Mtnbike247's Build "Tiffany"

Hey guys, long time reader and first time poster! I got my '02 Tacoma Ext. Cab summer of 2014 and have absolutely loved it so far. I've caught the expo bug, and can't wait to see where it takes me.



Truck:
02' Tacoma Ext Cab
3.4L
235k miles
5 speed
TRD


Current Mods:
881 OME Coils
Nitrosport Struts
OME Dakar Leaf Pack
32" Falken Rock Mountain Tires
15" Pacer Black Steel wheels
Mtnbike247 Built Bed Cage
Allpro Baja Front Bumper
Allpro Front IFS Skid
Allpro Transmission Skid

Other Mods:
1000 watt inverter
Mt. Shasta CVT Tent
10w Lazer Star Lights LED Bar
Rear Bed Cage Camping Lights
Uniden 520 Cb Radio w/ 3ft Firestik

Future Mods:
Home Brew Rock Sliders
9.5k Winch
Low Pro Rear Bumper
33" Tires







A Little History


Tiff started out nearly completely stock except for some 32" Falkens and black pacer wheels. It remained this way for nearly a year as it was my mountain biking rig and daily. Up until recently I had no real plans on changing it much from stock until I got bit by the expo bug, and badly did it hit. As fate had it, I hit a deer on the way to work one morning, and had the opportunity to replace the front bumper and begin my build!

Stock, as I purchased it:




First Time Offroad-Pismo Dunes Ca

Bumper Motivation Collision Carnage, ~100lb Deer at 55mph.
Damage was primarily cosmetic, bent front radiator support inward several inches and pushed both fenders back.

Ouchie

 

You know what's really expo? Posting your build thread while on a trip!

Coming along nicely. Let me know if you want to buy leafs before the school year, I'll throw a set in with one of my orders to help you get a discount.

 

You know, that's what I'm going for! Definitely will be needing some new leafs... After replacing the damage, and buying a CVT Mt. Bachelor, and some last minute bed rack building and maintenance I headed on a trip from Central California up to Vancouver Ca, with some friends.A week long trip, what a great way to break in the tent, and put on some miles!


Here's some pics from an OHV park in Washington. Didn't do much wheeling on this trip, mostly road miles, and offroad miles were spent on the bike.




A quick lake stop on the way back to California.

 

Now that I have some free time let me catch up on how I got to where I am! I knew after seeing rtt's that I really wanted one, and with money tight, I figured I'd make my own bed rack! Started by modeling the rear bed in SolidWorks, and then chose a design which mimicked others I liked.

Some Renderings:
Can share cad files if there is interest.



Determined a height that I liked then came the fab! Here I am laying out the cross supports.

Pretty clean welds if I may say

Built the bed cross rails as assemblies then checked the fit on the truck

Test to see if my bike still fits!

Now I added the rear cross rails, and it was all done! Even holds weight


Materials used:
20ft .120 1x1" square tubing
20ft .120 2x1" rectangular tubing
4ft of .120 2x2" angle iron

All in all it cost less than $70 dollars to make, and could be cheaper depending on your material prices.

Later, I painted the rack Rustoleum Truck Bed Black Paint, and it came out great, no complaints so far, and it matches the bumper.

 

After hitting the deer, an aftermarket bumper was finally in sight!
Here it is as it arrived from the shipping company, barely fits in the bed! Took about 3 weeks to arrive, despite claims of it being in stock at time of purchase.


Install was easy, deer took out the valence and trim panels, so I just had to remove the front structural support, and trim the frame arrows a tad and it was clear.



I was able to get this bumper powder-coated at work for free, its a matte black textured powder coat, turned out really good, very durable. I really like the new look!

 

Welcome!Tiffany is lookin real nice!

 

That's a real nice bumper, I really want one of the all pro tube bumpers like that after I get my lift and tires, good lookin truck

 

Thanks! It's been a fun build, excited to get some more done to it. Definitely thankful for all the help here on tacomaworld!

 

Have you done anything to prevent the rear fender rubbing? I wonder if you could get away with rolling the seams in...

 

Haven't done anything to remedy the rear rubbing, hopefully new leafs and struts in the future will fix the problem. Here are some pics of the before and after replacing my fogged out stock headlights, also did the blinker relocation mod, looks good! Clear lenses are a huge improvement at night! Tiffany's got some pretty eyes now

Before:


After:

 

I like how that LED light bar fits in the bumper; the larger ones on peoples' roofs strike me as gaining unwanted attention if you get any drift.

But what I'm most interested in are the headlights and yes new ones look great. So are they NOS (new OEM ...) aftermarket replacements (if so, by whom/where purchased) or well I suppose there is no third choice here.

Like many people, I'm always interested in HID retrofits and if merely replacing my fogged originals represents a "savings" buy putting that cost towards retrofits (that already come with new lenses, yes?) ... then I'm tempted.

That said, there of course business that polish and reapply UV protectant (to say nothing of the varied aftermarket products that also do this.) One local shop charges about $75 and offers a Lifetime Guarantee and there's always Wal-Mart ($40?) and Sam's ($35) that are similar.

Reason I mention all of this is because I just did a Turtle Wax product on my '04 MPV. For $10 I was willing to expend some elbow grease. And it was sort of a PITA. They DO look better, and the product DOES come with UV protectant. But they aren't "new" looking; I'd need some sorta buffer on the end my drill, probably, for that.

Two more observations:
1) Your truck has been in some beautiful country.
2) Not all of your pix are coming through.

 

I did my absolute best with a buffing wheel and various polishing compounds with a wax sealer at the end...they are nowhere near as clear as @mtnbike247 s. Are your lenses glass?

 

Thanks for the compliments @deckeda! I purchased my replacements on Ebay, there are aftermarket, and they were quite cheap, I received all of the front lights; headlights, corners, and turn signals for approx $70. I think they look great, albeit the quality control is a little lower than what you would see from Toyota I'm sure, but these lights are so much better than what I had that I am thrilled. After having them for about 1 month now I have no complaints about them, they don't leak, nor fog, and are still as clear as when I bought them. I only wish I would have bought them sooner, and I think looking back I prefer the black trim rather than chrome.

I think this route is excellent if you plan on modifying them, I did the turn signal mod, and I felt much easier drilling into these knowing that I could replace them easily if I screwed up. IMO polishing is kind of like putting a band-aid on it, it definitely helps, but I've never seen results that appear as good as new with plastic lenses.

Not sure what happened to my photos, looks as though they no longer exist in my media gallery, I will fix this, thanks.

 

Whose? Mine? I have an '04; they are plastic like the OP's.

 

This weekend me and couple of buddies drove out from the central coast to do some mountain biking in Kernville, Ca. Really a cool place, a lot of OHV trails, and some phenomenal single track. We underestimated the elevation of the trails, being around 7000ft above sea level, and there was quite a bit of snow. No problem for Tiff though, she killed it, we biked and shuttled to our hearts content. The parking brake cable though did brake, and now is completely slack at the handle. In addition the snow/dirt mixture made the door handles difficult to use, and the passenger handle is barely holding on now... Anyone have a suggestions on good replacement door handles? Also any tips for making the handles work easily again?

Here are some post weekend trip pictures, she got really muddy, despite no wheeling. I think the mud is a nice look!

 

Haven't updated in a while, but I've been all over the place, got a couple new additions to show off, and couple good photo's of Tiff

Being on the Central Cali Coast, I'd argue there isn't much out here that's not locked down in regards to off-roading, and really any dirt roads in general. With that being the case, you need to get a little creative, so @Gwarden and I took an overnight trip out to Soda Lake. Despite hearing of roads that would be impassible in the winter, everything was open, and it was a lot of fun. I've never experienced such sticky mud in my life, and you can see with the photos here, that my tires throw huge mounds of this everywhere, makes me really wish I had fender flares again.

I mean look at this, it's just silly, I'll have to ask @Gwarden to give me some footage he has of my just throwing this mud everywhere. Sounded like hail from inside




The roads in Soda Lake were a complete blast to drive, despite some seriously soupy muddy sections, almost all of it was remarkable smooth, and many many miles of empty roads to just cruise on with some significant speed, something I haven't been able to do much of before.

Coming out of Soda Lake was really bizarre, ending up in the town of Taft, where oil is definitely a primary influence, there are oil rigs as far as the eye can see in sections. A lot of blm land in the area though, so I will definitely have to head back to do some more exploring.


Really a pretty cool place to go, and not a bad drive from the central coast.

 

It was after this trip that @Gwarden and I realized that we really needed radio communication for trips like these, as before we'd always used walky-talky features on our phones, but when service cuts out, we're left yelling back and forth, not the best. In addition to this, we realized that neither of us had any camping lights on our rigs. So in an effort to expedite our progress, we planned another road trip, this time something bigger, a trip out to Death Valley with some friends, and in doing so, we placed a double order for some rear accessory lights, Cb radios for both of us, and we built @Gwarden a pretty good looking bed rack. Despite being very rushed on time, we got it done, and everything worked out great.

@Gwarden should have some photos up soon of some more detail on his bed rack, but it's very similar to mine, but a much lighter design, all in all, very nice. Not bad in a day's work.

Here are the lights I purchased, some bizarre brand off Amazon, quality actually seems very good. at $9 a light they are exceptional, and I had no problems with them not being watertight or anything else. I've got two currently on my rack, one of the side the tent opens up to, and another on the back as a way to light up the bed and cook on the tailgate. Almost too bright without a diffuser, but a huge step up from having to use my light bar.

Also, installed Uniden 510 CB's, but I've yet to take any photos of the setup. Pretty standard with the unit in the ashtray compartment, and I have the antenna off the rear bed rack.

The drive out to Death Valley was beautiful, stopped by Kernville for a cold night and some fun in the snow, and then to Death Valley the next day.


Even stumbled across a place called Lo City, an abandoned silver mine, very cool, lots of old equipment and mine shafts to explore.

All in all, a very cool trip, no mechanical problems despite torn CV boots on both of our rigs now... Not a big problem, I think mine are original, and i just rolled over to 220k miles!

 

Been tinkering around with my Cb Radio, and I think I finally found a spot where I'm going to keep he handset in the cab. I 3D printed a small insert that fits perfectly, much like a friction fit within the square hole on the center of the cab by the cup holders. I don't know what this square hole is meant for, but it holds the handset piece great. Handset slides into place, and the whole piece can be removed with a good firm pull up!

 

Nice rig buddy, hard to go wrong with a trip to DV!

 

After much waiting, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a full OME Suspension kit from PolyPerformance After 230k miles, my suspension was beyond tired.

Install
Here is everything fresh out of the box. I went with the 881's in addition to new u-bolts. Also installed new rotors and brake pads while doing the front end.

Installation was easy, after having installed Bilsteins previously. Simply jack up the truck, remove a tire, loosen bolt on the bottom shock eyelet, and the 3 on the top shock mount, and the whole shock will slide out. Be sure to have your sway bar disconnected if it's installed. Some pushing on the lower control may be required to release the shock assembly. Tried out some Duramax gold rotors, and they were black, supposed to help against corrosion, look pretty cool too.

The rear end was easier in the respect that no special tools were required for replacing the leafs, but I highly recommend a friend to help with the job. The leafs and rear axle are heavy, and at points during the install some man power is require to line up bolt holes and such. All in all, the total install, with a front brake job took about ~10 hours. I took my time and was in no rush. Someone with some air tools and a friend could do it in half the time easy.

Also, mocked up my own BPV relocation bracket, much needed after the rear leaf install.

Stance
Some pictures with the new stance

I installed the OME exhaust hanger bracket, not sure if I'll keep it, but it does allow you to keep the stock exhaust routing without cutting it short, it does put quite a bit of strain on the exhaust hanger though.

Ride/Performance
Wow, immediately after pulling the truck out of the driveway the difference was huge. The Nitrosport strut and coil combo are a perfect pair, putting the Bilstein 5100's I had with stock coils to complete shame. The Bilsteins simply did not have the damping to provide a firm ride when needed on road. The OME setup makes the truck feel like you still have the sway bar installed when on the road, and when offroad, still soft and plush as needed. You can really rally the truck through corners something I never felt comfortable with before. I'm very very pleased with the performance increase. The truck also sits nearly 4" higher in the rear now, really shows how worn out my previous leafs were. Finally away with the Cali-lean, and very happy with the contractor rake.