What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Been putting off exterior detailing for a nice day and got one on Sunday. Used Chemical Guys products as I've had good results over the years.

Cleaned the engine with diluted Simple Green, then a hand wash with Mr. Pink soap.


Did the clay bar treatment followed by Butter Wet Wax.


Topped it off with HydroSlick ceramic coating.



Cleaned the wheels up with wheel cleaner and a brush.



Glamour Shots time! 5 hours of work made a noticeable difference. That metal flake in the paint has never looked so good. At the very end I slammed my finger in the patio door (totally not beer and vodka related. Well OK, maybe) so it ended by me trying not to puke from pain. But otherwise a nice afternoon.

 

Couldn't live without my truck. Don't know how I managed it. in the last 48 hours...





I do love this thing.

 

First pass at fabricating my own plate. Going to put two more pass-thru bolt holes on it, for the angle bracket I made to mount it, and then send it off to a friend for powdercoating. It also needs a bit of filing, but not bad for entirely hand tooled, I guess. I won't see it so long as it's functional, I don't care if it's pretty.



Also I haven't welded in forever, and it could be shown by the fact that the wire feed speed was way wrong while I was trying to put this bracket together. 80 Degree angle so it's slightly down-tilted because the bolt holes I have right there are angled slightly upward.

 

you are a braver man then me i would never let anyone learn on mine

 

Love the hybrid bumper. BAMF and C4 Fab both have excellent looking hybrids. Any issues or regrets?

 

Biggest complaint I have on my aux fuse mount is the the way it bolts to the frame. Hard as hell to get to those bolts and cumbersome at best to start the bolt when I'm putting things back in. I've thought about cutting some access slots in the top right above where those bolts are for easier access.

 

Got a couple pictures for reference?

 

Went front the black Offroad handles back to the oem super white handles. I think it’s cleaner.

 

Good point. I added it to my post. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cowl-induction-snorkel.525314/

 

Installed my scangauge. Not sure if I like the spot or not...also can’t seem to get a close match to our oem orange colour.

 

Things are happening today

 

I thought I had some, but apparently I don't. I'll run down to the truck and snap one for you.

 

Nice looking truck! The front end of the 15's are my favorite out of all Tacomas. One day I will get one!

 

Fixed my blower motor speeds today.
My old cable had a little burnout on one of the pins(pretty common it looks like) so I bought the cable from Napa, and a couple extra 10-12 gauge butt connectors from harbor freight, along with a crimping tool. Spent about $35, cut the cables, and crimped them. Working now! I need to get/borrow a heat gun to seal the connectors next.

Pretty happy with my work.

 

Go back to Harbor Freight and get a heat gun, they're super cheap and I actually use mine wayyy more often then I would have thought haha

 

or use a torch with indirect heat

 

That's what I used to do all the time, I've just found other uses for having a heat gun that it's nice to have on hand

 

Thanks! I like the 2.5 gen grilles a lot. Not much I'd change there.

 

What kind of ditch lights are those?