8th sin's Third Build

Current photo and mods

On Truck
Llumar CTX 40% rear, 15% front
Pop and Lock 8521
Grillcraft MX Upper & Lower
Homelink Mirror
Mudflaps removed
Black Plastidip'd Emblems
Icon Stage III
Pro Comp Rockwell 5034 17x8.5 @ 4.75BS
Nitto Terra Grappler G2's 285/70/17
Mini D2S Retrofits with BHLM

Long Term Plans
Upgraded Audio
Windshield Tint
Sliders
Exhaust
Supercharger
​

The Backstory

My old build thread is here if you care to take a look

I ended up trading my 2010 Tacoma in on a whim for a Subaru STI back in 2011. Just felt like I wanted to be back in a small, fast car again. My wife and I ended up picking up an 2005 Ford Explorer for dog and road trip duty (used to drive from DFW to Tampa, among other places, every year with two large dogs) which was later traded for a 2004 Expedition in order to pull a boat we later purchased. Funny thing is, the Subaru dealer I traded my 2010 in at kept it on the lot and sold it to a guy that didn't live far from me. I would see it on the street all the time, and the lamentations were strong

When we moved back to Tampa, where our family is, we no longer needed a family hauler to make long trips and being that we were now homeowners, a pickup with a bed to haul house stuff was much in order. We debated on a few options, but since we both have had Tacoma's in our past it seemed a natural choice.


The 2015 Tacoma DCLB 4x4 TRD Sport was purchased with the usual hassle of having to get a truck transferred from another dealer, but there ended up being only a week between the deposit and delivery. Did pretty well on the deal. Fugly pinstripe was removed immediately, as well as the mudflaps which I've always had problems with breaking anyway.​

 

40% Llumar CTX in the rear and 15% in the front. Not legal, but I've never had problems since we live in a place where sun and heat are big issues, and most cops tend to be understanding as long as you play nice (protip: if ever pulled over, especially at night, roll all windows down and turn the domelights on the moment the cherries light up behind you. Makes the cops feel MUCH safer. Also provide CHL immediately and be proactive about any firearms in the truck, even if you're not legally compelled to do so). It's also the only combo in that tint that provides less than 2% VLT difference between the front and factory tinted rears when installed. Tint was purchased precut from tintzoom, which is an awesome retailer with great prices and customer service. Did the install myself - it's fairly easy on trucks as there are no compound curves that require the tint to be shrunk to the glass.



Not the best pic to show the tint, but you get the idea. I also have an obvious love of white cars with hood scoops

 

Before we bought the truck, we were considering much more expensive options. I was primarily looking at getting one of the last 2014 Raptors, but couldn't find any that weren't marked up way over MSRP. Didn't want to wait for the 2016's and it's more truck than we need for a third car anyway.

Anywhoo that left us with a little extra cash to get the truck where we wanted it.



LT285/70/17 Nitto Terra Grappler G2's. These were picked up from a family member who deals tires a week later. I got in on the Wheeler's Icon group buy for a stage III lift and ordered a set of Pro Comp Rockwell 5034 wheels. They should both be here in the next couple weeks (wheels were backordered, group buy took awhile to close). Bonus shot of the wife's [car's] butt.

 

Grillcraft MX upper. Being that this shot was taken nearly at night should explain that this install took me a lot longer than I expected. I was apprehensive about cutting out the center section, but that ended up being easier than I anticipated. A dremel with plastic cutoff (more like melt off) wheels, a couple sanding barrels and a utility knife made short work of it. Tough part was getting the holes drilled in just the right spot so the grill fit perfectly.

Here's some better pics from the next day

 

can't wait to see a pic of those tires mounted. i was sad to find out Nitto came out with those just after i picked up a second set of the old terra graps. they look like they'd be awesome, but will be cool to see on your truck.

BTW, what size rims did you get? are they 17x8.5?

 

Yep 17x8.5 with 4.75" backspacing...we'll see how the rubbing situation looks. I'm sure something's going to need to get trimmed back. Lift will likely end up going on before the wheels and tires, but keep an eye out here for some pics.

 

Plastidiped my emblems. It was nice out today so I figured why not.

 

Santa wore brown today!

 

So last Friday night we dove in on the lift! Didn't really have many opportunities to get pictures of the installation on account of greasy hands.

Went ahead and had the tires mounted beforehand. Since they had to swap TPMS, I had to drive it back with them on. Rub city.


Garage cleaned up. Not shown, lots of beer on ice.


Front wheels off, UCA bolt being cut out. I had decided in advance to go this route rather than bending the fender. New bolts can be installed going the other way (nut towards the front). I ended up using a reciprocating saw to finish it off, as it was difficult to get a decent work position with the air grinder seen here. Driver's side was more difficult as there were hard fuel lines in the way, but everything went in with a little persuasion. Had to manhandle the UCA to get the second inside washer in too.


Rest of the install went...well ok. I was not able to get the sway bar backets installed with the hardware Icon included, so I decided to just remove it for the time being. I did not run a front sway on my last Tacoma and will likely just leave it off. I also had intended to run the factory overload leaf in addition to the add-a-leaf in the rear, however the clamp brackets interfered, so I was forced to remove the overlaod leaf per Icon's instructions. Remains to be seen how that effects the truck's towing abilities. Took about 7 hours including breaks. If I had to do it again, it would of course be much quicker, as we had to trial and error different methods of getting parts in place. Ratchet straps were a savior when it came to getting the AAL's in

All done! Found a lighted parking lot to take this crappy pic. I was exhausted.


Initial impressions:

A lot of rubbing, but this was to be expected, especially before the alignment. I didn't have any severe steering stiffness that some others have reported with uniball UCA's, but the truck did feel quite stiff overall. Surprisingly it tracked fairly straight, and I was very happy to find zero driveline vibrations. No diff drop or shims, just properly torqued u-bolts (73#, not 37# per the FSM!) As it sits with the coils at Icon settings, I'm about +2 front and +1.5 in the rear.


Back from the alignment shop early the next morning. I had the tech set the caster to 2.4 on each side per recommendations on here. This did indeed clear up a lot of the rubbing, but there is still some plastic that will need to go, and I will probably need to beat down part of the pinch weld. Luckily, I don't think I will need to touch the cab mount, but we'll see once I can get them fully stuffed on the trail.


I put about 500 highway miles on it over the next 36 hours. The suspension definitely changed its character over this time and the stiffness subsided. I was getting a lot of high frequency harshness from the road on my way out of town, but on the way back it was an order of magnitude smoother. Still no driveline vibrations all the way up to 80mph. Speedo reads about 2-3 MPH slow and fuel economy was down about 1.5 mpg when corrected for the odometer error - all within expectations. The Terra Grappler G2's are a bit chatty, probably more so than the BFG AT KO's I ran on my old truck (albeit on stock suspension), but reasonable considering the tread pattern, and nowhere near that level of a MT tire The uniballs and stiffer UCA bushings likely transmit more NVH from the tires than the factory setup as well.

Overall I'm just smitten! I can't park it now without looking back at least twice and smiling

 

Decided to tackle the Mini D2S retrofits and BHLM mod yesterday. Quite a headache. Nothing against TRS, as the quality of the parts and their customer service is great and a retrofit is inherently a custom kind of thing, but the notion that these are nearly "drop in" is a bit of an overstatement. The included H4 clocking ring is fairly useless on these headlights, and you need to grind A LOT of plastic off the back of the reflector. Even then, the projector won't sit perpendicular inside the reflector, which allows it to move as the threads are at an angle to the bulb base on the OEM reflectors and one side doesn't make complete contact. Maybe it's a 2012+ thing. I was able to get it reasonably locked down, but when attaching the igniters, the projector rotates slighty. I also started this during the day, and my only flat white wall is my garage door, so I could not get good alignment lines from the stock bulbs due to the sun being out. I got everything tied up as best I can, but I'll likely need to redo them, which isn't a huge deal although had I known I would need to epoxy the projectors in, I would have opted for FX-R's.

I do like the look though. Went with the new X style square projectors. Bezels were painted with duplicolor shadow which is suppose to achieve a black chrome look, but you end up having to use so much to get it even it comes out pretty much black. Everything else was left stock.



Better pictures coming once I get the damn thing washed.

 

sitrep

About 1700 miles on since the lift and no issues to report. Icon had shipped the wrong sway bar drop kit, so I got that figured out and reinstalled the sway bar today. Considered leaving it off, but I'd rather trade articulation for a little piece of mind, especially considering the amount of highway driving and towing I do.

Also laid down a couple coats of wax this morning to prepare for shitty lovebug season. So today it looks nice, so I took the SLR out and got some decent pictures.

 

everything on my list of things to do to my own truck has been done on yours! and youre also a super white/dclb!! LOOK AWESOME!!!! cant wait to copy you..... hahaha

on a side note, sense you seem to share the same taste, check out TRS morimoto xd leds (type T). direct fit up on our truck.... they look so nice

 

Thanks for the kind words. I have had my eye on the xd LED's, but I need to do a little more work on my headlight retro first. I had some headaches trying to get away with just using the H4 alignment rings and no epoxy and now both my projectors are slightly out of horizontal alignment (the H4 ring still leaves a few degrees of play) and the passenger side bulb is not seated properly (as the bulb retainer can't be tightened all the way. It's driveable for now, but I'm sure any retro geeks i pass on the road are smirking at me .

I'm also going all in on saving up some cash for a TRD supercharger. The truck is not at all happy pulling my boat on the highway, and the lift has only made it worse.

 

Beautiful truck my friend...the white ones have really grown on me. I'm also looking at the pro comp 5034's. How do you like them so far? I'm thinking about running those on my truck with 265 70 17 ko2s so I wouldn't need to lift to clear the tires. You wouldn't have anymore pictures of your truck with those wheels and no lift would you?