Mater's '19 Tacoma Build Thread

Nah its not if you have a spotter or just take your time, but i use it alot even off the trail. On the trail its fantastic tho, it feels almost stock its a great kit!

 

I had it on my last truck, but i opted out for this one because I wanted a long bed vs short bed.

Was it an easy add on?

 

The hardest part was getting it through the firewall. If you do it make you get some sort of plastic tubing through it then pull the wires through that. Cause i ripped a wire in two and it cost me 40 bucks to replace it. I used something like this and covered the wire all the way to the back of the radio. Take your time and make it look nice. Plenty of good install videos on youtube!

 

Harness came in and it works great! Even the harness from my anytime front camera still works! I say that because i essentially have the OG wires going into the anytime camera harness and then that harness goes into the entune 2 to 3 conversion harness. Then that goes into the new radio. Love it 10/10 now i just need a wireless carplay adapter and to make the anytime camera button light up like the rest of the switches.

 

Twinzies on the headlights and orange drl. Except I opted to also paint the drl plastic cover orange.

 

Looks nice man! i didn't think of doing the orange color to the plastic thats a nice touch. What did you use to paint that part?

 

Orange stained glass krylon paint. Not an exact match to the orange side lamp, but close enough.

I wanted something that would have a little bit more contrast looking at the lights head on.

 

Great write up and nice truck! Love the headlights. Giving me the itch to do mine, only thing I have left on the truck that's still chrome.

 

Looks great! 265/75/16s are 31.6".

 

I just now realized i coulda went with 285s but ill take the better mpg from the smaller tires haha! At least they handle well off road.

 

Long time no update,

Been back from a deployment for a few months and I have spent some of my money saved so why not post it on here to help justify my purchases.

I took out that car play radio and sold it on ebay, it worked good but it did not have toyota navigation so i lost the street names in the center cluster along with street MPH readings. I was surprised to realize how much i use that. Also if you set the radio to "dark mode" so its not bright white blasting you in the face all day it changes the color of the center cluster to red due to the entune 2.0 color themes not matching with the entune 3.0 themes. Also while i love car play it, you have to plug in the phone to use it and its a pain man. its like just adds a whole new step just to get music going in the car. So i sold it on ebay and went back to the entune 2.0 radio.

I went off roading when i got back after changing the oil and getting it off its old storage tires. Did the Margie's Cove Drive OHV trail south of Buckeye. that thing got technical and rough. After about a month later my ride stated to deteriorate, like it was getting real rough in the rear. I checked the leafs and all the bolts. Nothing loose. I lubed the shit outa the springs with silicone lube and before that grease thinking maybe it was just friction, idk what i was thinking. But a second month passed and now i was like thinking the bed was loose some how. I walked around the truck and looked at my rear shocks. and low and behold I saw one like this.



Its a little dirty. The other side was super clean so i knew it was leaking fluid. Which explains this stain on the floor where the rear driver tire sat.



So i took it off and i could compress it with ease and it would not pop back out.



I was so confused on why it was leaking but i found the leak when i compressed it. It started to bubble out on the revisor hose. It looks like i must have compressed it so hard on a bad hit/bottom out that the shock tower hit the hose fitting just enough to break it open. You can see the dent in the hose here:



So i took it to Shock Therapy in North Phoenix and they fixed it thanks giving week in like 2 days. Amazing people and only around $180 i think.
It came back from them cleaned up and a new hose. I asked if they had any 90 degree fittings to prevent this but they didnt and I didnt want to wait around for one to be ordered.





Slapped it back on and the ride is the best it has been in a while. (other than the leafs being stiff unless i got the truck full of grown/fat dudes from work going to get a beer for lunch, then its as soft as stock)
But now that i got my self inflicted damage repaired I had done some black friday shopping.






Got em 15% off along with amber covers that are on their way now. The install was a pain but also not too hard. I wanted to get the lights with the KC M rack but they dont make that anymore and they said they have a new rack coming out later next year so thats good as i dont need to spend any more money. I started the install with mounting the mounts using the oem front two roof rack holes. then installed the light bar and tighened it up to mark where to drill for the third holes (done on both sides)





At this point i was like do i even need to drill those holes? But better to do it and have this thing secured seeing as I ride rough enough to damage parts of the truck already. The holes will house riv nuts and the KC lights came with 2 that fit with a "Q" bit sized hole. I ordered that bit and a bunch of smaller ones to step up to that size from harbor freight as well as picked up a rivnut tool. I drilled the holes starting small and getting larger eventually getting to the Q bit. (slightly larger than 5/16ths of an inch).




I did the drivers side first and I went too deep (thats what she said) looking in i saw some copper exposed on 2-3 of the wires. Im guessing the airbag shit. So i turned the car on and no bags went off and no lights came on. The wires are not broken, just nicked em. Which still fucking sucks. So if i ever have an issue i guess i know where to look. But whatever I am not stopping now. So i went to put in the KC supplied riv nut. It did not fit in the hole. I figured better to make the hole too small than too large. So i spent like an 40 min trying to widen the hole with out stepping up to the next largest size of bit (3/8") That did not work. So i took the 3/8" bit and drilled into some wood. The bit fit nearly perfectly. Had just a little wiggle room but not too much at all.
I got the riv nut tool and saw that the tool came with some riv nuts of a bunch of sizes. Even the same size M6 nuts that KC supplied the kit with. They were made of a harder metal vs the soft ones that came with the light bar. But like use what comes with the kit right? well i tried to test fit the M6 bolt that goes into the rivnut to hold the mount down. It did not fit. It felt like it was gonna strip it. The rivnut wouldnt even fit onto the M6 head of the rivnut tool.

Silver rivnut is the KC one and the gold one is the Harbor Freight one.



I did a test crimp on like a M8 rivnut to learn how to use the thing and it was easy. So I said screw the crappy nuts and decided to use the gold ones.
I put some touch up paint on the holes and let it dry. then installed the rivnut using some silicone to seal it as well per the KC instructions.







I did the passenger side and it was so much quicker now knowing what I was doing. I installed the drivers side mount and all 3 bolts went in perfectly. Onto the Passenger side and I stripped a bolt. How many times will it take me to feel the bolt going in tight and then just keep screwing it in to learn i need to just reseat the bolt. Not this time.


The screw was fucked and so was the rivnut probably. I went to bed and then after work i stopped at ACE Hardware to grab a new bolt and a bolt extractor. The head broke off with the extractor but I got the stem out by just tightening my drill around it and it came out with alot of luck.



I tried to thread the new M6 bolt into the rivnut but it was fucked. Before i tried to some how remove the rivnut i gave a M6 tap that they had at ACE also a try. and it worked thank God. M6 bolt fit just fine. It was a little loose when threading but it tightened up just fine. I put on some thread locker to play it safe.





I tossed on the lights for good and did a test wire.



It looks good. I ran the wires in the engine bay the best I could and using the lessons learned from the front camera install getting through the firewall was a breeze.

I hid all the wire in a plastic wire loom (the shiny black ribbed tube is the new wire)






I then used the wire hider that I got from KC also and that works and looks great to hide with cord going to the lights.





Now for the switch. I ordered a "offroad light switch" that fits in the oem switch spots and as I am out of switch locations i ordered the MESO overhead switch plate to add one more spot. I took out the over head console and started to take it apart to insert the new part. I quickly found out i would need to do a lot of plastic cutting.
Red rectangle would all need to be cut out.





No big deal but then I saw the old switch holders had a tab to keep the plate in place while the MESO ones would have to be glued or something.
MESO part on top and OEM on bottom.



So rather than do that without a backup on hand I decided id just hide the parking sensor switch behind the dash as I never have that on. And while I wait for the new switch and to save myself from having to figure out what to do to get the blue light to dim the same amount as the OEM switches (i have the wires to do that but I am lazy) I drilled a hole in a old switch blank and stuck the red toggle switch that came with the lightbar into it.
Wires ran and switch is in. Shes a beaut clark.







Lastly I trimmed the OEM rubber strips from the top of the truck to fit around the lights. Was not too hard but now I have the urge to buy that part to just have on hand incase i ever want to revert it back. Am I the only person that wants to do that with everything?





It looks great and there is some decent wind noise when on the freeway but I dont go on the freeway often and this isnt gonna stay my daily driver for too long. I need to add some silicone around the mounts just to weather proof it some more but other than that I like it. It will never be worth it, its lights for offroading. I will never NEED these. stock headlights work just fine and I can also just drive during the day. But it was fun and looks cool. Gonna try and take it to Sedona/Flag this week.



The front I still want to raise another inch, I think i can adjust these springs but i need a hydraulic press to do that and it might ruin the ride a bit. I need the dealership to turn off the seatbelt ding. The manual says they can do that so ill hold em to that haha. Im gonna regrease the hell outta the springs and put in new bushings to get rid of the squeaking, I got new anti friction pads also as the original ones are breaking off. I need to maybe get these guys to fix my weird startup sound that i have only heard like 3 times since being back in mid Aug but another guy on here has the same issue on a old thread i made. I feel like its the starter but i have no fucking idea. Always starts so no big deal. I want like a leer topper in the back maybe even one that raises a bit higher than the cab height idk thats like 3K i dont need to spend. I am going to tow my wifes jeep patriot to Washington state when I PCS here this January so that will be my first real towing experience. Anyways thanks for reading! I hope I have seen some of yall out and about in AZ. Lots of amazing trucks I see all the time both on here and out in the world. It will be cool to see whats up in the Pacific North West next. Now to get a good pic for this years calendar haha.

 

Well done brother! Looks great! And thank you for the detailed step by step write up.

 

Great build, I like it a lot!

 

Took the rig to Schnebly Hill Road, was a blast even got some rain/hail/snow.





Saw a stuck 4xE Jeep which woulda been fine had they not used the stock street tires. Honestly coulda done that thing in 2WD but woulda been hard in some spots. Also it got dark enough when it snowed with all the clouds to "justify" the lights lol. Only down side to the trip is now i broke my other shock in the same spot. Well more deeper into the hose part.



It leaked out faster than the other one. It musta rubbed against my tire on a bounce. Surprised it took over 2 years for that to happen with all the harder trails i have hit. So my advice to anyone getting shocks with reservoirs, don't! Or mount them to the frame some how and not in stupid spots like mine.

 

Hit 50K miles today.

Definitely has been my daily driver. Its 4.5 years old and a year of that i didnt even drive it because i was deployed. One more long trip with it as i tow my wifes jeep patriot from AZ to WA for a new base assignment with the airforce. The patriot will become the daily to save miles on this thing. And ill prob pick up a pilot or passport or something as we are expecting a kid here soon and want to get a few. Whatever kid is my fav will get the tacoma (kidding) but it needs a bit of a brake from daily driving. Hopefully i don't brake anything with the drive and get caught in a snow storm. Might need to invest in chains.

 

Never towed before in my life and I just pulled 6400lbs from AZ to WA. Quite the haul. These things can tow pretty good. Quite a bit of up-hill driving so I had the thing in 3rd/4th gear alot otherwise I couldn't keep up speed. Idk if the OME leaf springs helped at all but i feel like they didn't hurt. Thought it would stop it from sagging but im sure it was just too much weight. Maybe if I had like the heavy duty springs that would better suit towing, but so would a full size truck with a V8.



Got dumped on with snow while in Utah. Only felt like I started to slide once going up a mountain somewhere in Montana when it was dark out. I slowed down quite a bit after that. But made it to WA and even though the garage is smaller the truck still fits in.

 

Hey Mike, loving your write up, very organized and detailed! Looks like you're having a great time doing mod's on your truck. I've had to take a break from doing mod's on my truck for awhile, it's painful looking at all the boxes in my downstairs room sitting there waiting for me, ugh! Anyway, your truck looks great! Thank you for your service, please be safe out there!! And congratulations on the upcoming family addition!!

 

Thanks man i appreciate it haha hope you get to be able to work on it soon!

 

That rough ride finally got to me. I found a TRD lift kit on ebay for $1400 with the idea that i would swap back to stock leafs and then put on the shocks if the fox was also causing it to be a bad ride. I forgot you had to use the stock springs so ill do the shocks a later day but man the oem springs (with that one inch block) is 1000x better of a ride over the OME dakar springs. And the ride height is much better now that the rear is just a little lower. So yeah unless you plan on having like a bed full of water while you drive just do a 1" block on stock springs. Maybe an add a leaf is just as nice but those Old Man Emu leafs were horrible even with a leaf removed. Definitely designed for a heavy constant load like a camper shell with a bed full.

As for the rest of the kit, ill put the trd/bilstiens on when these fox 2.0s start to fade. I didnt realize the trd pro grille it comes with has a camera mount up high and the lettering is all black unlike the one i have thats silver. So i am not swapping out for the new one. Ill prob just hold onto it for a while and maybe i can re sell it years from now when someone is looking for one or i can get the lettering painted and wait for a "i forget the hit the brakes while parking" accident. But yeah moral of the story is nothing rides better than stock leaf springs.

 

so are you in washington?