What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

My Irish grandmother was raised with the late 1800-s attitude towards England ... cannot blame her. During WWII several neighborhood boys went to fight. Several returned earlier than one of them ... explained he was delayed because of his marriage to a British girl (it was not true, it was a joke). Poor kid could not even get her to explain why she would not talk to him. It was eventually worked out, but ...

 

What mount is that for your Auxbeam? That's the last missing item I need to do my Auxbeam 8 gang install. Any tips, etc on Auxbeam install? Looks great, Thanks

 

I used 2, 1” ram ball mounts. It is temp installed with double back gorilla tape so I can verify I like the position before drilling into the dash. I did make a small adapter plate to fix one of the ram balls to the back of the auxbeam then just matched drilled everything and countersunk the holes for the mount. I don’t have any real good pictures of the process or the finished product. I could always take some later if you’re interested

 

Got the front door windows tinted to match rears. The rear windows weren't actually tinted the way it was explained to me. Or was added on after the truck was built by the dealership. In any case the door glass and backlite all match.

 

1st thing I did was get the windows tinted.

 

Thanks @MESO for the replacement led puddle pods. One had few dead chips and the other one completely dead.

 

Got her sanded down and topcoated this afternoon to match the rear bumper and sliders w Seymour MRO high soldis spray can flat/satin black after putting an industrial primer on them.. ready for winch mount and diode dynamics LED bar.. I’m also pleasantly surprised at how good the factor 55 dark gray fairlead looks with the flat black I almost went with different fairlead bc they didn’t offer black i figured it’d drive me ape shit not matching.. also decided to give Open Road 4x4 winches a try and with the tiny difference in price between its 9.5k winch and 13k winch with 218:1 gears and 6hp series wound copper motor.. loved the reviews I saw on performance and it’s not bad looking neither imo. So I went big bc the control box does relocate.. I read these are built in same factory as smittybuilt winches(I realize that doesn’t mean it has exact same internals as smittybuilt) during my research on the winch I wanted to get.. 13k is definitely overkill but I have it if ever needed is the way I look at that with $70 price difference in models.

 

Nice work! That looks awesome.

 

Thanks man I appreciate it

 

OME lift with medium Dakars,4004 and 20mm trim packers in front. And some new AT4W Wildpeaks in C load range.

 

Frank’s Fluid Film - I spray that s#!* on everything! (..because it works..)

 

Really want to pull the trigger on this...but the lack of review, as well as this one review regarding audio has me hesitant.



Please report back with your experience.

 

Oddly enough the first owner got the front windows tinted when he bought the truck. Which I knew from the receipt, but I thought it was an error on that and they meant the rear windows. The guy at the tint shop showed me traces where the tint had been removed from the two front doors. All I can figure is that the either the original owner got pulled over by the police because the tint was too dark or the dealer removed it when he traded the truck in a year after he bought it.

Either way, they did a nice job matching whatever it is that was done on the two rear side doors and the back lite.

My wife's RAV4 is next as the two rear doors and hatch glass are dark and we're going to get the front side doors done to match.

 

If you find a good solution, I'd be interested too. I have a similar setup but w/ shorter bars so they flex less but I'd still like a bumper on there. I keep a shovel on my brackets and the vibrations caused it to rub a bit on the side of the bed. I solved that by sliding a short segment of slit pool noodle over the front edge of the shovel. Sometimes low tech is a good solution.

 

When you have them do the alignment just ask them to remove and lubricate the parts,sleeve cam lobe bolt and such. It might take a bit longer and cost a couple extra bucks but it will be worth it when you don't have to replace all of it bc it won't adjust. Maybe just call ahead and talk to them about it. If they are a decent shop they will know exactly what your talking about and you could even show them that picture I posted to make it even more straightforward. Happy to help and hope it goes well for you

 

The original audio feed was through the Aux input but the latest firmware update uses the OEM BT input. Not sure of the explanation of lower BT bitrate is accurate since the only limitation in the audio input would be the bitrate of the OEM HU input.

 

Oh nice. Are you from upper or lower michigan if you dont mind me asking? Im in the upper peninsula where they love to salt the roads even though sand is readily available yet used way less. I did a protective bedliner coating on the underbody and frame which has held up great and started using fluid film 2 years ago. Stuff seems to work great but man does it stink to me. I mean it's worth it bc the smell goes away but rust doesn't so it's a good tradeoffjust do it outside and let it air out a bit

 

I'm in the Upper Peninsula. I only do Fluid Film, hard rust proofing like LineX can crack and cause rust to form in between the metal and protective coating. I used Fluid Film mixed with PB Blaster, get it sprayed each year. This is first year on my Tacoma. Previously did Corrosion Free on my WRX, worked awesome no rust after 4 years so far. I get it sprayed everywhere, in door jams, hood, frame, electrical components, etc.

 

Nice so you know how it goes. I used a rubberized bed coating for that reason. I was worried if I went the other route it would make a sheet of rust under the so called protection I was attempting so rubberized seemed good at the time. Then I read about fluid film on here actually and looked into it and knew that's what I wanted. I put it everywhere I could like you said bc as you know the salt here is ridiculous. Probably doesn't show as bad on the white taco but on my inferno it really diminishes the flame. Also wanted to say both of your vehicle choices are pretty smart based on where we live. I have a few buddies in Madison I call the subie gang bc they each had a different color,did different mods and would go out cruising together it was pretty cool