Modifications

Just got a new truck, what modifications should I do first? I wanted to get a train horn but now I'm leaning towards new headlights because mine are messed up. I'm also on a budget.

 

Tell us how you intend to use the truck

 

Congrats and welcome!

 

To broad a question. Define your mission and then go from there. I did TRD rims and good tires since I spend a lot of time on the road hunting and camping.

 

Headlights. It’s a safety issue. Fix anything safety related first, then work on the fun stuff.

 

It's my first car that's mine. I use it for daily drives to school, work, and such. I also use it to carry metal gate signs. I want this thing to last forever and if I treat it right it very much could. It has brand new tires and everything has been topped off and/or fixed. The previous owner was an old guy and he took it to the dealership for everything. I replaced the spark plugs yesterday and fidgeted with the headlights but I wasn't able to fix them. I've been told that my truck could last to 500,000 miles and if it does, then my kids could drive it too.

 

The tailgates are known to be on the flimsy side.
If you are going to use it a lot to haul things you may want to get a metal inner panel like this. I have a similar one from Mobtown Offroad but they have since gone out of business.
I also replaced my overhead interior lights with LEDs because I found the stock ones to be too dim.

 

Ain't nothing wrong with your headlights unless they are:

1) misaligned or
2) the lenses are fogged/yellowed out from age & road grit.

#2 can be solved very well with a 3M headlight restoration kit.

As far as the rest of your mods... well.. you can read though a few thousand threads and learn more about what's possible and figure out what you want.

 

- BHLM
- Paint match grill
- TRD PRO grill (played out but such a nice grill)
- Diode Dynamics Fog Lights
- Remove hood deflector
- Paint lower center valence black

 

How about a little more info. What do you mean by your headlights are messed up? No one has any idea what you mean by that. Why do you want to mod up your truck? For looks? To use off road? To improve ride and comfort? Just to look cool? Or ???
What is your budget?
I suggest drive your truck as is for a couple months. See what you like or don’t like about it. You might then gain a better idea what you want to do to it. In addition you can save some $$$ to apply to the mods.

 

I am a teenager who doesn’t have much money, but more than other teens. (I was gonna buy my own truck and then it was given to me as a gift) One of my headlights shines directly up (my brights) and won’t stay in place. My low beam also causes me to get flashed at often because it shines at peoples faces. The lights are also fogging up even though I just fixed that. I also would like to get new headlights just because they look cool. I also for whatever reason don’t have automatic headlights. I don’t plan on off-roading often, just through fields. It drives very smooth and I don’t have many issues yet. It came with a new radio with android auto. I do happen to have a plasma table and can weld so I can (and am planning) on building a bull bar and new bumpers. I appreciate all y’all’s help! Thank you!

 

Cool.

Well, you are 100% correct the first thing to do is fix your headlights. Maybe post a pic or two, or better yet, a short video of what's going on with them and we can tell you how to fix them. The PO of my tacoma went the route you're considering and put in aftermarket headlights, which I'm still using. I guess they are OK and didn't probably affect the resale negatively too much.

Train Horn? eh no.

But what I would buy, in your situation, is everything I need to make the truck more useful to me. Assuming it has all of the original equipment, like a jack and spare, next I would get a decent metric tool kit to keep on the truck, some good ratchet straps, maybe a couple of extra sliding hooks for the bed rails (Amazon), a nice rechargeable flashlight to keep plugged into the power port....and while you're finding a place in your glove-box for all that, drop it out of the way and check your cabin air filter.

Even those of us that maintain our trucks pretty well sometimes forget there is one....and if your truck's previous owner was an old guy (like me) he grew up in a time before there was such a thing.

Have fun with it.

 

Your lights are probably just fine, they just need adjusting. You can find YouTube videos how to do that. It could be your lights shine wrong because the truck has been in an accident. If that’s the case that’s a whole different issue.
As far as a train horn or loud horn I agree with above. Most people rarely use their horn, you shouldn’t be using it other than rarely. Now a days honking a loud horn at someone is a good way to cause road rage by some nut job. I too say nix the horn. The stock horn is just fine.
Good luck with your truck. Take your time deciding on mods

 

That's a good point about possibility of being mis-aligned from being in an accident..

Re: train horn, GLWT, seems a bit silly in the modern era of road rage. Youtube scare videos can look funny, but how easy would it be for your train horn to cause someone to trip/fall into traffic or have a heart attack or whatever. In some location where a CCTV camera happens to catch the whole thing on camera with audio.

Cha-ching, your life won't exactly end but you may find yourself suddenly a lot poorer.

(Civil liability claim: )

 

There is like a 100 page years-old thread on upgrading the headlight harness and bulbs. In a known good housing.

Did you do this?

 

I think the headlight upgrade is stickied.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/unread