TruKnight's Autobot Build

oh you noticed! yep, my build isint staying as humble as it started...

 

You're a prime example of the mod bug

 

guilty as charged.

lol

 

new grill has arrived! pretty much pristine used condition. its grey atm but in a month or two it will be a much more awesome color!

may paint the emblem a darker metallic silver, not sure. well see.



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Any raptor plans or sticking with oem?

 

no plans to raptor it. I like the oem look as is.

 

more parts have arrived!

new fogs and side bumper flares thanks to chadlogan112:





new turn signal mirrors thanks to B737:



and unfortunately fedex broke the lower part of the plastic arm, which sucks, but they are insured so I guess well see what happens there. worst case scenario I either glue it back and live with the crack or get an auto salvage arm. toyota only sells complete assemblies, not just this part. I don't know if the arms from 05-11 are compatible or not. last time I had to deal with replacing one of these it involved double wire splicing. bit disheartened for sure. makes me anxious for all the other things I have being shipped right now.



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more parts have arrived!

brand new oem hood:



looked inside to inspect, everything appears go for launch!



pretty sure that's the right scoop. will be ordering scoop and inserts shortly.



bumper came too, all wrapped in cardboard and tape like a banana, but it looks to be intact as well.





bumper mounting bar:



bumper attachment hardware:



ive had this ready for a few weeks now but waiting until I have the radio wire harness assembled before I start the retrofit. already carbon fiber wrapped the radio bezel and ac controls:



12+ style access cab drivers door master switch. finding access cab specific parts is kind of hard, most of them are dc's. will carbon fiber wrap before install:



that's all for now. headlights, scoop, headlight trim panels, misc tiny connectors and little parts coming soon, then I should be just about ready to get everything painted as soon as I find someone that will do a really good job on it.

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I like the oem grille for that model too. Any others not really. Gratz on getting all your parts in!! This is definitely a build that will stand out on tw. Can't wait to see that swb 12+.

 

rarely snows here so I figured id take a few pics. looks like ill be joining the super white pic thread for a day or two!

still waiting on a few smaller parts, but ill have them all on order this week. then ill be ready for paint when I find a suitable shop.

starting to get exicted (well more ecxcited) about how this will come out for sure! I like the idea of doing mine up like a 12-15 but in a color no one else will have. makes all the work/cost a lot more worth it than just trading for a slightly newer one.

glad to be able to share it with you all too.

 

even more parts! brand new oem black chrome sport headlights, a full 1/4 of my budget here, you just cant find used ones in decent shape at a good enough price. only these and the hood are new parts, everything else is used. you could prolly do this conversion for 1k if you used primarily aftermarket parts, but ive never had good aftermarket experiences so nothing but oem for this mod. cant wait to see what these look like with my daytime running lights in them!







and I got a new cluster, I already know it wont work without rewiring half my truck, but it was the only way to get a faceplate. I was going to get a custom one but I wasn't liking how it was looking and changed my mind. ill just live with the few little indicator lights that are in the wrong places, no big deal. ill eventually be sending my cluster to jerez to do the led mod too, but my mod fund is abit dry atm so will have to wait awhile. was told the cluster had 11k on it, may see if anyone wants to buy it with my 05-10 faceplate ill have afterwards.



ive also ordered the last batch of stuff I think ill need to make this happen, hood scoop, bumper fillers, few hood parts and a ton of little connectors. once all that gets here ill be ready for paint so ill start looking around for shops and quotes next week and hopefully get everything painted sometime this coming month.

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I cannot wait to see your progress and the final product. You have the wheels turning in my head to do this to my double cab! It's gonna look awesome!

Subbed for sure...

 

im just waiting on the last few parts to arrive. will be having paint done this month hopefully. figuring ill be done w/ pics sometime in april. I need the weather to get warmer before I tackle this.

I wouldn't do it unless your absolutely sure, its not a cheap or easy mod project. I thought long and hard before committing to it.

here are the relevant tw threads you will want to read first, not many here have done this:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...-build-formerly-2006-2013-front-end-conv.html
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...12-front-end-05-06-07-08-09-10-11-tacoma.html
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/293318-2012-tacoma-front-end-conversion-rg11.html
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/305036-update-2005-2012-headlights-grille-etc.html

 

the last of the parts I need in order to get the paint done have arrived!

new skewp on top of old skewp:



skewp subassembly parts:



new oem drivers side signal mirror - undamaged! thanks to B737





headlight/bumper fillers:



brackets and hood lock componenets:



huge pile of widgets, dodads, wirlygigs, thingamabobs, whatchamacallits, etc.:



and since im gonna be a 12-15 poser I may as well go all in and be an off road poser too :



installed new 12-15 cluster faceplate, shipping that off to jerez for the led mod as soon as the blue led's get here:



center console conversion still in progress, this has been a real pain so far. the new silver vent surround went in like a glove but waiting on the a/c controls to get here so I can solder the 16 pin plug to my harness, have to find new screws to hold in the clock better, need to pull the cf wrap back off some to fix some bubbling, have to find out why the steering wheel control interface wont work, modify the brackets holding the stereo to sit better and somehow fish out one of the bolts that dropped who knows where behind it... yeah, huge pain, but ill get it all together eventually:



also prolly gonna change out the rear access cab console for the newer one when I put in the all black wet okole rear jump seat covers I orered with the spring group buy.
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Very nice! Props to you man!

Can't wait to see more!

 

tanks! its slowly coming together, ill have the interior finished soon.

good luck with your conversion mods also!

 

Looking good!

 

thanks man, slowly but surely getting there.

 

said byebyebye (nsync) to the grey carpet today and put in 12-15 color OEM carpet. it took months to find one for an access cab. also swapped the rear center console and storage lids for the black 12-15 style ones too.

pics of how it went down:















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