01GREENTACO build

soooo basically I did it all....

 

On the contrary... You held and once the placement was satisfying, I did the welding, the cutting, the painting. I will agree that it couldn't have been done without you. Thanks buck!

 

whoever did it it came out great, I'd love to have a bumper like that on my truck. If the isn't a spare mounted can you open the topper window without having to swing out the arm?

Thought I'd share a little progress with you. I ended up getting the Toytec ultimate lift and a few other goodies like an ultragauge and have a CB on order that will fit in the ash tray slot. I also blacked out the grill and front bumper. At some point I'd like to add a TG front bumper and a rear one like yours.

Glad to see the different things you do to your truck, gives me ideas for mine.

 

Can't go wrong with the green and black color combo. That lift turned out really good! I'm loving the new stance. I blacked out my grill early on in my build. Very glad I did. I'm just not a fan of chrome on the front of a truck, looks too gaudy to me.

As far as the back window opening without a tire, no. It hits the Hi-Lift. I wanted everything tucked up as close to the rear of the truck as possible. If I wanted to be able to open the glass all I would need to do is shorten the vertical bar by about 4" and extend the horizontal one about 3-5". Then everything would clearance without having to swing out the tire. I don't mind it though. I'm used to opening it now so it's no big deal.

I want a new front bumper but I need to do some maintenance/repairs before I dump more money into this truck. I plan on doing something similar to an Elite style (as in a plate style, not a big fan of tube bumpers) but I want to make it myself to not only save some $$$ but also having the satisfaction of making it myself.

 

Your rear bumper/spare tire holder/license plate/ hi lift is awesome! The more Im on TW the more I love the function/look of a tire gate. Your truck and BoxRockets work on Paul's tiregate, is making me consider one.

Really great truck you have built!

 

Thanks Woody! I love the looks of it and the function is awesome as well. I love having all the other 1st gen Tacos around double take when they see me driving around with the new bumper. I modeling mine off of Box's original bumper design but modified it slightly to fit my needs/wants. I still need to add the wrap around tubes to allow for the side protection. That will happen in a few weeks hopefully. Then I think that's all for the rear bumper.

 

SUBBED. Dude your truck is incredible. I honestly couldnt do a fourth what you've done. You literally have my dream build. Currently I have:
3in sus lift with 32x9.5 duratracs
deck plate mod
grey wire mod
vinyl floors, painted center console sub amp and deck
A few other non important things

What I wanted to talk to you about was the camper! I have one that is a close color to my truck but I think its off like a ranger or maybe a 2nd gen. Its definitely not for my truck. Too wide at the top near the cab, about an inch short, a little beat up on the top.

How much would it be to repaint a topper? Do you know? I would like to get a color matched topper that is made for my truck. With it being too short I had to do this weird sealing thing up front that works for the most part but still leaks so that really bothers me. I love the rear bumper/tire swing

Fuck it I love your truck man

 

What size HiLift is that? Is it long enough or does it near the end when jacking up your truck?

 

Well originally the camper was the red color and the first "paint job" was done in the dorm parking lot with rattle cans and clear coat. It held up fairly decent for the cost and time put into it. The second time I redid it, which was just about 6 months ago, was a little more "professional". I took all the windows out and painted all the window jams and the whole camper using an air powered paint gun. I picked up some Dupli-color "Jet Black" from AutoZone for $25 and used the entire quart at once. I think I got 3-4 coats out of it. I was reading some reviews and actually found out Dupli-color makes a quart of paint EXTREMELY similar to Imperial Jade Mica (my truck official color name) and so I ran over to O'Reileys' and fortunately they had a can of it. I plan on repainting it to color match it one of the first weeks of summer.

If you scour Craigslist you're bound to find a used camper for fairly cheap, it most likely won't be the right color but you can always find some rattle cans and make it work. If I were you, I would look into selling your current one (since it doesn't fit right) and use the money from it towards your new one. Just my $.02

As far as my build goes, all the mods I have done aren't too involved. The hardest was probably my snorkel (simply because I had to drill a 3.5" hole in my fender) and the longest is probably my rear bumper just because I had to do it in stages. I feel as though my truck will never be complete and every mod is just a learning experience for me. With the help of many different forums, I am able to see something I like, tweak it to my liking and most of the time end up with something one of a kind and unique to my truck.

It's the 48" X-treme. It comes close to maxing out. I think I have 4 or 5 "notches" left on it before the tires come off the ground. I should have gotten the 60" when I got my new one but the deal I got was only for the 48".

 

Okay, thanks! I've been trying to figure out which one I need. Since we're pretty much the same on lift I figured you'd know!

 

Yeah, No problems with the 48" but it never hurts to have a little extra. I also didn't want to deal with the extra 12" hanging out above my tire on the back.

Plus when I get my sliders built this summer, I feel as though I will be using less of the jack since they will be mounted quite a bit lower than the rear bumper. Good luck!

 

Forgot to take a picture of this the other day but I cleaned up all the leads going to my positive terminal. I got tired of having half a dozen wires running to the positive post. So I borrowed TacoSkeet's "organizational" method and added a terminal block with 8 available posts. I only used 4 because I wanted to keep my amp hooked directly to the battery. Here is the end result:



And a close up shot. Wiring this thing was pretty simple and I love the result.




Also, today, I finally got around to mounting my factory skid plate back on the truck. Took some creative thinking and some finagling but at the end of the day... I have my factory skid back on the truck.

 

UPDATE!

Got back home for the summer on Friday and first thing I did yesterday was replace my worn out, busted CV's. Took me about 1 hour to do both sides. I can finally use 4WD again! Also redid my switches and made the overhead console I mentioned in an earlier post. It's raining but when it stops I will snap a pic and post it up!

 

Do I need to ship you my camera so you will update this thing?!

 

SEND IT!

 

Also got some new tires today. 285/75/16 Cooper STT. Going to get them mounted up tomorrow and then I'll update this thing. I realize I should have documented my CV swap but oh well, I'm sure I will have to replace another one sooner or later. Only mods I've done lately are redesign the Hi-Lift mount and lower the spare tire mount.

Oh, also ordered a 12voltguy locker wiring harness so that should be in early next week. Then I'll be ready for my sliders, and back to the trails!

 

ready to see those stt's on! oh and the locker wiring harness too, Ill be glad when I dont find you accidentally "locked" on the highway

 

Howdy. What's the texture like on that Duplicolor bed armor? Whatever the stuff in my bed right now is, it's like 20 grit sandpaper and I hate it. I'm afraid whatever I put in it is going to get the crap scratched out of it. I'm looking for something that has more of an orange peel-type texture to do my sliders and other things with (and maybe re-do the bed if I ever feel like I've got a massive surplus of energy to grind all that old junk off, lol).

Nice truck and a great build. You really need some of those shifter extensions though. Glad to see someone else that isn't terrified of body lifts around here. Love the snorkel.

 

Time for an update, haven't had any time to update this thing. Work has been keeping me pretty much tied up from 4:00 in the morning till 6 or 7:00 at night. But with the holiday this past week, I had a few days off and after bumming TacoSkeets camera, I have some pics of my latest mods.

 

First up, I got some new rims and tires. Rims are just the standard Toyota ones but I decided to paint them the "Trail Teams" anthracite color. Couldn't be happier with the color choice. They look great against the green of my truck. While I was getting new rims, I figured I'd go ahead and get new tires too. I ended up with some 285/75/16 Cooper Discovery STT's. WOW what a tire!! Even with the 285, I only rub at full lock. Obviously with some wheel spacers that can be fixed but for now I'm not too worried about it. And since I had the rims off to paint them, I decided to paint my calipers reds, just to give the wheel wells some accents.



Ordered a 12voltguy.com e-locker wiring harness and it finally came in after about 3 weeks. Wish I could say it solved my locker issues but I am afraid I might have fried the e-locker motor. Here is the switch mounted up though.



Redesigned and rebuild some of my swing out a few weeks back. I was tired of fumbling around with the old latch set up so I simplified it and made a simple pin style latch. Love the simplicity now and the ease of opening is awesome!



While I was working on the swing out, I decided to add one of the Jerry can mounts I've had sitting in the garage for over a year now. I haven't decided if I like the high location of it yet though. I know once I put my can in the tray my visibility will greatly suffer but 95% of the time I'm driving, it's not in anyways so I 'll just have to play with it.