drizzohs '21 off-road build

Suspension arrived yesterday with a fresh revalve from ADS...

HOLY SHIT THIS RIDES IMMENSELY BETTER!

It is absolutely what I was expecting when I initially ordered it and I am beyond stoked. It's so compliant on the road while still providing feedback and I can absolutely feel the progressive suspension valving working now. It's similar to the Offroad factory feel but better on the small hits and the big ones, they knocked it out with this revalve job. Great support from the guys over @ ADS!

It's nice to finally like my truck. Now I need to get the Crown Performance extended brake lines on and see how this does in the dirt.

 

AC drain relocation mod done last night. Super easy and way too cheap not to do. Only 1k on this now and the bottom of the frame in this area was already covered with white residue from the ac condensation. Glad I did it.

Link to OP: Rust on Frame with A/C drain mod fix | Tacoma World

 

Thanks to the generosity of another awesome TW member, I was finally able to scoop up one of the elusive black Meso TRD start/stop buttons last night.

Never though I'd be able to have one, so happy to have found one of these. Perfect touch to my build . @tclavell is the dopeness thank you dude! Holler when you want to do those UCA's!

 

Finally got around to installing the Crown Performance extended brake lines and ATE TYP200 fluid that's been sitting in my parts room for months. Also I received the Powerstop K137 front brake upgrade kit for xmas so I threw that on as well. Absolutely hated how the stock brakes felt with their complete lack of bite, so now the brakes feel like you would have thought they would on a brand new vehicle. Happy with the upgrade.

Still need to find the time to paint the calipers and drums, but this will get me by for now.

Notes: The rear lines are pretty awful to install - there's just no room to get the line wrench in there to torque it down properly. And bleeding the rear brakes requires the truck to be 'on' for all electrical features - that was fun to figure out. Once the electronic rear brake unit is enabled then it it shoots the brake fluid out like a fire hose. Made the flush no the new fluid pretty quick. Felt so weird flushing out 4 month old fluid.



EDIT: Have swapped these pads out for the Powerstop Z36 Extreme's as I needed an even bigger performance increase. Z23 are nice for stock tires, but Z36 is much better if you're needing an upgrade with bigger rubber.

 

This looks great. I installed the MESO MGM items but am not overly thrilled with the finish everywhere and prefer the stock gunmetal color. I was considering painting the original chrome ones and now I think I will. What paint/color did you end up using for this? TIA

 

Thanks y0. This looks 10000000x better than the 'mgm' finishes from MESO. I appreciate their products, but these missed the mark for me.

Anyway, I used the DupliColor high heat primer (it's what I already had in the garage), DupliColor Perfect Match

$17 BTY1619 7 Perfect Match Automotive Spray Paint – Toyota Magnetic Gray Metallic, 1G3 – 8 oz. Aerosol Can

BTY1619 paint, and the new DupliColor 1K clear. Used some 320 grit on all the surfaces after dechroming what needed chrome removal, and finally giving everything a final wipe with isopropyl. Then did 3-4 light coats of each layer 1 day at a time before letting the finished product cure an additional 1.5 days or so before installation. My tC is MGM and this is about a perfect match to that. One thing that helped is using some painters tape looped with the sticky side out in order keep these lightweight pieces from blowing around while painting.

Hope this helps.

I would have loved to match them to the stock gunmetal accent color as well, but could not find any paint that i knew for sure would be a perfect match, so just did everything in the MGM. Piano black would have looked clean also.

 

RockyMounts Driveshaft Track's installed last night. Now I can finally start using the truck to take the bikes places.

 

Thanks! Good call on the tape to hold it down while spraying. I had a feeling that was the Duplicolor MGM color, it turned out great. I looked at it a few days ago. There were a couple other colors (GM/FORD) that were also close but I'm cheap and didn't want to spend the ~$15 guessing it was a better match after it dried. This helps.

 

I hadn't thought about the sound deadening in the tailgate. Good idea! Truck looks awesome btw!

 

Thanks homes! Tailgate deadening helped a little bit. Nothing drastic but closes with a hair more purpose now.

Can't stop driving the truck since the suspension went back in, such a nice place to be.

 

Finally found some time this week to paint the calipers, remove the sway bar, and take this out for an off-road shakedown. With the sway gone this finally rides the way I've been wanting it to and I am absolutely not going to miss it. The suspension is more than capable of handling itself without it. This truck is dope.

Some pics from today's adventure:

 

OEM Bed Pad and @TMCmakes Wheel Deal mtb wheel mounts installed today. Obviously the bed mat is great but these wheel mounts are super rad. Fit and finish are fantastic and the all black powder coated hardware is sleek and low key when the wheel is not mounted. Finally have a secure place to put the front wheels when I take the bikes out now! Thanks for making these!

Link to thread in case anyone else is interested: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mtb-wheel-hauler-contest-name-this-thing.711725/



And while I'm praising forum members, I also want to give a shout out to @Nimble9 from Squareone Creations for making these slick frame caps. These are also very high quality and the fit is top notch. Even without a steel bumper these look great! Installation was a breeze, thanks buddy!

Link to his thread for the frame caps: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/squareone-creations-frame-caps.692901/

 

Finally achieved complete interior dechromization last night. Color-matching the steering wheel emblem to the rest of the kit was the last part I need to finish up. Went MGM for everything because satin black is too boring and red is too ricey, lol. In hindsight, doing everything piano black, super white or bronze to match my TE's could have been clean too.

Also threw on the complete interior glass/plastic cover kit from Screen ProTech last week. Installed pretty easily and really cannot tell it's on there which is nice. These cover the gauge cluster, headunit screen and shifter selector.

Lastly I popped on the TRD Radiator cap and AZ's version of a black license plate, so +25hp easy there.

 

I was going to get one of those "black" plates, but the custom one I wanted is taken for the next 2 years by someone else.

 

So the truck isn't even close to loud with the Nitto's, but there is a little more highway noise than I prefer with how often I end up being on the phone while driving, so I deadened the back wall with some Second Skin Damplifier Pro this weekend. I've used a few different brands in the past and this definitely has the thickest foil and it is incredibly sticky. I only notice a small difference in road noise so far but I am able to run the radio at a lower volume with just this one panel done so it must be helping (usually 35+ and today was 25-30). I have enough leftover to do the rear doors with this kit too it looks like, but I am waiting for some replacement door clips to show up before I yank those panels off because those clips love to break. Should have them done before the week is done so I'll update in my next post how much both sections helped (then again when I do the front doors - need more deadening).

With 1 sheet on:



Done @ ~4.5 sheets:

 

Whoa I didn't see this post until right now. I've been trying to come up with a vanity plate since before I even got the truck but everything I wanted was either taken or excessively cheesy so I just ordered one without personalization. The plate style is what I wanted most - the standard plates are so bright lol.

 

So first off, the RXT leaf pack finally feels like it's starting to break in after about 700 miles (~2 months since it's not the daily). Hoping it continues to get better. Still needs to settle about 1/2" to be where it was advertised as sitting.

Found some time Saturday to deaden both the rear doors. They each took 3 full sheets of the Second Skin Damplifier Pro with very minimal overlap. The back end sounds quieter and it got rid of a rear door rattle I had, but it didn't do anything to help with the terrible rear speaker level, so experiment was only halfway a success. Need to grab about another 6 sheets to do the front doors now.

 

So what's the plan/wish list for audio? Speakers and such...

 

I haven't decided yet. I might just do the dual sub OEM+ setup for ease of install.. But on my daily I am running Focal CF components w/ a JL Stealthbox and 2 amps and absolutely love it. Price is pretty similar between the two setups, but IDK if I want to completely rewire another vehicle.

 

I bet that sounds nice. I don't want to spend a ton on audio, so I was leaning towards the kicker key 200.4, focal ps165f fronts, and focal rcx165 rear. Maybe the JL stealthbox powered by the key 500.1 as well.