KOA's build thread. 2012 DC LB TRD Sport. Barcelona Red.

Short version of the story, over the winter, there was a Rancho lift kit on Amazon Warehouse deals for under for CHEAP. I ordered it. Earlier this spring, when I was ready to get to work installing it, I realized the entire second box for the kit was missing. Whoops. Amazon let me return it, and I ordered an OME kit like I should have in the first place from Toytec.

A couple of days worth of work later, and the kit is in, and new tires are on.
OME 9000 front struts, with 886 heavy coils. (Planning on new front bumper, etc)
Top Plate Spacers
1" Diff drop.
Toytec Add-A-Leaf

Rolling on BF Goodrich 255/80/17 KMs on stock alloy 17" rims.

Coming up next is a full set of SOS skids and an SOS rear bumper with tire carrier. Ordered that AWHILE ago, doesn't look like Eddy is still selling the tire carrier.

Other stuff already on there: Thule T2 bike rack on the rear, ARE MX cap, Thule aeroblade rack on the cap, full aluminum roof rack on the cab from PrinsuDesigns. Small LED ditch lights mounted on CBI hood mounts. And a cheapy Westin bullbar on the front.

Lot more to come.

 

Got my SOS rear bumper installed, but not the tire swing out just yet.
For anyone installing an SOS high clearance rear bumper, I'd suggest leaving the fender flairs ON, and just cutting everything that way.
We pulled the passenger side off and broke most of the clips in the process.
Left the driver's side on, cut the flair first, got it out of the way, and then cut the fender.

Thanks to @EddyRRT for some awesome work.
Also, bolted in the skids last week, but haven't snapped any photos yet.


Pulled the tail lights.


Pulled the stock bumper, hitch, and fender flair. I'd suggest leaving the flairs on to cut. You'll avoid breaking all the plastic clips that hold it to fender.


We used a few strips of painters tape, drew a line, took a deep breath and a sip of beer and cut it up!


Test fit-up done and dusted. Got the plate lights installed a little after this and unplugged the 7-pin harness for now.

 

Got a set of SOS rock sliders without the kick-out last summer, but didn't get a chance to get them painted before winter took hold here in VT. Just got them finished and installed.
Used Rustoleum Bed Liner (same that I used for the skid plates).

Followed some great advice I found on this site about relocated and protecting the brake and fuel lines on the drivers side. And holy hell was getting those two forward most bolts in the frame tricky. Skinny arms helped. But just barely.
Before
Installed.
They provided a tiny bit of a step, which is helpful for my wide and when for when I'm loading the kiddo into her carseat in the back.

 

In the fall I had tinted the rear windows of the cab, mostly for my daughter to keep the sun out of her eyes while she was in the car seat.
Had an ARE MX cap on the truck, so I didn't need to do the rear windows at the time.
Pretty quick install. I've bought the tint from R_Vinyl on eBay for a number of cars, always good stuff, ships quick, pre-cut. Easy.

It's a dark tint, only 5%.
Can really see the difference between the untinted front window here.
So now the whole rear of the cab is kiddo friendly.

For anyone wondering about installing the tint, I always just use a generous (GENEROUS) amount of windex, get the film the window, position it, and then starting from the center, squeegee out. It use a small plastic squeeze that forces all of the water out from behind the film. Has worked well for me. It's not show car perfect, but either is the rest of the truck.

 

I bought a Prinsu Designs roof rack when he was first making them, it looks like they'ved evolved a little bit since then (which is great).
http://www.prinsudesignstudio.com/_p/prd12/3118211191/product/2005---2017-toyota-tacoma-cabrac

The fairing was always the weak point of the rack, in terms of design. It was pretty loud from the beginning. He sent me some additional bolts at one point to add to the front to help with the noise. It helped, but wasn't perfect.

I had been thinking of re-doing it for awhile, but it was never quite bad enough to really focus too much energy on. Then I noticed his updated fairing design and thought it looked manageable to execute.

I found a seller of diamond plate on Amazon (which was WAY cheaper than Lowes or Home Depot) that was already powdercoated black. If you go this route, just pay attention to the thickness of the sheet your buying. I probably should have gone up a thickness.

I made all of the cuts with a jigsaw running a fine tooth metal blade. And drilled all of the holes on the drill press.
I started with a cardboard template just to make sure I had the size correct.

Anyway, here we are:
Brandy new
About 2.5" taller than the original ABS plastic fairing
And I added some automotive trim to the bottom to protect the truck's paint and deaden any vibration (hopefully). Haven't driven it on the highway yet.

 

I wanted to upgrade the tailgate on Tacoma not really for any additional strength, but I really wanted the inside of the tailgate to be FLAT. We use the truck for camping and events often, and it seemed like having it flat would be a HUGE improvement.
I took advantage of the Mobtown Offroad tax sale and bought their tailgate upgrade, and went for the upgraded hardware as well. I figured as long as I was taking it apart, I might as well reinforce it for whatever the future may hold.

The riv-nuts are kind of a pain the ass to install without a riv-nut tool, but Mobtown provides a bolt and nut to get the job done. Do yourself a favor and get the correct socket for your drill, it will save a ton of time and your hands.
I used a block of wood between the outer skin of the tail gate and the inner skin when I was drilling out the square holes to 13/32. That way I didn't worry about denting or dimpling the outer skin. Just a scrap piece of 1x2 that was in the garage.

Remove the plastic skin, drill out the holes, install the riv-nuts, and off we go to the races.
Actually, while I had this all pulled apart, I took the opportunity to re-locate the back-up camera. With the SOS rear bumper and tire swing, the camera was looking mostly at the tire, which wasn't helpful at all. It also made removing the tailgate a time sucking proposition.


Plastic skin removed and camera pulled out.

Riv-nuts going in. One by one.


I fabbed up this mount out of a sheet of aluminum. Pretty simple.


And WAY better image for the rear camera now, and will be easy to use for the hitch if/when we use it this summer.