Raz's '04 Tacoma TRD build

I didn't put any sort of a drawer stops in there. the latch I put on keeps them in place well enough when driving around and the drawers arent slick enough to let me pull them out too far accidentally. Idk, If I need them I can always add them.

 

That works, roll with it. I haven’t really experimented with the UHMV in that application, so I wasn’t sure how slick they were.

 

did some looking at Fiberglass fenders today. I have plans to eventually LT the truck and when I do that I want to upgrade to fiberglass front fenders and potentially bedsides. this is way down the road of course but hey, I was bored and had time to kill.
Looks like I can do a set of Advanced Fiberglass Concepts bed sides and still keep my topper. they also said that they can add an extra fuel door in the rear for an additional $130 which should work great for when I do an auxiliary tank. I think that instead of trying to get fancy by replicating what the OBS ford trucks had with a switch and all, I'll probably just do something pretty similar to what @otis24 did. I'll do a separate gauge for the aux tank in a pillar gauge pod. that should also work great for when/if I get a supercharger cause I can put a boost gauge in there as well. I'll probably go with the Advanced Fiberglass Concepts front fenders too just so they match the bedsides.

of course, this is all way far in the future...but it's fun to window shop online.

 

went out to my local shop and picked up an ARB breather kit and some extended brake lines yesterday. wasn't going to get the brake lines yet but they had first gen ones in stock and i just figured why not. i was going to do them eventually anyways so it doesn't make any difference i suppose. weather has been shit here so now i'm just waiting on a non-rainy day to install them. i'd settle for a light drizzle but it's been consistently raining hard and that stuff sucks to work in.

 

Took the truck out snow-wheeling and camping this last weekend. Went out to the Tobacco Root mountains. overall a good time but I figured out a couple of things. I really need an air compressor, not airing down killed me this last trip. Also, I need a new sleeping bag... my 15 degree summer bag isnt cutting it for MT's harsher winters. worked fine in WA and OR but i was a little chilly, even with 4 layers on. thinking i'll look for a zero or -5 degree bag in the near future. first order of business though is a compressor, looking at a Smittybilt, Viar, Bulldog, or maybe an ARB. i'm trying to figure out whether I want to run an air locker in the future, so that's the deciding factor on the ARB. the smittybilt is tempting because I can mount it under the hood I think, but the Bulldog is 5.6 CFM which means that I could even potentially run some light air tools off of it. i'll need to look into the specs further, a buddy of mine has one of the bulldogs so i'm going to go take a look at it before i buy anything.

some pictures from the weekend:

 

Man I miss driving montana roads

 

been a while since I updated this thread but nothing's really new. Just passed over 170k miles on Friday 4/9/21 but that's about all really. also had the timing belt done a few weeks back so I guess that's new as well. next step will be a new speedo gear as well as a full fluid change in the diffs, T-case, and tranny. planning on doing that in the next couple of weeks or so. This summer i'm planning on doing UCAs and fixing my install job on the bumper but other than that i don't really have any plans to change the truck. just going to drive it as is for now. I also have a set of extended brake lines for when I do the UCAs but i'm holding off on doing those until i need to compensate for the extra articulation. Planning on going with a 30 tooth speedo gear but if anyone has experience let me know as I'm still trying to make sure that's correct.

 

picked up some gear oil today to do my tranny fluid, T-case, and diffs. Was gonna put it off until the next oil change but my buddy wanted to rent some shop time to do his trans fluid so i said i'd split the cost with him if we could get some extra time and do mine too. planning on doing it on Thursday.

 

just ordered a new shifter seat from low range off road. got tired of the slop and notchyness in the shifter so hopefully this fixes at least one of them. if it doesnt I may decide to re-do the tranny fluid with Redline MT-90 but my goal is to get a couple more miles out of the lucas stuff that's in there right now, trying to get 10k but we'll see what ends up happening. I also picked up my box of spare bolts from my ARB install, so one of these days i'll pull it off and figure out where all of it goes. plus i forgot to install the skid plate brace initially so that alone is good enough reason to do it. gonna install my new brake lines one of these days too, but not sure when/if ill do the UCAs. I really like where the truck is at right now and my tires don't seem to be wearing abnormally so i think i may just leave it. kinda realizing that I don't need them but bought them a while back and can't return them at this point anyways. my goal is to fix what needs it, install what ive already got, and then just save for my next project. kinda realizing a crew cab would be nice for a lot of daily-stuff but definitely not getting rid of the taco anytime soon either. I figure once I have something else this will essentially become my dedicated wheeling rig. that should also open up the opportunity for longer/more in-depth projects if i ever wanted to do something like that on this thing. kind of handicapped by the fact that this is still my daily as of now.

 

started ordering parts for a relatively large set of projects today. haven't been happy with the way my trans has been shifting which i think has been a combo of a few things. primarily, a worn out slave cylinder, sub-par gear oil, and worn out shifter seat+bushing. I already have a marlin crawler seat that I just got, and I just ordered a new bushing from the local dealership today, as well as a new slave cylinder from rockauto. went with the AISIN OEM stuff since i've been pretty happy with their replacement master. planning on ordering 3 quarts of redline MT-90 tomorrow or sunday as well. in addition to all this stuff i plan to install my new front brake lines when i do my next tire rotate/oil change. don't need to but want to get it done so they aren't sitting in my back seat any longer. at some point i'm also going to pull my front bumper off and install the front skid brace but still need to get a buddy to help so who knows when that will happen. first priority is engine/tire maintenance, second is tranny, and then i'll worry about the bumper. on the fence about doing a set of weld-on sliders as well, we'll see what happens once i get a couple paychecks in the bank. after thinking about it i'm going to put off getting another truck since i just dont have a place to work on it at the moment. deff looking for a place with a garage after my lease expires but i've got over a year on it still so thats a ways off. for now i'm going to do a bit more to the taco since i've been going stir crazy without any projects. more updates to follow as i start to get stuff pulled together.

 

went and ran an easy trail in the Bridger mountains this morning. nothing too hard, just wanted to get the truck out and stretch her legs, and scare my roommate a bit.

realized that I need new CV axles as well, could probably just do a re-boot but I don't want to go through the hassle and i don't have a place really to do something that time involved, esp since I haven't done it before. ordered a new slave cylinder for the truck as well, still shifting stiff so my hope is that between that and a trans fluid change that will fix the issue. looking at CVJ axles, anyone have recommendations on which level to go with? was looking at either their 9804 R or 9804 BR. both recommended for lifted trucks, but different boot materials.

 

just ordered some redline MT-90. couldnt bring myself to order the new axles quite yet, but i'll do that in a couple weeks. once I actually get my pay check it should be a bit better but i'm a couple weeks out of installing them anyways. still need to change my oil and get my tranny shifting good again before i tackle that.

 

messed around with the clutch master cylinder today, nothing too exciting so no pics, but got it so that my shifter isn't stiff and notchy when i'm at a stop anymore. not a huge fan of the way the clutch feels now (more like my bosses 1 ton ford than it was before haha) but i think i will mess with it some more when I replace my slave cylinder. also ordered a new CV axle for the driver's side today. just got one since the passenger side isn't leaking at all but the driver's side is leaking at the inner boot pretty badly. i wouldn't mind putting up with a seep for a bit longer, but it's gotten to the point where its flinging stuff all over so I think it's finally time. picked up a reman unit from CVJ. its one of the ones with a urethane inner boot and a neoprene outer. my outer is fine and from what I hear the boots aren't the issue on the cheaper ones, more the binding from inferior joints. I should have that issue taken care of by using Toyota remans so we'll see how it goes.

 

Couple weeks late on this but hit 180K with the truck back on the 15th. Figured I would use it as an opportunity to update the thread real quick. Still need to install the new CV axle and slave cylinder and I have some redline MT-90 still ready to go in when I can get help from my buddy to use his shop and tools. Drove the truck about 2000 miles last week for thanksgiving to PDX and then SEA to visit family. Truck did great on the trip, no complaints whatsoever.

 

Been a while, a decent amount of stuff has changed for me since the last post but I haven't really done anything new to the truck so it hasn't gone up on here. Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of buying the truck and I also hit 190K on the odometer a few weeks ago so I figure that now is as good a time as any to post an update.
Since May, I've driven the truck from Montana back to Oregon to visit some family, then to Wyoming to start a new job for the summer. In June I took the truck up to Bozeman for a friend's wedding but since then no big trips. I have mostly been bumming around National Forest land in southern WY and northern CO on my weekends. Truck took all the miles and the abuse like a champ, despite having a torn driver's side CV boot (still haven't had time to fix it) and a clutch (and potentially tranny) on the way out. I even got some pretty stellar fuel economy on the way up to Bozeman in June, my ScanGauge said 18.3 MPG between Rawlins and Cody but when i actually did the math for the miles and gallons i got 20.4!!! Of course it dropped like a rock once I got on the Interstate 12 -13 MPG between Columbus and Bozeman... Here are some pictures from the trips
^Driving through the Columbia Gorge on I-84 as the sun was beginning to set
^Central WY on the way to Bozeman
^190K

Been camping with some of my coworkers almost every weekend and have had some fun exploring Southern WY and Northern CO, here's some pictures from that

So here's the bad with the truck since I last posted, the clutch is definitely on the way out and the transmission may be too. the Synchros are getting kinda crunchy. I am gonna push the clutch until 200k at least and when I go to have it replaced I might see how much a transmission rebuild is. Driver's side CV boot still has a tear but I have the new part and plan on putting it in this fall when I get back to Bozeman for school. The place I am moving into for this year has a garage so i'll actually have a place to work on the truck for the first time in a couple years. As far as future plans go, I might consider a winch later this summer but outside of that the truck is pretty much where I want it. I've been going back and forth on doing 4.56 gears but for the time being i think that I will stick with the 4.10s. Might do a new speedometer gear sometime in the near future as well. Mainly though, my plan is to keep on driving it and taking advantage of any opportunities I have to explore and get out.

 

well... as soon as I said nothing has happened with the truck in a while my radio decided to crap out. shouldn't have jinxed it. Had to mess with it to get it to even turn on when I started the truck up Saturday to go camping and then since it has stopped connecting automatically to my phone and flat refused to connect once or twice. looks like i'm looking for a new radio, I'll be staying away from Pioneer but if anyone has any recommendations i'd appreciate it. I'm thinking i'll wait until I need to go to Cheyenne or Billings for something before buying a new one, or maybe i'll just order one in.

 

Been Running a Kenwood kmm-bt328u for a couple years now. Simple Single Din But its been great and opened up space underneath to mount my HAM.

 

Thanks for the info! I've been looking at Kenwoods and know a lot of people who like them.

 

Listed the truck for sale. It's been a great rig but I am in need of something bigger, looking to upgrade to a 3/4 ton diesel with a crew cab. If anyone in the Bozeman area is interested LMK!
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-2004-v6-manual-trd-bozeman-mt.793342/

 

Sold it, sad to see it go but looking forward to the future. Build thread on the new truck will go up on TW at some point!