Yotakid's '00 TRD build

[YotaKid]

Well I have an old build on TW, but i figure I'll share it here as well. Hopefully I'll do a little better job on this page, but it will basically be copied from there.

The first toyota we got was my mom's 2000 4runner, and since then we've been pretty much a toyota family since. I got my tacoma 2 years ago July (2011) and I've been in love with the freakin thing since, modding every chance I get. It's turned into a mall crawler/semi capable/budget/highschool build. (I appologize in advance for the horrible pictures).

So here we go...

Specs:
2000 Xtra cab Tacoma
3.4L
TRD Package
Tow Package

Day I brought it home (bone stock)

As it sets today:

Mod List

Wheels'n'tires

33x12.50 GT radial Adventuro M/t's - $775

Outlaw 15x10 3.5 bs -$150

Suspension/lift

3" coilover spacer- $150 (came with blocks which are no longer on the truck)

stock leaf Pack+2 Ford Leafs

2" body lift (don't hate) - $50 used from a TW member

Relocated Shocks

Skyjacker Nitro rears- $90

Monroe Sensitrac fronts- $186

Audio

Kenwood Head unit- $200 installed

15" eclipse sub - free after working for a neighbor

760 watt pioneer amp - $60

Lighting

Ebay Lightbar- $70

blue lense O'reilly fogs- $20

Cheapo walmart fogs - $20

Other

Deckplate mod-$15

Grey Wire mod- $0

Chopped antennae-$0

Billet Race Pedals-$20

Auto Accessories Seat covers-$20

Steering Wheel cover-Can't remember (cheap)

Pontiac Hood struts- free (junkyard)

Painted Rims- $30 about with all the paint, primer, wire wheels, sandpaper, and clearcoat

Blacked out Door handles - Leftover paint from the rims

BPV bracket - $0 (scrap metal)

Kobalt Low-Pro toolbox - xmas present

Pictures! (no particular order)

3" lift spacers/blocks

Interior

Deck Plate mod

Leaf Packs

Before (horrible negative arc)

Salvaged ford springs

After- Set my stance at a slight rake, so they gave me about 3" of lift and the ride is a little stiff, but not harsh. It rides amazing with a couple hundred lbs in the back.

Door handles

Rims


$150- I've been told eagle alloys, American racing outlaw series, but idfk exactly what they are. 15x10 with 3.5 BS aluminum rims.

It wasn't until after I got them that I discovered one had about a 1/2" long crack going down from the edge of the bead. I don't have a pic, but it isn't bent, just cracked (don't ask how, I have no Idea). I think a mig welder at school with an aluminum spooler should do the job, and once they get balanced they should be fine.

Cleaned 'em up with a drill wire wheel.

Got a smaller one for touch up.

Then sandpaper, and paint thinner.
Before:

After

About 3 coats primer, 4 coats paint, 3-4 coats wheel coating later:

(note: i didn't think it would pay to do the whole wheel, so I just did the outside face. Why paint anything but the part you will see?

And I have since painted the rivets silver for a nice accent.

Mounted with my old 31x10.50's

 

[YotaKid]

Build continued

After realizing I can only fit 25 out of my 86 pictures in one post I will just continue as if these are one post.

BPV bracket


I've heard rumors about better brake performance because of a BPV (I think that's what its called) so I quick fabbed one of those. Its ugly as hell, i know, and the holes are a little crooked, but it works.

Installed

So far i haven't noticed a real difference in braking performance, but i've noticed the B.A.M.F ones move it over sideways a bit too, that might make all the difference, but i'm happy with my brakes, so whatever.


Hood Struts

I could only get two brackets off the cars, the other were part of the fender. so I fabbed some out of some galvanized metal i found behind our shop.

Heres the ones I got from the car

I just drilled holes and used self tapping screws to mount them.

Installed! Good by flimsy hood stick!

Sub (yes i can still fit 2 people back there)

Antennae Chop

How much I took off (right) compared to what's left (left)

Final product

Light bar

Got everything installed and its oh so easy to do. The light bar is made of molded plastic with the lights bolted on and comes complete with a wiring harness and everything you need to install it basically. It uses 3m adhesive to attach to the roof, and lemme tell ya, it sticks! i can pull on it all day and it'll rock the truck before it gives (it hasn't). It does fine on the road, and i'm pretty sure i'll be using a razor if I ever want to take it off.

(can you kinda see the gaps where there was no adhesive?)

Sadly, the major downfall is that you can't adjust your lights without cutting an access hole somewhere once it's mounted, so i had to be double sure they were where i wanted them. there is also a small gap between the roof and the light bar in a couple spots (for some reason they didn't want to run the adhesive the whole way across) and theres a good sized gap in the back since the back of the bar is flat and the cab is curved... I'll have to seal it all up with some silicone soon. Also It only came with four lights, and it looked too narrow for the pickup so i went to o'reillys and bought a cheap set that i mounted on the sides to make six. looks alot better that way. I also bought a couple smaller ones to mount for bed lights someday. I haven't got around to it yet since ill be on vacation in washington tomorrow through the 7th.

but anyways, here they are!

I made the side lights point off to the side a little since the original 4 are pretty much set straight and can only really move up and down.

Before

After install

I LOVE THESE THINGS

New Tires

 

[YotaKid]

More Build!!!

Old toolbox/light setup
Installed some bed lights (and love them)

Chrome Accents

repainted my rims, and chromed the rivets. I've always had a thing for chrome accents on black rims.

Poser shots

Diff Drop

Shock Relocation

First i took off the bed to make everything easier on myself when doing it, plus i put on a 2 inch body lift to clear my tires better. I know I'll catch grief for it sooner or later but i'm happy with it, and its functional, so thats why I did it.

Back to the shocks, I boxed the frame with 1/8" diamond plate. I know it was overkill, but that's what I had to work with so I used it. I welded the bottom tabs ( I got four of them from summit racing for about twenty bucks) and did a crossmember with some 2" water pipe that I'm not sure of the exact wall thickness, but its heavy.

(don't worry, I ground that edge off after it was welded on.)

(Bottom mount)

Crossmember Done

Bottom mounts. I know my overhead welds look like bird ****, but they're stronger than bird ****. They penetrated well and will hold. I'm pretty sure anyone whose ever done an upside down weld will say its easier said than done. Besides we can't all be JLee now can we?

Top mounts done! I did have to doc my exhaust and we heated it up and bent it out of the way a little since it was in the PERFECT spot to be in the way of my shock. My dad wasn't going for cutting it off at the muffler so we did this instead. I'm gonna try and have a muffler shop bend fix me up with something, maybe move the muffler up and dump it in front of the tire.

BOOM! to find the right position for the mounts I just jacked it up by the bumper to find full droop and welded the mounts in. I left about an inch of compression to compensate for any extra travel I might get while flexxed. I'm not a huge expert but I think that should work with 4.5 inch bumpstops when I get some. And if I should over extend I would rather bottom out the shock compressed than pull it apart from having it over extended.

For some reason I thought it was a good idea to weld with my sleeves rolled up and got a nice burn for it. STOOOPID

 

[YotaKid]

...and more build

Body Lift :whistling2:

I also as mentioned before added a 2" body lift to compensate for tire rub (I didn't like trimming) and I feel pretty good about it. Only problem I hit was that my steering shaft didn't extend enough and the kit didn't come with a spacer so I ended up building one out of two pieces of diamond plate with a section of pipe in between. No pictures but i'm pretty sure the steering shaft would give out before my spacer did, its pretty solid, and it works well. Now I've done tons of research on body lifts and seem plenty of posts on them and from what i can see as long as you dont go over 3" and you don't go ramping your truck off something or hitting dirt whoops at 80 mph you should be ok. I'm not sure of the brand (I bought it used as a 3" and cut it down to 2") but they are polyeurothane spacers and I believe I did ok with it. I got new hardware before installing it and made sure everything was tight and had washers.

Here it is.

I'm not a big fan of the way the frame looks now but its not terrible and I eventually plan to either get nerf bars or sliders, since I haven't decided how dedicated I want it to be to wheeling yet. I live in North Dakota, so there isn't really enough rocks (let alone trails) to justify armor and sliders just yet.

Only thing I haven't buttoned up yet is the bed spacers and splash guard, which i think I'm going to wait on anyway until spring when its tolerable enought to work outside since it wont fit in my garage anymore.
And also my grille guard is takin a break for the time being until I can either fab some brackets to raise it up, but I think I may just put it on my mom's 4runner and save up for a trail gear bumper in the future.

Toolbox

 

[Nathan]

Great looking truck.. love what you've done to it. Thanks for posting it.

 

[PcBuilder14]

How you liking those tires? I didn't have my 96 long enough to put them to use..

 

[YotaKid]

So far they're amazing in mud and do pretty good on ice and snow, but probably not as good as say duratracs or bfg's in snow. Road manners are good, they ide smooth and have stayed balanced good. Ey have worn pretty well too, but i've only got maybe 5k miles on them. They are starting to get a little noisy though. I like them though!

 

[PcBuilder14]

So far they're amazing in mud and do pretty good on ice and snow, but probably not as good as say duratracs or bfg's in snow. Road manners are good, they ide smooth and have stayed balanced good. Ey have worn pretty well too, but i've only got maybe 5k miles on them. They are starting to get a little noisy though. I like them though!

Cool... Mine did pretty well for the time that I had them. Only took them through mud once but they didn't let me down and cleaned out pretty well.

 

[YotaKid]

I like 'em, but i think i might try somethin a lttle more mellow next time around... but it depends on if i have another vehicle by then.

 

[YotaKid]

Re-installed my bed lights on my toolbox!:thumbup:

Put my clevis on and shimmed it up with some washers

Washed.
Before

After

Switch panel I did last week. Still need to paint it though.

 

[byrd]

Nice rig! Reminds me of my 2000 PreRunner I wish I still had. However, Toyota treated me right when they bought her back when the frame rotted out so I got an upgrade to an '06 Tacoma 4x4 which I'm just as happy with. :thumbsup:

 

[YotaKid]

Nice, I hope that never happens to me:sad:

 

[byrd]

Just keep an eye on your frame for rust, there is 2 yrs left for yours if it starts to rust out. Toyota will buy it back at 1.5 bluebook. They bought mine 12/17/2012. You should of got a letter from them extending the frame warranty to 15 yrs from in service date around 2008, I did and just put it in my glovebox. When the driver side leaf pack started pulling away from my frame I took it in, they kept it and said they were buying it back. Gave me a 2013 Tacoma freebie to drive till I got the check from them on 12/31/2012. Jan 11, 2013 I bought my current Tacoma. '95~'00 they buy back. '01~'04 they replace the frame.

 

[YotaKid]

I'm not the original owner so i dunno if I get that deal? Never got a letter anyway.

 

[Changeling]

Just keep an eye on your frame for rust, there is 2 yrs left for yours if it starts to rust out. Toyota will buy it back at 1.5 bluebook. They bought mine 12/17/2012. You should of got a letter from them extending the frame warranty to 15 yrs from in service date around 2008, I did and just put it in my glovebox. When the driver side leaf pack started pulling away from my frame I took it in, they kept it and said they were buying it back. Gave me a 2013 Tacoma freebie to drive till I got the check from them on 12/31/2012. Jan 11, 2013 I bought my current Tacoma. '95~'00 they buy back. '01~'04 they replace the frame.

Just to let you know, they no longer replace the frames on any 1st gen, say there are NO more frames!
However they don't mention that they won a 26 million dollar lawsuit against Chrysler who made the frames.