wi_taco 2015 TRD OffRoad build "The Gray Ghost"

Accumulating lots of bits & pieces for new upgrades. Shipments slowly trickling in, just a waiting game for missing items. Major upgrades coming this weekend if UPS cooperates and finds my packages...

 

UPS delayed my stuff but picked up at the local depot. WHAT ARE THOSE???



More parts - Pacific P/N PMV-C11A OE style TPMS sensors for the new wheels. Locally available at Advance Auto Parts (P/N 40005) for around $50 while dealership wants $100+ for the same thing. Shocking, I know.



More parts - blackout interior pieces to get rid of the ugly two-tone silver junk. Hands down the most money I've ever spent on pieces of plastic ouch.

 

The handle on my Leer 100XL cap was degraded and greyed when I bought it used. Turns out the handle was actually a Bauer replacement handle, not a Leer one. It has seen better days and really sticks out like a big, ugly sore spot. Time to go.



Replaced with a LEER Twist Handle Kit 113436 (ASIN =

$69 B0821VR8QM LEER Twist Handle Kit 113436-100XQ, 700, 100XL Topper Tonneau T-Handle

B0821VR8QM) and the quality differences are actually quite noticeable. Much better design & operation. Also has a nice handle to open from the inside which may become handy if I can set up a camping platform in the future. $50 well spent, makes such a big aesthetic difference.

 

Was lucky enough to pull a set of Stealth Custom Series (SCS) BR6 17x8.5 -10mm wheels in the latest 2/26 inventory drop. These are blemished units but frankly I can't really find anything major wrong with them. Goes to show that SCS really works for quality control and makes a great product. Thanks to Vin at @SCSPerformance for helping me out and responding so fast directly through TacomaWorld forums!



Wrapped the wheels with some General Grabber AT/X 265/70/17 C load range tires that I sourced locally. Shop that I got the tires from botched my request for new TPMS sensors so I drove around most of the weekend trying to find them - see 2 posts above, Advance Auto stocks the Pacific OEM style sensors which saved my butt this time. Finally can show off how they look - ignore the dirty tire mounting gunk, these things are dead sexy and the Grabber tires are damn near silent. "Stealth" is basically the theme of my build and these fit my goals 100% so far.



Now there are some downsides but nothing major. If anyone else is looking to fit this size tire on a wheel with -10mm offset I can confirm you need to remove the front mudflaps as well as the small front flaps in the very front (air dam? aero flaps? not sure what the exact term for these is). You should also be aware there will still be some rubbing at full lock when in reverse and if you hit a quick U-turn [Edit 3/31/21: Rubbing has gone away on it's own. I've never actually seen where it rubs but assumed maybe front bumper plastic lip, maybe it clearanced itself?]. So far my particular rubbing should be fixable with only a heat gun. That being said, my truck is the OffRoad trim and I've read there is more clearance by default on these as compared to lower trim levels. BE PREPARED FOR MODIFICATIONS. I knew this going in and I'm OK with it. Anything bigger would definitely need trimming or CMC and anyone who tells you differently is a flat out liar liar pants on fire.



Here's the most recent glamour shot with the new wheels and other recent mods. Didn't really plan this, just a parking lot shot so I could mark the milestone in photo blog form. More things to come in the very near future!

 

Installed black interior conversion pieces. HUGE improvement versus the silver stock bezels that frankly look out of place by comparison. I removed the gauge cluster rings so I can paint them later and pop back in when done without having to disassemble things again. Still need a black shift knob (which frankly I should have done first because it's reflection on the windshield is the most annoying of the bunch). More to come - new Pioneer stereo install is up next whenever my next UPS/FedEx delivery arrives.

Part numbers in case you want to do the same.

84250-04040-C0 = Black Steering Wheel Controls
58805-AD010 = Black Automatic Shifter Bezel
55412-04090 = Black Radio/AC surround with vent
84724-04030 = Black 4WD Switch/Control

Credit for the idea goes to this thread - lots more info here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/feeler-interest-gauge-for-12-15-blackout-interior-parts.449999/

 

Got a little bit busy with other boring adult chores but making progress little by little. Still don't have all the parts needed for my stereo install but I'm pushing ahead without them and will add later when new things arrive.



Completed joining up wiring harnesses for the Pioneer DMH-W4660NEX to the Maestro HRN-RR-TO1. Pretty straight-forward except for the reverse camera connections. Soldered, heatshrinked, and Tesa taped up for a clean installation package.



Photo is terrible quality because I was in a rush to play with EQ settings but here is the finished result in the newly installed black dash trim pieces. This is the Scosche TA2111B bezel kit. Fit is just okay, but it does come with metal mounting brackets that do actually fit great and make it rock solid in the dash.



Local hardware store had a sale on paints and a few caught my eye. Left = Rust-Oleum Peel Coat for derping the front grille badge. Right = Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X for painting those silver dash bezels to complete the blackout dash look (photos to come later, I forgot this time around).



Results of the front grille emblem painting/dipping. Surprised how well the Rust-Oleum product worked, it sprays very thin like a spray paint and is super easy to work with. Color blends very well with the stock black plastic. It seems silly but this makes a HUGE improvement on the front end now that all the chrome is removed!

 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Don't take your Tacoma to Rocket Wash. Damaged my truck and they don't care one bit. Was having a great day until this point and the sheer lack of concern they have ruined my mood. More below...



They have a sign clearly posted on the far right side of drive-up lanes saying to REMOVE your antenna and don't use aftermarket wheels amongst other ridiculous things to cover their ass. Lucky for me I didn't even see the sign since I was in the middle lane and traffic was busy at the time blocking any view of the sign. Hooray!



License plate up front is bent. They told me "well you should use four bolts not just two" even though we don't have that ability on the stock bumper. I can bend back the plate but now it has a huge crease in it. Fantastic...



The new antenna I installed like two weeks ago or less? Bent over about 20 degrees. Possibly the mounting base internal to the fender is bent but I can't tell for sure (doesn't feel right though). The guy just started bending it back for me without consent of touching my car. Quickly told him "hands off pal" since they've done enough for one day.



Paid extra for the "better" wash with more wheel cleaning fancy advertising. Notice the white goo from mounting the new tires? Basically untouched by the "triple stage" wheel and tire cleaning. More egregous is that the tires are still just dirty like their wash did nothing. They declined to refund my wash, damaged the truck, and didn't even get it clean. Take your truck somewhere else unless you like disappointment. I'll stick with touch-free only or DIY home wash from now on.



Okay, end of rant. We now resume your regularly scheduled build thread with happy things.

 

Previous owner installed an el cheapo McGard tailgate security device. Okay good on them for doing something to prevent theft and apparently it worked as intended up to this point. I wanted something a bit more permanent and didn't want to do the hose-clamp mod which is basically the same as the McGard.



Big flat screwdriver and 10 seconds later the McGard pipe clamp device was removed making way for improvements.



Ordered the "anti-tweaker" device made by @christian06 . Painted with 4 coats of VHT Epoxy Paint found at the local store. Chose this one because of supposed improved corrosion resistance - hopefully will stop rust from road salt but time will tell. Originally intended to paint silver over the top but ended up just leaving black so ignore the Dupli-color on the far right.



Finished product installed. I like that his kit includes a T40 security style head for a little extra theft prevention. Heck, I had to buy the bits at the local hardware store to even install it so I doubt a tweaker will have in their toolbag (hopefully). Every little bit helps.

 

Unexpected delivery on a Sunday afternoon - my Uni UP-107 filter that I ordered like a month ago showed up!



The foam in my secondary air injection actually appears to be in really good shape. Granted my truck is a 2015 but these are known failure points. Plus I heard Uni filter gives +10 Instagram street cred or something on TacomaWorld.



Installation is pretty straight forward. Took me longer to get the protective housing off than anything else. 5 minute job for your typical wrench turner monkey man like me.



Finished product. Super sexy. Can't even tell it's been modified. But at least now I can sleep at night knowing my SAI won't fail because of the foam.

 

Spent a good portion of the day wrapping up interior mods. Small change with big impact was wrapping some black gaffer tape on my iPass toll transponder and adding a silicone "skin" that I bought somewhere online for like $9. On my previous vehicle I didn't do this and there was always a big white spot shining through the front windscreen that looked ugly. I vowed this one wouldn't be like that. More black, more better.



Installed the painted gauge bezel rings. No more silver. Very happy with the results and the photo is probably unfair to the actual color which looks much better.



Finished up the Pioneer DMH-W4660NEX stereo install (mostly). Today I cleaned up the wiring behind the dash and completed connections for the Maestro RR OBD2 gauges, microphone for Siri/hands-free, GPS module was permanently mounted above instrument cluster with Gorilla tape, and spliced in connections for the rearview camera. Took several hours mainly because I was being extra careful running wires up through headliner and down through the dash.



Here's a wider view with the full dash. Still eventually need to blackout/derp the steering wheel logo and get a black shift knob (actually important because that glares on windshield more than anything).



Another thing that consumed a fair bit of time today was installing my new Blueskysea B4K dashcam. Several reasons: finding a position to mount it was trickier than I expected, and running the hardwire kit took some fiddling around. Now that I've done it once I could do it again in like 15 minutes. Notice the iPass (big black rectangle) mounted above it and microphone for the stereo mounted to the left on the BirdDawg clearview rearview mirror mount.



Another angle view of the dashcam. Again the big black blob above the camera is my iPass with blackout cover. Microphone for Siri/handsfree mounted to the left. Ran the microphone here so I could leave the OEM mic where it sits and not have to invent some custom mount. So far sound/voice quality tests are very good at this location.

 

Removed the OE 265/70/16 spare tire that looks like it has zero miles on it. Liberally applied some Woolwax to the lowering mechanism to prevent future rust and installed my new matching SCS BR6 + Grabber ATX 265/70/17 spare setup. Feels like a crime to hide such a beautiful wheel...



Did a chalk test on the new tires (which by the way I am VERY pleased with, C load seems perfect for what I want them to do). Currently have them inflated at 39-40psi depending which digital gauge I use. I know this is probably too much but figured it's a good starting point. Results below show why your tire pressure is important - don't just trust the door stickers especially with a modified vehicle!



Front tires are looking good but maybe a touch overinflated. This is also confirmed by the "feel" I get when driving that it wanders in the lane a bit more than I want. Going to drop 1 pound to 38psi and see how that works, might need to drop 2 in the end. Grip of the Grabber ATXs are still great at this pressure but once I get it perfect it should be even better.



Rear tires are definitely too high. Notice at the bottom of the photo that chalk is not even worn at the outer edge. This is confirmed by the "feel" when driving that rear end is bouncy (not bad but more than I expect to notice). I have the bed topper installed and a full tank of fuel but otherwise bed is empty. Going to drop to 36psi and check again later. This also shows why tire pressure is important to change depending on the load - if I was hauling/towing I would need to increase pressure to avoid excessive wear and heat that could cause early failure.

 

Decided I'm going to build a drawer/sleeping platform in the bed. Figured I need to install bed stiffeners first to ensure my drawers fit. Searched around and found that Rago Fabrication (@ragofabrication) makes them in stainless steel and sells the "blemish" models at a discount. Fast shipping, manufacturing quality is fantastic, great deal and I can't find a blemish at all. So far very impressed with their product!



Following their instructions and YouTube video it was a breeze to line everything up and drill the (3) 1/2" holed in the bedsides using a step drill bit.



Decided to use the same VHT epoxy paint I had from previous projects and sprayed the newly drilled holes to prevent rusting. Just put a strip of painters tape on the inside of the bed and sprayed from the inside the brake light housing area. It was pretty warm today and I did 4 coats with 5 minutes between and let dry for a day to fully cure.



Installing the bolts and nylon lock nuts are straight-forward. BE CAREFUL inside the brake housing area - sharp edges of the sheet metal will cut your hands. Also for the middle bolt be sure to use the open end of a wrench otherwise you will get stuck on the other small bolt protruding directly next to it. The only knock on this product is that these 1/2" bolts are super long for the application (believe then are 1.5" long and could be 1" or 1.25" with no loss in strength).



Here's the finished product from my potato phone. Fits perfect and I have no doubt they will do their job. The bottom flange (near the head of the silver-colored bed bolt) does indeed stick out further than the wheel wells so I need to account for this in my drawer/platform design.



One nice thing is that I don't have to trim my rubber bed mat - it sits on top of the new stiffeners just fine with only a small overlap. Not enough to be worried about, and once I install the drawer system the mat will come out anyways.

 

Update 8/14/22: After taking down the spare for rotation & maintenance I found the lock has fallen off, possibly during the last offroading trip. It's gone and I'm not getting another one because it's just too weak. Next plan is some kind of cable lock / padlock.

Wanting to prevent possible theft of my brand spanking new full-size spare, I'm installing the controversial Toyota OEM spare tire lock (P/N =

$50 PT276-34071 Spare Tire Lock for Select Tacoma and Tundra Models, Silver

PT276-34071). Bought from some Toyota dealer who sells on fleaBay and was shipped quick.



Pretty simple install & operation - basically there is a piece that snaps into the tire lowering mechanism and "locks" it from any tweaker with the metal rod. The "key" snaps onto the lowering rod and has the same flower-style pattern you see on the locking lug nuts (not surprisingly the spare lock parts are made by McGard who make the lugs too).



Here is the product installed. The "lock" part just snaps in and isn't easily removable once the spare is raised up. Just be sure not to lose the "key" part or you will have a bad day. But for now this prevents my SCS wheel and Grabber ATX tire from growing legs and wandering off.

 

A while back I realized I would need to occasionally carry sheet goods and lumber - not huge quantities, just enough for smaller projects. Not super easy to do in a short-bed. Found a TW thread with other members who needed the same thing and added some extra tailgate strap bolts (Toyota P/N = 68965-04020) at different positions to use the tailgate as a support member. Searching for answers also led me to a reddit thread with another ingenious solution that I ended up adopting for my first attempt as it required no extra drilling.



Here's a view of my bedside as it stands right now. If I wanted to permanently mount these bolts I planned to drill in the metal area near where the bed stiffener top bolt sits. Thankfully I didn't have to drill any more holes...for now. Notice the tailgate striker latch bolts? Same size and threading. Booyah.



Comparison of the striker latch bolt (left) and the 68965-04020 tailgate strap bolt (right). A wee bit shorter but taking that washer head out of the equation nearly the same length. For all practical purposes on this usage it doesn't make a difference.



I first tried mounting the straps on the bottom striker bolt position but it sits too low. My straight edge is nearly level with the bedside guides and tailgate is ~4" low in this configuration.



Strap bolt mounted on the top striker latch bolt position. Tailgate is only about 1/2" below level with the bedside guides. Perfectly acceptable amount of deflection for my needs!



Closer view of the final bolt configuration. Striker latch is rotated all the way down and tightened up just enough not to rattle & bounce around on the drive home.



I cut some support braces out of 5/4 x 6" AC treated lumber (only thing I could find at my local hardware stores) which are plenty sufficient for hauling a few sheets of plywood. Notice I have a strap connected in the front bed area and looped up around my cap struts to stay out of the way while loading.



Maiden voyage with new setup hauling 4 sheets of 1/2" birch plywood for upcoming drawer/sleeping platform build. Strap secured below on the trailer hitch receiver. Rock solid but you could add a 2nd strap if you were nervous. Plywood rested perfectly on the tailgate without causing much stress on the system. I leave the Toyota hex bolt now permanently mounted in top position and just carry the two sockets needed to change it over in my toolkit (12mm and I believe T40 torx). Reverts back to normal in less than 5 minutes.

 

First results back from Blackstone Laboratories oil testing for the rear diff. I purchased the truck right around 80k miles and while it all seems in good shape it's sometimes best to know what you have. I have no way to know if the PO followed recommended service intervals, but based on the fluids I drained out this looked like factory fluids. Minimal concern about the elevated metals, curious to see how this changes at next interval.

 

Blackstone reports for engine oil and transfer case came back. Engine oil looks perfect which I'm not surprised given the reliable reputation of the 1GR-FE powerplant. Still very happy the 4.0 has a clean bill of health!



The transfer case on the other hand deserves some watching. If we make the assumption that the previous owner never changed these fluids then I'm not losing sleep over this. Next test results will be very interesting to see. 4WD still works perfectly so until that changes this is just a fun science project.

 

Ordered a black shift knob to eliminate another silver/chrome part (Toyota P/N = PTR51-00110). Originally intended to order this with red stitching based on this thread but came to find out all of them are black thread now. No matter, I'm happy with it.



Side-by-side comparison of OE shift knob and black leather TRD knob. Smaller in size so it gets in the way less, no more silver/chrome which should eliminate the distracting windshield reflections.



Shift knob installed. Only chrome left is the steering wheel emblem and trim around the gear shift indicator. I'm leaving both of them alone - it's blacked out enough for me right now. So much better than stock but does require some modifications to your bank account.

 

Nice clean build! I'm a fan!

 

Thanks appreciate the kind words! Clean is my style for sure - generally I won’t do something unless I know I can do it to a certain standard. So glad I got a Tacoma and enjoying making it my own!

 

You can get the shifter out of a base model which is black but the bottom is still chrome, or get a TRD one which is all black.