Crashnburn80's 1st Gen TRD Double Cab Build

My 2nd Gen was literally perfect for my build style and purchased new. Many years of work went into that truck, with parts that are no longer available. TRD supercharger, TRD Baja suspension, rare VIN locked TRD 4Runner rock warrior wheels, my favorite MGM color with a unicorn deal to swap to to the TRD Sport scoop hood and color matched rear bumper, and much more. I’d spend years chasing just repeating what I had already built, only to come up with something not as clean and a step down compared to what I had. Time to let that go and move onto new projects. The 2nd Gen is now in @JasonLee hands.

 

I seriously envy your levelheaded reasonableness and acceptance level. Genuinely.

It's nowhere near the same level of investment but in much the same vein I do feel your pain; I had a 2008 Scion xD RS 1.0, #847 of 2000 units, of which only 500 were manual like mine. I bought it not quite new, had approx 1300 miles on it but I loved that little hatch, put all the TRD goodies I could on it, washed and wax weekly, reasonable wheels and subtle touches to my taste and it was just so simple and CLEAN, unfortunate life circumstances lead to me selling it, I tracked it down a few years later but the owner after me neglected the hell out of it, had been in an accident, paint peeling, and they still wouldn't sell it. Hurt like hell not going to lie. I bought another several years later but it just wasn't the same, I was constantly chasing the dream and was never happy with it, ended up selling it too when I got the Tacoma.

I still miss the original not going to lie but it can never be again and god lord is that hard to swallow for me.

All that's left of her are grand memories of simpler time, a few pictures, and what I stole off her before I had to say goodbye:

 

Exactly. Attempting to rebuild something from the past just isn’t the same and never will be. It stings, but…

 

I'm enjoying my 2nd gen journey. Don't think I'd have started it if it weren't for crashypants.

 

Nice truck mate. I just got a 2.5" lift and will pick up the 285 Wildpeaks to match. What are the settings of your installed tires? I have little clue about offsets and spacers so feel free to educate. I want a slightly wider stance maybe 1" or ."5 pass the wheel well. Subtle but enough to notice.

 

The stock 4runner and stock 1st Gen Tacoma wheels have +15 offset.


More offset pulls the wheel in, less pushes it out. I added 1” spacers (25.4mm) to mine pushing them out further than stock, so the offset is now 15mm -25.4mm = -10.4mm offset.

I started with 1.25” wheel spacers on stock wheels, which sounds more like what you want. It gives a little poke to be noticeably not stock without being so much it looks out of place. See pics in the original post with the black wheels.

 

New replacement OEM wheel with a much better refinishing job then the bad one I had got, however the new OEM center cap still didn’t want to clip in. Annoyed. So I left the wheel in the sun for a few hours on my deck and put the center cap in the freezer. It still didn’t want to push in but one good hit with a rubber mallet and things were set. I’ll get it mounted this week.

 

I'll have to pull up the pictures of my 2nd gen with those wheels, honestly one of my favorite OEM wheels from any year, they look just the right amount of rugged and sporty.

Just wish they made them in 17's to clear big brakes.

Glad you were able to work with the seller to get it corrected, more or less.

 

Even 2nd gen's look good in them (Feat chasing dreams in the back there)





Only other pic I could find heading out to the tire shop to get things moved around after some craigslisting.




Sold the 5 Stars on CL too, needed 17's to clear planned brakes and only had the 5 stars on for a month maybe before I got these FJ Steelies and KM2's.

 

The badly refinished passenger front wheel has been swapped out for a properly refinished wheel, which now fits the center cap. So much better. The previous wheel was so bad the guys at the tire shop actually remembered it commenting it stood out because they couldn’t read the stamped writing on the wheel.

 

You still need to do a 90s jdm wheel. None of this oem stuff

 

Not the style that is being perused in this build. This is more of a preservation/restoration build of what is becoming a classic truck.

 

Would you run salvaged diffs?

There were factory 4.56 diffs. They were used in 4-cylinder automatic 4x4 Tacomas and 4Runners. I've managed to find a few in the junkyard here--two fronts and an 8.4" rear.

Front diffs are attainable with a bit of luck and persistence. I don't think you'll find a 4.56 e-locker (4-cylinders rarely, if ever, got e-lockers), but you're sufficiently cheap and motivated, maybe you could swap the ring and pinion from a donor open diff to your existing e-locker?

 

I spent a lot more than 1600 to regear

 

Fine..... the new car better get some TEs then

 

I've done basic diff swaps before as a cheap regear DIY solution, I don't see an issue with it assuming the swapped units are just as strong as the outgoing units. I wouldn't swap a used ring and pinion into a diff though, gears don't cost that much, the bulk of the expense from a regear is labor. If going through the trouble of regearing via changing gears in an existing diff, I'd use new gears.

 

Hah, I was mostly thinking out loud with the ring-and-pinion swap idea. Might be interesting as an exercise (to try setting up gears on the cheap) but not all that practical.

Sounds like a factory 4.56 would meet your criteria (I see no reason they'd be weaker than a remanufactured/regeared 4.56, unless it was specifically built to be extra-beefy?) then. Like I said, I've got an extra 4.56 front third, so shoot me a message if you're thinking of going that route.

 

Love walking into a garage with the strong smell of a freshly waxed truck.

 

The Tacoma has now been relieved from daily driver status by the new Model 3 Performance.

 

That's a lot of red. Let's start the betting on days to next speeding ticket?