I want a truck that Toyota never made

Well done! Loving the progression of this build!

 

Then I was able to take this to my metal guy at Z-Fab in Princeton, TX. He decided to put an extra bend in the end section where he was able to cut out a hole for me to be able to do an oil change without having to remove the belly pan. He then round all my edges and prepared this belly pan for the powder coater. I then dropped it off with the same guy that powder coated my frame for me, when I was doing the frame swap. I have some pictures of my template next to my finished power coated belly plan. I have am also including some pics of the finished product on my truck.

 

I want to do this sort of project.
I don’t necessarily want to do exactly this but, I love seeing all of it and it gives me ideas for parts of my truck!

Fantastic job!

 

This is rad af. I drive 250 miles a week to commute and have thought about how cool a 2wd lowered truck would be for commuting and have the 4wd for the northern winter days and towing.

 

This is interesting that they came to this solution. I actually put together spacers and bolts to lift the rack also but never installed them. I also put together a few other options for bump steer but have yet to try them out. I think I will try raising the rack first.

Ironically, I own a 2015 Xrunner only sold in Hawaii but on the title, it is considered a 2015 Pre-Runner.

Keep up the great work.

 

Still Working on the Tacoma. I swapped out my 2 inch blocks for 1.5 All-Star solid aluminum blocks because I was bottoming out too much for my taste. I have played around with the adjustments on my Viking 2 way adjusted shocks and just can't stop the bottoming out. I really want to go back to my 2 inch All-Star solid aluminum blocks, so I have decided to notch my frame with the DJM bolt on notch kit.

 

Before I made my final decision, I wanted to see exactly what I would be cutting off the truck first. So, I made a mack up frame with some board to get a better understanding and idea of how to do this.

 

Just out of curiosity, why do you want an automatic?

 

I need an automatic for all the daily driving that I do here in the Dallas, Texas area (heavy traffic). I drive around 350 to 400 miles a week in traffic to work and back. I tried this with my Subaru STi and it just got very old shifting all the time. I love manuals and normally prefer them to autos but in heavy traffic daily this will change your mind.

 

Notch complete. Well, not really. After driving around for awhile... I have never bottomed out yet with my 2 inch blocks and love it. I was also able to dial back the Viking shocks, too... so they are not so rough and more of an enjoyable daily driver. I want to take it a step forth and weld the notch plate to the frame to make it much stronger, since I plan on keeping this truck for a long time.

 

I removed the bed to prep the frame and the notch plates to be welded. The first pictures show the notch plate before being prepped. Then you can see a few pictures of what the frame looks like where we cut it to fit the bolt on notch plate... very similar to my cardboard mackup.

 

Back when I did the Pre-Runner to X-Runner frame swap to lower this truck about 8 months ago... I had no idea that I would be notching this frame and if you told me that I would... I would tell you that you are crazy. But here I am grinding off my beautiful powder coating to expose the metal frame around the notch for a better weld... so you can follow the silver area to see where we are going to be welding this frame to the notch plate.

 

Here are some pictures of the welding complete.

 

Now to prep the weld area for paint to protect it and keep it from rusting. Since powder coating just this area is way way to much trouble. I have elected to POR15 this area and protect it from the elements.