drizzohs '21 off-road build

Love the build!

 

Thank you d00d! It is getting there finally

 

Finally finished my switch/wiring project! A few things still haven't shown up but I'm beyond sick of waiting for this to be finished, so I sent it Friday night to get the truck back to a safe drivable state. I have been working on adding an auxiliary fuse panel, chase light, places to keep relays, etc for a couple of weeks now and keep getting held up by every possible snag I could hit (a pnp wiring harnesses being pinned wrong, running out of supplies, shipping being delayed, etc). But it's finally all wrapped up for the accessories I currently have.

The idea was to pull the dash panel a minimum number of times and run all the switch wiring at once to then be able to just hook up the relay turn-on leads as the rest of the accessories are added. Each switch is ran to the engine bay via different colored turn-on wire to make adding future accessories as simple as possible. So far only the chase light is connected, but there are switches ready to go for an air compressor, light bar and additional aux light. Future accessories can be connected solely in the engine bay now.

Installed a custom MESO 9-switch panel and AOB factory-style push button switches using the pnp illumination harness and daisy chain harnesses. The color match is pretty close but not perfect. Much better than the ABC switch though (I still need to rebuild switch this with a matching led). I am happy with the color. This switch panel required A LOT of cutting but fits and flows perfectly. At first it was a little stressful trying to adapt the Baja Designs relay harness to the factory style switch, but once I decided to completely rewire it the install was much simpler. Really happy how it turned out and IMO it looks much better than a Switch-Pro.

Stock vs MESO:



New cockpit views <3:



Vid of the chase light switch doing switchy things: https://imgur.com/GAw3RZp

 

It's finally time to overhaul the terrible audio in this rig. This is the longest I've ever gone without having a sub in any vehicle I've owned so I'm beyond excited to finally do this upgrade. I have had the truck torn apart for the last 2 weekends working on a laundry list of upgrades and tweaks that I needed to get done before starting/finishing the audio but wanted to share my progress.

First up was to finish insulating the truck. I insulated the back wall and firewall last year but was waiting to do the doors until it was time to do the audio when they'd need to come apart anyway. Last weekend I added a layer of Second Skin Heatwave Pro thermal insulation to the doors over the Damplifier Pro that I installed last year around this time. Will see how it feels come summer but so far it's blocking the last little bit of road noise I've been hearing from the other cars next to me on the freeway.

While the doors were apart for this I also test-fit all the Focal speakers for clearance and modified the back side of the door panels as necessary.



After that I started building the amp rack to house the JL VX700/5i. I didn't want to delete the panel to mount the amp directly to the wall behind the rear seat and I didn't want to just shove it under one of the front seats on the off-chance that one of my adventures allows water into the cabin. I'd hate to fry an amp this nice because of water damage so mounting it as high as possible seemed like the best idea. The amp would not fit under the rear seats inside the storage bin so the only other viable option was to figure out a way to mount the amp inside the panel behind the rear seat. Keeping with my theme of doing everything extra on this build, I also didn't want to just screw it into the panel or put it on a flat sheet of material, so I came up with a wedge shape that matches the angle of the pocket. I've never built an amp rack before so there was a bit of a learning curve and I have way more hours into it than I'd like to admit, but it came out pretty nice. It's made of 1/4" expanded PCV and there is a bunch of internal bracing and structure behind it while keeping the center as open as possible to allow for cable management. I then added some oval grommets to the rear panel for the cabling to fit thru that were donated from my old Corsair 600T computer case.

Amp rack before wrapping:



Amp rack after carpet-wrapping and in its home. Trying to keep it as factory as possible, I modified and repurposed the brackets from the OEM horns to use as the mounts to keep the rack in place. It looks fantastic sitting next to the Stealthbox on the floor, hoping it feels like it came as a set once installed. I'm really excited to see how this amp performs.



Last on my list was to tackle a small mod that has really bothered me since I noticed it. I didn't like how unfinished it looked under the bottle jack being body colored (bright af super white in my case) so I took some leftover carpet from the amp rack and wrapped the floor underneath it. Felt good to complete a smol mod to keep me sane while I keep chiseling away on one of the most demanding audio installs I've done. Hopefully the next update will be completed pics.

 

Still my favorite build on this site. The attention to detail is just amazing.
I am curious to see how much of a difference you find with doing all the sound insulating.

I'm a little nervous to rip apart my interior, but for less road noise it would almost be worth it.

 

Always appreciate it Jack! I performed the same heat rejection upgrades on my daily 2014 tC and they made big difference in helping to keep the interior comfortable and keeping it cooler for longer when parked outside. I'm expecting the truck to be even nicer once it starts warming up outside as it was already a nicer place to be due to not having a glass roof and being white vs dark gray.

The interior on the Taco comes apart pretty easy with panel removal tools. It also doesn't hurt to have some spare clips handy as they like to break. I noticed the biggest reductions in road noise from doing the back wall, both sides of the front footwells and the area under the rear storage tray. Doing the doors helped clean up most of the additional unwanted noise that was coming in, and then finally throwing the insulation on top has further reduced the amount of outside noise that comes into the cabin while moving.

Links to the panel removal tools I use and a handy Toyota replacement clip package that's good quality:

$15 Auto Trim Removal Tool Kit - 5-Piece No Scratch Pry Tool Set for Car Panel and Dashboard Removal - Includes Door Panel Tools, Push Rivets, Car Clips - Essential for Interior Trim Work - Blue

Amazon.com: Tresalto Auto Trim Removal Tool Set (No Scratch Plastic Pry Tool Kit) Auto Trim Tool Kit Car Tools, Door Panel Removal Tool, Fasteners, Car Clips, Push Rivets, Molding, Dashboards, Interior Trim Tools : Automotive

Dr.Roc Bumper Clips Bumper Push Rivets Body Clips Fender Liner Clips Retainers Kit Compatible with Toyota Lexus 90467-10183 90467-07201 90467-10188 52161-02020

Amazon.com: Dr.Roc Replacement for Toyota Lexus Bumper Fender Liner Engine Cover Grill Trim Panel Retainer Fasteners Rivets Clips 90467-10183 90467-07201 90467-10188 52161-02020 : Automotive

You also can't go wrong with Noico as a base layer for sound deadening (there's over 54sq/ft of it on my tC). It is tremendous value and I recommend it to most people but the Second Skin I used on the Tacoma is lighter and more effective, you pay a premium for it though.

Noico 80 mil 18 sqft car Sound deadening mat, Butyl Automotive Sound Deadener, Audio Noise Insulation and dampening

Noico 80 mil 18 sqft car Sound deadening mat, Butyl Automotive Sound Deadener, Audio Noise Insulation and dampening (amazon.com)

$110 Second Skin Damplifier Pro Premium Car Sound Deadening Material (2mm) – Butyl Rubber Auto Sound Deadener Mat (13.67 Sq Ft, 8 Sheets) – Made in The USA

Amazon.com: Second Skin Damplifier Pro Premium Car Sound Deadening Material (2mm) – Butyl Rubber Auto Sound Deadener Mat (13.67 Sq Ft, 8 Sheets) – Made in The USA : Automotive

 

Which Focal's have you chosen? What about the head unit?

 

Flax Evo's.

The idea for now to try and keep it - hence the DSP amp. All the aftermarket offerings look like shit and/or lose features/functionality.

 

Curious to hear what you think of it with the dsp and factory head unit. I did something very similar with the key amps, focal auditor speakers and stealthbox. Depending on audio source and song it sounds decent, but I feel like more watts and possibly swapping the head unit would really bring the system to life. That JL vxi might be the ticket.

 

Hoping it works out. The headunit was the last thing I swapped out in the tC because I wanted the tunability. But the Taco's stock unit already puts out much better audio quality than the tC's stock HU did (even paired with Focal Performance speakers and a Stealthbox in that), so I'm thinking it will be fine with the near infinite adjustability of the TüN software. It's already fairly crisp tbh with the Kicker tweeter upgrade, just lacks overall volume, lows and any rear stage whatsoever. I don't think I'll be disappointed. Hopefully I can get it wrapped up this week.

 

Really curious to see how it works for you. My plan is to do the Subaru tweeters for now an then do the doors speakers + insulation + head unit amp all at once.

My concern is the wiring for the amp and the headunit. Have you found any premade solutions, sorta like your fog light wiring?

 

The Subaru tweeters are a fantastic upgrade, albeit a little overpriced now. For $70 they would be a no brainer, but for the $120 they are now I'd be a little more hesitant. Shoot me a pm if you want mine for cheaps, they were only installed for about 4k miles.

If you change the headunit look into the iDatalink Maestro setup. I'm running it on my tC and it's awesome. Makes it as close to pnp as possible for an aftermarket deck and ties into the OBD port to pull a bunch of cool sensors and gauges into the screen, cel's, etc (I used a y-splitter to keep the port open for diag). I'm hoping to keep my HU so I haven't looked into solutions for swapping them much on this platform, but I would definitely look into the iDatalink setup.

Pics to what came with the kit for my tC:
Wiring: https://i.imgur.com/YBSVgPbh.jpg
Gauges: https://i.imgur.com/UjiNESgh.jpg

If you change the headunit and add a 4/5ch amp you might need to rewire the 2-ways up front as well like I'm doing unless you use a harness to route it back thru the factory wiring - in which case hopefully you don't overload the Subaru tweets. IIRC they can take something like 150w rms though, so you should be fine. The site that you can't speak of on this forum (tacot00nz) has a pnp harness option for taking the signal to and from the amp back to factory wiring (in addition to amp + mount + speaker options), but if you're pushing more than about 60w rms I'd rewire the doors with beefier gauge speaker wire. OEMAudioPlus also has a solution but IMO it's overpriced and underpowered - I also don't know how it would play with an aftermarket hu.

 

Got my tweeters delivered today. Looking to install them this weekend. But thanks for the offer.

Are you planning on switching out the factory headunit?

 

Np. And not at this time.

 

Came out looking great.

 

About 30 more hours put into the audio install over the last week and it's getting close to being wrapped up. All speakers installed, crossovers mounted, almost 100' of speaker wire ran, and amp rack modified a bit. Pushing 12g wire thru the door accordion tubes on this truck is up there with the least fun things I've ever done. It's so much work to make it look like you didn't change anything, but at least my speakers match my wheels lol.

 

Nice thread. I am curious about your comment in the quoted post about the Maestro RR in your tC. I’ve had an RR for ages in a few vehicles. In my Tacoma it came with a plug in adapter for the OBD port. You mentioned a Y splitter. Any chance you could show me what splitter you used? I hate having my port always occupied. I have to zip tie the thing on there so my boot doesn’t accidentally kick it off, which means when I go for an inspection or tpms programming, I have to cut the zip tie. Kind of a pain.

I’ve also considered just hard wiring the maestro to the relevant wire by tracing the wire I need at the radio. I know all that Canbus stuff exists in the radio plugs.

 

Thx d00d. The splitter I have in the tC is no longer available, but this is the one I just picked up for the truck. It fits okay but I wish I could have grabbed another of the other one because it's really nice. Maybe I'll swap them when the tC goes away for a new project. Anyways,

$11 bbfly-B6 OBD2 Splitter 16 Pin OBD II Splitter Extension 1x Male and 2X Female Extension Cable Adapter (1FT/30CM) (1Pack)

bbfly-B6 OBD2 Splitter 16 Pin OBD II Splitter Extension 1x Male and 2X Female Extension Cable Adapter (1FT/30CM) (1Pack) (amazon.com)

EDIT: Just found this one that looks the same as what's in the tC and ordered it instead:

$10 bbfly-B11 OBD II OBD2 Splitter Extension 16 Pin Extension Cable Adapter (0.5FT/15CM)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074CWG7WM?ie=UTF8

The tC is VFTuned as well and this style of splitter (bbfly-B11) has not caused any issues with pushing ECU tunes and seems undetectable during emissions. Hopefully will have the same luck with the truck.

 

This damn truck.

At the beginning of last week, I started actually doing some testing with the system and even though this amp is supposed to be able to accept a speaker-level input.. it was very unhappy trying to do so. Had sound in the rear for once, which was cool, but at 1/4 volume the system sounded like it was trying to unalive itself. Some of the worst noises I've ever heard speakers make. After working on this with JL to double-check I was able to properly use their DSP software and confirming with Focal that I had wired everything correctly, we did some further testing and concluded that the signal coming from the headunit was causing all the issues. Rather than convert the factory signal with LOC's, I started test fitting this last night:



Didn't really want to change the headunit yet, but it's whatever. Should be rad when the rest of the stuff needed to make it work shows up and it will be nice not to have to get a scangauge to see engine vitals. Hopefully this weekend I can start doing some actual tuning and see what these Focal's can really do.

Also badged the doors while it's all apart since I have nothing better to do than wait for parts to show up right now.

 

This build is fantastic. Love the approach and the attention to detail. I would be copying most of this stuff if I had the time and patience. I'll be saving this thread for reference in the future. Well done.