My South Texas '04 Daily Driver Build

This is my first thread and I might as well have it be about my truck. First a little about me is I'm 17 and a senior in high school. I am going to Texas State Technical College in Waco to become a diesel technician, specializing in 2 areas hopefully, heavy trucks and off highway equipment. I also have a knack for welding/fab work so you'll see some of my ideas that have come out on my truck. I acquired my 2004 Tacoma from my uncle who lived in Minnesota at the time, in september of 2014. It had 159,000 miles on it. It currently has 180,000. It has the bulletproof 2.7l 4-banger and the 4 speed auto tranny.
How Currently Sits



Current Mods-

• Rear suspension-
  • OME Leafs
  • Toytec Shakles
  • Rough Country 3 inch shocks
• Front Suspension-
  • Bilstein 5100 set at 0
  • OME 881's w/lean correction 1/4 spacer from Wheelers
• My homemade custom built stuff-
  • Front plate bumper w/ grill guard
  • Rear pipe bumper
  • Headache rack and bed rails
• Black Bed-lined Front Grill
• 16 inch steel rims (idk what brand but came from BA land cruiser)
• PCV Catch can, deckplate, and k&n filter are only thing different in engine
• Interior
  • Complete Stereo System
    • JVC Bluetooth Radio
    • Kicker CS 6x8 75 door speaker
    • 12 inch Q Power Sub w/sealed box
    • 4 Channel Sound Ordinance Amp
    • 4 channel Boss amp
  • Sound Dampening on floor and one door(still need to do pass. side)
  • LED strips in floor boards
  • Fusebox/relay panel for future lights on outside
  • Bone Collector mats and steering cover
  • Paracord wrapped handles

Future mods/Things to do

• Sliders
• Winch
• (Maybe....)Flatbed
• Replace lspv under bed
• Replace rear frame cross member
• Move Bilsteins up one notch or two
• Mud Tires
• Remount 20" light bar
• Add 48" or so light bar on roof
• LED work/bedlights
• Repaint roof and tailgate

Earliest Pic

I will be adding everything a little at a time cause its been a busy school year and hunting season has started so... priortities....

 

Very nice!!!

 

My first suspension/exterior mods was a 2.5 inch spacer lift from daystar. It wasn't bad but I wanted something a little better so i upgraded to the 5100's a few weeks ago. I don't have any pics of before/ after. The next thing I did was build a rear pipe bumper. It is built from 2 3/8ths oilfield pipe, which translates to, its pretty damn stout! I bedlinered it with Rustoleum primer and bedliner, it has held up great after 2 years. This was my first metal project, I had some help from a friend who's also had just started metalworking and I had some help from both of our dads but we did all the welding and grinding. I'm pretty proud at how it turned out. Heres some pics-







I did not built the headache rack before the bumper, the next pic just came after the rack was built

 

The next thing I built was a headache rack and bed rails and added a lowes toolbox. I was surprised at how it came along, it was easier than expected.





The pic on the truck was all tacked up while on the truck to be able to follow the cab angles and stuff. That is what took the least amount of time. The bed rails and back window protection was added off the truck. The last few were after it was all welded out and ground down. I then test fitted and painted it. Its a heavy SOB. The next pics were taken for reference of "stock"(with 2.5 inch lift) flex for a reference to what ever I do later on with it but it has some shots of the rack.



The square tubing at the roof that is welded on the front of the rack will be used to put a removable roof rack/light bar mount or what ever I decide to do later .This rack and bedrails came in handy to haul this...

Disregard the stupid snapchat words, my sister posted it.

 

What size tires do u have?

 

I've got 265/70/r16. I'm hoping to get new tires by end of the year cause they are getting pretty worn. I'll probably get 285 then.

 

Nice truck. That front bumper looks heavy. When you say custom, does that mean you made it yourself or you had someone else make it? Got any pics of the front?

 

Thanks, I guess I should change it to "homemade" cause i built it myself. I plan on adding pictures as I went through, even though I didn't document it real closely. Yeah its pretty heavy, I made it from 3/16 inch plate, 1/4 inch for where it mounted and for the flat bar bent on the front.

 

Nice! That's awesome you made it yourself. Hell, keep improving the design and you might be able to sell some bumpers to local members.

 

Yeah that would be cool to sell some. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't make it so wide in the front/expose more of bottom of radiator/skid plate.

 

When I first started coming up with my front bumper, I knew I wanted an ARB style bumper and based it off that and some other homemade ones I found online. I started to make it with cardboard to come up with what I wanted before I started. My dad, who's used to old school methods of just staring and scratching your ass till you come up with an idea, laughed at me while I designed it this way but was impressed at how well it worked.



Here it is tacked up halfway. I don't have any pics of it in between cause it was going fast and I kinda forgot to take pics. It went more smoothly than expected, which usually isnt the case with me.

I started working on the pipe grill guard. I just used weld on pipe elbows, which are used for pipelines/pipe welding which is easy to find around here with oilfield.



Got it all welded up and ground down. Also added a reciever hitch for future winch plans. The hitch is welded to a beefy channel iron on back of bumper. Also heated and bent 1/4 inch flat strap for grill guard. Then painted her up with primer and rustoleum spray can bed liner.

 

Good job. Keep it up.