'12 DCSB "Land-Skiff" Prerunner "Do I really Need a Build Thread" Build Thread w/ optional BS

Well, I think its about time to start my build thread. My truck has been kept very mild over the years, but I paid her off in 2020 and have since started piling some mods on. Mainly just tracking all the little bits and bobs.

Origin Story:

I live on a remote island called Vieques, just off the coast of Puerto Rico. This place is HARD on vehicles. In 2015 or so, I was tired of paying for repairs (costing me a couple grand a year or more) and decided I'd rather finance a Tacoma and be done with it. Searched around the main island of PR and found a great truck: a 2012 DCSB Prerunner with only 500 miles for $25k. I was leaning towards trucks in much worse shape with 4WD, but finally decided it was just too good of a deal. She's gotten stuck in sand once or twice, but airing down the tires has gotten me out of anything I've gotten into.

The truck had been largely parked in a garage at a vacation villa and driven very rarely. It was pretty much brand new. Unfortunately, no happy new father pics.

How she looks as of 5/30/22:









Goal: make her a more durable truck, mainly for hauling flyfishing or biking gear to where the fun is; while also being a solid daily driver in a place where hit and runs are the norm and the roads absolutely suck. Might eventually get an easily removable RTT for primitive camp sites, but not genuine over landing as its a PreRunner.

Current mods list:

Exterior, armor, etc.:

-All-Pro rear bumper with bedside extensions.
-C4 Fab hybrid front bumper.
-Bushwacker Pocket flares.
-Repainted oxydized hood and roof (is this a mod?)
-Yakima Overhaul HD with 55” bars.
-Bedrail tie-downs from Toyota.
-Reinforced tailgate hinges.

Going to add more utility to the rack and bed. Fly rod case, quick fists for paddles, hi-lift, etc. Grill will be swapped out as well.

Lighting, electrical, engine; misc. etc.:

-Smoked 3rd brake
-Smoked sequential mirror signals
-TRD Pro Headlights
-Phillips RacingVision bulbs
-LED bulbs for the DRLs
-Diode Dynamics SSC1 ditch lights, brackets from Amazon.
-Diode Dynamics SSC30 combo light bar in Amber, ordered 5/29
-Diode Dynamics SSC3 Sport SAE Fogs in yellow, ordered 5/29
-Diode Dynamics SSC2 Sport SAE Fogs in yellow, ordered 5/29
-Overland Equipped Auxiliary Power tray
-BlueSea fuse box
-BlueSea 100amp breaker switch
-knuconceptz battery terminals
-Fumoto oil drain valve

Still want a pair of SSC1's with red backlighting for bed/scene/reverse lights. Also planning on replacing a number of bulbs around the truck with LEDs, adding an onboard compressor and a few other goodies.

Wheels, tires, suspension:

-KMC Impact OL wheels in dark bronze, 17x8.5 0 deg.
-34x11" Falken Wildpeaks.
-Tuner lugs.

Looking at Fox 2.0s and Icon AAL for about 2-3” lift, mainly for clearance and durability. Probably won't do any suspension work until it's time to replace my tires, so 2023. Thinking about some sort of traction/recovery aid as well, probably at least a light duty winch.

Interior:

-Door sill protectors
-Molle panel that mounts on the left side of the console (need to install)

Planned (as time and budget allows, not in this order):

-Stereo upgrade and sound proofing at least the doors
-Bed/Scene lights
-GMRS Radio
-OEM rubber carpeting or just weathertek mats.
-Seat covers
-Shift knob
-Tool and emergency kit
-TPMS "delete"
-Fly rod case
-Awning
-On board air
-Rotopax water can with shower/rinse station

I initially planned to do a lot of the mods over the course of a couple years in various stages. Replaced the rear bumper, started buying some minor stuff and then COViD hit and I had to dial it back. I'll probably consolidate the final list of mods into this first post once I have most of my major mods installed.

1st "stage":

- All-Pro steel rear bumper and side panels. The stock bumper had been damaged by my wife backing into a retaining wall, and numerous more hit n runs, so I replaced it in. 2018/19. One of my first big mods. I figure if someone wants to hit it, they can go ahead and total their car and I'll just spray over the road rash with some bed liner.



Cont'd. on post 2.

 

The sun and salt tends to do a number on paint, especially darker colors. What started as a pristine truck was really starting to wear down. I had the paint repaired, which meant respraying the hood and roof, paint corrected and filled a lot of the deeper scratches. The tailgate was also all out of whack, as the inner "frame" had gotten skewed when my wife backed into a wall.. the first big blow to the stock bumper. The tailgate slowly got worse over the years, and finally sheared a hinge out. I replaced the hinges with HD, galvanized metal units, but those eventually wouldn't even keep the gate in place. Had the body shop straighten all that out.

Before:







After:





I had them skip painting the fender flares and front bumper, for reasons I will get into in the next post... and yes, I see they painted the gutter filler things.

 

Phase 2 and 3, or "this is where the fun begins":

- Yakima Overhaul HD roof rack for shlepping my Bote HD Aero to various flats and tarpon honey holes. I'll be adding a rod case to this at some point as well. Installed 4/3/22.
-Bushwacker Pocket style fender flares - keeping with the durable and easily repairable theme. Installed 4/7/22.
-Smoked, LED 3rd brake light from Amazon.
-Smoked, sequential LED mirror indicator lights - still need to do something with the actual mirror shells as they are Ugly.

Pics:

Racked install day:




Smoked 3rd brake:




Sequential Mirror Indicators:

 

And then there was the flare install. I was hoping the Bushwackers would just bolt into the existing holes. The fronts do indeed line up, but the rears don't. And besides, the exposed hardware is purely cosmetic. I had planned to source some longer bolts and actually bolt them to the fenders, but my power went out one morning so I just went with the normal install and they are actually quite solid. I may still bolt them to the fenders in the future, but for now it works just fine.

Install pics:



You can see how mangled my rear drive-side bedside is. That was from the same accident that messed up the tailgate. Oh well, she's a truck and she been through a lot. Got it relatively straight with my elbow, and I could probably get it really straight be removing the liners and tapping out all the bumps and ripples with a soft hammer. I also had to run one truss screw into the bedside to get the fender flare not to have a gap.






Bumper cover is also in pretty ugly shape. After hurricane Maria, our employee was backing my truck out of out disaster of a drive way, caught a fence post and ripped it half way off. Still, got it to line up reasonably well with a few hidden zip ties. The new flares actually hold it in place a little better, lol.

Which leads to my next post...

 

I also did a bit of repair and mechanical maintenance I've been putting off:

-Secondary Air Injection Pump, aka SAIS. Pump went out in 2018 or so, and being on a small island means I couldn't exactly run into the dealership for the recall... even if they'd actually replace it here in PR, which I doubt. It went into limp mode at first, until I cleared the code the first time. Then it was just the annoying lights on for nearly four years . Bought a new pump a month ago or so, took the 5 minutes to install it and cleared the code. Hasn't come back on, so I call that a win!



-AC blower fan was making a chirp/grinding sound at low settings and was lacking power. Replaced it with a cheap blower off Amazon. It has a good amount of electric motor noise on high, which sucks, but at least it works well. Then I found a thread about greasing a bushing or something, so sort of regret tossing the old one.

-K&N washable cabin filter. When you live with the AC on almost all the time, it's a fantastic upgrade!

-Stubby antenna because why not? Old one looked like hell

That pretty much brings us current. Aka, "Phase 3":

Ordered and in hand:

-KMC Impact OL wheels in 17x8.5, 0 degree offset in dark bronze. These are in my garage and awaiting install.
-Black tuner lugs.
-Ditch light brackets.
-Fumimoto Oil Plug/valve - will be installing this week when I change my oil.

Ordered and awaiting delivery this week:

-Overland Equipped Auxiliary Power System. Includes a Blue Sea main breaker and Blue Sea fuse panel.
-Knuconceptz ultimate battery terminals

Things currently ordered and waiting on lead times:

-C4 Fabrications Hybrid front bumper (I am so goddamn pumped, arrives early July, god-willing). This is why the body shop skipped painting my ugly front bumper cover... just means I have to live with an ugly front bumper for a while longer.
-Diode dynamics SSC1 wide pattern - these will be ditch lights.

 

Which finally leads us to future plans, "Phase 4" and beyond...

My main "needs" are some lighting to go in that fancy new bumper. Planning on doing Diode Dynamics fogs in the outer "wings", SSC2's and SSC3's. I am looking at various 30" light bars and am a bit torn. I really don't want to drop the $800 on a BD bar and DD doesn't offer anything I like for that size. I found a unit from Havoc Offroad that looks like it will go perfect, so planning on that for now.

I went with the Overland Equipped power system so that I'll have a good base to start with when installing lighting, and I also plan to add a few more toys like a small powered sub, onboard compressor, etc. The compressor will mainly be used for filling SUPs, tires and running a simple rinse-off station using a jerry can and some fittings.

Beyond that, my list of "wants" include:

-Riversmith RiverQuiver to hold a couple rigged fly rods
-Side bars for the Overhaul HD
-Quick fists for the side bars to hold paddles
-New headlights
-Grill of some sort, probably TRD
-Bed lights
-Stereo upgrade
-Weathertec mats.
-GMRS Radio
-A mild lift. Leaning towards Fox 2.0 coils, but that might be overkill. The roads here are awful, so maybe not. It's a PreRunner and there is very little four wheeling here that can't be handled in 2WD and stock suspension, so it's more for cosmetics and ride quality. Still doing research here. The Rancho quick lift actually seems to fit my needs.
-A Prinsu, maybe.

 

Overland equipped aux. power with BlueSea breaker and fuse box installed. Waiting on terminal to wrap it up.

 

These are my new terminals. I liked the idea of the external posts to quickly attach the old terminals, but in practice it's sort of dumb. The harness in my tacoma is really "tight", so it makes them flex in a pretty concerning way. I think I'll clip the wires and run them into the ports on the terminals and skip the external posts.



You can see the ports for a 4ga, 8ga and 10ga wire. Will be a nice, clean setup if I ever run something like a winch or anything tied directly to the terminal:

 

And a quick sneak-peek of the new wheels. I'll take the truck out in a few days and get some decent photos. The wheels are KMC Impact OL's in 17x8.5, 0 degree offset and wrapped in BFG KO2's in 265/70R17's.

 

Better angle of the wheels

 

Ordered some genuine OEM TRD Pro headlights. Phillips Racing Vision bulbs ordered, and planning to replace basically everything else aside with LEDs.

 

Changed oil to Synthetic, installed a Fumoto drain valve in place of the oil plug. Tool-less oil changes in my future!

 

Headlights arrived and installed with Phillips Racingvision bulbs and LEDs in the DRLs. Thought I ordered some for the signals, but they aren’t the right size.

Install was a little challenging as there are bolts on the outside under the bumper cover. Didn’t want to take the whole cover off, so had to wiggle my hand in there and shave a few knuckles.

 

Do you turn on the LSD when you're in the sand? I find out very helpful in the snow. Plus, with the LSD on it shuts off the dreaded traction control

 

The last time I got stuck was when I had stock tires. Airing them down got me out. Haven’t had any issues since putting on the KO2’s. I haven’t actually played with the LSD much.

 

Nothing to it. Just push the button. It will apply the rear brakes on one side or the other sending power to the opposite wheel (open diff). Definitely a plus in the snow

 

yeah, I only learned that this year. I used to think the electronic LSD was automatic. It’ll definitely help getting into my tiny garage, as it has a really steep, mossy 3ft ramp and typically wet grass right below it. Makes for zero traction.

 

Installed my ditch lights today, sans wiring. Switch and relay should be at the post office. They are Diode Dynamics SS1 Sport/Wide, just to throw some light out to the side a bit and use as scene lights when I am working. Where I live, there are more wild/feral horses than there are people, so it's nice to be able to see when they are about to run out into the street at night. Pro-tip for the install, which was very easy: etch a small line on the hood hinges on the outside and also facing forward (think X and Y), so you can easily realign your hood if it slips, which it probably will. Probably saved me a huge headache.

Last thing I am going to order for now are the lights for my bumper and some reverse/scene lights to mount on my rack. Planning on doing Diode Dynamics all around. I like that they are very high quality, without paying for the extra branding that comes with BD or Rigid. I'll be running SS2 and SS3 SAE fogs in yellow and an amber SS30 combo bar in the middle of my C4 hybrid bumper.

 

Wired up the ditch lights. I installed all the relays I think I’ll need for now (ditch lights, light bar, bed lights and compressor, eventually). Used some stainless m4 nuts and bolts and attached them to the side of the fuse box lid, sealed with a little silicone for good measure.




My electrical is looking pretty clean so far, but I did order some split loom to really tidy it up. Went with a CH4x4 small switch. Works well enough, and wired it independent of the ignition power so the lights can be turned around and used as area floods as needed. I’ll do the same with the bed/reverse lights, though I’m planning on going with red DRLs for those. Chose not to wire the DRLs on these ones.

All buttoned up:



And the button:



and we have light:

 

Went and picked up this bad boy at the freight dock. Will get it painted and installed in the next week or two. I'll be looking at new grills soon, probably just going to go with a TRD Pro knock off.

Tires still have another 8-12 months of tread left, at which point I will buy a new set in 33" and some suspension goodies. Not 100% sure which direction I want to go yet with suspension.