mjbtaco's 95.5 boosted build thread

Installed some led bulbs in my cluster today. Here is a before and after shot.

 

The big brake kit is one step closer to completion.

 

Had a broken tail light for the longest time cuz some idiot decided to back into my truck in a parking lot and not take responsibility for it. Still need to fix the dents he/she made but thats much more expensive lol.

The price of the red/clear tail lights sky rocketed for some reason and i couldnt find em under 120 anywhere. Finally found a set under 100 so i picked em up.

Broken light that i glued back together lol



Replacement lights

 

The rest of brake parts will be delivered this Friday. So if my son isnt born before then I'll be working on that this weekend.

 

For years people have made big brake kits for the 5 lug first gen tacomas but no one has ever offered much info or has used all custom parts that cost an arm and a leg. My goal with this was to find stuff that can easily be obtained at a decent price and share all the information i gathered openly. By pure chance i found these calipers that line up perfectly with the stock spindles. I have yet to finish the kit completely but ive mounted enough to share my findings so far. I still need to gather more information but this is about 95% complete. Hope this can help some people out. Also this will require a minimum 17" wheel. It will also depend on width and offset as well. My 17x9 +35 enkei rpf1s cleared with no issues.

Here are all the parts i used. I have yet to confirm that the brake lines will work for this application. So if buying these parts please wait until i confirm that they work properly.

Also please note that the Amazon links below are linked to my partner account so i will net a small commision if purchased from that link. It doesnt cost you anything and i have listed all part numbers if you choose to search elsewhere for lower prices. But this is the lowest price i was able to find myself.

Disclaimer: the price of the calipers fluctuates regularly. The prices i have listed below are what i paid at the time i purchased them. You may have to wait for the price to drop to get the best deal.

As stated in the title the calipers mount directly to the stock mounting location on the stock 95-04 tacoma spindle. BUT the holes will need tobe drilled out to accept the larger bolt that the caliper uses and slightly shimmed out to align it with the rotor. I will list the drill bit size and shim size later when i have access to it again.



For the rotors (Evo 9 Front 12.6") those will need to be machined to fit the tacoma hub assembly. The center bore needs to be bored out and the mounting holes drilled and tapped to accept the stock hardware used to mount the hubs. I have attached a picture showing the modifications made.



According to the specs i found online the steel braided brake lines listed SHOULD work with the tacoma hard lines but like i said i have yet to confirm that so please wait on that. If anything the lines will be a little longer than needed but some creative routing solves that issue. Thanks to jose matos for confirming that.



Summary of parts

Cadillac ATS Brembo Calipers
Cadillac CTS-V Brake Pads
Mitsubishi Evolution 9 Front Rotors
Subaru WRX STI Front Brake lines

Brake Parts

Driver Side Brembo Caliper

PART #: 172-2586

COST: $104.14

http://amzn.to/2j08DwK



Passenger Side Brembo Caliper

PART# 172-2587

COST: $113.71

http://amzn.to/2j9BgCU



Caliper Hardware Kit

PART #: 18K1971X

COST: $18.58

http://amzn.to/2kn8Zy0



StopTech Steel Braided Brake Lines

PART#: 950.47006 $52.02

http://amzn.to/2jsw7qO



StopTech Street Performance Brake Pads

PART #: 309.10010

COST: $54.18

http://amzn.to/2jsyWYM



StopTech Blank Rotors (Evo 9 Front 12.6")

PART #: st121.46064

COST: $103.79

http://www.czeromedia.com/index.php/product/evo-89-stoptech-rotors/


Total: $446.42

Cost of rotor machining depends on what your machinist charges you.

 

Well i finished the install and all rhe parts listed worked. Here are some finished pictures.

 

Clean

 

Thank you!

 

https://youtu.be/uTCwWmbPV1I

 

I wonder if this would work on the second gens?

 

the brakes? i doubt it, the spindles are completely different.

 

Upgrade to stainless steel brake lines and it will make a huge difference in brake feel. Even after I changed out for hawk pads and brembo rotors the stainless steel brake lines made an even more noticeable difference.

 

So I decided to upgrade my battery and also slightly relocate it. This was my old setup I had made years ago to fit a smaller battery cuz thats what i had at the time. But the battery wasnt very good and the cca's were lacking. The install was also kinda janky lol i did it almost 10 years ago.





Here's everything i used for the upgrade and relocation. The battery is an Optima D34/78 Yellow top. 1/0 welding cable for the battery, and block grounds, also the power wire to the starter. I also upgraded the wire from the alternator to the fuse box, and the wire from the fuse box to the battery with 8 guage wire. Ended up using the same 8g wire to upgrade the ground wire from the head to the cab. Also just a generic optima specific billet battery tray i found on ebay for under 50 bucks.



Here are the ground wires i made







And heres a comparison of the wires i used on the old battery and the new 1/0 cable.



Here you can see how i moved the location of the battery over to the right corner instead of in the middle. I didnt think it through when installed it so long ago and lost use of the center of the bed with longer stuff. So i put it out of the way and also offset some weight which should help with the dreaded "taco lean"



Here you can see how shitty a job i did on the previous install lol.





The old garbage wire. Haha



The new install is a lot cleaner and i actually used grommets through the bed this time. Yes i know stupid mistakes lol.





All in all the upgrade was well worth it. The truck actually cranks up like normal now. And i wont be worried about adding any accessories in the future.

Im editing up the video i made for the install and it will include a before and after startup. The difference is quite noticeable.

 

Here's the video.

https://youtu.be/Iy5WOwcQdLw

 

so i bought some spindles a while back that i wanted to have modified to use as drop spindles. I bought them site unseen and got a pretty bad surprise lol. They were completely covered in rust. I didnt want to spend a ton of time using wire brushed and stuff to sand all the rust down. So i used this evaporust stuff and it worked AWESOME. Made a video the before and after results. Check it out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLtEzW_Aqw

 

Installed some arp extended wheel studs made for an evo onto my truck a couple weeks ago. Just got around to uploading the video.





https://youtu.be/7i3cwt3OWpU

 

I have to ask, what kind of rear bumper is that? I really like that flush with the body bumper and I can't find info on it anywhere. I'm restoring a 5-lug and I'd love to do something like this.

 

They're called roll pans. Not sure what brand mine is but if you just search for Tacoma roll pans you'll come up with something

 

Thanks! How does it mount to the truck?

Can you still access the spare tire?