Montana's '22 TRD OR [SOLD]

Aw man, I was on the fence about these, like they were on my list for laaater cause I'm trying to chill on buying stuff for the truck. But now I WANT

 

Great truck you have... Any chance you would be willing to give a review of the Ironman lift? Or PM me your feelings about it.
Cheers

 

Have you seen this thread yet? Its pretty active with a good number of folx who’ve been running the kit for a while.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ironman-4x4-foam-cell-pro.427407/

 

Thank you.

 

So, just an update for the build log:

I decided to go with 4.88's from ECGS (Yukons - already assembled). This was my gut feeling originally but I decided early on I wanted to go full send on 5.29's and 35's. Probably better for the savings to keep it "modest" at my current setup w/ 4.88's. Tune coming soon, hopefully this weekend. Gears should be done within 2 months. Nitro originally had an entire year turn around on their 5.29's. ECGS is sending me everything in 3-4 weeks and all I have to do is ship the cores back to get the majority of my money back. Simple, and more trust worthy than any local shop (IMHO) doing gears. I have a ton of new stuff going on slowly but surely (did you just call me shirley?) but with the weather right now it's not making it easy. Everything is melting and flooding but still freezing at night. Terrific. Worse part of Montana seasons right here.

I got my tint redone. 5% rear and 15% front. It was too light from the factory and I was trying to be modest. The headlights on this truck are so good I don't even notice it. At my previous ride height in the subaru I traded in and the shitty headlights, I couldn't see crap at night. But this ride height and lights in the taco make it easy through the 15 on the fronts. No issues.

I got some DRT Fabrication LCA skid's and attempted to color match the OEM TRD skid. It's close enough for the girls I date. Those will go on soon, but I had no idea you have to drill one hole in the LCA's slightly bigger to accommodate their screws. Not too sure how I feel about this, since I can't paint the LCA's right now in this weather to prevent rusting after drilling.

I am also pulling off the AVS Hoodflector II and swapping for an AVS Bugflector II. It's more "practical". Actually creates a lip on the hood and I'll just paint it matte to match the window visors and fender flares etc etc.

Lastly - I think... I'll be swapping the fog light lenses to white just to test and see how I like it or if it's bearable in the constant fog where I live. Why not? I dunno... I hate money... Oh, Cali-Raised bed tie downs installed too.

 

Hey! You are not drilling a new hole. Only opening an existing hole to use stronger/bigger hardware. The amount of raw metal exposed can easily be touched up with a paint pen.

 

Yep, got it! I was going to try a smaller bolt. Went out and sized everything up. It works but barely threads through. It's just the number 1 bolt. I would have liked to see at least 1 or 2 threads - but it does grab and with the nylock nut should be just fine. But I'm going to hold off on mounting until I have them powedercoated to match the TRD skid. Going to get an estimate tomorrow. Tbh, I'm just holding off on drilling until it dries up here. The paint won't dry between daily drives. So the smaller bolt is temporary.

I'll tag you once it's complete. They look great though! The welding and quality is amazing.

 

@Montana_Actual , enjoying your build thread , keep posting

 

Ordered 2 AVS Hoodflector II's and each one had "stretch marks" all across the front of them. Maybe scratches is a better word, but they looked like shit. Returned the first one for an exchange and gave up after the 2nd one had the same thing. Either people don't care, don't notice, or I got two crappy ones in a row. The packaging was terrible. Instead of wrapping the glossy black bug deflector in a simple adhesive or styrofoam packaging, it's wrapped in a hard abrasive plastic and just shoved into the box loosely. Both of them were this way. Considering it's half the cost of all the other ones, that's probably why. So, no go on that swap and I'll just keep what I have.

I will be selling a set of Diode Dynamic SS3 sports w/ combo lenses in both yellow and white. They will have the brackets to mount to ditch light brackets, but no actual ditch light hood mounts. No wiring kit either. If you are interested PM me. I will be listing them in the next couple days.

Hopefully the weather allows me to pull that lower grille off and remount the light bar behind it in the next couple days too. I also sent the DRT LCA's to a local powder coating shop. I'm kind of over taking pics in this weather, so I'll wait for a sunny day when all this stuff is done. Other than those things, I have some under the rear bumper Diode Dynamic C1's with a red backlight that need to go on. I also bought some lens tint rattle can and I am a little skeptical but I want to tape off the reflector portion of the headlights and try it out. Then maybe hit the turn indicators inside the side mirrors too and possibly the 3rd brake light as well - maybe. Lastly, the OEM toyota exhaust tip is TRASHED. One winter. I'll be cutting the exhaust off just before the spare. Tired of looking at it. If I do all these things I might as well black out the center caps in the rims and get some black lug nuts too - because those were supposed to be the ones that Discount Tire gave me at first, but I didn't check them and when I picked up the truck from Toyota, I was kind of impressed with them not being black. Now I am considering blacking it all out... not certain though.

One last thing is the Predator steps. The actual step portion that faces the front of the truck is destroyed after one winter. Paint is all kinds of chipped. I am going to get with the dealer and see if they can replace them, but I don't want predator steps. I am hoping they will just allow me to cover the difference on some C4 0 degree sliders. I think I can manage without the steps.

 

DRT skids are up



I also forgot to post that I swapped my phone mount for a wireless one, no more cables anywhere. Everything is behind the dash.



I took the cig lighter and replaced it with a USB one then hid it behind the dash. I use that cup holder all the time and pulling my cup's out would hit the USB cables even on a "flush" mounted one. Right angle cables helped but there was still the issue of a visible cable and hiding wiring. I didn't want to drill anything so this was the best method. I don't need any more ports and if I do, there is the stock USB one.

Then I went for a drive to ID and took a couple pics

 

Love the build. Front-end friday worthy for sure.

 

You guys are gonna love this next mod... Coming at the end of this month, possibly mid next month. It's a secret until then.

 

[SOLD]

 

Well that was fast

 

Wait, what did I miss??

Well, besides it looking like you sold you truck.

 

LOL what happened??

 

Hey!

I like those beefier wheel moldings!

And that grill looks great in the front.

 

So uh what about the next mod?

 

And what's the new avi? Did he trade it in for a Ford Fusion?