Blackened Taco's build

Where do I start. I bought the truck in 2005 and did a few mods, tinted windows, TRD floor mats, TRD exhaust, Toyota skid plate and every other accessories known to man, tailgate extender, bed net, 2 bed dividers, truck mat etc. etc. Custom wired my XM in and hid it in the sunglass holder and ran the antenna through the headliner and out the third brake light. My truck remained stock for about 4 years and then I won a contest which allowed me to buy my wheels tires and lift and that was about 6 or 7 moths ago. Now I have started an addiction similar to the one I had with my Harley. Now that my Harley is where I want it, I am adding to the truck. So here she is as we speak today.

Here she is about 2 months old with about 5K on her when I took off for Sturgis and Wyoming and Montana and Colorado. What a great trip and a great way to break the ole girl in. Never knew the trailer was back there, go 4.0L go!





Then I added the lift by EZ lift, wheels and tires. I am running TRD FJ Cruiser 16X7 special edition wheels, and Interco TRXUS MT 285/75/16 tires. Aggressive yet pretty quiet and they ride nice. I have always been a Swamper fan. Also by going to a 16" wheel I had alot more tire size choices and they usually run cheaper than the 17" wheels.









After that I added the new head unit, Kenwood DNX5120, when I did the radio I originally had the silver trim pieces, wasn't blowing my skirt up so I changed the heater controls to black and the radio face plate to black. I now have a nice mix of black and silver. I may go all black one day, but I like it for now. I mounted the NAV antenna on my glass in the upper right hand corner of my windshield. They say to put it on the dash but I just couldn't put that sticky pad on there so I cut the pad down and put it on the glass. The pad is metal and the antenna is a magnet similar to an XM antenna. It has worked fine in this location. Also, you hardly notice it when in the truck.





XM hidden and closed in the sunglass holder, out of sight out of mind.



XM exposed in sunglass holder, choose channel and close.



XM antenna coming through the third brake light, I added a little silicone and no leaks.
I installed my XM almost immediately after I bought the truck, so it has been like that for almost 4 years. Actually will be 4 years in April. The new car smell is gone but the spark is still there.



Then came the TRD CAI, I left the engine cover off because I like the exposed look. I am old school, engine covers never used to exsist, I also left the lid off the air filter box to get more air. I didn't like the naked look of the screw holes and threads for the lid so I put the screws in making it look like it was supposed to be that way and has a kind of studded look. I went with the TRD intake because of fit and finish. I have seen too many others that rattle and so forth. Nice fit with the TRD and a nice look also IMO. In conjunction with the TRD exhaust it sounds pretty decent when romped on.



Then I added in the black background headlights, I really like the look of these and an easy install. When I did the light mod I also changed over the headlight bulbs and my foglight bulbs to Sylvania Silver Star bulbs. Nice bright white light. Definate inprovement and highly recommended.



Previously added were the door sill protectors.



TRD shift knob. This probably one of my most favorite mods, I have had several different types of shift knobs since I have had the truck. Now I know why they use a ball type shifter knob in NASCAR etc. It is really comfortable when driving in stop and go traffic and easy to snatch in a hurry. When riding trails or wheeling it stays in your hand. I know that sounds silly as hell, but probably one of the best mods I have made.



Added on my SOCKMONKEY decals, thanks SOCK, they came out great! (pic added 3/27/09)



That's the ole girl for now, I will be doing some paint mods duing the spring and Lord knows I will find something else to do. I haven't reinvented the wheel by any means, but I do love my Taco. Will update as I add items. Other pics available on my member page.

Thanks for checking it out.

 

nice work!!! LOve the XM in sunglasses holder

 

Lookin good.

 

Thanks, this MOD would work even better if you have a sunglass holder that sits more foward where my temp and directional guages are. Some of teh Tacomas have that, depends on which model you have.

 

looks good.i love those wheels

 

Very nice!!! Where'd you get the FJ wheels from?

 

Nice looking truck!

 

is that stock exhaust?

 

Awsome lookin taco, Like the tires, How are they offroad?

 

Very Nice look man! Good Job!

 

do super swampers wear down fast??

 

Gottem from work when they discontinued them. I am an ASM for Toyota.

 

TRD exhaust from Toyota. I need to snap a pic of it. Sounds halfway decent with the CAI, not a 69 Z28, but when I pass ya you willhear me blow by.

 

Dude your truck rocks I almost didn't post my build after I saw yours. They dig good in general, IMO all of the Interco products perform. I should have gone with 33's. I will next time for sure. I have been running Super Swampers for years on my other trucks, these are the least aggressive tire I have had on any of my toys, but I like them alot. All started with an 1986 regular cab with 33-12.5 Swampers and the rest has been history. Thanks for the props, your truck rocks.

 

, Thanks man, I like the looks of them, I might have to give them a try when I upgrade tires, Thanks for the info.

 

They do, but this is the first set of TRXUS I have ever run, usually I have straight up Swampers on there. You have to constantly cross rotate and check inflation to get the best wear. Otherwise like any other aggressive tire they are going to chop up on you. I started running Swampers in the mid 80's when everyone ran monster mudders or gumbo mudders or groundhogs, after watching my little cabbage truck (as they called it back then) out perform trucks with 38's and 44's on them I convinced quite a few people to start running Swampers. I would get about 30,000 miles out of a set, some people would ride them longer, but once they have the tread depth of a regular tire I ditch them. A little trick to get them to dig better is to mount a 12.5 swamper on a 7" wide wheel and it causes the lugs to wrap a little farther around, almost making them look like a motorcycle knobby tire. Allows the sidewalls to dig really hard too. The downside to that is you wear the centers faster. To each his own though. everyone has their tricks. If you want digging performance you can't beat the Interco products. My opinion.

 

Thanks man, really dig your grill, sharp. I am just going to paint mine black I think, but then again ........ who knows?

 

Thanks man, appreciate it.

 

truck looks awesome! Thats pretty much what I want do do, only with a black one

 

Looks great. good job putting the truck together