Speedytech7's 95.5 - Going nowhere fast build

Hello TW,
I got my 95.5 Xtra Cab Tacoma on August 9, 2013 as a birthday present. I always have loved Toyota trucks and SUVs ever since I got to drive (read: sit in and make noises) my grandma's 2nd gen 4Runner as a young child. So obviously I knew what I wanted (any 4x4 Toyota SUV or truck I could afford). I had been saving for a long time to get a 2nd or 3rd gen pickup (more in my price range) and my parents beat me to it on the Tacoma. Now that I have had the time to drive and get used to it, the building can begin.

My plan is to end up with a trail ready mid-travel setup that can handle the on-road aspects and just about any off-road that I can throw at it. Then, when I can afford it, I'd like to go long travel in the front.

Here is a picture of the day I got her:


What she looks like as of (November 2016)...




Future Mods:

• High Clearance Rear Bumper (started designing)
• Pack Rack for a tent and for cargo
• New HO Alternator and wiring
• AUX Fuse Box (for lights mostly)
• 4.30 Gears (bought em', now to put in)
• Trasharoo
• Hi-Lift Jack 48" All Cast
• Rear dust light / reverse lights too

Current Mods:

• Relentless Fabrication Front Plate Bumper
• 265/75/R16 BFG TA KO2 Tires
  
• Stealth Custom Series F5 Wheels
  
• 4.25in. Rear lift w/ OME Dakars // 3.0in. Front lift with Billies and Eibachs (got Icon Ext Travel Coilovers going in soon)
• LED Gauges (idiot lights, switches, and all)
• Bed Line-X (front and rear wheel wells too)
• Ash Tray Switchplate
• Dual Viair 444C Air Compressors for OBA
• Front Totron LED Ditch Light Cubes (18w)
• OTTRATTW Switches
• 6in IPF Off-Road Lights w/ HID Bulbs (installed, just need to make a wiring harness)
  
• DieHard Platinum AGM Group 34R
• Superwinch LP8500
• Old Man Camper Shell

Truck Specs:

• 1995.5 Tacoma DLX Xtra Cab
• 2.7L 3RZ-FE with W59 5-speed Manual Transmission
• 4WD with j-shift and manual hubs

There is definitely a lot I am forgetting. Also, I am a college student who spends all of his spare cash on either the truck or computer so things will happen at a varied (read: slow) pace.

 

Awesome truck man. Can't wait to see where it goes

 

Thank you, checked out your build as well, very nice (hopefully how mine turns out).

Today, I got my Totron Cube lights and I just ordered a pair of CBI ditch light brackets. Friday I will probably install them, until then I leave you all with a picture of the light running off of a computer power supply.

 

Although I did it a little while ago figured I'd post a picture of my nice crisp LED gauges (white), I even took the time to get the correct colors for my idiot lights and blinkers.



These lights are no where near as blinding as the crappy picture would suggest, I was to lazy too find my DSLR to take well adjusted photos.

 

I guess I'm just in the mood to post things (probably because I actually needed to do something). When I went out into my dorm's parking lot to install my Ultraguage I let the vehicle idle while I adjusted its settings and got it all adjusted/mounted. After I had finished my install I did a quick walk around of my truck and saw a large wet spot underneath. The wet spot was nothing more than a normal sweaty muffler from cold weather, however it prompted me to look under the truck and find a more serious problem. As I was doing a cursory check on the under-body I spotted a clean spot on my transfer case. This clean spot had threads and a sealing compound on it, that's right, my fill plug had fallen out somewhere. I promptly freaked out and decided to trip over to the Toyota dealer to get a new plug and crush washer, that all went well and I headed to a local auto shop to have them flush the T-Case and put new oil in. Someone came out a bit later and told me the plug would not stay in as the hole was too stripped.



Immediately I knew what had happened, the idiots at Oil Can Henry's had stripped (probably over torqued) it the last time I went in for an oil change (because they check every freakin' fluid for no reason). Anyway, I ended up telling them to tap the hole over to the next size they had available and they ended up threading an SAE size into it.

My Baby on the Lift:


All Fixed:


Overall it ended up being fixed for $65 bucks, but it still sucked that I had to do it. I got lucky because the auto tech said that the T-Case oil he drained was free of water and not very dirty. Here is the picture of it after being fixed.

Picture of UG as well,

 

I got the CBI ditch light brackets all installed with the help of my dad, also wired it all up and installed my first OTRATTW switch. Don't tell anyone, but I think my hood lines are a bit off.



Getting the first bracket all mounted up...


Little bit of solder...


And some shrink-tube to cap it off...


A quick test...


Final alignment...


And a switch to finish it off...



Spring break is now over and progress will come to mimmick a Seattle rush hour until summer starts.

 

Got some fun stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks. I ordered a flashlight, quick fist, and charger. Plus, I have a fire extinguisher and some lighting waiting to be installed. On top of that I am going to make a satoshi grille. Lots of fun in the near future.

 

Love the ditch lights, Ive never seen those...I want. If I ever financially recover from new axles, new clutch, new steering rack.........

 

Thanks, the brackets are super affordable, especially since I go to school in Eastern Washington and can drive to Idaho Falls to get stuff from CBI. That is a lot of recovery you need to do, hopefully my only recovery will be from a lift I'll be getting in the near future. 3in all round!

 

you go to school at ewu? im like 20 minutes from there

 

trucks looking good subbed.

Just read a little bit through your build. So you had to pay 65$ for them to tap a new hole when they were the ones that stripped it in the first place!? The fucked up part is most of the time you can tell when you strip something. Which means he probably knew he did it and didn't say a word.

 

Trucks gonna look awesome with eibachs and 5100s. My coilovers wont be here til about next Thursday. So I might be able to get them shipped out by end of next week or beginning of the next week

 

Can't PM pics sorry about the delay. Here is the tracking # it should have gotten there last weds lol

 

Oil Can Henry's screwed up my fill hole, Cheney Auto Care was kind enough to tap the hole for a measly $10 and the rest was spent flushing the TC incase anything had gotten in there while the plug was missing. But yeah the OCH tech prolly did strip it knowingly.

 

Truck looks good man. I'm currently saving up for an Ultragauge.

 

Thanks!

You'll definitely enjoy having an UltraGauge. Funny story, it sorta saved my bacon once. I was headed up a massively steep hill that was just off an off ramp. The truck was driving fine, but had a bit of a vibration at the bottom of the hill. I had a bed literally full of moist soil and as I'm going up the hill I lose all power and the truck starts flashing the check engine light (when it flashes it means the engine is running so poorly it is doing catalytic converter damage). The Ultragauge beeped at me and gave me the Cyl 2 misfire code. Looked under the hood and my spark plug had backed out of the hole (couldn't visually see it but I knew where to look and that was very helpful) I used the plug wire to loosely screw it back in and drove home.

Turns out I had been down on power for quite a while as the spark plug had been loose for a long time. It was great because when I changed all of my plugs and wires it drove like a new truck.

 

I can't wait to get one, I am looking at all of the features that this scan tool offers and it sounds like it will be a very useful tool to have! Not just for my truck, but for any vehicle OBDII. I've been fighting a P0420 code lately and I want to get to the root cause of the problem, like tracking Stoichiometric AFR to see if I need a new cat or to determine whether or not the O2 sensors are functioning properly.

 

I'm pretty sure that's your upstream o2 sensor. The one before your cat

 

I'm pretty sure that's your upstream o2 sensor. The one before your cat