Adahy 1st gen Tacoma build

Hey y'all! My name is Mike. I'm from Salem, OR and I have decided to share my Tacoma build with you. Follow along for this weekend wheeler rig being built.

The red tacoma was my last truck, which was my first true wheeling rig. As you can see, it was super clean but mostly looks oriented rather than performance. It was a very good learning block of what I do and don't want to do on my next build. which brings is to this:

This next build is starting from the humble beginnings of a wrecked auction truck.

ADAHY
"The name Adahy is a Native American name. In Native American the meaning of the name Adahy is: Lives in the woods."
Lives in the woods is definitely the vision I have for this truck. Im not Native American, just thought it was cool.

Im going for a low and wide wheelbase with tubbed wheel wells, 35s, and 2.5" of lift. Here's what I've got so far, more to come later!

 

The goodies have started to come in! My last truck was on 33s. On this build I really wanted to try the km2s, but then after a lot of research it seemed they run "small". A 35" tire truly measures 33.75-4.25"

This helped me decide to pull the trigger on 35x12.5x15 km2s. Also got simple steel wheels and 1.25" spacers. I plan on tubbing the fender wells and cutting the fenders, eliminating flares. Should sit REEAAALLY wide after all is said and done.

 

Spent a Saturday in the shop with the much appreciated help of a few friends. I had seen a few write ups on tubbing, but as always its a case by case application. Everyones offset and tires and wheels are different and everyone has to cut a different amount.
I completely removed the front springs, setting the truck down on bump stops to allow me to check for clearance.
Since I'm replacing the passenger door and bed on the truck, I just cut out pieces from there to mold in the tub. Nothing was ignited, metal was melted, a good time was had.

 

Decided to test how much articulation I can get. Now remember, no front suspension and the rear is bone stock. Managed to get 28" tire to ground in the rear. Hoping that camburg control arms will help, as we as cutting the bed for more up travel. (you can see the tire is hitting the bed)

 

Front suspension has arrived! Was a royal PITA getting the old stuff out, but managed to get everything assembled in one day. Had to cut it short and didn't have enough time for the rear, but found a few minutes for a quick drive around the hood.

 

Picked up a bed! Hopefully I will have time to get back in the shop soon and keep the progress moving forward. Vinyl wrap has arrived, Projector retrofits are completed, bumper and sliders are patiently awaiting paint. I love it when a vision comes together.

 

Nice man! Good work so far

 

Sub. Always love seeing another #NFG build on 35's.

 

Feeling it man - look forward for more

 

Looking good so far! Super lucky to have a shop and a lift! I'm jelly...

 

Alright y'all. It's been a busy couple months. Finished the truck, got engaged, planned a wedding, working my butt off. Finally found some time to get photos together of the rest of the build and if the final product. Did a couple trail runs, and I've changed/adjusted things I didn't like. Here we go.

 

Lifted the rear. 2" shackle lift and add a leaf. The plan was to have some rake, and have the rear sit an inch or so higher than the 2.5" front lift. 10,000 miles later, I have lowered the front down to stock height, lowest setting on the bilstein 5100s, and am gonna lower the rear as soon as I can. I wanna keep it as low down as I can for more stability.

 

My dad picked himself up an 02 taco off the auction. Trd manual v6. This is what his rear diff looked like. I jumped on the opportunity to sell him mine and regear in the process. I went with US standard gear gearing and a Yukon gear full setup kit. 4:88 ration to push the 35" km2s. Best decision I've made! Haven't heard any gear noise. Did a proper 500 mile break in cycle, changed the oil, still going strong! I average 16-18mpg on the highway between 70-80mph. Can't complain!

 

Got some shackle mounts from Amazon, bought a 2" receiver at harbor freight. Had some 2x5" tube laying around, as well as 2x2". Got creative and went to work. Ended up with a pretty clean bumper that I am extremely happy with. It's simple, high clearance, and bolted on to stock holes.

 

Theeeen the pain started. I chose to vinyl wrap. For reasons unknown to me, I decided I would just do it myself. Oh. Boy. Never again. In hindsight, it would be a lot easier the second time around. But this took hours and hours. Most panels I did alone, with the exception of the hood and roof. Definitely took me a couple weeks worth of evenings and saturdays. Worth it

 

And my favorite part. Assembly. This went quick. I was so excited to see it all come together, I was in the shop until 1am for a couple days in a row

 

All done!

 

Did I see that right, you're running 35's and you put the front shocks back to stock height?

 

Yep did you see how much I chopped out of my wheel wells though?

 

Are you running eibach coils on bilstein shocks?