Shveet's Build Thread "Clementine"

Got nagged by a few buddies in a BS thread and starting to run out of room in the "vehicle mods" tab on the profile page... So setting up this build log to keep track of how far from stock i actually am



Exterior:

• Undercover Ultra Flex cover (+80lbs)
• Widened the bed drainage holes (and drilled a hole into my gas filler hose)
  
• Chevy Avalanche bed bolt hooks (similar to a D-ring, but it folds up and down instead)
  
• OEM Rubber bed mat (+27lbs)
  
• Stole a 2020 grille from Norilsk
  
• 3" blind spot mirrors
• Custom L-Track Bed bars
• Custom L-Track mounted BackRack system (+35lbs)

Interior:

• Passenger sun visor organizer panel
• WeatherTechs - driver, passenger, rear seats
• 2x MagicMount Dash mounts; 1 adj to steering wheel, other beside ETC button for GMRS or additional phone
• 3D printed magnet mounts
  
• rear diff lock relocation
• Retrofitted Ford F250 upfitter switches to the truck:P1, P2, P3, P4

Engine:

• AC drip line extension mod
• Engine bay splash/ rock guard (Thanks to the Ontario BS group)
• Exhaust re-route
• Cowl air induction snorkel: P1, P2, P3

Drive-train:

• Rear Diff breather/vent extension into tail light mod

Armor:

• Off Camber Fabrication / MBRP rock sliders (see #3) (+60lbs)
  
• SSO Slimline Hybrid Bumper , Recoated (+75lbs)
• RCI Full steel skid plates; front, transmission, transfercase, post exhaust reroute mod (+117lbs)

Recovery:

• Smittybuilt rear hitch D-ring receiver
• Bow shackles for SSO bumper
• Princess Auto Kinetic Recovery Rope
• Smittybilt X20 comp+synth line+1/0 upgrade P1, P2, P3 (+70lbs)

Suspension:

• FRONT
  • https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ontario-bs-thread.249665/page-1308#post-22651637
  • Fox 2.5s Fronts: P0, P1, P2, P3
  • Marlin Crawler LCA gussets
  • SPC UCAs P1, P2, P3, P4
• REAR
  • Fox 2.0 + reservoirs (part #: 985-24-116, probably gen1 or 2 as there seems to be revised versions of it now.)
  • Fox 2.0 resi relocation
    
  • OME Leaf springs (part# EL111R, mid weight leaves)
  • OME bushing kit (Part # OMESB108, 2 sets, one for each side)
  • All Pro U-bolt Flip kit (Part # , it's got tapped holes for some other aftermarket bumpstops.)
  • GM Bumpstops (Part # 15712438, Off of a 99-07 GM Silverado, see Retrofit here)

Wheels/tires:

• Winter/ Off season;
  • Stock TRD OR 16" rims with stock Goodyears 265/70R16
  • BFG KO2 265/70R16 (for sale! about 1/2 life left)
• Daily;
  • PRO COMP 16" 7069 series (-12mm offset, 6 on 5.5 bolt pattern, 16" by 8" wide, rim (+20lbs/rim)
  • With tires (+~59lbs) https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/shveets-build-thread-clementine.619286/page-3#post-24133311
• OEM: Because i still like having decent mileage on longer drives

Audio/Electronics:

• Subaru tweeter mod - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/premium-audio-upgrade-for-less-than-250.510424/
• PapaGO! S780 dual front and rear camera
• N2 Design Remote start kit - Awesome kit by Jimmy @N2DesignsInc - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...remote-starter-kit-at-mt-smart-module.568990/
• Dual Hella SharpTones (yellow)
• 2x Scosche Revolt Duals for the 12v plugs as the truck only has 1 OEM USB connection
• Custom BlueSeas Aux fuse panel and system capable of dual battery:P1, P2,
• Wiring harness and electrical distribution box for bed of truck, re-plumbed wires for work lights through conduit and added extra cables for a future light bar and ground connections.: Part 2
• Installed a 7-pin trailer connection to the truck bed for the Backrack. Allows for easy disconnection and relocation of backrack (plan to use it to hold CB antenna, lightbars, work lights, and anything else): Part 2 after the rear window broke
  
• Retrofitted Ford F250 upfitter switches to the truck:P1, P2, P3, P4
  
• New Aux relay box for switch panel
• Aux fuse block and relay station redux
  
• Aux Fuse Block reloaded: P1, P2
  
• New winch relocation bracket due to Air intake mod

Lighting:

• Speed demon 40" SRC (Single Row) Lightbar mounted on backrack
• two Princess auto special lights with red tucktape pointing backwards on Backrack as Trail lights.
  
• two Auxbeam Spot beam in grille
• two Auxbeam flood spots as ditch lights

TO DO LIST:

• Re-feed the winch line

DISTANT FUTURE LIST:

• Roof Rack options; Front Runner, OEM, or Gobi?
• SSO Slimline Hybrid Stage 2 wings (high clearance) make it aluminum? tubed?

 

Notable Trips/Events:
2018:

1. Solo Algonquin interior trip to visit the radar station; logging roads
2. 12hr road trip to the US to get a feel for long duration driving

2019:

1. TMMC Meet and Greet
2. First offroading experince; Cross Ontario bumper delivery and running the Mazinaw North trail
3. Solo exploration of Foymount
4. Bancroft fun run trail 1; large group runs
5. Bancroft fun run trail 2; lost my plate
6. Ardbeg weekend with the Ontario BS group guys
7. The Bay Solo lookout trial 1
8. Ganraska Meet and Greet

2020:

1. ONBS GROUP CARS AND COFFEE
2. The Bay winter run
3. The Bay Solo lookout Trial 2; Skid testing
4. Bancroft Fun run trails 3; now with 15 trucks
5. RAP 2020; ROUND ALGONQUIN 2020 TRIP. 1000km of offroad trails around Algonquin Provincial Park (4 days)
6. The Bay's solo lookout Trail 3 & Snowmobile trails
7. Hamilton Meet & Greet
8. Ardbeg Trail Cleanup weekend

2021:

1. Winter Exploration
2. TEC || Ardbeg Summer Trail Cleanup
3. TEC-East Trails Exploration
   
4. TEC - Coffee and trucks
   
5. TEC - Memorial Parade
   
6. TEC - Ardbeg Fall Cleanup Run
   
7. TEC - Truck or Treat
   
8. TEC - Toy Drive

2022:

1. TEC - Trucks and Coffee Food Drive
2. TEC || Ardbeg Spring Trail Cleanup
   
3. Road To TuktoyakTEQ

PICS!

 

Thanks Jan!

 

Subbed to watch this rig sprout from its stock cocoon.

 

Amazoom lightbar testing, Zip-Tie Engineering





Definitely keep the light bar as it does fill in a spot that was missing with the normal lights (bothe Highs and Fogs)

my results of bombing around Ancaster last night for about an hour;

Nights alone = can't see the road in the turns or when on hills (uphill or downhill) and doesn't go through the night very far ahead.

Nights + fogs = I see a lot near the front of the truck - but nothing at all ahead of me, nice for around the corners or cresting over hills. Meaning i'd need to turn on my Highs

Nights + Highs = Can't see much close by me, when cresting over a hill, but i can see much further away with little issues, especially when approaching a sag/ hill

Nights + Highs + Fogs = Can't do it, Truck wont let me unless i do the mod. also i think it breaks the legality of it "light" rule (4 lights in the front MAX here in ON)

Nights + Bar = Fills the gap between highs and fogs but doesn't do it better than one or the other. Where i do have lots of light near the base of the truck and lots of light ahead. but it doesn't output more light than the fogs alone near the base, or output light further than the Highs. So it's a nice middle point to use if i'd be going up and down hills/ turns. Granted if i got a better bar, that may change.

But hey, for 50 Maple Syrup Bucks (not counting for the $15 extra for the pods) and a few days of waiting - it's a nice to have thing The Cali Raised brackets should be in today, so i' be hard mounting it/ plumping the cable through the firewall and not over the door either today or tomorrow

 

should update this;

stuff done;

1. Cali-Raised lower grille light bar mount installed with the Amazoom light bar. also re-did the wiring to the Hella horns since i have better access to them with the nose off.
   
   
   
2. 2 minute air Motormaster airpump, pumps air into the KO2s from 20PSI to 40PSI in 3 minutes while the engine is off. DIdn't check the time with the engine running.
   
   
   
3. OffCamber Fabrication sliders by MBRP in and installed
   
   
   
   
4. Can officially say that i had my old license plate ripped off wheeling. (if anyone finds it on the Mazinaw trail in Bancroft Ontario - there is a long stretch of water that you need to cross (about 40 feet) and at one point it's 3feet deep. after wading through the water for about half hour, we called it quits. please send it to me that way i can hang it up on my wall!
   
   
   
   
5. New plates; Who's this?
   
   
   
6. Going to need to replace the factory skid plates soon, maybe next year?
   
7. added another Scoche magnetic mount to the spare phone i had, which is now a dedicated Gopro viewer for when i soft mount the gopro to the grille
   (the adhesive but fits PERFECTLY between the ridges on the OR center button panel, it's sorta scary)
   
   
   
   
   the mount itself consists of a small Quick-fist zip-tied to a stainless steel plate i had lying around, and the spare go-pro mount thing adhered to that. also have a singe larger rubber zip-tie holding to other parts of the grille. Tried to stick a usb cable around to power it on, but i don't think it's worth doing if i use the extended battery.
8. no roof rack problems. i need one and might go with OEM just to try and avoid this
   

 

SSO Slimine Hybrid bumper stage 1;

Front is Gun Blue'd but the metal turned into a bronze/ rust colour. figured it was ok so i gave it a light sand, another coat of blue, and a few tremclad clear coats + paste wax to seal everything in.



underside is Tremclad oil-based painted in flat black.


Still need to mount this thing onto the truck but that'll be a few weeks time.
also still need to modify the stage 1 so i would be able to reinstall my cali-raised lower light bar mount as i don't think it'll mount to the point where it's intended...

I might need bronze rims now

 

Awesome, those mini winch bumpers look great imo.

You going to take it to stage 2 in the future?

 

I'd like/ want to take it to stage 2 eventually but currently i would have to get to the point where i need stage 2.

the stuff I/ we wheeled so far, I don't think that i would need it right this instant. Maybe when i start scratching it up? But then again at Ardbeg i just took all the side paths to avoid the crazy rock climbs as it was my first time there, maybe next year or when the stage 2 goes on sale

 

whelp the front bumper is now worthless scrap
eh it's just plastic now. let the montage begin!

BEFORE:


step 1; remove everything




step 2; remove the stupid plastic valance and crash bar

step 3; pretend you're a plastic surgeon and make random lines



step 4; panic as you start the first cut.


step 5; the first cut is the deepest. but measure once, cut 15 times up to the measured line.


step 6; test fit and trim


step 7; kill yourself trying to re-install the cali-raised lower lightbar mount

step 8; unbolt everything again since the front grille CANNOT fit back into place because of that bull bar.


step 6; look better with the winter shoes on

 

Looking sharp!

 

Dont worry you are not the only one.

After I 'finished' the 2nd radiator bushing yesturday. I went to put the jack away, plink tink tink.....I had dropped and not noticed the inner sleeve of the bushing. Had to start the 2nd one all over. With that sleeve it was much much harder, I needed assistance.

 

ok using this spot as a bookmark for my findings, might make it a post on its own, wanna condense this all since apparently a lot of people want this same system and no one knows where to look or what to get; warning, you'll see repetitive links here and there. TLDR at the bottom & Actual stand-alone thread here; https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ack-low-profile-l-track.665324/#post-23321093

Just to clarify what i'd like to do; my end goal would be something like this;
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-rack-idea.143789/page-3#post-6816887

A crossbar bed rack system that allows me to easily remove the crossbars so i can continuously use the flip up tonneau cover i currently have.

The goal of this being, is to install a large enough basket (or eventually a RTT) in the back above the tonneau cover for longer trips, where i may or may not have room for extra equipment. Lower profile is prefered

However my largest restriction is the tonneau cover itself, Undercover Ultra Flex.

As mentioned before, it's a low profile/ flush fit cover just like the Bakflip. But the difference between the backflip and mine is that the UF system covers the entire t-rail system that is stock on all Tacomas, so bolt ons are difficult. I also know the KB VOODOO adapter/ riser works on a BAKflip, but not sure about the Ultraflip since i couldn't find anything

looking into that inspiration system above (first link) which would be a full balls to the wall Yakima system


he rivnutted the rail onto the metal portion of the bed itself and removed the plastic cap (my cover appears to need this plastic cap), other threads similar to it have used rivnuts with holes through the plastic and seem to hold just fine.


discovery (thanks @pete37 and @tacoma16):
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ontario-bs-thread.249665/page-1265#post-22428936
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-rack-idea.143789/page-3#post-6816887
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ontario-bs-thread.249665/page-1265#post-22429065

Pricing the build:
parts list here;
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/54-tracks-w-60-capnut-hardware
2x https://www.yakima.com/ca/landing-pad-1
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/roundbar
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/skyline-towers-4-pack
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/roundbar-sl-adapter
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/end-caps-4-pack
1x https://www.yakima.com/ca/sks-lock-cores

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ontario-bs-thread.249665/page-1266#post-22429216
PM'd Pete37 in regards of it, it's $770 for everything but the basket and the security locks and what not...

now that's out of my budget. I was hoping to be +/-$300 at most..


searching for alternatives

Also found this thread; https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/custom-bedrack-tonneau-bakflip-mx4-build.562458/
that doesn't use a track system, but something like the bed stake system the full sized trucks have/ use that i would have settled with, there isn't a build guide or anything for it, but it's the same concept.

The solution I'm settling with (thanks to @tacoma16):

TLDR:
buying this;
https://www.actiontrucks.com/product-detail/SPC4148ASUP-TRAC48/supertrac-48in-kit

installing similar to this but with an Aluminum plate to beef up the bed;
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rhino-rack-w-bakflip-mx4-mod.585305/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-rack-idea.143789/page-2#post-4351959
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-rack-idea.143789/page-2#post-4357378

Buying these since it's a quick disconnect, can slide it easily on the rails, and breaking strength is higher;

$22 Bonberland Threaded Double Stud Fitting, L-Track Stud Fitting Kit w/Swivel Plate - 2 Pack

https://www.amazon.ca/Threaded-Doub...s=l-track&qid=1578673512&s=automotive&sr=1-20

the cross bars;
square tube steel, round bar maybe idk? undecided for now but it will bolt onto the sliding hardware from above. i'll cross that bridge when i get there

using / bolting onto the crossbars;
using Plain old U-bolts

neat ideas:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cheap-rtt-for-those-on-a-budget.478273/
and
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cheap-rtt-for-those-on-a-budget.478273/page-18#post-21722881
that tent idea is nice...

 

Definitely watching this build

 

So a bit late, but wanted to do a bit of a reveal at the TEC Cars and coffee that happened over the weekend but got the bed bards in and ready to go, as well as got the reinforcement bars from C4.

Thanks for the help with cleaning it up from the factory oils and rust @Manfred, you are a legend


got it, painted next day.
2 coats of Dupli-colour Auto Primer. I gave up on shittier rattle cans, might as well make the part nice. Thanks @tacoma16 for bringing to light about enamel paints being a little more aggressive and (after a scratch test) a lot more durrable.
Coated with 4 "light"-ish coats of Dupli-colour enamel paint. Trucks colours are going to be Grey, Yellow, and black.

love the yellow in the sunlight.


re-coated the Hellas with the same paint as the brackets. Look completely different under bluer light.

will install after i rip the SSO bumper off, rip all the paint off of it and probably line-x the entire thing.

 

Now for the bed rack; I'll do a more formal write up as a seperate post as it's my cheaper alternative to the Yakima builds people have.

TLDR: L-track (Airline track) system integrated into the bed sides of the truck, with a 2 lockable steel cross bars for now. Industrial Bread trays as cargo baskets, we don't judge here as that saves me $250 in place of cargo basket

 

Looks sharp!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ack-low-profile-l-track.665324/#post-23321093 Build guide of the entire proccess of the crossbars.

took long enough to write up

 

Neutrals bundled together



Completed Fuse box panel, connected up all the negatives (2x 40A relays, and the horn is connected), custom length positive cables are going to the relays under the panel. just loose for now but it's a hassle to actually mount them.
and boy is the space there really tight...my fists don't really fit now that it's all together. But yeah, 1/0 cable with a few retrofitted connections going from the battery to the 100A breaker. The 150A breaker just needs a wire from the terminal fuse on the battery to the breaker itself and then that portion is live. nothing is on the circuit at the moment so i'm in no rush to complete the wiring there.

Panel is mostly stable but it's going to be wobbling around a lot due to the circuit breakers adding more weight at the end of a lever, might just need a stick to bolt to something at the bottom.

However i need to look into the potential issue for the relays and the wiring harnesses for the LED light bar and work lights. Both of the ones i have are 40A and had crossed the harnesses to the other's relay. Light bar worked just fine with both but the pod lights doesn't work with anything other than the relay it came with, not sure why this is the case...