Thads Cement Grey Long Bed Build

5/21/2023

It was detail day on Sunday. After paint, and years of not having time/a garage to make the truck look good, I finally do. 2 step paint correction, then sealed/waxed on top. I did start to burn through a bit on the passenger fender where I ran into the bike, SAD. I also scratched the seam of my hood with the wiper blades cause I'm an idiot. But what's done is done. Touch up paint (maybe) and move on.

I fully deep cleaned the interior too which was looking really nasty. Then on Tuesday night I waxed the tent shell and wiped down the engine bay. Wednesday came I got tires re-balanced and rotated and damn, it drives like a totally new truck again. Thanks @Discount Tire for the stellar service... again.

Most of the time I feel meehhhh about my truck. Its just kinda a whatever, base TRD OR LB, "its just my pickup," but looking at it in the discount tire parking lot and hopping in and driving home I really remembered why its actually pretty sick, it looks great, drives great, its perfectly reliable, goes anywhere you point it, simple to work on, and got 19.2 MPG on the way to the coast last weekend, loaded down with all our shit. It really does kill it, a lot more than I give it credit for. Oh, and it fits in my garage. I'll take my 3G unit over any 4G all day long.















Hovercraft mode




This stuff is the bomb.com... also has an SCS S6 on the can

 

@4xThad thank you for your business and support. Thank you for allowing us to work on such a fantastic looking rig.

 

Don't boost his ego too much now

 

lemme try on your -38's with 295's

 

They're here waiting

 

Ill see you this summer. Ill need a CMC to turn with those wider wheels..

 

6/18/2023

Summer is finally here and we've been rippin dirt roads, campin, hikin, bikin, paddlin, and, of course, drinkin! See ya next weekend!

 

Great build thread and glad yo see you're doing well Thaddy boy! We gotta do some pedalin and wheelin again one these days! Also ironic that you have a Taco now after you helped convince me to buy a Tundy lol

 

9/17/2023
Sheesh its been a min. Summer is always hectic with work and trips and just all the stuff happening I havent had a change to post any updates although nothing has really changed. Trucks got about 34,500 miles on it so its about due for another rotation/oil change. So, thats fun. We've been on some good trips and but havent camped as much as we usuaslly do. we planned to camp a ton in august but fire season has been pretty brutal for us this year. there were a few days in late august with the AQI in 450-500 range so that really kept us inside. Here are a few pics from the last couple months. We were in Yosemite for a few days, and camping a bit close to town.

Fire Season has been pretty bad around here. We havent been so into camping if we cant have fire so we just end up not going. We did camp on Friday night finally even as the smoke was rolling in. It had blown out by morning and we got the dog out for a hike. It was real nice to get out for a bit... but we headed home around 11 and I spent the afternoon fixing my fence. Homeowership is great!


MT. Bachelor Warehouse that apparently is gonna turn into a Woodward here soon


Classic costco parking lot







South Lake Tahoe



This place was a zoo

Camping with @betterbuckleup



Cant forget the In'n'Out Pic







Cruisin around near home

 

12/02/23:

Got some fall updates. Trucks been a workhorse recently. We snagged a free hot tub on facebook marketplace no cover but it was only 4 years old and in pretty good shape. we jumped on it, grabbed a trailer from uhaul and drug it across these folk's back deck. Thing weights like 600# dry. We spent the next day workin. Bought a yard of crushed rock for the tub base and threw that in the same uhaul trailer and built a pad for it. The truck was uhappy about the weight but it did, willingly, and we got the tub installed! love good FBMP finds! Now we've been making that side of the property a whole lot nicer and fixing things up because we spend so much time on that side. we'll finish the project this spring once winter is mostly over.













Also, I was changing the oil in mid October and I totally roached all the palls off the oil filter cap when I went to change the filter. That sucked. I had to put oil in with an old filter. It was actually scheduled to go to a shop the following day for a brake/trans/power steering fluid flush anyway. So they fixed my mess up, but still it was pretty frustrating. I also changed my cabin air filter and engine air filter. My engine air filter had a ton of grass and dirt in it, so that was fantastic.

Next project was our pantry/mud room/laundry room. we ripped up the old vinyl flooring, tiled, and built new cabinets, not too much truck stuff with this one but we did have to run up to PDX to pick up cabinets. Thank god for long beds!





Also, my lease was scheduled to end on 12/08/2023. My mileage is fine since the trucks got a touch over 36k on it, but since you all know how "stock" it is, the truck is not exactly returnable... so I wrote the check and bought it out. She's mine! I should have the title in 2 weeks. I need to figure out what plate to get. Oregon has some cool ones and some that suck! What do you guys think I should get? we have the blue Pacific Wonderland plate on the 4Runner. I was so stoked to pay it off, that I got the mod itch again and decided to axel dump the exhaust haha. Ive been meaning to do it for a while but just finally got around to it. Looks way better and you can hear it more when step on the gas. But its not loud at all. It might rumble a bit more on start up, but thats just from echoing against the garage floor.









I also ordered some Diode Dynamics SS3 pro fogs on black Friday. Whoops... they should be here tomorrow. Stay tuned for that install.

 

12/05/2023

Following my exhaust chop we went skiing and Christmas tree hunting. It was pouring rain at home and was dumping at Bachelor. The snow was great for opening day! Skied some good runs and was out there for like 2-3 hours. Came back to 3" on top of the truck. Was a great day! Then we headed down the mountain to cut Christmas trees and we properly buried the truck. Sunk'r up to the frame rails headed up a snowy road to help a guy in a stuck Ram 3500 out. He was pretty unprepared

 

12/07/23:

I folded. I bought some SS3 pros from @memario1214 to replace my fog lights and installed em last night. Install was pretty easy but I did take the grill out which was completely necessary since it was a pain to pull the fender liners back. Also my SDHQ light bar grill mount made pulling the old fogs out really tough. They were bigger than the SS3s and at one point I thought I was going to have to take out the mount/bar to fit the fogs into place. Overall the install was pretty easy. But aiming and setting them into their correct position was not easy. The outside set screw on the fog is impossible to reach with the fog mounted into the bumper. I kid you not, i installed em in the garage, then reinstalled in the garage, then reinstalled in my alley with them on to get them to sit right in the bumper. It was a super quick install, but I had to do it 3 times to aim the lights right.















Holy shit these things are bright. Im not sure how these are SAE legal.. the general bend population was unhappy with me this morning on the way to work. I got a few dirty looks and some old guy shielded his eyes. few guys hit their brights and they got the bar and brights. It was also snowing this morning and the SS3s cut through the snow really well. I shoulda done this a long time ago!


Lows only lol

 

You prob have them aimed too high if you're getting flashed from oncoming traffic. Looks like they're set at the same height as headlights in that neighborhood picture. Fogs are supposed to be focused on the road down low at bumper level and no higher

 

They are aimed slightly high. i had to find a happy medium, getting them to sit flush with the bumper but also aiming them down

 

12/30/2023:

Officially official! I own it, its got Oregon plates! The DVM was real easy. In and out in 35min.

 

@4xThad which tires do you like better, the Goodyear Duratrac or the Falken Wildpeaks? Congrats on paying the Taco off.

 

The OG Duratracs are hard to beat. They're light, they're great in the snow, and off the pavement, they have reasonably good looks. I'm bummed they don't come in a 285/75/17 (34") as I would like to size up soon so my option is a 295/70/17

The Falken is a much better street and snow tire than the Duratrac but they don't look as good in my opinion and they're heavier.

I prefer the Duratrac on my rig and the Falkens are great for the fiance's rig. I have been thinking about going with a Toyo RT Trail next, but after my most recent snow and ice storm, I need a snow rated tire So the OG Duratracs are here to stay!

 

@4xThad thank you for the input.

 

01/07/2024:

This is something I have been meaning to do for about two years at this point. I've had a Diode Dynamics SS3 bar behind the grill for about two year and I actually just rant the wiring/toggle switch for it underneath my drivers side floor mat. I didn't want to drill a hole in my dash for a button that I knew eventually would not last long term. Initially I figured I would order a button pretty quickly and change up the wiring but clearly that didn't happen. On Christmas day I ordered up a switch from cruiser heads to use up one of the blanks in my lower dash/upper center console. My trucks a base OR so I got lots of blanks lol.

Anyway I grabbed some butt connectors at Ace, cut the old connectors off, connected the wires as i thought they should go with electrical tape just to make sure my wiring was correct before I sealed the deal-it was. I used those butt connectors to connect the CH4x4 button to the wiring and heat shrunk it all together. Then I wrapped it up tight with some electrical tape.





I did not wire the backlight to the brake light relay. I honestly didn't want to mess with the trucks factory wiring too much. So the button has a backlight when its on only. Then I pulled the dash trim bezel around the HVAC system and stereo out. Its real simple. Just yank on it straight out, and then i removed the head unit and rested it on the shifter.



Next I popped both blanks out down low to figure out which one I wanted to use. I chose the blank on the far left, I can reach the button easy if my hand is either on the shifter or near my knee. I still have a blank in the middle. If I add any more buttons I will likely move the ECT power button over to the middle and use its spot for another switch.



There is not tons of space under the dash and my hands do not fit back there at all. It took way more fenagling and time to get the wiring up into its spot and connected to the button. My right hand was pretty cut up afterwards.

I quickly zip ties the extra wiring up under the dash and replaced that middle blank and screwed the head unit back into place. Thankfully there are pins back in the dash to set the right elevation. Then I popped the dash trim back into place and we were wrapped up.