Left For Dead: The Resurrection of my 2015 TRD Pro

This story starts off sad. Someone's baby, a 2015 Tacoma TRD Pro in the beautiful inferno color was wrecked. The insurance wrote the truck off even tho it only had 19k miles on it. It was sent off to auction, most likely it would end up being parted out.

Luckily I found this truck at an auction lot in North Dakota. After quickly selling my 2010 Jeep JKU I was able to snatch it up. The Jeep was great, 35 inch Nitto Ridge Grapplers, 4.88 gears and a 2.5 inch lift was enough to get me anywhere and everywhere. In the two years I had it I put over 25,000 miles on it. I did the Red Clay Rally, the Kentucky Adventure Tour and hundreds of small camping trips. Many with my custom off road trailer. But you're not here to read about the jeep, you are here to see the resurrection of the truck.

Before we get into the rebuild I'll show you what it's looking like now.

As of October 2018:



Before the new tires and suspension:





Part List:

Interior:
Katzkin Leather Seats & Heaters w/ Orange Stitching
BirdDawg Tech Deck with iPad mount
Expedition Essentials flip down Switch-Pro mount (in sunglasses holder)
Switch-Pro 9100
Cobra 75 WX ST CB Radio

Exterior:
C4 Fabrication LoPro Front Bumper with 30inch LED
Smittybilt X20 10k Winch
Truxedo Lo Pro Tonneau Cover
Relentless Fab CB antenna mount
Mobtown Offroad Sliders
CBI Bedrack
Tepui Autana Sky RTT
CVT 54" Awning

Suspension:
Bilstein 6112s with Bilstein Coils in front
SPC Upper Control Arms
Bilstein 5160s in the rear
OME Dakar Medium duty leafs
BFG KO2s 285/75/R16

Now, let's get on to the rebuild!

 

Looking forward to seeing the rebuild

 

I'm sure this thread will trigger someone about rebuilding cars. Someone will appreciate it and some won't. This isn't the place to discuss that. All I'll say is this is personally my 6th rebuilt vehicle. I started with jeeps and rebuild, sell and buy something newer. My father has been doing this for my entire life. We've owned two body shops and know what to look for when buying a vehicle. We both enjoy the build as much as driving the vehicle. My dad started doing this with old Trans-ams, and worked up to a supercharged F-type. Now he's got a raptor...

It looks worse than it was...




No frame damage which is always a good place to start. The AC lines weren't damage which is great, because that can cause issues later. New radiator, core support, lights, bumper support and cover, hood, grill... You get the idea. A lot of pieces to get painted and installed. Also, DEAR LORD the paint is expensive on these... $400 a pint.

Right, more pictures:





BTW, a HUGE shoutout to C4 Fabrication. They worked with me to get a bumper in record time. You guys are the best!




I'd say it was worth restoring! I really love how this truck is turning out. Next on the list, some of the mods. Stay tuned.

Oh, should I post my adventures here? Or new posts for each of our trips? Thoughts?

 

The damage wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Good find op

 

The seat airbags deployed during the wreck so I had two choices, restitch the seats with or get KatSkins.
Before:



After:




I had the seats redone after the airbags were replaced.
I think I made the right choice...

 

I like it!

Assuming you're in Chattanooga, come show off your truck! There'll be another 2nd gen Pro Inferno there

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/6th-annual-ky-tn-march-2018-land-between-the-lakes-meet.521740/

 

Thanks to an amazing find on the East Tennessee Overlanders FB page, I had a CBI Bedrack waiting in my storage room for the truck to be done. Already painted, already wired with lights and included the rack and Plano case. I lucked out!



It wasn't until later that I decided I wanted a bed cover AND my bed rack... I made it happen with some custom fab work and help from my dad. But that's another post...

 

Absolutely beautiful job on the rebuild. Hats off to you for bringing a rare taco back to life! Definitely one worth rebuilding

 

It was a fun one, just took longer than I expected!

Thank You! I was hoping it wouldn't be gone by the time I got my money together and the jeep sold.

Awesome! I am in Chattanooga and I'll definitely check it out!

Thank ya! It's been a process, but extremely rewarding!

 

Sweetness nice job!

 

How much did u pay for it at auction?

 

Did you replace the seat airbags and just not the seats? Hence the covers...

 

X2

 

Love seeing it brought back and looking great again!

 

Nice work! That's a good looking truck.

 

Yep! The seats were in good condition and I really wanted leather anyways. So I had the new airbags installed and the seats professionally recovered. I think they turned out great!

It was way to nice to go to pasture yet.

Thank you!

 

This was a real pain! Last weekend I decided to install my Truxedo Lo Pro Tonneau Cover with the bed rack still installed.


The pictures on their website made it look like the rails barley covered any of the bedside so it should work without much modification. The pictures were wrong...

I really should have taken more pictures during the install, but we had to modify the brackets, then cut nearly 2 inches out of the front and rear bars and each cross-member. In the end it was worth it. I still need to take the cover to get a couple inches taken out of the width. That will remove the wrinkles and make it roll up easier.




In order to make it work, we attached the L-Brackets directly to the bedrack instead of in the track. I still need to add a little more weather stripping but it's close to waterproof already.



I found a great deal on an open box BedRug for the truck. Should be here before this weekend. At least, I hope it will. I'm going caving and I'd prefer to have a place to toss our gear in the back but without it sliding around.

 

Good job on the rebuild

Nice to see the rare inferno 2nd gen getting a second life!