Raz's '04 Tacoma TRD build

not much to report but i called the canopy place today and they said it's still a couple weeks out. will call next week and see if they have an update.

 

Well... I hit a deer today. just popped out of the trees and ran right in front of the truck. Truck seems to be okay but, among other things, I lost the little trim piece that goes beneath the headlights. the side marker light also took a beating, my CB antenna stud is bent, and the bumper got pushed back a little bit. Hoping all of these are easily fixable. as soon as I can get to an auto parts store and borrow some 1/2" drive tools I think that i'm going to loosen the bolts on the bumper and then see if I can get it pulled back out. one of the braces for the headlight protectors is now touching the chrome grill surround, wheras it wasn't before. I picked up the metal trim piece off the road but to be honest I'm not sure if it's worth salvaging. I'm definitely going to replace the trim piece and fix the bumper alignment but the other stuff may have to wait. Anyone know the part number on the trim piece?

on a similar note, ARB has just earned themselves a customer for life, as well as Toyota. the truck took it like a champ, I honestly didn't feel anything, all I head was a loud bang that coincided with the impact. that and the antenna was noticeably bent after the impact. If I hadn't had the bumper, I would be willing to bet I would be looking at a new headlight, grill, radiator, driver's side fender, bumper, and potentially more. Hands down saved the truck from being towed, and it still drives fine, headlights are good, etc. just looks a little funky now. If i didn't care so much about the way the truck looked (i like to keep it intact as much as possible) I honestly would just fix the bumper and call it good.

 

just ordered a 12oz can of 3L5 spray paint and clearcoat from Automotivetouchup.com. the shipping times were pretty far out so i figured that I ought to get the ball rolling now. still not sure what i'm going to do about the marker light or the CB stud but i'll try and bend the stud back and i might just have to live with the marker light. If i can't bend the stud back then i'll either just buy a new stud and spring setup or (if it's the mount it's self that's bent) then i'll move it to the other mount on the bumper. As far as the tools i brought to college, I neglected to bring a 1/2" drive socket set or extension. I have a breaker bar and torque wrench (extra stuff that i threw in) that are both 1/2" but I'll go to Harbor freight today and pick up a set of sockets and an extension. planning on buying these replacement trim pieces off ebay: https://www.ebay.com/i/193576419702...zl_1GXr9uRSrcfVS7vuDSFSVJ3zWXneYaAjg7EALw_wcB. after looking at the old one and comparing it to pictures of the new product it's not worth trying to fix. especially when the replacement parts are only $20 for a pair. I might be able to fix it if i had access to my whole shop with a bench vise and all but I have none of that here and to be honest, I'm not real excited about trying to bend it back with a framing hammer, some channellocks, and a set of slip joint pliers. it's well worth my time to just buy a new part and paint it to match the truck.

 

loosened up the bumper bolts yesterday and fixed the alignment after hitting that deer the other night. not perfect but it'll do. I also fixed the antenna stud with a deadblow hammer. turns out it wasn't anything a little brute force and ignorance couldn't fix. Truck will look way better once i can get the replacement trim piece painted and installed. fixing it in the dorm parking lot sucked though!
this is how the supports for the bar were sitting before:
Driver's side (where I hit the deer):

Passenger Side:

I didn't take an after picture but they are way more even now. all it took was loosening up the bolts connecting the bumper to the brackets, yanking on it, and getting a buddy to hold it while I tightened the bolts up. the pannel gap was also off (higher on the driver's side) so i fixed that too. i'd hate to have seen what might have happened if i hadn't had the bumper though... likely more damage than i could fix in an hour in a parking lot with some basic hand tools...

and the finished product: good from far but far from good... still, she's straight enough for the girls I go out with.

 

Went wheeling with some friends up by Whitehall today. did the pipestone trail and then on the way out we stopped by ringing rocks. cool stuff, the noise they make is uncanny. trail wasn't too hard but it's about as much as i'm comfortable doing. truck could do more, but my driving skills are what holds me back. got a few pics. beautiful country up there!








picking the canopy up on Wednesday... hopefully. if i can't do it then I'll get it on Thursday. been waiting a long time for it.

 

i'm a little late to the game on this as I actually got it installed on Saturday, but I picked up my new topper. Very pleased with the way it turned out, it looks awesome and it should be really functional. I've already made use of it to securely store my hockey gear for a few hours. looking forward to camping out of it too!


in other news, I replaced the air filter yesterday on the truck and my color matched spray paint is supposed to get here today. once I get that i'll paint the replacement trim piece for under the headlight and install it.

 

went wheeling with a couple of friends last night. just an all around good time, almost got my buddy's stock tundra stuck once or twice and may or may not have punctured one of his tires. I keep telling him that he should throw a lift and some 35s on it but he still won't listen to me. also found a guy in a second gen that had managed to get himself stuck so we helped him out with the recovery. later that night me and one of those buddies went up in a different truck and went further up one of those roads to explore.





found a spot overlooking town, can't see much cause it was raining and kind of overcast but the lights are pretty cool.

oh yeah, and we kind of broke my other friend's canopy too.

 

finally got around to painting and putting on the trim-piece that the deer took off. looks good, but a bit too clean i think. I had some issues with clearing the fender but was able to flex it out of the way enough to get the piece on. the panel gap is off but honesty I don't really care as long as there is no-longer an empty space there. If i wanted to fix the panel gap I would need to replace the fender cause it got dented, i'm assuming by the deer's antlers.

 

also, Went over flathead Pass a couple of days ago. overall a good time, but I can definitely tell where the tires rub on the inner fenders.

 

How did the ARB hold up to the deer? Any issues?

 

took it like a champ. the only reason that there was any damage to the truck was because of the deer's antlers, and it was minor at that. Probably saved me like $2500 worth of damage. only thing I had to do after the collision was loosen up the bolts on the brackets and re-adjust the bumper's alignment.

 

Glad to hear, deer season is coming soon for the mountains. And I've always wondered about the arm vs dear on my current taco and last Jeep.

 

Well, noticed that my skid plate was hanging on by a thread yesterday while hunting at a friend's property about 2.5 hrs from home. not sure when it happened but it looks like one bolt backed out and the other had the weld-nut shear off. whatever the case, I crawled under there and fixed it with some Zip ties for the time being. not structural by any means but it should keep it up and out of the way for a while. Don't anticipate i'll be wheeling much over the next couple of months anyways so it shouldn't be a problem. looks like it might be time for some new skids after that tho. Any input on what kind would be greatly appreciated. I was going to build my own but right now I don't have access to a shop or most of my tools and I won't be back at my parent's house in WA long enough to find time to fab some up. heard good things about budbuilt and skid-row...


f*ckin mint!


also, while i was under there I noticed that my driver's side CV boot was leaking. not a full on tear yet, but There's a definite leak and looks to be some dry rot on the boot so it may not be long for this word. whatever the case, it should be good to get me back to WA/OR for the holidays and then back here. I'll deal with it then. Not sure whether to re-boot or just get new CVs and keep the old ones as spares. also need to do the front brake lines and UCAs so that might happen at the same time. I'll need to ask around to see if I can get a buddy to lend me their garage.

other than that truck's doing good (been a while since i've posted on here), just passed 165K last night on my way back from hunting. looking like i'll do an oil change and a tire rotation here soon but that's about it.

 

Great news that your deer encounter went well, a credit to the ARB for sure. They don’t call them a battering ram for nothing, deer and kangaroo are roughly the same size and height- as far as body mass goes, so it figures they would do well. Lots of dang whitetail out there with a death wish.
Pondering where to mount the air compressor and trying to get all the outside important chores done so I can start on the nice cold job of UCA install out in the tractor shed, but at least it isn’t out in the snow. Might even get the leak on the topper window fixed while it’s out of the weather- it’s a small leak and at least now rain isn’t a big issue......

 

Hello, nice truck. I have an 03 that I just got skids for, front and belly pan that extends all the way back to the gas tank. What maintenance would you recommend before putting belly pan on? TIA

 

I would say that a full fluid replacement in the engine, transmission, t-case, and front diff wouldnt hurt since you have all the stuff off. other than that if nothings broken then i would say that there shouldn't be anything else to do. I would also keep in mind if there's any maintenance or fixes that you've been putting off but will require getting to components that will soon be covered by the belly pan (ie. speed sensor gear replacement, bleeding the clutch system, etc.) then I would say get that done as well.

 

replaced the bolts in the skid plate today, the threads are pretty crusty and they are cross-threaded as hell but they should work fine. a bit of improvised threadlocker... I just went to Ace hardware and picked up some M8 0.125 pitch 25mm bolts. Still want to get new skids sooner than later, but at least the skid plate isnt being held on by zip ties anymore. I also changed the oil and rotated my tires. Wish I had taken more pictures but I was paying for a shop rental by the hour so I wanted to get stuff done as quickly as possible.

 

I thank you for the advice. I hear you about getting to anything I've been putting off. I'm going to call my local lube place and see how much for an oil change (I think maybe there is some after-mkt part that helps drain oil w/skid on, seen people talk about it), check/replace t.case fluid and diff. fluids, and grease drive-line.

 

Nice. Budbuilt said to use anti-seize on bolts. I'm in between that and threadloc.

 

you should be fine on oil change tbh. most aftermarket skids will have a cutout to drain oil since it's such routine maintenance. it's all the other fluids that I would worry about getting done since they'll be a PITA with the belly pan on.

yeah, anti-seize makes sense on such a high-exposure area when it comes to road salt, water, dirt, etc. i didnt do that cause i've had a bunch of issues with the bolts backing out (second time!) so I said screw it and just did it. probably not recommended but hey... it works right? if you're between that, I would say use anti-seize and tighten the bolts down to whatever torque spec they recommend. those weld-nuts aren't the strongest when it comes to reefing on them but I would trust the manufacturer instructions, then adjust accordingly if you end up having issues. just my .02...