TruckYeah's Build

My mods will come slow at first but will come with time. This post will list all mods completed and will be updated with my plans for future mods.

My goal is an improved OEM, meaning everything should look like it could have rolled off the factory floor like it is. All mods will maintain OEM looking quality and integration.

Straight stock image:


Starting point
2015 AC V6 MT 4x4 OR
Purchased new: July 3, 2015

Mods
07/10/15, 793mi: Weathertech window deflectors, floor mats, and license plate frame
07/12/15, 841mi: Covercraft windshield heat screen
07/24/15, 1,398mi: Antennax 13" flexible off-road antenna
07/29/15, 1,584mi: OEM Bedmat
08/01/15, 1,642mi: ADD W1 catch can
08/08/15, 1,953mi: Colormatch painted front grill surround, rear bumper, interior trim
08/14/15, 2,285mi: Extended rear differential breather, Installed RAM mount ball on drivers assist handle, Installed toolbox (toolbox mounts here)
08/22/15, 2,654mi: Installed hood struts
09/14/15, 3,321mi: Installed UltraGauge MX 1.3
11/08/15, 5,404mi: Installed CB radio
01/15/16, 7,665mi: Replaced badges with vinyl badges

Current image (11/28/15):


Future Mods
Headlight retrofits
LEDs everywhere a light bulb is except headlights
LED bed lighting
LEDs in glove box and center console
Under hood lighting
Auxiliary fuse block
Center console organization
Autodimming rearview mirror with Homelink
Sound deadening in doors, back wall, and floor
AC outlet in cabin
Light bar in lower grille opening
more TBD at a later date

 

So the first thing I do to any new vehicle is Weathertechs. I know it's not really a mod but I gotta protect the investment before I invest more. I did floor mats for both front and rear, the clear frame license plate holder, and the window deflectors. The floor mats fit great as always! I love the clear frame license plate frame because it has a gasket that mates to the face of the license plate and a gasket where it meets the bumper. This keeps the bumper from getting all scratched up and keeps the bumper clean under there. The window deflectors I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. I don't like adding things just for appearance, I want them to be functional too. The front ones are functional and that's why I wanted them. The AC rear windows don't move though so those are strictly for appearance. I went back and forth for a while trying to decide if I wanted to put them on or not. I ended up ordering the full set and installing the fronts first. It didn't look right with just the fronts so I went ahead and put on the rears.

As always, I'm super happy with the Weathertech products.

 

Congrats OP!Off to a good start!

 

Looks good. I need to get new some floor mats. How much you pay for them?

 

The access cab is the most sexy out of them all <3

 

The floor mats were $180 for first and second row combined. Not bad when you think about the fact that they completely protect the original carpet underneath and it will still look brand new years from now..

 

Along with the Weathertech products, the other thing I always do first is get a custom windshield heat screen from Covercraft. (I know, also not a real mod. The real mods will come I promise..) These are very thick with a good insulation and a reflective exterior surface. This reduces a lot of heat from entering the cab through the windshield from the Florida sun. It also protects the dash from uv and heat problems. I'm not sure about Toyota's history with dashes, but I know several other vehicle manufacturers have problems with the dash cracking after a few years of the sun beating on it. These also maintain a lot of privacy since it completely blocks out the front windshield. The series is UVS100 and the specific part number for this truck is

$78 UV10930SV | Compatible with Select Toyota Tacoma Models, Silver

UV10930SV.

 

Today I replaced the radio antenna with a 13 inch "Off-Road" flexible antenna from Antennax. On first review, I like the flexibility and length. I don't really like the hard plastic base. In terms of performance, reception on my driveway did not change. I will re-post if I notice problems with reception. Installation was super easy - unscrew OEM antenna with 5/16" wrench - screw in new antenna by hand - done! The pic below shows the difference in length as well as a pic of the new antenna on my truck.

 

I got my catch can in last week and have been working on fabbing up a bracket to mount it. Here's a few pics of the progress. My goal is for it to look completely stock. I should be done with the final iteration this weekend as long as I can get it welded and painted tomorrow.

 

Got my catch can installed. Really happy with the way the mount worked out. Need to figure out a more OEM looking way to route the hoses though. I ended up breaking off the welded on nut where the lower bolt holds the bracket. There is a bolt here that holds a bracket to support an AC line which I used to hold the custom bracket as well. I welded on a square nut to the custom bracket on both the upper and lower bolt holes. There is already a hole up top as well so no drilling necessary!

Parts:
1 oil catch can - ADD W1 version 2
1 m8x1.25 square nut for upper mounting point
1 m6x1 square nut for lower mounting point
1 m8x1.25x16mm flange bolt for upper mounting point
about 10ft 3/8 low pressure fuel line
a tiny amount of thick stainless scouring scrubber
2 5/8 hose clamps
1 custom waterjet and cnc bent stainless steel mounting bracket

I ended up going through 4 iterations of the bracket to get it right, it was a pain to measure those bolt locations. I painted it gloss black to match the rest of the brackets in the engine bay. All fasteners are OEM style so this mod looks completely stock. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The location worked out perfectly, it's a pretty empty space that would not be able to be used for much else and it is super easy to check the dipstick and to remove the bottom for emptying it out.

 

Forgot to put this one up... Added OEM bedmat.

 

Pic. heavy...

Just got all my interior trim, front grill surround, and rear bumper color match painted! It looks great in my opinion! The magnetic gray paint cost about $30 and the sealant primer, clear coat, and all preparation supplies were left over at work so free.

On the interior, I did the gauge cluster trim, the steering wheel trim, the radio/AC trim, the volume and tune knob trim on the head unit, the tweeter surrounds, and the cupholder trim. Basically, all the ugly silver colored plastic.

I got the idea riding in a coworker's FJ where the radio trim is colormatched. I looked on here and saw a lot of people doing red or white, etc. I don't really care for colormatching with the bright colors but since I have the gray truck and the interior is gray/black I thought it would look really nice.

It took about 3 hours for disassembly, about 2 hours for paint prep, and about 1 hour of painting.

Paint prep complete:



Sealant primer applied:




Base coat applied:



Clear coat applied and assembled (excuse the truck's dirtiness; it gets a bath tomorrow):

 

I'm a little behind on updating this but here goes the catch up..

I extended the rear differential breather up to behind the drivers side tail light. There is plenty of space behind the light and it was a short run. I used the same part numbers for breather and union that are all over this forum. I used some fuel line to connect the two and routed it up to the frame along the brake lines and back to the tail light along the wiring harness. This took 15 minutes tops. It was super easy to do.



I installed a RAM ball mount on the drivers side assist handle. I used the RAM-B-337U ball mount, drilled and counterbored for a M6 bolt which is OEM for that position. I turned down a piece of aluminum and epoxied it to the ball mount to extend it out to where I liked it. I plan on turning the hex off the original mount so it is just a straight cylinder and trying to drill out the OEM cover so that it looks just right. Along with this, I got the holder for my Garmin 62S as well as my cell phone. I added a hardwired charger for the Garmin using a fuse tap for the time being. Once I get my auxiliary fuse block installed, I will route these wires there. Sorry for the terrible pictures, I'll try and put up some better ones.



I also installed a UWS toolbox. I used

$654 TBS-63-A-LP-BLK Black Single Lid Low Profile Aluminum Toolbox with Beveled Insulated Lid

TBS-63-A-LP-BLK which is their 63" low profile, angled, powdercoated gloss black. Word of advise, don't buy online. When I got it it was terribly beat up. I had to return it and buy one locally. Right now it is mounted with J-hooks in the channel but I'm working on some custom mounts for it now that will be much more secure.

 

With the group buy on here, I purchased a set of the Redline QuickLift Plus hood struts and installed those. Install was super easy other than realizing I did not own a rivet gun part way through and having to go buy one.

Under the hood could definitely use a cleaning...

 

I installed an UltraGauge MX 1.3 from the group buy on here. I used a vertical surface mount to mount it above the rear view mirror. In this location it is not easy for it to be seen from the outside of the vehicle and the windshield tinting near the top will keep it out of direct sunlight. I routed the wire under the headliner and down the A-pillar.

Since I have a manual, the parameters programmed into the MX really don't do much for me but I'm hoping I can find some good parameters later on with it.

The gauge page it is on in the picture is the short trip page which resets each time the truck is turned on. I am using 5 pages for different things right now but I'm sure I'm going to change a lot of it as I start using it.

 

Alright, I finally got around to getting my toolbox mounts fabbed and installed. I machined them out of 6061 aluminum, sand blasted them with aluminum oxide, then powder coated them textured black (it's what I had). For hardware, I used zinc plated stainless to avoid the possibility of a galvanic reaction. Regular zinc plated grade 5 would have been fine but I didn't want to ever worry about rust so stainless was the way to go. Stainless and aluminum can have a galvanic reaction though where the aluminum oxidizes rapidly seizing the two together. Therefore, zinc plated stainless it is. I also used some blue loc-tite to make sure they stay put. After putting one on each side the box was firmly in place. 2 on either side is probably overkill but i don't ever want to worry about it. I did notice during this that the bed rails are slightly tilted outward and you can see that in the pictures. It didn't really hurt anything though, just an observation.

 

I got a little behind on keeping this up to date. Back in November, I installed a CB radio. Like most of the members on here, I decided to use the Cobra 75WXST as there is no good place to mount a normal CB radio. I found a rubber cap under the center console near where the parking brake cables enter the cab. I ran the coax through here and out to the bed. I put loom and electrical tape along the entire length of coax that is exposed. I mounted the CB junction box directly under the center console cup holders using existing bolts. I made a custom stainless sheet metal antenna mount and powder coated it. I had to mask off most of the back though and grind off some of the paint on the mounting location so I could get a good ground. I then ran the microphone extension cable up to one of the switch blanks and bought a bulkhead terminal. I soldered this to the microphone extension cable and mounted it to the switch blank. For now, I ran the power to a cigarette lighter plug but once I get my fuse block in, this will get permanently wired. The ground for power is terminated directly on one of the mounting bolts. I plugged in an external speaker and put some velcro on the back side. I put this under the drivers seat. The velcro keeps it from sliding around. Finally, I tuned the antenna and was able to achieve an SWR of about 1.2.

 

Was going to pull the badges, get them painted black, and put them back on. Once I had them off, I had an idea. I thought maybe it would look good with just black vinyl decals. Then I don't have to worry about getting wax or dirt build up behind it and it is much easier to clean. I went ahead and did it thinking if it didn't come out good, I'd just take them off and proceed with my previous plan. Once I got them on, I think they look great! They are a little more subtle but I like that.