What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

Welp, 1/4 isn’t bad . Waiting on the other three and my wheels should be here tomorrow. I went with 265 70/17s and the TRD pro rep 17x8.5 et 0 in bronze. Hoping to have them on by next weekend.

 

Door bowl LEDs from the company which shall not be named. A bit longer to install than I had in my head as I was hoping to do it without popping the door panels, but they're in, they work and they're in and work.

Excited to see what they look like tonight.

This is the ice blue, they're a bit closer of a match in person to the OEM lighting.

 

Took it ice fishing..well, to the shore, not on the ice.

 

Today was bath day. And I did a first-ever clay bar.

 

Looks great!

Did you clay bar all surfaces?

I did my hood I'm looking for a nice day with about 4 hours to do the whole truck I'm guessing it'll take 4 hours.

 

Almost 60 degrees here today. So I took the opportunity to install my blackout stickers for my factory wheels. The machined aluminium really stood out. Took about an hour and a half but included a tire rotation. Working with them flat on a work bench was way easier than doing on the ground and vertically. It needed the rotation anyway.
Before
After

Was not hard to do. They pass the 5 ft viewing test (or the good enough to post to a message board)

 

I did. It really didn't take too long (unless I didn't do it right lol.) I was planning to apply Turtle Wax Ceramic Spray but thunderstorms rolled in before I could get to it.

 

Installed my Christmas gift.
THULE Roof Rack.

 

Did you do a polish and wax after? Clay bar can introduce fine scratches into the paint while removing surface contaminants. It's always a good idea to do a polish after then a wax or other sealer to add protection.

4 hours to clay bar the truck? With a good clay bar and lube it shouldn't take more than 15-20 min to clay the whole truck (provided you don't have mobility issues). I'm really partial to the Chemical Guys clay bar products, they work great together. It really doesn't take that long, just do a decent wash first to remove the big stuff and a quick wash after. Then polish (another 25-35 min or so depending on cure time) followed by a top coat.

 

Ooooh… Fancy!

Now you gotta go goose ‘er into the cabbage to test out the new toys!

 

Wow it takes me at least an hour to just wash my truck! Clay bar takes another hour and still another hour to polish and another hour to wax, clearly, I'm doing something wrong!

 

The only time it's taken me that long is before I found the CG clay bar luber which actually stays wet on the paint. The Meguiar's kit is awful in comparison. I also chop the bar into fourths - bar seems to last longer this way and easier to work with. It's about a 10 min process to clay my tC with this, truck takes longer because it's huge, but still not bad at all. I do detailing as a side gig though, so maybe I'm a little faster than most.

 

Got my meso map lights and took a day time photo of my behind the grill lights. I ordered some 1.5" aluminum spacers to push the lights closer to the grill which will also make space for my horns, I had to flip them backwards to make space for the light bracket and they are really close to the radiator.

Edit: Just installed the map lights, I am so glad Meso listened to the customers and gave these lights a memory function to stay red or white.
Super easy install took maybe 15 minutes because I was going slow to make sure I didn't break any plastic parts.

 

I did the clay bar/Ceramic spray back in August for the first time and then applied a 2nd coat of the Turtle wax ceramic in September. It was well worth it. I applied it to everything. I was really happy with the results. Never had used it before. Still holding up after some very crappy winter weather and road salt. The second coat really did wonders. Even applied 3-4 weeks apart.

 

I for one would love to see some pictures of the spacers you used to push the lights closer to the grill.
My concern has been the lights being too close to the grill and losing cooling. I wish someone with a scan
gauge or ultragauge would do a before and after test.

 

Installed Heated Seats. Actually did the elements a few weeks ago. It was just way too cold outside to do the wiring.

 

As they sit right now they are 5" from the back of the grill so I feel 1.5" closer shouldn't hurt anything. My actual concern is putting more stress on the mounting points of the bracket by pushing the weight of the lights out further.
But once I get the hardware I will take more pictures with the grill off and what it looks like finished.

 

Damn, I wish. Started to snow here mid November, and that was my last wash so about 6 weeks ago. Same with my wifes RAV. They are both pretty black.

I actually have not used a brush or mitt on my 2016 Taco in the last year, just a pressure wand to remove the gunk after every off road trip. Been doing this for 4 years so far, and it seems no worse for wear. Still holds it's shine and no rust underneath. I pressure wash for 30 minutes including the entire undercarriage and wheel wells. Found a pressure wash station that is almost as good as a hand wash with bucket and soap.

Roads are still too slushy and messy, so no point doing it yet and the pressure wash station is about 10 miles away. So it's all messed up by the time I get home.

We are supposed to see some temps above freezing soon, so the roads might start to dry up a bit. Maybe sometime in January....

 

Tinted the front windows, bed LEDS and a screen protector are the only new things for a while.

I need to order a Bakflip mx4, but we needed new couches and that ate up some play money today.

I think I'm going to do a small lift at some point. Most likely Bilstein.