to have them balance again tomorrow

 

Just do it! I don’t have their bumper but… cutting the bed is easy and fast. And these trucks look better with an HC rear bumper.



And if you plan to wheel hard HC rear bumpers are a must…

Would have crushed a stock rear going up this

Or down this

 

Okay... For this post I made a mistake-this is the Low Profile Bumper, not the high clearance... sorry. So I got some time to look at the boxes this morning. I used the instruction diagram and numbered all the parts. You can lay them all out as they suggest, but they are pretty obvious (or were to me.)



The factory bumper was a PIA to get off... because, I did not know about the pin. Those of you who know, understand why I might have struggled not knowing. For those who don't know, Toyota kindly put a pin on both sides of the bumper hanger in a slotted curlyque thing that prevents it from landing on your head when you take out the bolts. Nice... as long as you know how to do the curlyque to get the bumper off the truck. I strongly urge those who don't know to watch a how to do video on this step... it will save a lot of hair pulling.

I mocked up the first set of parts as directed in the instructions. I even used a trio of washers on one side to allow space for the bumper to be easy to remove. Then I deviated and went ahead several steps as I was unsure about what the author meant about checking true on the parts and really wanted a good look at how the bumper was going to line up before I got to rambunctious welding. Glad I did.





When I set the top plate and front (back?) plates that slot off the D ring we had some significant alignment issues. I spent most of an hour on my back taking these apart, re-assembling, taking them apart and adding washers and then climbing up to check alignment for center. The instructions said to align the top plate with the edge of the front plates but this alignment is predicated on things working further back with the first plates being mounted ( and welded) correctly to the frame. Oh my. What I ended up doing was finding center in the top plate and the tail gate, making some marks and setting up alignment from there. I did have to use one washer in the front set of holes on one side to properly orient the hangers so the top plate centered on the truck. This was a lot of fussing to get the bumper correctly centered and aligned to the truck and frame rails-I used to be a bodyman and frame alignment person, so I had an inkling of potential problems. I am also fussy and want the thing to look nice.
From here I commenced with tacking the shell of the bumper together, I did NOT tack to the D ring extensions binding the thig together just yet as I want to weld it up first. I am planning to use 6010 rod on the back side and wire stitch the front so it can be ground and prepped for powder coating.





More tomorrow!

 

Haven't done it yet.... but going to try and get the new roof rack installed this weekend.
I was looking at the gutter molding on the roof. It looks like it should be 2 pieces... a long piece from the windshield to the back of the cab and a short piece from the back of the cab to the back window... but when I was removing it, it appeared to be a single piece from the windshield to the back window. Although there is a seam, it doesn't want to come apart.
So... is it 1 piece or 2?
OBTW... 2013 DC

 

I want to real bad especially having a DCLB my rear end is always hitting things. my other problems are I carry a full size 33" spare under the bed in stock position. I have realized it would look goofy but I would keep the spare under there when not wheeling then make a bed mount for when I am wheeling so the high clearance actually has a purpose. My garage is barely long enough to fit my truck as is so I cant do a swing out tire carrier. maybe some day if I get a bigger garage.

While I dont have too many nicks, scratches, damage to my truck which is why I dont really want to cut it yet. But the way the the black paint chips off in chunks from rock chips I doubt it will be too long before I am raptor lining it and at that point I have no reason to not cut a high clearance at the same time.

 

Just mount the spare in the bed? I didn’t want a swingout either. And this is a good compromise in my mind.

 

Its one, @geekhouse23 and I did ours 2015 and 2013 and it was one

 

I think swing outs look sick on DCLBs, but I also like to fab some stuff so an in bed mount sounds like a great project.

Edit: Do you keep the spare in the bed 24/7 or do you just put it there when you wheel?

 

Mine was a single piece. 2015 DC.

 

Bye bye dumb cross member, time for new skid.

 

So many different brands to choose from out there! How do you like those? Good quality??

 

Lives in the bed full time. Moving that thing in and out of the bed is a hassle. If you have a swing out you can’t really see out the back anyways either. Mine is mounted drivers side so I can peep out the back corner to check my blind spot when changing lanes.

 

Got it undercoated with NHOU. We’ll see how it holds up but it looks amazing!

 

Mine is centered for the daily grind, and when I go camping I put on the swing away. Nice to have options...

 

Installing RGB Halos on my color matched headlights with clear reflectors and the color matched taillights look clean aswell