MikeyMcFly's 2013 AccessCab Build

So maybe it's time I do a build thread.


This is my second Toyota Pickup, but the first one I was about to completely pick out from new. My first, a 1993 Xtracab was found after months of searching for anything that was 4WD, 4cyl, 5spd and not rotted out. This go-round I knew I wanted the AccessCab in MGM. It's my first automatic transmission vehicle, but I knew for this vehicle it would bemore practical.

It's been a pretty mild build compared to some beasts, but I'm pretty happy with it to date. My mods list and some pictures/description can be found below.

Engine / Transmission / Driveline:

- 4.0L
- 5AT
- 100% stock

Interior:

- WeatherTech floor liners (front)
- OEM All-Weather Mats (rear)
- OEM Sill Protectors
- Flyzeye Design V1 LED Light - White / Blue / Red
- ScanGauge II
- TundraPart.com OEM Style Light Switches
- Cobra 75 WX CB
- GM Homelink Module custom fit into headliner
- Wet Okole Seat Covers
- MagLite Flashlight Seat Mount
- Generic Heated Seat Kit (to be installed)

Exterior
- OEM Accessory Toyota Chrome Exhaust Tip
- OEM Accessory Toyota Aluminum Skid Plate
- OEM Accessory Toyota Bed Mat
- BLHM
- ARB Deluxe Bumper
- ARB Optional Fog Lamps
- Lamin-X yellow film
- Philips Daylight 4 LED DRL Kit
- Firestik 4' NGP Antenna
- IPF 9000XS Driving Lights
- KC Daylighter 6" Long Range Lamps (x4)
- N-Fab Light Bar
- Debaged "V6" Emblem
- TRD Sport Bodycolored Grille
- D-Shackle Rear Tow Plug
- toolblutacoma06 fuse panel plate
- Blue Sea 12 slot fuse panel
- Blue Sea 100A circuit breaker
- Leer 100R Cap (Winter Mode)

Wheels / Tires
Spring / Summer / Fall
- BF Goodrich All-Terrain KO - 265/75-16, Load Range "E"
- FJ Cruiser Trail Teams / Tacoma T|X TRD Beadlock Wheels - Black
- TRD Lug Nuts

Winter
- Hankook I-Pike RW11 - 265/70-16
- OEM TRD Off-Road / SR5 Optional Alloy Wheels
- 17" TRD Sport Wheels (storage)

Suspension
- Eibach 112-620 620# Coils
- Bilstein 5100 Front Shocks set at 0.85"
- TSB Rear 4-Leaf Springs
- Bilstein 5100 Rear Shocks
- Icon 1.5" AAL (Overload removed)
- ECGS Bushing

So, now that I've spelled out where the truck is at, a little more background. My first Toyota, the aforementioned 93 started out like this:



Ended up like this:


As you can see...that was very much the inspiration for my Tacoma...as well as the always popular Marty McFly Xtracab from Back to the Future (hence the user name).

In November 2012 I took deliver of this:



which was a gleaming new 2013 Tacoma TRD Off-Road in Magnetic Gray Metallic. I was back and forth between that model and the TRD Baja, as well as back and forth between the 6MT and 5AT. I knew I didn't want a black truck having dealt with a black car and the pain of trying to keep it clean and scratch free, so I was looking between the red of the Baja and the gray of the Off-Road. Ultimately gray won out with the hope of getting the Baja TRD Beadlocks. I finally settled on the 5AT after reading reviews of the 6MT and caving a bit to the pressure of family who can't drive stick.

My initial plan was to purchase the TRD Baja wheels but I kept hitting dead ends, even after trying to bribe the local parts counter guy to order me a set. I was able to secure a set of four of the black beadlocks from TRDParts4U which worked well enough for me.



I swapped over to those wheels with a set of BF Goodrich All-Terrains in 265/75-16 and resold my OEM set for $840 - score! Truck was at 843 miles when I did it a few weeks before Christmas. So, so worth it.

I saw a member on here post a picture of his Tacoma with a Marty McFly style light bar. At the time he wasn't able to post who made it but I spent hours upon hours trying to figure out who built the truck until I figured out it was N-Fab. Multiple emails to the member's contact @ N-Fab went unanswered until I emailed the owner of N-Fab himself to get a hold of someone to sell me the bar. After the headache that was ordering that (I literally had to mail a check...so annoying) and dealing with the long shipping times, etc, etc, I actually finally got the bar. While I was waiting I had a member on here build me a fuse panel to house a circuit breaker and fuse panel for the auxiliary lighting I hoped to run. I also found out that Tundra-Part.com made switches that fit under the HVAC I could use to run the lights.





As the year wore on I decided for the winter the All-Terrains weren't the best choice for slippery surfaces as I had a habit of having them lose traction on bumps with the Off-Road's touchy brake system. I also didn't want to deal with ruining the Beadlocks with salt.



I purchased a set of winter tires and wheels, which were Hankook I-Pike RW11's in 265/70-16 mounted on MB TKOs in 16x8.5 in matte black. At first I was really excited to get the wheels and tires on the truck but once I actually got them on, I didn't really like how they looked. The Hankooks weren't an aggressive looking tire and the low offset of the MB wheels made the whole setup look strange. I had seen those wheels on knobby AT/MT tires with white lettering and I thought it looked great, but on my truck, not so much.

I started searching around for a replacement set of wheels that were more OEM looking. Originally I wanted either Ivan Stewart wheels or even a set of the accessory "Baja" wheels to run, but I stumbled across a set of near mint Off-Road wheels for $140 including OEM lugnuts. The MBs were sold for $350 which netted a quick $100 profit after dismounting and mounting costs. I used that to purchase a Flyzeye V1 unit and a Gilmour Foaming gun.



Next came the fun cosmetic stuff. I already had the body colored grille, so I did the BLHM.



Followed that up with the heavy hits. Got an ARB bumper which really beefed up the front end. Added a set of IPF driving lights to help out on dark roads as well.



Added the optional fog lamp kit with Hella Optilux bulbs in yellow and put in a Philips DRL kit to fill the gap where ARB wants to put in a set of turn signals I couldn't use on the Tacoma without hacking into the truck wiring. It came out really well.



Added in a new OEM accessory skid plate this weekend and here we are.



As far as what the future brings...I really don't know anymore. I may add some bass to the audio system depending on what's out there. If I find an OEM style X-runner sub, that might work, or I might just toss in one of my spare subs if I find an amp deal that's too good to pass up. I have a roll of waterproof SMDs I'm going to use for a bed light project. Maybe I'll paint my cap or throw some racks on it at some point, I dunno. I may get some Wet Okoles as the higher ride height is causing me to slide across my seats more than before. I've got a set of 17" Sport wheels laying around if I want to change up my winter setup once the current snows wear out.

Otherwise, I think I'm just driving it as-is for now.

Thanks for reading!

 

That bumper really makes the truck look a whole lot meaner! You will notice a night and day difference with the OME lift once you put it on. I would go with the 886 over the 885.

 

Thanks!

I keep wavering back and forth between the 885 and 886. I don't see a winch in the cards in the near-term future, so I don't necessarily need the extra weight carrying capability of the 886, nor the extra ride height.

What will really set the height will be what I can clear with my garage as I'm reasonably close to the opening with the lights at stock height.

I'm not sure if I want to outlay the $$$ at the moment either as I'd do the whole nine yards with the springs, shocks, rear leafs, UCAs, stone shields, etc, etc. I'm honestly kinda wanting another toy instead...but we will see what is in the cards.

 

thing looks clean, nice job. Haven't seen bed lights in awhile.

 

Love it!

 

Thanks!

I need to block out some time to finish the remote face CB install. It's supposed to rain on Monday so maybe I'll take that time to do some work on it. I still need to redo my AC drain hose relocate as it was leaking the last time I tried it.

Otherwise with life going on I think the truck is basically done for now. Sometimes I regret not going DC but I'm sure it will be fine for what I want.

 

Since you already have a plate bumper, just go with the 886's out the door. I made the mistake of getting 885's, and I regretted it.

Matt

 

Looks good, tasteful selection of mods!

 

Few updates.



New CB in the center console with the remote face mod.



Homelink in the overhead console.

 

I like the CB placement. Do you have any pics of how you mounted it there?

 

I don't unfortunately. I followed this thread on how to lengthen all the wires from the face. Then I just cut a piece of sheetmetal to fit inside the opening where the cubby was. There is a bit of a lip at the bottom of the console opening that the metal sits on. I used some small L-brackets at the top of the plate and drilled a hole through my console on either side for a pair of #10 screws to go through.

I hope this helps. It was about 9 hours of soldering, a solid 3 hours or so figuring out the best way to cut the plate, about another hour or so to get it into the truck where it promptly failed the RF Power Output test. Spent another half hour taking it out, another hour trouble shooting it, 2 hours give or take going back and forth with the CB shop who wouldn't work on it and then another hour rechecking every connection (there was over 100) to find the broken wire.

I'm never taking it out again! It worked though. The only negative if there is one is that using CAT6 cable caused a voltage drop through the unit so I'm only getting a little over 3W of transmit power compared to the ~4W Cobra is allowed to let the unit to transmit. However, I am not looking to use it for long range communication, more keeping tabs on my buddy in front of me when we're at the beach.

 

what do you think of the light bar, and did you get it directly from n-fab? I like the looks, but it sure is pricey.

 

I love it from an aesthetic standpoint and it is well built once it's put together, but my experience with N-Fab wasn't amazing TBH.

I had to hound them to even get the bar (when I purchased mine it wasn't available to the general public via their website) and it was a hassle to pay for it. I understood why, but it wasn't easy. I had one of the tabs bent on mine and some powdercoating had been damaged during shipping, but nothign was visible once the bar was installed.

The big thing was that I didn't get instructions on how to put the bar together. I did get all the hardware, but no wiring harness. I was able to contact another member who had the bar who showed me how to install it. Other members I have talked to with the bar got instructions, but no wiring harness. One member got a really nice wiring harness, but no hardware!

That being said, I do love how it looks and would do it again...although I think if I got a new Tacoma now that I've had this one with the bar, I may just have selected a roof mount LED bar and been done with it.

No regrets though, one of my favorite (if not my favorite) mods on the truck. When I first saw it, I pretty much decided it was a cost is no object modification.

 

Great, thanks for the reply.

 

You in Dallas? I ask because I see you mentioned ordering from trdparts4u

Ps: I LOVE that bumper

 

Nah, I'm a Masshole. TRDParts4U was the only place I could source the wheels I have without a hassle.

Thank you for the kind words about the bumper, I'm quite pleased with how it looks.

 

Oh, okay. TRDParts4U is based at Toyota of Dallas and I've been there a number of times

 

Highway tread is lame...but snow tires are crucial for Northeast winters. Typically we don't get enough snow where I live that snow tires themselves are the issue, I just don't like how the BFGs perform in the wet/slushy stuff with the Off-Road's touchy brakes.

 

Looks great! Just installed an ARB bumper on my rig today. Funny you mention the TRD brakes a couple of times. I have read multiple posts about how they are inadequate, but I nearly put myself into the steering wheel each morning that I drive my kid to school. Super touchy when cold!

I have the OME HD lift with 886's, so I will be able to report the difference in ride after tomorrow.

Brad

 

How does your ARB bumper feel on stock suspension? I'm still debating a plate bumper without an immediate suspension change.