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

Ah okay. I've been hesitant because of the products that exist out there. I used clearcoat in the past and it left a load of orange peel so I won't do that again. Will give cerakote a try.

 

No orange peel with the Cerakote for sure. The two wipes they give you is plenty. I even rubbed the extra on my rear lights, as a preventative measure. Cant tell i put anything on there. Forgot about the fogs, should have done them too.

 

For anyone looking for a recovery hook, these are on sale.

https://www.extremeterrain.com/redrock-4x4-tow-hook-kit-black.html

 

I printed out some cheap knockoffs of the expensive AC knobs. They aren't as nice as the $80 set but they cost me about $1 to make and I draw the line at $80 knobs in an 18YO truck.

 

Took ‘er fishing. Conditions were outright bad, but wanted to get some fish slime on a new rod. So, mission accomplished despite 30mph winds and fishing a falling tide.

 

That's not what she said.

 

Found a pair of scratch-and-dent sliders on a decent discount from Metal Tech and shipped them cross country to the east coast. They arrived with minor, cosmetic scratches in the previous owner’s applied paint. I figure their whole purpose is to get scratched, so I repaint them using rattlecan primer, rustoleum and some extra layers of plastic-dip on the steps.

Install was pretty easy, used a motorcycle lift to hold them in place and did it all myself.

(Pics always make me realize how dirty my truck is)

 

Those look more like $4000 knobs

 

Snail armor tailgate panel. Love it!

 

A while ago my 3/16" aluminum bracket for my oil catch can gave up the ghost at the lower bend, it did seem to have a small amount of flex and vibration when the motor was running and that's where all the forces were concentrated.

Aluminum doesn't do so great with bending and vibration so it was admittedly not totally unexpected but I figured 3/16" would have been enough.

Apparently not.

Finally got around to remaking it, this time in 304L stainless 1/4" plate.

It has no vibration or flex it it at all.

It's not rusted the kind of bronze color is from heating it to 450°ish letting it slowly cool in the sun and then when it reached ambient I froze it and let it warm up slowly hopefully that relieved the internal stresses from working and forming.

I radiused all corners to reduce the force multiplication sites I expect this one to hold up quite well.

Significantly more stout.











Man I hate working stainless, ate two bandsaw blades, 5 drill bits and a 4" cut off wheel.



Aluminum was so much easier!

 

Had to give this a like.

 

I quoted this picture.

Happy Friday!

 

Was not happy with the way the mcneil +2 bedsides looked behind the rear tire so I trimmed them a little once I got my mazulla rear bumper.

Still wasnt happy with my first cut so I increased the length of cut and it looks great!

Before:


With mazulla bumper and first cut:


Now:

 

That looks better. What did you cut them with?

I’m still waiting to install them. I’ve been working every weekend.

 

Added Alcan Springs

Writeup here.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/alcan-springs.761019/

 

New Hampshire Oil Undercoating treatment from a dealer at Kalispell, MT March 29 evening and picked up the truck March 30 morning. Glacier Undercoating owner, guy, explained that they plastic bag the exhaust system before shooting the product, so there will be no odor of product burning from the exhaust and entering the cabin. He was pleased when I told him that I'd removed the spare before my five-hour drive to have the frame treated, and due to the low miles and having been garage kept, the hot water pressure wash cleaning ($100) that I was prepared for was not required. $275 (still no sales tax in good ol' Montana, has been a saying there for many years). I will be typing up the small print list of area Uber drivers that I found at my hotel shortly before I was to pick up the truck, which should be helpful. Nice folks and this is a sideline business as their primary work is in construction. Guy went through NHOU's extensive training program, and they've practiced on their own vehicles quite bit before going public. We talked about making their location easier to find without generating too much demand, so future signage will likely consist of larger address numbers on the road frontage. Great experience and a nice spring break trip, breaking up the driving so that the first leg of five hours was the longest.

 

Just a regular-ole zizz wheel. Stuck a piece of painters tape on there and followed the line, its actually very easy to cut a straight line because its so soft.

 

Installed new blinkers in the mirrors. Both the old ones were broken, so I went with smoked, sequential LEDs. I like how they turned out. I still need to respray the covers, and the inner plastic piece on the passenger side is missing a chunk. Looks a lot better than it did, though.

 

where did you find these? I’ve only seen them for 3rd gens.