TaylorU's Fish Finder Build

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After years of being on the forum and modding my truck, I have finally decided it is time to create a build thread and maintenance log all in one. I purchased this truck from my father (admittedly at an excellent deal, about $6K below KBB) back in early 2013, and have slowly built it up from there.

The name:
You may be asking yourself, fish finder build? The explanation is simple. I had no clue what to title this damn thing. I am currently working on my master's degree in Natural Resources and my research involves fish, so that's where the name comes from!

Goal:
The overall goal for my truck is to remain a reliable daily driver that is equally at home on the dirt as it is on the road. I do like to push my truck's (but more so my own driving skills) limits, but I also am not in the place to afford any major damages or breakages which means I self-limit myself to moderate trails. My truck is mostly used for off-roading day trips, overnight car camping trips, or getting me to the end of the road to begin a backpacking trip. I have no plans to turn this into an overland truck, as I simply do not need an RTT, on-board water, etc. for what I do.

Story Time:
As I mentioned, I became the owner of the truck back in 2013 when I purchased it from my father. He bought this truck new from the dealer, and it was his third 2nd gen Tacoma. The car I had at the time (2001 Chrysler 300M) was slowly turning into a real POS mechanically, although I took excellent care of it - a true Chrysler vehicle I suppose. After about $2200 and 3 months worth of repairs on random mechanical issues, I decided I needed to sell it and look for something else. Luckily, my dad decided he wanted a larger truck again and as soon as I sold my car, I gave him a substantial down payment and took over the loan.

The first mod didn't take long and it was, of course, to plasti-dip the emblems. Not long after that, I had my truck in for a tire rotation/balance at Discount Tire when a 2x4 piece of lumber fell of their wall and hit my truck and then the worker who had the air gun removing the lug nuts. As a result of this incident, the damage to my truck was totally covered by Discount Tire, and I received four free wheels that they had in stock of my choosing. These were the MB Kronk wheels (looking back at it - not the prettiest), which were eventually recalled which was when I switched to MB 352s, again at no charge.

After this, I went quite a while without an substantial upgrade while I was saving money and working on my bachelor's. Then, in mid-2014 as I was thinking of upgrading my suspension, I decided to go to check out the ADS Racing Shocks facility which is in my hometown. After talking with Brian and getting a tour of the shop, I was instantly sold and they had my truck a few weeks later. This was and remains the biggest expenditure towards my truck, and I am still beyond happy with this decision.

Since then, minor things have been added as I continue to hone my mechanical skills and perform as much maintenance on it as I can (still have yet to pay anyone to work on my truck mechanically other than the suspension install!). Such minor things that I tackled that were relatively difficult were the satoshi grille mod, retrofitting my headlights, and building my own fuse block from scratch. At this point, there are only a few more things I want to do to my truck as finances permit. I want to finish off the armor for the truck, which means getting the rest of the skid plates, and a rear high-clearance bumper. On top of this, I constantly debate on upgrading the suspension even further to remote reservoirs, Dirt King UCAs/LCAs, and a full standard weight leaf spring pack. Onto the good stuff...



Truck Basics - 2010 Tacoma TRD Off Road 4x4 short bed, silver

Suspension:

Front

ADS Racing Shocks 2.5" IFP Coilovers w/ 650lb springs
Light Racing Upper Control Arms​

Rear

ADS Racing Shocks 2.125" Emulsion Shocks
Deaver Mini AAL pack w/out overload leaf​

Armor:

KM Fab Rock Sliders
RCI Offroad Front Skid Plate - steel
Pelfreybilt Front Plate Bumper - steel, 3-hoop
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Lighting:

Morimoto Mini D2S 3.0 - 35w ballasts, XB 4500K bulbs, Apollo 3.0 shrouds, XSB 2.0 Halos
LED Strips for Bedlights
KC HiLiTES - Cyclone LED lights for bedlights with custom flush mount bezels from @XPOTRPR
KC HiLiTES - 20" FLEX Array light bar mounted in front bumper
KC HiLiTES - Gravity LED G4 Fog Lights (Amber)
KC HiLiTES - Roof Mounted Pro6 light bar
KC HiLiTES - Cyclone LED lights for under the hood lighting
KC HiLiTES - Gravity LED G34 Wide-40 Beam ditch lights on Rago Fab brackets
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Electrical:

Bussman RTMR Fuse Block - Followed this thread by @tacozord
IggyCorp Switch Panel - OTRATTW Switches
X2 Power AGM Battery - 27F
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Tires:

Cooper Discoverer ATP - LT285/75/16
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Wheels:

MB Wheels 352 16"
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Mechanical:

Wheel hub bearing assemblies - @BamaToy1997
NAPA Auto Parts CV Axles
ECGS Needle Bearing Replacement Bushing
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Other Exterior:

Raptor Style Grille - @HomerTaco Mesh and BAMF Letters
Cab Mount Chop and pinch weld hammered
Plasti-Dipped Emblems
Retrofitted/BHLM Headlights
Hi-Lift Bedrail Mount
Axe/Shovel Bedrail Mount
Bottle Opener in bed
Redline Tuning Hood Struts
Color-match grille surround (silver streak mica)
Mobtown Offroad Locking Bed Storage Doors - courtesy of 2017 SS!!
Dual bike mounts in bed for road bike and my commuter bike
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Other Interior:

Weathertech Floorliners - front and rear
Grid-It Center Console Organizer
Dog Fur - courtesy of Cedar

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Future Mods (near or far):

RCI Transmission Skid Plate
RCI Transfer Case Skid Plate
All black TRD bedside decals (3rd gen style?)
Dirt King UCAs & LCAs
Rear HC Bumper
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Spoiler: Maintenance Log

To be added at a future time

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THANK YOU:
There are a few people that I want to take the time to thank specifically. First is @JeepAndrew as he has been a big help in my truck from building and welding on my sliders, to helping me fix a damaged bolt on a set of new LCAs I was throwing on. He will spend hours outside with me explaining technical details, convincing me of things that'd be beneficial for my truck or vis versa, and just general bullshitting. The group of folks includes @TRON_, @snowtank, and @mh.meier. Mike was the very first person I met in person from TW and really was the first to show me the good nature of the Arizona crew. Stefen is another member of the AZ group that really made me feel welcome at all of the local meets and by inviting me out with him and others on trail runs. Andrew has always been helpful in answering questions I have, picking up parts from others that I've purchased, and simply always treating to beers even when we fight over it. Not only have these three been helpful, but have also been inspirations behind my own truck for different aspects. I also want to thank @tacozord for his amazing DIY Bussman RTMR thread which was the only was I was able to build my own fuse block. Last but not least is @2ndGenJonny for always being another source for advice, especially when I call him from underneath my truck as I'm trying to figure shit out with my LCAs, or U-joints. Another person I would like to thank, especially as of lately, is @05tacomabro. He has been gracious enough to offer up the use of an amazing and massive garage so that us Tucson people can work on projects in it. Without that garage and his (and others') help, some recent maintenance stuff would have been a nightmare. So, thank you all!



TRAIL RUNS:
Rail X Ranch, Arizona - 11/12/2016
Tucson Wash Trail, Arizona - 1/02/2017
Chiva Falls, Arizona - 4/1/2017
Broken Arrow, Arizona - 2/3/2018
Redington Pass, Arizona - 2/13/2018

 

How my truck looks currently:




All of the below photos are in chronological order. I am currently digging for some of the very first pictures of my truck prior to ANY mods, but I think they're on an old phone and I am not sure which one.


The first mods were of course Plasti-dipping the emblems (which still remains today) and new wheels. These wheels actually were free: while Discount Tire was performing a rotation/balance, they dropped a large 2x4 piece of wood on my truck which created about a fist sized dent in the rear quarter panel, and scratched the hell out of a factory wheel when it fell on the person using the air tools to remove the rear wheel. Because of this, they offered me a free replacement wheel, or a set of 4 of any of the ones their wheels in stock...so I chose the MB Kronks. Soon after, the the Kronks got recalled so I got another free set of wheels, MB 352s, which are what I am currently running.





After this, I decided to save $$$ for a couple years and ended up buying some ADS Racing Shocks suspension after visiting their shop in my city. Brain was and remains an excellent help and I couldn't be happier with my choice in suspension! Here are some before and after photos:






Next came bigger tires. I opted for 285/75/16 Cooper Discover ATPs as I was averaging about 2200 mi/month at the time on the highway for both school and work. To clear these I did the CMC/pinch weld hammer myself, and cleaned and sprayed bedliner everywhere to make it look new again.





Next up was to change my grille. I bought the raptor style mesh off of @HomerTaco and the letters from BAMF and just began cutting until I made it work! This was quite a learning experience as I kind of just went for it, but I was pleased with the results! I also decided to remove the sway bar around the same time. As you can see, my/my parents dog Dash has been a massive help in my build!





Then, sometime down the road after this, I needed to replace my LCA bushing so I ended up just replacing the entire LCA with some like-new ones purchased from a fellow TW member on here who went long travel right after buying his truck. Unfortunately, the threads were a little damaged on the bolt so I ended up at KM Fab - @JeepAndrew - and had him help me remedy the issue. Then of course, I ended up with him making me sliders not too long after visiting him for the first time.








Then, thanks to @Benson X and his DIY thread, I made a hi-lift mount and tool mount! I color matched the hi-lift to my dad's red hi-lift (I still need to buy my own), and the tool mounts to match the blue Kobalt shovel and axe I purchased. I tried to find a good, but inexpensive red shovel and axe but couldn't, so I didn't stick with my planned color scheme. Since then, the hi-lift mount has bent and is all fucked up now and will require some work that I haven't gotten to yet.





Then after some time saving money, I ended up deciding I wanted to do a retrofit. Then of course in planning my LED halos, I figured I may as well make a new auxiliary fuse block. To make the fuse block, I followed @tacozord DIY thread and purchased OTRATTW switches for my IggyCorp switch panel that I installed below the radio inside the cab. At this same time, I installed some LED bedlights which I am in the process of adding onto right now. I don't have too many photos of this, but I really wish I did as I was quite proud of my handiwork especially as a total novice. But here are some pics of the finished retrofit spy: @JTS2014TACO ) :







The next big modification was to install my @Pelfreybilt steel 3-hoop bumper! A HUGE thanks to @mh.meier for helping with this! I think this is my second favorite mod to date, only behind my ADS suspension that really started the entire build. I will have some @KC HiLiTES lights coming in soon for the 20" center and for the fogs! I don't have great pics of the bumper installed, as I haven't even touched the dirt in the last few days since installing it.



After this, it has been some smaller things done to the truck mainly oriented with lighting. I have since installed the @KC HiLiTES Pro6 LED light bar on the roof, the FLEX Series 20" bar in the bumper, the G4 Amber fog lights in the bumper, and some LED Cyclone lights for bedlights and under the hood lights.



Finally, some smaller projects have been done. I color matched the grille surround which is only partly done as I still need to paint the inner portion black again after sanding that down and never painting it. Then I also installed the locking bed doors from @Mobtown Offroad that I got from a Secret Santa in 2017! I still haven't found out who this human is though.

 

Hey Taylor. I'm glad I could be of help with your truck. I look forward seeing pictures and following your progress.

Cheers!

 

Here

 

Phew. After finding out that a class was cancelled today, I finally took the time to update/complete my build thread with pics! Complete with Saturday's addition (bumper) and all!

 

It's come along nicely man, glad you could wrap up the thread details.

 

Thanks! Part of the motivation behind finishing this thread was simply to have documentation of modifications should I ever need it for insurance purposes haha. Not a fun reason, but important.

 

Finally found a dirt road for a poser pic

 

hey buddy good looking truck.

 

Looking good, brother! Love the name!

 

Thanks man! I gotta come up have you show me some trails up there! I see a ton in my AZ trails book I wanna try sometime.

shit! I didn't realize I was a copycat on the name. But thanks!

 

For sure buddy any time

 

Got the Redline Tuning Quicklift Hood struts for Christmas and installed them that day. What a simple but great luxury!

 

Subbed! Stoked on the build.

 

I bet that if they were fish you would find them.

Nice build!

 

Haha so true I probably would. Thanks guys!

 

Nice truck Taylor

 

Tucson Wash Trail Run - 1/02/2017

Here are some pics from yesterday's trail run with some of the Tucson TacomaWorld crew. Had a great time with @Cal671 (photocred as well!) and @mccombsworld!

 

I'll be out that way in May, need to come ride with some bama boys.