What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Oof didn't notice that it was just the first one I saw

 

Ha not faulting you, just hate that shitty strategy some ebay sellers use.

 

LCA bushings and lower shock bushings are done. I think it drives a little better? Best part is it hardly ever rubs when turning now.
I’m also due for brake pads which will get done in a few days and I also need a brake booster.

 

Haven't posted much about what I've done to my 1st gen... cause I haven't done much to my 1st gen lately.

But a 3rd gen 4Runner is close enough.

Sliders



Rear bumper



Tire clearancing



Front bumper




Coil bucket reinforcement - and mounts to add a tower to tower cross over brace later.

 

Also re-wired the main fuse box (meaning spliced ALL the wires coming out of it), replaced the evap canister, and replaced the air filter box.

All these items were damaged in a front end collision (previous owner).

 

I notched the frame ends and front body mounts, to account for the 1 inch body lift. (To get rid of the 1 inch gap between fenders/grill and bumper)



It gave me about a 3/8 gap between fenders/grill and bumper. Which is pretty close to the original gap. And definately within my tolerances.



I reinforced the frame ends and body mounts.

 

Bumper got first coat of Raptorliner. I'll let it sit till tomorrow, then I'll turn it over for final coat on the front.



Pro tip. Just paint the inside of the winch cradle with good paint. And then just let it get the overspray. That area would take a lot of Raptorliner to cover completely. Paint is cheaper than RL.

 

Who else keeps aluminum foil in their paint prep kit?



Undercoating complete

 

It’s not a big upgrade but it made for a nice afternoon. Upgraded two of the 12V power outlets to USB-A and USB-C ports so I don't need a separate plug-in for phone, laptop, GPS, etc. The volt meter is kinda nice. Replaced the nonfunctional cigarette lighter with a new 12v outlet for a portable air compressor. Also cleaned up the wiring from a previous owner.

 

Picked up a tilt trailer last year with a braked axle, so I'd been wanting to get a trailer brake controller installed. It was a bigger project than I anticipated, but I finally got things wrapped up last week and was able to test it out this weekend.

I managed to fit the 7 way plug in a pre-existing hole in the middle of my Relentless fab bumper, I paired this with a flip up license plate adapter.


For the controller I went with the Redarc Tow Pro Liberty, I liked that the control dial/button was separate from the control unit. I mounted the control unit down by the kick panel:


I found a trim bezel on eBay without a clock, drilled a hole in it and mounted the control knob where the clock used to be.


I wanted to avoid having to splice into the factory wiring, so I bought some brake switch connectors on Alibaba and created a adapter that lets me splice out the brake signal. If anyone would want an adapter or the parts to make one just let me know.



I needed to run 12V to both the brake controller and the 7 pin wiring so I added a Blue Seas System battery terminal mount.


It's all working good, and came together in time to do some ditch digging this weekend.

 

Nice, looks clean. Been meaning to add a 2-lo switch to make my life easier reversing a trailer. But like you I’m hesitant to cut up factory wiring, might have to look into a similar kind of pig tail

 

I also towed stuff this weekend

 

What undercoating did you use in the wheel wells, everything I've used in there has tended to come off mine, though I probably could have prepped better.

 

Not much here but started to teach the fiancée how to drive manual! She did pretty good, she was nervous at first but got the hang of it

 

I used this



https://a.co/d/9cJ5jP5

To do this part



Highly, highly recommend this product. It goes on with a caulking gun. It applies out of the caulking gun easily. And it lays down flat when dry. Even in areas where it's upside down. And it is on there, where you can tell it will not come off.

1000 times better than the 3M I've used in the past.

Only took 1 of the 2 tubes to do what I did (including doing this to the back wheel wells)



Then I used this

$45 Barrier Bond - Brushable Seam Sealer, Quart Can with 30.4 Fluid Ounces, Seam Sealer for Automotive Joints & Body Repair, Paintable Gray

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083ZL8QFT

For this part



It went on with a brush... but it's HELLA thick. Like, 3x thicker than paint. It's doesn't lay down quite as nice as the caulking did, but it's a thick and covered really well.

Took about 2/3 of a can to cover what I did.

Then I used this

$20 Dupli-Color ETR350007 Premium Truck Bed Coating, Black, 15 oz.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PHQ4Y9J

To do this part

It stays flexible. (The Barrier Bond stays flexible). I wanted to cover the Barrier Bond with something flexible, so it didn't all just start cracking and peeling off the Barrier bond.

Took half a can to do the front wheel wells.

 

@El Taco Diablo how bad was the front end damage? My 4runner was in a t-bone I was thinking about trying to repair it. The frame might be bent and I'll need some new clip pieces for sure.

 

Ah okay, I used SEM paintable seam sealer (that stuff has been excellent)...



But I probably should have done that brush on coating as well and maybe should sand or scotchbrite the inner well before coating again. I had used the Duplicolor Truck Bed Coating in the blue can last time.

 

Not really sure how bad the damage was, actually.

The truck looked like this when my son bought it (I've since bought it from him, when he moved to Florida).



It was a salvage title when the guy my son bought it from, bought the truck.

I know the radiator, fenders, and hood were replaced, the air box, fuse box, evap canister where all still damaged when we got it. The ends of the frame (at the body mounts) were bent in the wreck... and "straightened" by, what appears to be a redneck with a come along, and a sledge hammer. The bumper sub structure was missing, the lower bumper valance was held on with bailing wire. (Which meant there was nothing to mount the frontskid plate to) I reinforced and straightened all that work when I did the work to lift the bumper, to account for the body lift. And the new bumper provides the mounting for the skid plate.

 

I used a sand paper flapper wheel on a die grinder to knock down all the welds, then used red scotch brite on the bare metal before I applied anything to it.