ThatguyJZ's Build Thread

Just went through your entire build. This is one of the cleanest and coolest builds I've seen. I know some might say too plain or simple compared to some really tricked out rigs with armor and all that, but for what I use my truck for, this is very sweet! It is evident you took your time picking quality items and doing it right. Very nice! Oh, and beautiful home too!!

 

Thanks!

 

Any new pics of your dope rig?

 

I'll post some up soon. I need to detail the truck, I've been slacking.

I installed new speakers last month. Nothing mind blowing but definitely sounds better now that they're breaking in. I can max volume and still be clear. The most decisive review comes from my wife, 'Wow, I can actually hear the radio with the windows down now'.

Just ordered new tires from 4wd.com. I've gotten just over 3 years out of the BFG AT KO2's and they've been a great tire. Being E rated though they're heavy and a bit overkill for how I've used them. The tread on them now is getting pretty low and wet weather traction is sketch as hell. With winter coming it's time to change them out. Went with Goodyear Wrangler's this time in a C rating to see what all the hype is about. Figured now I'll have ran the top two contenders and we'll see which I like best. Also I'll be saving close to 15 pounds per corner which should net some fuel economy.

 

Tires came in yesterday, ready to go on soon!





Spent half of yesterday and today getting the truck clean and detailed again.


After a wash



All done today






Also I ordered the Baja Design's Plug & Play Fog Light Kit with Wide Cornering Squadron R's in Amber. They should be in next week and I'm looking forward to installing them!

I feel like whenever I do update pics it's a lot of the same type of photo of my truck after I cleaned it so I figured I throw in something different and include of few of some places I've been this year.

Waterfalls from Dupont State Forest (South of Asheville, NC) we visited earlier this year.





Hanging Rock, view from the top



Went to Denver, CO and hit the mountains one day. That state is unreal. Growing up East Coast then going out there and seeing the land and the mountains was awesome. It's a whole other country out there. I'm looking forward to going back.





Went up to Michigan with the wife, spent some time in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Grand Haven. Here's a shot of Lake Michigan from Grand Haven.



Went to a Wedding in Asheville, NC





...and destroyed my leg muscles for a week from a long hike at Stone Mountain in NC.



Thanks for reading!

 

Got my Duratrac's installed yesterday with a fresh alignment. First impressions are good. They are noisier than the KO2's. KO2's brand new were nice and quiet. Brand new the Duratrac's hum about the same or a little more than my worn KO2's. The weight difference between the E rating of the KO2's and C rating of the Duratrac's is absolutely noticeable. Turning, braking, and acceleration all feel much better. The truck as a whole feels less tired and more nimble. I agree with other users that say E rated tires on these trucks is overkill unless you do a lot of active wheeling/rocky terrain.

 

Truck's still running good! Coming up on 60k miles. I got a free hand-me-down TRD front skid from my Dad when he traded in his truck so I'm running that now.

Since the truck's getting older I've noticed I have lost about an inch of lift in the rear as the stock leaf's have sagged. Now I'm level at ~22" hub to fender all around (+/- 1/4") with an empty bed. Any load or the occasional pulling of the trailer and I squat. So it's time for a rear suspension overhaul.









OME Dakar EL095R's with Timbren Active Offroad Bumpstops and U-bolt Flip with Wheeler's bushings.

The plan is to run these with the larger overload removed. This should reduce lift by at least half an inch (thickness of the overload), however other users have reported closer to an inch. I'm aiming to be somewhere around 23.5" hub to fender in the rear, unloaded. I got a little work to do to these still before I install them, I'll cover that later as I get to it.

My wife and I have this crazy idea. She's due to give birth to our first child in June. We figured we won't have time off like that again for a while. So, assuming all goes well we thought about packing up the truck and my newborn son and taking a trip out west. If anyone's done something like this I'd love some advice. I've been keeping my eyes open for a used bed shell, but if one doesn't come up in the next few months I'll end up ordering one new, which that along with our gear is why I'm re-doing my rear springs.

Oh yeah, I had mentioned my Dad had traded in his red truck. He got this...












It's pretty nice, but it ain't no 2nd gen

 

Congratulations Jim on the upcoming new born. I never been out west, but would love to go!! Enjoy the Trip.

And congratulations to your dad on the New Ride!!

 

Got my Dakar EL095R springs installed today. I'm running them with the top (bigger) overload removed giving me a total of 4 leafs plus one overload. I went with Wheeler's poly bushings and Timbren Active Off-Road Bumpstops with U-bolt Flip Kit.

Install went smooth and took around 3 hours. I'm already running Wheeler's extended stainless brake lines along with the brake line spacer at the axle that comes standard with the Baja/Pro suspension. I did modify the clamps on the pack some before install. One of them sits pretty tall and some owners have reported it hitting their frame and bending. In short I cut about a half inch off the clamp and drilled new holes to run a retainer bolt. More details here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dakar-leaf-separator-disk.536527/#post-17271151

Prior to install my stock pack with Icon 3 leaf AAL had sagged and lost about an inch. From around 23" when new to 22" now. Any kind of load and I'd be nose high.

Now, initial measurements put the rear at ~23.5" hub to fender which is right where I figured I should be. My front measures ~22" hub to fender with the Baja suspension. So with this setup and an empty bed I have 1.5" of rake. Ride quality is great so far, no real difference, certainly not stiff and uncomfortable.

Onto the pics... Excuse the dirty truck

 

I read your whole thread and I have say you have a super clean build man! Also congrats on the baby! I have one question if you don't mind; how much did it cost you to have your home built?

 

Subd for build ideas later. Great looking taco.

 

Beautiful, subbed for updates.

 

Had a lot going on since the last update, got to welcome a new member of the family two weeks early!



Good news! Mom and baby are doing great!

The Tacoma is still all good. I picked up a vibration a while back that was pretty bad and was dreading it was a driveline vibe that reared its head about a month after installing the Dakar Leaf Pack. Fortunately that was not the case. I had a tire out of balance. One of my Duratrac's requires a shit ton of weight to balance out. I called Goodyear, they talk like they might warranty it but I must goto a Goodyear service center. Not sure I want to play that game.



We threw some weight on it and got it balanced out, rides smooth now, no issues. Also the Dakar's are still awesome. Towed a big heavy boat trailer converted to a single car hauler and several trailer loads of mulch and landscaping supplies and with the Timbren's they do great and ride excellent.


Also, picked this up. Project MomRunner. 2008 4Runner SR5 4WD with JBL Premium Sound, one NC owner with 153k miles. Here it is all finished up and detailed.







My wife had really been wanting a 4Runner for a while, especially with our son on the way. After lurking on T4R.org and hunting Craigslist and local dealers for a month we found one of interest. Front CV axle boots were blown and flinging grease everywhere and 4LO wouldn't engage so I talked them down on price. Two weeks later they reached out to me and agreed to sell it at my offer. As soon as the deal was closed I left the lot to meet a local guy to buy a set of 5th gen trail wheels to go on it.

I have to give a shout out to McGeorge Toyota Parts of Virginia for the best price on Toyota parts I can find!

Fast forward and I've installed new Denso plugs, fresh fluids in front and rear diffs, t-case, and transmission. Installed new Toyota front CV axles. After repeatedly attempting to engage 4LO over and over it finally fixed itself and works fine now. New Moog endlinks front and rear with polyurethane sway bushings and KYB front upper shock mounts.

My stock TRD OR Bilstein suspension was just sitting around with less than 2,000 miles on it so I installed it on the 4Runner. Front springs and shocks bolt-on with no modifications and the front springs gave ~1.5" of lift. Rear shocks require just a new $6 lower shock bushing to accommodate the larger bolt diameter in the 4Runner's then they bolt right up. Now it sits perfectly level and rides much better than before. Along with front tint and a few other little odds and ends, that's about it.

Once the tires wear down I'm gonna throw on some BFG AT KO2's, and would like to find a used factory rear spoiler for it but might end up going aftermarket. That's about all I have planned for this one though besides regular maintenance.

*update 8/25/18. Installed stock FJ rear springs to restore some rake. Got about a half inch more rear height. Overall now the rear averages an inch higher hub to fender than the front. The slightly higher spring rate of the FJ springs has improved handling as well, lessening the boat-like handling characteristics. 159k and still running like a champ.

Thanks!

 

Congratulations Jim on the new additions to the family

 

Bump! Still lurking. No new pics of the truck though.

Ended up with a bent alignment cam tab due to a shitty alignment guy.... it's on the list of things to do. Gonna try to bend it back and weld a bead behind it.

I replaced my chrome rear bumper with a new black one. That story involves some wet grass, a trailer, and a dent.

Other than that it's performing like a champ!


Picked up an BMW e46 ZHP for a fun car/daily to and from work so the truck really only sees weekend duty these days. Like any German car it keeps me busy but man, when they're right, they are a blast.




The 4Runner is pushing 175k and doesn't skip a beat. I did have to do rear axle seals a few months ago which wasn't as bad as I thought with exception to some bad e-brake hardware that fought me getting the rotor off. I just spent 2 1/2 days doing a full detail on it since it see's full time duty as the kid hauler and wife's DD. To seal it all in I went with Gyeon Can Coat this time around which was my first time working with any type of ceramic coating. Overall the product was very easy to work with on the T4R's single stage Natural White paint.




Oh and what kind of Dad would I be if I didn't re-up a pic of my son who's over a year old now. He got a mouthful of lemons the other weekend





That's it for my yearly update haha. Thanks!

 

Glad to see a update from you! How much did the e46 cost you? Manual or auto?

 

Sorry for the late response. Got it for a good price. 6spd manual.

 

Bump. New pics.

Truck



ZHP

 

With the help of a friend, we installed the Marlin Crawler HD LCA Frame Brace Kit today. This kit is solid. I did this to remedy a bent alignment cam tab and to prevent it from ever being a problem again. It was a lot of little tedious welding but now that it's done I should never have to worry about it again.

Here's a few photos in the process. We installed it without dropping the LCA's. As long as you take your time and jump around to the other corners to let things cool down there's really no risk of melting the bushings unless you're absolutely going to town on one of them.





I also switched back to the BFG KO2 Tires. I'll take the Load E weight penalty to have a better quality tire. My Duratrac's were absolutely terrible. They were loud as hell, and one of them couldn't even be balanced it was so out of whack. So between that and the others the whole truck would shake and you couldn't even hear the radio going down the highway. Now at the BFG's it's quiet and smooth as can be.

 

They grow up fast!