New Member, New Taco, New things (Gloss or Matte?)

Hey guys! Long time listener, first time poster here. Just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself, my truck, and my journey to offroad supremacy. Grabbed my 2020 DCLB TRD OR back in October and have slowly been compiling items for my build. Tracking down the right truck, at the right price was nearly impossible in 2020. After a long 10 months of scrubbing every resource on the internet, I was finally able to secure the truck I wanted. For those of you interested, I somehow managed to snatch it up for a whopping $36,500. If you live in the PNW, you know that every dealer in the area has these marked up over $40,000.

With that being said, I absolutely love my Tacoma! Of course the first thing I wanted to do was to make it my own. I didn't drive the truck for more than 30 minutes before realizing I would not survive without Window Visors, almost immediately followed by how atrocious the lighting was inside the cab, as well as a lack of organization. Spent about $80 collectively and ordered the LED lights to swap in, the smoked AVS visors, and the center console organizer. Yeah, super basic mods but absolutely necessary. I could tell that this truck was going to become an expensive new hobby, but I'm also about being savvy with my money.

I would like to think of myself as an outdoorsman, there's no place I would rather be in the world than deep in the pines. So naturally, I was going to setup the truck so that I could access more remote locations and do some camping along the way. I have looked time and time again at RTTs, but it just doesn't seem like they're worth all of the money. I understand the convenience of the RTT, but it is an awfully expensive option that leaves you semi-limited to camping options as the brunt of good camping here is at walk-in sites not drive ups. Also, having a secured storage area is important to me. Trips into Portland or Seattle could easily result in a burglary leading to an unexpected and disappointing end to a trip. Of course I could get a canopy capable of supporting an RTT, but by then I was looking at nearly $5000 just for a secured camping option. Running an RTT was out, if I wanted a quick camp solution I would just opt to sleep in a fiberglass canopy.

With that being said, I opted to begin chasing down canopies for the 6' bed. Little did I know, the 6' bed is a bit of a unicorn. It really looked like I was going to be forced into dropping $3000+ on a new canopy with the options I wanted. I looked at RSI, RLD, and ARE and all of the options seemed great but pulling the trigger on that kind of purchase seemed like a bit much. Guys literally give these things away when they're done with them, at least where I come from back in the Murder Mitten.

Yet again, my luck took a turn just a few weeks ago and someone listed a Leer 100xr for the 6' bed for a whopping $500. Of course this cap needed some love, but I was positive that I could clean it up and still have less into than what the majority of the market was asking for a full functional used one. The sliding side window was blown out, the latch on the rear window was broken and missing, and there was a load of dog hair riddled throughout the liner (but no stains.) I decided to take a chance and talked the seller down to 400, was really pushing for 350 but hey whatever. This cap had all the features I wanted, the carpeted headliner, the tilt in front window for cleaning, 12v interior lighting, and the protective cages over the screens.

So I contacted glass companies in the area, trying to see what it would run for me to replace just the glass in the window. Almost every shop in town said they wouldn't do it, however Vancouver Glass quoted me at $150 with the install. Well, I still needed to track down the latch and the web was providing me with too many options. I reached out to the dealer in my neighborhood, the latch was a whopping $25 and a complete replacement window frame with all the glass and screens was also $150. So of course, I just ordered the entire window frame and will be swapping that over in a few weeks when it arrives. As it stands, I've only spent $600 including the cost of the canopy to get this put together.

Now I am trying to decide on whether I should leave the canopy gloss black (taco is Magnetic Gray) or try to color match it in matte to the fender flares. I really like the idea of giving it that matte look, but at the same time all my friends say they like the cap as it is. If you guys could provide some input, it would help me make my decision so I can close out this project and start onto the next one.

Once I have this situation sorted out its on to other items like skids and sliders. I want to focus on building the armor for the truck, before I bother spending money on a lift or lights. I know once I have the lift, it will instill false confidence and I will be more likely to get myself into a sketchy situation leading to body damage.

Your input is appreciated and I look forward to being a contributing member of the community!

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Thanks I'm glad to be here, I've been perusing the forums here for a good year or so. Figured there's no better day than today to join the community!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW! Congrats on the truck and a great deal. I’m also in the PNW and yes the markups are crazy.