Keil's 2002 Prerunner V6 Mods

Recently bought a new-to-me 2002 Tacoma and working it up, cleaning things up and making mods as appropriate.



Beyond basic cleaning have been doing some minor modifications.

• Added door trim
  
  

• Extended evaporative cooler drain to go below frame, avoids drips on frame and exhaust manifold
  
  

• Replaced worn rubber cup holder tabs with new leather custom ones
  
  

• Made and installed non-skid pads for back of back seats
  
  

• Designed and installed snow brush keeper hooks
  
  

 

There was no way to keep a snow brush from falling out of the driver’s side of the truck. Almost immediately I managed to lose the snow brush that I had for 10 years. So I designed and built hooks from suspension wire (Lowe's), covered them with black plastic door trim and installed them. The hooks go in under the seat attachment bolts and provide a place to store the snow brush next to the driver's seat so that it won't get lost. Simple, but should be effective - and since the hooks were made from supplies on hand, very inexpensive.



Tools & Supplies

• Aluminum utility wire (Lowes, ~$11 / 100 ft). Used about 1 ft.
• Black plastic door trim (Autozone – from previous job). Used about 9 in.
• Socket set
• Crescent wrench
• Needle nose pliers
• Snips
• Black permanent marker
• Lighter

The below figures show the basic idea for how the hooks were planned to work, the shapes of the hooks prior to install, how the hooks were positioned and the installed hooks. The back hook was built first, followed by the front hook.





Steps

1. On driver’s seat, used socket set and crescent wrench to remove the seat bolts nearest the door. Loosened the driver’s seat bolts away from the door to allow the driver’s seat to be lifted 1-2 inches away from the floor.

2. Fabricated Rear Hook

a. Iterated until shape as in figure. Rear hook is held in place by pressure from the driver’s outer rear seat screw.

b. Bent plastic trim around support wire and trim to size. Used the lighter flame at the sharp turns to soften the plastic so that it would go around the bend.
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3. Fabricated Front Hook

a. Iterated until shape as given in figure. Front hook is held in place in the channel right of the driver’s front seat outside front bolt. Bend in the wire pushes against the floor to hold the hook up and in place.

b. Colored the hook black using permanent marker (in case some shows out of plastic trim)

c. Bent plastic trim around support wire and trimmed to size. Used the lighter flame at the sharp turns to soften the plastic so that it would go around the bend.


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4. Inserted rear hook under back seat bracket, inserted back seat bolt through hook.
5. Inserted front hook under front seat bracket, inserted front seat bolt.
6. Tightened down all seat bolts.