DirtyD's "Cornfield Cadillac" Build

DirtyDTaco’s “Cornfield Cadillac” Build

Upon viewing my “build” thread, one may find himself thinking that this is not much of a build thread at all.
And that assertion would be correct.
However, as an 18 year old freshman in college, I’m making slow but sure progress, and this is my way of keeping my mods organized and somewhat in order.

I hereby apologize in advance for the cell phone pictures, I have no camera. Maybe the trusty iPhone 5s will do my truck some justice.

Currently: (As of July 4, 2014)



August 10, 2012




The day I first bought my truck. Bought it from a friend who owns a car dealership. He called my Dad a week before he traded for it and told us that we had the first shot at buying it if the deal went through. On August the 8th, I made my first post on TW, and on August 10, we drove to pick up my first truck: a 2000 Toyota Tacoma SR5 with a 3.4L V6 and a 5-Speed Manual Transmission. A few small dings, and a few spots of missing paint, but it was mine. No, it wasn’t the late-model Z71’s or F150’s that many of my "farmer's son" friends had, but it was mine and I was proud as can be.

First order of business was learning to drive a manual transmission haha. I took to it rather quickly, but somehow managed to stall at the same intersection four times in a row in traffic. Luckily, it’s a small town, and most understood my predicament.
I soon bought Weathertech floor mats, replaced the duct-taped A/C switch that the previous owner had “fabbed” and painstakingly cleaned the adhesive the duct tape left behind, and replaced the worn and torn clutch pedal cover.
Got her muddy and tested the 4 wheel drive 9 days later haha.



I drove her like this for a while, (and hit deuces wild on the ODO)



February 28 2012, new Head Unit and front door speakers
Pioneer Single-Din DEH-X6500-BT and Polk 6.5” Coaxials.

June 4, 2012, pulled my badges and bed lined them.



June 15,2012, Magnaflow 14” Muffler. Sounds great for a v6, not too loud, no highway drone.

Drove her like this with pretty much no mods except the occasional teardrops at the pump until I got a job at the local NAPA.

December 2, 2013 bought and installed a GoLight.



Duck season came, and took all my money, as it tends to do, with the purchase of new waders, shells, and a Winchester SX3.



January 14, 2014: Finally an upgrade from my bald Dayton Timberlines. 31x10.5R15 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs. I really like them so far.



March 4, 2014. 15% Tint (Actually measures out at 17.1% according to our tint gun at work)
Matches the rear factory tint just fine. It’s technically a little darker, but since the windshield lets in a lot of light obviously, it looks exactly the same as the rear from the outside.



March 15, 2014. JL Audio 10” BassWedge with Alpine 500w Mono Amp (mounted under the passenger's seat) wired at 4 ohms. Sounds awesome, I love it.
Here I am attempting to get the 4awg wire through the firewall.. and yes I eventually managed to get it by duct taping a zip tie to the wire, poking the thin end of the zip tie through the grommet, and pulling it through.



April 7, 2014. Sportsman Seat Covers, made in Ecru, MS. Decided to give a local some business instead of Wet Okole, and thus far, no regrets. I love them, plus they happen to be in my favorite camo pattern.



May 4, 2014. My best friend bought me a used UWS low-pro toolbox for graduation. Gives me a great place to store all my gear.. and stickers.

June 15, 2014. My favorite mod yet. Used light bar (PO was not sure of brand) for an 01-04 Tacoma.. after some modification and trimming got it installed.
Added two Hella 700FF’s retrofitted with 55w 5k HID’s from DDM tuning.



Holy. Crap. They’re awesome and inexpensive. That sign you can see glowing at the other end of the road is exactly one mile away.



July 2, 2014. The start of my suspension overhaul. Bilstein 5100 Struts set at 1.25", and new OEM coils. (I chose OEM coils over OME 881's simply because where I work I could get them for nearly a third of the cost.)
There's a little bro-lean right now but I'm pretty confident that it will settle.



So that's where I'm at thus far. Feel free to question, critique, or BS as much as you deem fit.
Thanks for looking!

 

Mods:

-Cracked Vent Visor mod.. This one was done free of charge one night by a few drunk friends.. Luckily my window was down or they would have taken it out too.

-Bilstein 5100 Struts set at 1.5"

-31x10.5R15 Duratracs

-15% Tint

-Magnaflow 14"

-Chrome Fender Trim Delete Mod

-Black Badges

-Pioneer DEH-X6500-BT Head Unit

-Polk DB 651 6.5" Coaxial Door Speakers

-JL Audio 10" BassWedge with Alpine Mono 500w Amp wired at 4 Ohms.

-UWS Low-Profile Black Toolbox

-Sportsman Seat Covers in Mossy Oak ShadowGrass Blades

-GoLight RadioRay and Magnetic Mount

-"Pre-Owned" Light Bar with two Hella 700FF's retrofitted with 55w 5k HID's from DDM Tuning.

-Lots of stickers from Steelcityairman7

-WARN Receiver Hitch Shackle

-Blue Sea Fuse Block and 100a Circuit Breaker

Future plans include:
-Aux Fuse Block to get rid of wiring clutter under the hood (Currently ordering components)
-OMD Springs in the rear for 1.5" lift with 5100's
-OME 881 Coils
-Bumper (haven't decided, currently liking Relentless)
-Mickey Thompson SideBiter II Wheels

 

reserved for future BS

 

Cool write up! I like the picture you took of the duck!

 

Looking good, subbed

 

Thanks, it's getting there. I save a little less than half of each paycheck for college so mods are coming slow, but I'm glad to finally be making some progress.
Next are Moog LBJ's going on this week. These kinds of mods definitely aren't the fun kind..

 

Love the truck! White 1st gens are the best

 

Thanks bud.
I'm kind of partial to them too haha.

 

To Monstaline rocker panels or not to mostaline them? Not really a huge fan of the black rocker panels on white trucks but I'm also sick and tired of the paint missing on my rocker panels.
Thought about white monstaliner but that would hold dirt way too easily I'm sure

 

I used Rustoleum on mine. Monstaliner would look way better. I wasn't sure I'd like it, but I really do.

 

Hit 240,000 on my way home from work today.

 

Why am i not sub'd?!

Plans to remove the side trim?..

Makes me miss my white truck..

 

Good job , I miss my little white-e

 

Your truck is actually one I looked at to decide if I wanted a light bar or not, dang haha I had no clue whose it was

 

I will remove the side trim if I decide to bedline my rockers.. still on the fence about it lol. Until then, I don't think so.
1) I actually like them on there haha I guess because of the contrast
2)I'm scared of what my paint will look like under there.

 

Current projects:
1)I removed my washer fluid reservoir today because it leaks.. and the sensor never goes off even if I fill it to the top. So I'm gonna attempt to find/repair the leaks with a fiber glass repair kit and clean the sensor and see if that helps.
Overall the resi seems to be in decent shape. Certainly not disintegrating like many complain of.
2)Waiting for blue sea fuse block to come in. Mounting it on the passengers side behind the air box since the earlier model 1st gens have the charcoal canister in the way on the driver's side. Will run a 4ga wire across the rear of the engine bay to the battery.

 

Began the wiring project. This is gonna be so much better.

The bracket is from Paranoid56. I just sent him a drawing and measurements and he made it for me. He did a GREAT job, really great price, and did it really quickly too. HIGHLY recommend him for any project like this you have. His bracket literally cost me $5 more than just the aluminum itself would cost me, and that's including shipping.

 

Finished my Blue Sea fuse block install today. Looks a TON better than the rat nest I had before and is way more organized. Although I will have to relocate the breaker since it has come to my attention that it's way too far from the battery.. Somehow I overlooked that "minor" detail as I was planning.. Guess you learn some things the hard way. I'm only running two 55w lights and a daystar rocker switch on it right now though, so I'm running it as is until I figure out exactly what I'm gonna do with it.



Here's the before picture hahaha as you can see.. Wasn't kidding when I said it was a rat nest.


Although, when I was working on all this, I found this:


Late Thursday night I was riding down a really rough road and hit a big a pothole and my check engine light came on right after that.. Guess I found out why. Evidently the bump was hard enough to finish off shearing that duct off the back of my air box.
Currently duct taped back in place and limping until I can get the parts in to fix it. Time for a CAI?