What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

Here is the difference between stock muffler and MagnaFlow cat back. Took and hour tops to install. It helps to have a block of wood and a BFH to knock the new pipe into the old flange

 

Initial throttle response is a little better.....

 

man we have good taste ... my taco

 

Painted my bumper ends. Looks good as long as you're not too close. Passenger side had an issue and I resprayed part of it and there is some discoloration where that is, but I was just going round and round causing another problem whenever I tried to fix one. How often is it ever going to be clean anyway.. haha. Color match is good though, I think.

 

Installed oem wheel locks today. The part # that ends in 901 is the correct part for the 16' TRD OR. I've seen conflicting info on which part # is correct.

 

Added a bit of dash board bling

 

Finally got enough courage to paint front grille. I think it looks a lot better!!

 

Looks good which brand of paint did you use?

 

A lot of people seem to be painting their chrome. I for one dislike the chrome on my Taco but have been concerned with attempting to paint it. Doesn't it just peel and flake off? What are your strategies for getting good adhesion? Anybody have long term success (say 5+ years) without peeling? I think I saw one thread on trying to remove the chrome finish from plastic pieces (i.e. badges) but are there any threads for working on real chrome plated metal? Thanks.

 

The bumper end caps are plastic as well.

 

Installed these today , I already have a few scratches on the passenger side door ....chics and their fingernails......... Plus it added a little more matte black to the truck.

 

To be honest, I think all pieces I'm considering are plastic.

 

I installed this bad boy

 

I've gotten 2 chips since December, I only have 3000 miles on the truck, both my other vehicles get driven a lot more and have no chips on them and I've heard rock hit the windshield on both of them these new Toyota windshields are pretty cheeseball...

 

Matches the trd cheese grater grille.

 

I roughed up the chrome and used adhesion promoter. Hopefully that does the job, time will tell.

I got the paint from automotivetouchup.com. I got two cans of color and two of clear. Could've gotten away with one of each and it's a pretty cheap mod.

 

Bed side power for camping trips

 

True! Got rid of that cheese grater right away!

 

Depending on the quality, painting chrome plastic is actually worse the painting normal chrome plated metal.

Best strategy for long term adhesion, is to hit it with a flapper wheel in a grinder (not a drill, or it'll take you a week) make sure there are no "smooth" spots left. Then use a 2 part primer, i.e. not a rattle can, and epoxy primer you mix and spray with a gun. Then sand, maybe prime and sand again until perfect, then paint. Doing it that way will be as good as starting with bare metal.
Good quality chrome covered plastic which I assume the tacoma bumper is, will be the same method, just be really careful with the flapper wheel not to over heat the chrome & plastic.

But, a rear bumper will not be subject to a ton of rock hits like a grill or front bumper, so a rattle can primer job may last a decent amount of time.