I want a truck that Toyota never made

Enjoying this thread. Notice the front settings for Viking users are symmetrical; I read in another thread (I think on XR underground) that some use a higher setting on the driver side due to the weight imbalance. Anyone have experience or feedback on this?

 

I think this is going to be more of a personal preference, if you are daily driving like me. I just adjusted my coilover height to off set this… not the compression and rebound. I got the height of the truck close to where I wanted it by measuring from frame to ground at a few different points. I then loaded weight lifting plates into the drivers side floor board (around my body weight) and adjusted the height on the coilovers to compensate for this.. so my truck is slightly higher on drivers with nobody in it and pretty much levels out when I sit in it. If I remember correctly, it was only like a few turns different… not much. I did this because 9 times out of 10, I am the only one in the truck. If you have someone riding with you a lot… just level it out. That is the great thing about all the adjustments… set it to how you drive… who you drive with.. and where you drive. I like a bit of a softer sport suspension feel… like a Lexus IS. I want it to respond well but not beat me up. I don’t want to get out of the truck everyday feeling worn out but I also want to enjoy the control of the suspension in the curves. There is a trade off there and you have pick your poison. This is one big reason I chose a 550 spring over the factory x-runner 650 spring rate.

 

Next phase in building this truck… I am wanting to add X-Runner ground effects to it. I picked up a lot of Toyota new X-Runner ground effect parts from a dealership that gave me the best price. It was a drive but worth the savings.

 

Excited to get started and figure this part out. Taking off the rear Pre-Runner wide fender flares… I noticed a big problem. The mounting holes were pretty far away from the edge of the wheel opening. I knew these holes were there and thought they were low enough for the X-Runner fender flares to cover them. I knew the Pre-Runner fender flares require plastic clips to hold them to the fenders and the X-Runner fender flares do not. I have even looked up into the back of the fenders and thought they would not be a problem but I have not removed the inner wheel well plastic lining or the fender flare until now. Boy was I wrong.

 

I knew from taking the X-Runner donor truck apart and removing what ground effects were on that truck that I would have to cut 3 holes in front of the rear tire and 3 holes in the fender behind the rear tire. I even made a paper template to help me out whenever I got to this point. In my research, I knew the model numbers from the X-Runner and Pre-Runner bed side fenders were different but I really didn't see these other holes being so far out. Got to hit the brakes for awhile and figure this one out.

 

Here are some pictures of the front Pre-Runner fender with the X-Runner fender flares on them… exposing the Pre-Runner wide fender flare mounting holes.

 

Would it be possible to use the prerunner flares with the rest of the xrunner kit, I like how the wide prerunner flares look actually

 

It can be done

 

I know it can be done. I have been talking with Hemitruk on TW and he has done a great job using the Pre-Runner fender flares with the rest of the X-Runner ground effects and it looks nice

 

I know for sure that I want to stay with a 19 inch rim front and back. I also want the wheels to be somewhat flush with the side of the truck and not pushed in, as they are right now. If I get a wheel that has an offset that pushes them out then it hits the fender and the wider Pre-Runner fender flare and I have to raise the truck not to rub this stuff. With the factory X-Runner rims right now, I have more clearance because when the tire hits a bump it pushes inside the wheel well and because the X-Runner fender flares are skinner... the wheel seems more flush with the side of the truck... when you are looking down the side of the truck.

 

I have talked to a few body shops this week about covering up these Pre-Runner fender flare holes. They are saying about $50 a holes to cut metal squares to fill the hole and weld them into place. There are 10 holes per panel. Then I have to have the fender ground down and body filled and them re-paint the whole fender.. so roughly around $600 per fender plus painting on top of that. I also run the risk of the fender warping from the heat while they are welding in the metal fill tabs plus I have to then cut in 3 holes in front of the rear tire and 3 holes cut in the back of the rear tire to hold on the side skirts to the bed. Brand new X-Runner bed fenders cost about $575 each and I don't have to cut these extra holes and the front fenders are about $230 each.

 

My goal from the beginning is to have a white automatic X-Runner (something Toyota never made)... so as much as it hurts... I really want to use the skinner X-Runner fender flares. This will give me the look I want and keep the truck at the height I have it at now and have the wheels somewhat flush with the side of the truck. I have already bought all 4 new X-Runner fenders and just waiting for them to come in because 2 of them are on back order. So, I will be removing the Pre-Runner front bumper, the rear Pre-Runner bumper and all 4 Pre-Runner fenders and replacing everything with original Toyota X-Runner parts. Man this really hurts... it is going to cost me around double the price of doing the whole rolling chassis swap then putting X-Runner ground effects on the truck the right way.

 

I’m fully aware of @hemitruk and he is good peeps no doubt. I’ve checked out your build and it is pretty impressive to say the least. So good luck with the remainder of the process.

 

I finally have all my new X-Runner parts together. It has been a big pain and lots of work. I ordered the majority of the parts online from a dealership in Houston (4 hour drive each way from my neck of the woods here in the Dallas area). It was worth the savings to drive that far. When I got some more money together, I got a local dealership here in Dallas to work with on the rest of the parts. Most of the parts were at the dealership within 2 weeks but I had a rear driver side bed fender that took almost 8 weeks to get. Once all parts were in my garage, I opened them up and did some mack test fitting. I also checked out all the parts for their condition and cataloged them.. in preparation for the body shop to paint them. I ran into 2 big problems, both of the front X-Runner fender flares were cracked pretty bad. I don't what genius at Toyota decide it was ok to send out fiberglass parts in a large bubble wrap envelope and not box them up. I had to fight both dealerships to get these parts reordered and replaced, since I bought one side at each dealership. Yes, I had to drive back down to Houston to swap out one of the broken X-Runner fender flares. So Frustrating but now I have everything.

 

Here is everything loaded on the truck ready to go to the body shop and get painted. All the small items and fragile ones are in the cab for their journey.

 

While the parts are in the body shop getting painted... I decided to get these old 2006 X-Runner rims fixed and painted. Mainly because I can't afford to get the rims and tires I want since I have spent so much on all these factory X-Runner parts and paint. The rims were in pretty good shape but just a few scratches over the years. I decided to go with the gun metal grey color.

 

Pulling off all the Pre-Runner parts and get ready for the painted X-Runner parts once the body shop is done with their magic. All the bed side fenders were just bolted on... no welds. I pretty straight forward remove on the bed sides.

 

Stripping her done.

 

I have all the Pre-Runner parts cleaned and wrapped in 3.5 mil collision wrap to protect the paint for their next owner and stored in the house for right now. I also plan on putting these parts in the factory boxes when I get the X-Runner boxes back from the body shop. BTW, I am selling the Pre-Runner parts here on TacomaWorld, check the ad for what parts are for sale and how I am selling them only as a whole package and not parting them out. Link below. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...on-package-dallas-texas.764288/#post-27303798

 

Bad ass.