Ramsey's build thread

How she sits today


The day I got her

 

I want to start a build thread to keep track of what I do with my truck. I like pictures so there will be lot of pics

This isn't my first Tacoma. I had a 2013 regular cab 4x4 5speed I got it new.

I loved that truck and still miss it from time to time :/

I wanted more room, bucket seats, arm rest ect. And when I saw the 2016 pictures I wanted to upgrade to a new truck while I still had choices with the second gen(yes I am one of those guys). This toyota dealership in Baltimore was having empolyee discount so I called them and told them what I needed in order to get in my pockets. Black access cab 4cyl 5 speed 4x4 with convenience package. They worked with me and eventually got me what I was looking for before the sale ended
6/27/15
Picked me up my 2015 SR Tacoma access cab 5speed 4cyl 4x4 with convince package. Build date 5/15 fresh off the assembly line murdered out from factory





So I'm going to chronologically post what's done as I have time with pics, experiences reviews and go from there.
Enjoy!

 

What's done

Detail
Cap
Hitch/recovery
Oil coat
Fog lights
Seat covers
3" lift
Skid plate
Weatherguard tool box
Rear head rest delete
Non led tail lights


Immediate future

Diff breather
Front 2" receiver
Intermitten windshield wiper stalk
Wheel spacers


Plans

Lockable diff or 2
Sliders
Winch on a 2" receiver cradle
Tires
Turbo

 

7/28/15
Ok, first order of business was detail.
Dealers are the worst detailers, if you can ever help it don't let them detail your truck before you take delivery. To the untrained eye it's acceptable, and "looks great", but it drives me nuts, they take cheap harsh clay and buff the shit all over your car with the streagnth of arm wresting Giants. ..,because harder means faster better? ..yeah...
I stripped it down and built it back up again. Wash with dish soap, and wipe down with Vinegar/water, clay it(this combo really gets you down to a fresh canvas, and it's crap everyone has under the sink) and wash again with auto soap. From there it's a simple polish and caranuba wax. I used mothers products as it's what I already had on the shelf.
I didn't get any pics before and during(wish I did) but I got her looking like a million bucks!





Probably the cleanest she'll ever be.
I'm not a crazy detailer, and it's a black truck semi daily driver so I understand it's going to get life thrown at it, but it's not every day I buy a new vehichle so just wanted it to /start/ right.

 

7/30/15
Registration came through WOot,
Finally started adding some personal effects to the rig



Got to support whachya love

I know these are obsolete to most people but I love me my maps

To me my "let's go places" vehichle needs this stuff floating around inside

And of coarse regular truck stuff for truck things





Bare with me , mods coming

 

8/16/15
Got me a cap! I've been looking for one of these contractor caps for a good price since I had my regular cab
Drove down to Virginia and scooped it up

I got a DCU cap


Has a tool box on driver side and totally open to bed on passenger


It's got plenty of room inside for stuff even with the tool box, and it has a heavy duty rack.

Its perfect for my needs. It's got excellent security, privacy, and strength. It hurt mpg slightly as I got a slightly taller then cab cap. I want to try to make a roof rack fairing work for it.

I wired it into my drivers side tail light. The cap has led high center brake light and an interior light I wired directly to the battery.

I added some pipe insulation to the front to compensate for the 1" or so lip on the Tacoma bed.

It's 100% water tight.
The cap it self uses uses the Tacoma bed rails to clamp on

It fits perfect as it was made for a 2nd gen 6' tacoma

 

8/19/15
Ok with my 13 surface rust on the welds of the frame and the rear axle housing, I wanted to do something about this truck while it was still new. So with my hitch due to come in any day I wanted to do some prepping and kill a couple birds with one stone "while crawling around on my back and bolting stuff to the frame anyway.
So start with a solid cleaning front to back





Let it absolutely dry for a day or 2
While it was drying my hitch came in. I mainly got this hitch to provide a decent rear recovery point. The most I ever tow is 2 jet skis and, and jocky disabled cars around the lot and shop. I was always able to do it off the bumper on my regular cab.



I got the hitch off Amazon for a good price with free shipping. It's a

$140 curt 13323 class 3 trailer hitch, 2" receiver, fits select toyota tacoma, GLOSS BLACK POWDER COAT

curt 13323













Got a shackle for it aswell, lives under the rear seat untill I need it.

 

8/20/15
With the under carriage clean I Oiled the chassis, I got a cheap $10 weed sprayer from Home Depot. I just sprayed rustolium flat black over all the welds and seams on the frame/cross members, and axle/diff housing. After it dried I sprayed 10k mile old diesel oil out of our Passat all over the frame took a rag a wiped the excess all around. It stopped dripping about 2 days of driving around. I know it works as well as this other stuff, and its free. i did it over a tarp and led the truck in the street as it would drip right after its done.

 

8/31/15
Had to get the truck its yearly pa state inspection/emissions (since I bought it out of state it didn't get ours) So I visit our local toyota dealer

Uneventful, "didn't need anything" the guy says. It's got less then 600 miles, what he expect!
Walked out with a hitch cap lol

 

9/4/15
Got some fog lights I put in.
I got this kit off eBay for $35.00 shipped. Extremely happy with it for the price. The only thing that's not oem quality is the switch. All the wiring , bezels, lights themselves, fitment quality, can't tell the freaking difference. For the price 100% satisfaction.

Hook up was too easy. I wasn't prewired for fogs but it was very straight forward. I tapped into a cig lighter fuse do I have fog lights any time no mater the light setting.








The switch fit if ok, did a little trimming on the switch to sit the way I wanted and smoothly come in and out when pushing it. Also the switch back light is just regular color as opposed to oem green backlights when depressed. But for a 35$ kit I'm not complaining

 

10/10/15
Seat covers, Walmart 25$special. They are dickies brand. Work good. I wanted a black on tan truck so I went with tan covers. Keeping the oem seats minty.



If anyone with a tan interior truck want to swap out door cards, knee bolsters, glove box, A-pillars for my mint gray ones lmk!

When I do start focusing on a tan interior swap I'm going to get real leather seat covers in this same color

 

10/31/15
I didn't want to sell my cap, but everything I own has a price tag on it.









So with an offer of $300.00 more then what I picked it up for, Sold!

She looks good naked for a change.

 

11/6/15
With that cash burning holes in my pocket I ordered a 3" lift!

Got me some old man emu nitro sport shocks all round, 5mm trim packer for front left shock, 885 coils up front, toytec deaver AAl, and the ome carrier bearing drop. (My truck has tsb leaf pack)
Install was smooth. It took me 1h 45 min to do the front left shock. My spring compressors weren't cutting the mustard on bad ass 855's! After that I found the YouTube video of a guy doing it without compressors. lol passenger side took me 20 minutes! Ya live and learn.
I did not put the sway bar back in.
Front done



Rear was cake. Getting the AAL in.

The deavers have anti friction pads but I oiled the leafs anyway while all apart.
Truck needed some modifications on the shock perch on my 2015 to fit the massive ome shocks. Idk why Toyota had to change them for 2015, nothing a grinder can't fix.
Stock

I had to trim the outer most side I didn't want to take too much off so it took a few trim fit, trim fit ect. The passenger side cleared but too close for comfort, trimmed that one also.
Trim

Test

I sprayed them black and touched up the shocks from test fitting them with some yellow paint

Much better
Got exactly 3.25" front on both sides and 2.25" rear on both sides. Very happy with the lift!

 

Good looking tuck man!

 

11/13/15
1 week update/review of the lift.
I really love it! I put 400+ miles on it this week. Did a lot of differnt driving conditions, highway, city, back roads, and offroad.

.Ok, first off I never put my sway bar back on since install and it's fine. The 885's are stiff enough on my truck where the sway is not necessary, you can tell it's off but it's not needed for my set up.
.Also I drove it for a day, then put the diff carrier drop in went to the gas station and determined it didn't need it so I took it back off. I get a slight vibration from stock, but as expected from this type of modification.
.CV angles are good enough for me, will not be dropping the diff at all.



.It drives great! It has on road manners and I don't have to drive Italy different then I did before.
.I marked all the alignment bolts before I took them apart so they are back the way it was from factory... Just 3" taller. It drives 100% like alignment is correct. I can visually see it has more positive camber and I was going to put it on our rack this week and so an alignment but I just didn't have time and it's not bad enough to be a priority to me at the moment.
.I do have the speed bump clunk. Earlier this week I was in the ome thread and it seems to be nature of the beast. Also watched a YouTube video some guy cut an ome shock in half and showed pretty much what's going on. Metal stops protecting it from over extending yada yada. Only get it on speed bumps. Here's my video I made
http://youtu.be/Ezey0MHPChM
So I was kind of worried it would be like that over every little rock offroad, if so they'd be for sale! Putting the truck though this weeks testing driving I am totally satisfied with my lift.
No clanking on pot holes and normal driving and no clanking offroad. It has to have something to do with speed bumps how both shocks compress and extend at the same time making the clank and exaggerating it. I can live with it. Other then that love every thing else about it!
.Got off the pavement last night. Performed awesome. Flexed it a bit, no issues with the travel



.Going to re torque everything this weekend(as you should a few hundred miles after any suspension work) and may throw it on the alignment rack next week, may not.

Here's some pics next to my buddies stock truck, same as mine. He has a brand new frame with brand new stock tsb springs and coils all around, so a good comparison




And some pavement princess pics for mall crawling points



Over all love the lift and glad I went with this set up! I came from land rover discovery(gen1) and old man emu is highly recommended over there as well so I had no hesitation going this route for my taco.

This brings me all up to date to today. Everything else will be pretty much live

 

Thanks man! Appreciate it!

 

11/14/15
Got a ricochet 1/4 aluminum skid plate. It's an ifs/mid plate. @silverpataco1968 grew out of it so I picked it up (awesome guy to deal with, and a sick rig! Makes my truck look like a 5lugger)
This plate is pretty bad ass and looks great. Fitment was almost perfect and easy to install. The thing only weighs about 30lbs(good for my little 4cyl) and I know it will take some abuse. The quality is excellent and I'm extremely happy with it

 

Jeez, you delivered on pics haha. Looking good,do you have any alignment issues with the lift?

 

Looks Great glad you like it!