Slinkey's single cab build

Hey all i purchased a 2011 Tacoma last month from a family friend it was too good of a deal to pass up. This is my First Toyota and have to say i love it so far.

It was a little hard to get used to as my old truck was a full size Silverado 1500 with a 5.7 V8. What was not hard to get used to was the money in my pocket that i was not spending on gas.

I have been lurking this forum for long enough and decided to start a build thread.

So here is the tacoma when i got it


And this is what i had previously

 

The first thing i did was take of the cheesy plastic hub caps and painted the stock steelies black


Also painted the emblem black and de badged the rest of the chrome emblems.



My first purchase for the truck was weather tech floor mats

 

I dont usually like to put tops on my truck but living in WNC now i needed more dry storage as well as a place for the dog since i no longer have a back seat.
Its an ARE



This site uncovered the bed light mod and it made perfect sense to do it with the shell

 

Great start. I love a reg cab!!

 

Just put in the pioneer 1400dvd.

Im not super pleased with the Metra dash kit i used. It is very sturdy since you can use the factory metal radio supports. The texture matches the factory texture but the black color does not match well. The fit is a little off around the screen itself. The opening that surrounds the screen is over sized. you can see the gap on the left side


Also put in two jl 10s i had from the old truck. I had to do some custom fabrication that included using the old sub box they were in and some new MDF to get the airspace correct.

 

Did a few things to the tacoma recently. I got one of these http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/ba...2-bamf-2nd-gen-tailgate-cb-antenna-mount.html for my CB install.

The mount is quite sturdy and works perfect with the 4ft fire fly antenna.


Im going to switch the stud style coax to a terminal ring style to eliminate how the coax hangs in front of the tail light.


I got it hooked up to a uniden 520 xl.

 

I also got a set of OEM fogs off a user here and while i was getting into wiring i decided to put in a Blue sea fuse box for future wiring as well.



I used 8awg wire to hook it up to the battery because i had it already and after amp calulations it was more than adequate for what i was going to be pulling from the box (most will be low amp led lights).





I didnt do a full write up on the fogs because it has been done countless times here. I did include a small "how-to" getting to the upper switch blanks on the dash.

You have to remove the plastic runner on the floor next to the seat and as well as the black foot rest thing, and the side trim piece under the dash. I didnt take pics of this step.

Next you have to remove the piece that goes around the e brake lever. Just carefully pry it out. It should come out pretty easy. Also pry open the little piece under it to reveal a bolt that needs to be removed.



Now remove the bolt on the other side by the door. I had already removed the bolt in the pic but you can see the flange with the hole where it goes.



Now you can carefully pry the upper dash up and it will pop loose enough to push out the switch blanks and run wires.





I got some switches from OTRATTW and after a little trimming they fit perfectly. After getting into this i realized i should of gotten three switches and installed them all at once for future projects. One switch is for the fogs and the other is for a couple 4 inch led lights that im waiting to receive from a group buy.



The grille always bothered me as it had scratches on the top part of it from the previous owner and it seemed to be fading a little. Since i had the grille off to make running the fog light wiring easy i decided to paint the outer part of the grill black. I did not paint the honey comb part in the triangles and center or the horizontal part where the emblem is i left that color matched.

Here is a pic of the painted grille and the fogs. I washed the truck yesterday but the pollen has already attacked it.

 

Truck is looking good my man!

 

Thanks man!

 

Also had the windows tinted as well as the upper windshield and some AVS in channel window visors.



Randoms

 

led lights added using relentless hood mounts





Also got a steel on some fj steelies with goodyear wrangler tires already mounted and balanced

Before

After

 

Truck's looking great! Those FJ steelies look awesome.

Matt

 

I like the placement of the lights above the hood. You don't see that too often. Do you get any glare off the hood?