So what's next? I've got a 07' Dbbl cab that I want tofix up like yours. Been waiting on $$$$$.
Barlowrs 06 Tacoma Expedition Build
- Thread starter barlowrs
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2005
- Threads
- 185
- Messages
- 2,997
- Location
- Ashburn, Va
- Website
- www.landcruiserheaven.com
Great write up.. I wish i as like, you when it came to details.. very nice.. factory perfect
When I see builds like this from Aircraft engineers, mechanics and pilots, it instills far more faith than I should have in aircraft travel.
AWESOME JOB!
AWESOME JOB!
Really FANTASTIC job doing everything...I love seeing the blacked out look too.
Very nice build, you have great skills in making it all look factory. I can appreciate the amount of time you must have spent on it.
Barlow, you've left us high and dry. What is next? I'm interested in the front bumper you installed, kinda wondering if a "Sectional" bumper will hold up to what a solid one piece will?
additionally, what was involved in using the PIAA lights and still using the stock wiring? Who in SD did your sliders, and how much $$$$? I gots many other ?'s. You still around.
additionally, what was involved in using the PIAA lights and still using the stock wiring? Who in SD did your sliders, and how much $$$$? I gots many other ?'s. You still around.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #28
At the time of those pics you are correct, my alignment was WAY out of wack (I messed it up when I tool my sway bar off).
- Thread starter
- #29
Haha sorry, I am back, I have been MIA for a while.
The All-pro is definatly lighter than say an ARB, but I consider that a benifit. I figure if I get into a hard collosion, even an ARB will drive back and I will have a lot of damage. For small bumps, the All-pro will work fine, adn the sectional design will allow me to replace only the damaged portion rather than the whole thing.
Using the stock wiring was nothing more than cutting the stock fogs and connecting the PIAAs (I used weatherpack connectors). The stock relay, harness, etc and everything is fine with this size light.
The sliders are made by a guy named Brian, he goes by BeefedTaco on tacomaworld and ttora.com. Take a gander at his website: http://streetacos.com/ (he makes a lot of street truck parts, but his welding skills are legit and the sliders are great!)
Let me know any other questions you have, I will try to respond sooner...sorry about the lag again.
- Thread starter
- #31
Quick Cosmetic Mod
Well, I could tell my truck was having some self esteem issues, as here she is this big truck driving around sharing the same Toyota logo as your grandmas corolla, so I figured I would try to make her feel better about herself..after all, she is a TOYOTA TRUCK!
Step one was to get the parts laser cut, MetalMiller over on Tacoma world let me use his great laser cutting services to cut out all three pieces along with a backing plate. He did a great job!
After some time in my machine shop, I had the edge of the outer oval blended, as well as guide holes drilled through backplate to hold the front pieces on. (Yes I did mess up once so you can see my incorrect hole…I did some math wrong on the mill..haha).
My original plan was to just press fit some pins and epoxy the pieces to the back plate, though considering how much I beat my truck up, and the fact that these are solid steel (heavy) parts, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold. I decided to tap each hole and use some 8-32 set screws with locktite to hold them in place.
After a quick trip to the chrome shop for the front peices and a few coats of flat black rustoleum on the back plate, here are the parts laid out.
And here it is installed on the grill:
And on the truck:
I can tell she feels a lot better now, after all she is a TOYOTA TRUCK and proud of it.
Well, I could tell my truck was having some self esteem issues, as here she is this big truck driving around sharing the same Toyota logo as your grandmas corolla, so I figured I would try to make her feel better about herself..after all, she is a TOYOTA TRUCK!
Step one was to get the parts laser cut, MetalMiller over on Tacoma world let me use his great laser cutting services to cut out all three pieces along with a backing plate. He did a great job!
After some time in my machine shop, I had the edge of the outer oval blended, as well as guide holes drilled through backplate to hold the front pieces on. (Yes I did mess up once so you can see my incorrect hole…I did some math wrong on the mill..haha).
My original plan was to just press fit some pins and epoxy the pieces to the back plate, though considering how much I beat my truck up, and the fact that these are solid steel (heavy) parts, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold. I decided to tap each hole and use some 8-32 set screws with locktite to hold them in place.
After a quick trip to the chrome shop for the front peices and a few coats of flat black rustoleum on the back plate, here are the parts laid out.
And here it is installed on the grill:
And on the truck:
I can tell she feels a lot better now, after all she is a TOYOTA TRUCK and proud of it.
- Thread starter
- #32
All-pro Lighthoop Mod
Well, as much as I like my Allpro front bumper, perhaps the only complaint I have about it is the front light hoop. I did not like how it far forward it is angled, more like a stinger than a hoop. And I also do not like how the light mounts hang lights very high and very far forward:
….so, I decided fix it.
First thing was to cut the original base plates off. I could have made new ones, but it was easy enough to just cut them, then use a mill to machine the left over “welds” off. One I got the plates cut off, I re-cut the angle at the bottom of the tube so it would mount in a more vertical position, as apposed to sticking out forward.
I had already bought a set of Lightforce 170, and the original hangers hung them too high up and off the bumper, whereas if I mounted them directly to the bumper, they sat too low:
so I decided to add my own light bar to mount them where I wanted.
I took a piece of 1.25” (Chromoly was the only scrap I had around, so now my light bar is the strongest pipe on my truck) and bent it out so that the lights would clear my front grille. Then figured out a good height by mocking the lights up.
After that I threw on some Light tabs for the lights:
Gave her a quick shot of rustoleum:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f31/barlowrs/Truck%
20Build/IMG_2786.jpg
And voila, here is the new light hoop that no longer sticks out to far:
And the lights sit centered, right where I want them:
(Write-up on the lights to come shortly..I have to finish the
wiring diagram)
Well, as much as I like my Allpro front bumper, perhaps the only complaint I have about it is the front light hoop. I did not like how it far forward it is angled, more like a stinger than a hoop. And I also do not like how the light mounts hang lights very high and very far forward:
….so, I decided fix it.
First thing was to cut the original base plates off. I could have made new ones, but it was easy enough to just cut them, then use a mill to machine the left over “welds” off. One I got the plates cut off, I re-cut the angle at the bottom of the tube so it would mount in a more vertical position, as apposed to sticking out forward.
I had already bought a set of Lightforce 170, and the original hangers hung them too high up and off the bumper, whereas if I mounted them directly to the bumper, they sat too low:
so I decided to add my own light bar to mount them where I wanted.
I took a piece of 1.25” (Chromoly was the only scrap I had around, so now my light bar is the strongest pipe on my truck) and bent it out so that the lights would clear my front grille. Then figured out a good height by mocking the lights up.
After that I threw on some Light tabs for the lights:
Gave her a quick shot of rustoleum:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f31/barlowrs/Truck%
20Build/IMG_2786.jpg
And voila, here is the new light hoop that no longer sticks out to far:
And the lights sit centered, right where I want them:
(Write-up on the lights to come shortly..I have to finish the
wiring diagram)
- Thread starter
- #33
Lightforce Install (FJ Aux Switch Wiring)
Time to wire up the lights. As you all know, I always try to make everything look as stock as possible so obviously, using a stock switch was a given. Unfortunately, I have never like the stock Tacoma fog light switch, as it does not illuminate when the lights are on like the FJ auxiliary and off-road switches do. (Not that I need a notification when the lights are on, they are brighter than heck!)
SO, I decided to run a FJ Auxiliary Light switch. I also picked up the harness, though if you do not want to do that, you could solder onto the pins. The harness just makes it easier, and I can unplug it when I need to tear the dash apart. The part numbers are as follows:
FJ Auxiliary Light Switch: PT297-35070-AS
Auxiliary Switch Harness: PT297-35070-SH
The relay and all the rest of the wiring harness came with the light force lights.
First things first, here is the diagram I drew up of how to install them:
I found an unused wiring harness behind all my switches (my truck doesn’t have a lot of options, but it is all pre wired in the harness, so there are several unused harnesses back there. Using a multi meter, I figured out which wire was the constant 12V, which I used for the switch power, and then I figured out which one was 12V when the light switch was on. I used this for illumination power. Because I know I will never use this harness, I simply cut the wires from the original plug and soldered them to my Aux switch harness.
Here is the switch all mounted up:
Next up I mounted the relay in one of the relay mounting spots I made on my aux fuse block:
All that was left was to route the wires. The lightforce harness gave me MORE than enough wire to get through the firewall and into my switch. Then out the front to the lights.
I used some shielding and heat shrink tubing to protect the wires and wired up a set of weatherpack connectors for some protection.
And here they are mounted out front.
Here is a shot with the switch backlight:
Here is a shot of the lights on (see the little green LED indication on the switch as well). Sorry, this is in my structure; I don’t have any good outside shots yet.
Time to wire up the lights. As you all know, I always try to make everything look as stock as possible so obviously, using a stock switch was a given. Unfortunately, I have never like the stock Tacoma fog light switch, as it does not illuminate when the lights are on like the FJ auxiliary and off-road switches do. (Not that I need a notification when the lights are on, they are brighter than heck!)
SO, I decided to run a FJ Auxiliary Light switch. I also picked up the harness, though if you do not want to do that, you could solder onto the pins. The harness just makes it easier, and I can unplug it when I need to tear the dash apart. The part numbers are as follows:
FJ Auxiliary Light Switch: PT297-35070-AS
Auxiliary Switch Harness: PT297-35070-SH
The relay and all the rest of the wiring harness came with the light force lights.
First things first, here is the diagram I drew up of how to install them:
I found an unused wiring harness behind all my switches (my truck doesn’t have a lot of options, but it is all pre wired in the harness, so there are several unused harnesses back there. Using a multi meter, I figured out which wire was the constant 12V, which I used for the switch power, and then I figured out which one was 12V when the light switch was on. I used this for illumination power. Because I know I will never use this harness, I simply cut the wires from the original plug and soldered them to my Aux switch harness.
Here is the switch all mounted up:
Next up I mounted the relay in one of the relay mounting spots I made on my aux fuse block:
All that was left was to route the wires. The lightforce harness gave me MORE than enough wire to get through the firewall and into my switch. Then out the front to the lights.
I used some shielding and heat shrink tubing to protect the wires and wired up a set of weatherpack connectors for some protection.
And here they are mounted out front.
Here is a shot with the switch backlight:
Here is a shot of the lights on (see the little green LED indication on the switch as well). Sorry, this is in my structure; I don’t have any good outside shots yet.
- Thread starter
- #34
CBI Rear Bumper Install
Well everyone says all good things take time, and this bumper was no exception, but it finally arrive in the mail…my FULLY LOADED CBI Rear bumper. :wings::wings: This puppy includes the following:
- High clearance bumper (Bushmaster 2.0)
- Tire Gate
- Hi-Lift Mount
- 2 Jerry Can Holder
- CB Antenna Mount
- Fold Down Table (Perfect for my camp stove)
- Backup Lights
- Hitch
So, although CBI does have a wait, trust me, their workmanship is WELLLLL worth the wait!
The jerry can holder and fog lights should be arriving end of the week, so for now, this write-up does not include them, but I will revise it once I get them and install them…so onto the write-up and pics!
First step was to paint it. Obviously, this is meant to be used (I cannot afford things like this just for looks) so I chose rust-oleum so that I could touch it up easily. I originally planned to do Rust-oleum Hammered, however, after the first coat, I realized that it was more silver/grey than black and did not like it. So I topped it off with a coat of plain old semi-gloss rust-oleum. All in all I think it turned out well. (Take your time doing this, as there is a LOT of metal to cover!)
One thing I want to make clear, do not paint the spindle or the bushing on the gate, this will make it impossible to install later (trust me, I made the mistake of painting the spinal, luckily my gf had a great idea and used acetone to take the paint right off).
Once I had the painting done, the fun began. CUTTING TIME!....I guess my snorkel broke the ice, because it was much easier for me to cut into my truck this time around (no more tears..haha).
Because this is a “cut to fit” type thing, there is no template or standard way to do this, as each one will fit each truck differently. I chose to make cardboard templates to get an idea of where the cut should be, then made it nice and strait using the body lines as reference:
Here it is all cut up. Note that you do not need to cut the crap directly below the tail light (it is much thicker as well):
I have not had time to clean the cut up yet, but I plan to clean it up, use touch up paint to keep it from rusting, then using that door jamb plastic liner crap to make it a nice clean line.
Next it is time to mock it up and see if my templates worked. This part was difficult because I had to figure out a way to lift the bumper in place, with only the help of my gf (the bumper weights more than her!). I finally figured out a good plan of attack. I used ratcheting tie straps anchored inside my bed to ratchet it up into place. It actually worked very well:
Once again, CBI great craftsmanship showed, as all the bolt holes line up perfectly, and the grade 8.8 bolts they supplied worked perfect. I may upgrade to 10.9 someday, but this thing is very solid as is.
My templates actually worked great and there was no need to trim anymore, so I was able to bold her up for good.
Here you can see the bumper itself.
I made the cardboard templates you saw in my first post, but for those that just want to measure and cut. I would start with the following measurements:
4.25” below the bottom of the tail light.
START here and then you can trim later. Even with my templates, I made sure to cut a little higher than I wanted and then trimmed it later to get a nice strait cut. Ideally, you want to have about 0.75” clearance around the board. This means that my tail lights have approximately 0.75” clearance underneath them, and the body line cut is 0.75” clearance as well.
Why 0.75”celarnace? Well I took after the install I tool her out for a bit of flexing to see how much the Tacoma flexes. We all know the frames are not boxed and DO flex. Her you can see how it looks when the rear tire is stuffed and frame fully flexed (I had my opposite rear OFF the ground)
You can see that with the frame fully flexed, there is about 0.25” clearance, so my frame flexed 0.5” total.
One the edge was cleaned up and strait, I used some Toyota touch up paint to cover the raw metal edge to stop from rusting. Then I decided to add some of that black plastic door trim crap to clean up the edge, I think it looks pretty good with that:
I also lined the bottom of my table with it and the frame that my table folds up against (the table does rest against it, so metal on metal contact will wear my paint right off, this will help a bit):
The tire gate slides right into place (assuming you did not paint the spindle or bushings) and here is the final product!
Swing down Table:
After that all that was left was adding the rest of the accessories:
Aux back up lights:
License plate light:
I also used gasket material to make a rubber washer to reduce the metal on metal contact on the main gate latch:
And the final touch, the dual can carrier!:
Well everyone says all good things take time, and this bumper was no exception, but it finally arrive in the mail…my FULLY LOADED CBI Rear bumper. :wings::wings: This puppy includes the following:
- High clearance bumper (Bushmaster 2.0)
- Tire Gate
- Hi-Lift Mount
- 2 Jerry Can Holder
- CB Antenna Mount
- Fold Down Table (Perfect for my camp stove)
- Backup Lights
- Hitch
So, although CBI does have a wait, trust me, their workmanship is WELLLLL worth the wait!
The jerry can holder and fog lights should be arriving end of the week, so for now, this write-up does not include them, but I will revise it once I get them and install them…so onto the write-up and pics!
First step was to paint it. Obviously, this is meant to be used (I cannot afford things like this just for looks) so I chose rust-oleum so that I could touch it up easily. I originally planned to do Rust-oleum Hammered, however, after the first coat, I realized that it was more silver/grey than black and did not like it. So I topped it off with a coat of plain old semi-gloss rust-oleum. All in all I think it turned out well. (Take your time doing this, as there is a LOT of metal to cover!)
One thing I want to make clear, do not paint the spindle or the bushing on the gate, this will make it impossible to install later (trust me, I made the mistake of painting the spinal, luckily my gf had a great idea and used acetone to take the paint right off).
Once I had the painting done, the fun began. CUTTING TIME!....I guess my snorkel broke the ice, because it was much easier for me to cut into my truck this time around (no more tears..haha).
Because this is a “cut to fit” type thing, there is no template or standard way to do this, as each one will fit each truck differently. I chose to make cardboard templates to get an idea of where the cut should be, then made it nice and strait using the body lines as reference:
Here it is all cut up. Note that you do not need to cut the crap directly below the tail light (it is much thicker as well):
I have not had time to clean the cut up yet, but I plan to clean it up, use touch up paint to keep it from rusting, then using that door jamb plastic liner crap to make it a nice clean line.
Next it is time to mock it up and see if my templates worked. This part was difficult because I had to figure out a way to lift the bumper in place, with only the help of my gf (the bumper weights more than her!). I finally figured out a good plan of attack. I used ratcheting tie straps anchored inside my bed to ratchet it up into place. It actually worked very well:
Once again, CBI great craftsmanship showed, as all the bolt holes line up perfectly, and the grade 8.8 bolts they supplied worked perfect. I may upgrade to 10.9 someday, but this thing is very solid as is.
My templates actually worked great and there was no need to trim anymore, so I was able to bold her up for good.
Here you can see the bumper itself.
I made the cardboard templates you saw in my first post, but for those that just want to measure and cut. I would start with the following measurements:
4.25” below the bottom of the tail light.
START here and then you can trim later. Even with my templates, I made sure to cut a little higher than I wanted and then trimmed it later to get a nice strait cut. Ideally, you want to have about 0.75” clearance around the board. This means that my tail lights have approximately 0.75” clearance underneath them, and the body line cut is 0.75” clearance as well.
Why 0.75”celarnace? Well I took after the install I tool her out for a bit of flexing to see how much the Tacoma flexes. We all know the frames are not boxed and DO flex. Her you can see how it looks when the rear tire is stuffed and frame fully flexed (I had my opposite rear OFF the ground)
You can see that with the frame fully flexed, there is about 0.25” clearance, so my frame flexed 0.5” total.
One the edge was cleaned up and strait, I used some Toyota touch up paint to cover the raw metal edge to stop from rusting. Then I decided to add some of that black plastic door trim crap to clean up the edge, I think it looks pretty good with that:
I also lined the bottom of my table with it and the frame that my table folds up against (the table does rest against it, so metal on metal contact will wear my paint right off, this will help a bit):
The tire gate slides right into place (assuming you did not paint the spindle or bushings) and here is the final product!
Swing down Table:
After that all that was left was adding the rest of the accessories:
Aux back up lights:
License plate light:
I also used gasket material to make a rubber washer to reduce the metal on metal contact on the main gate latch:
And the final touch, the dual can carrier!:
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
- Threads
- 65
- Messages
- 1,653
- Location
- Boulder County, Colorado
- Website
- www.adventuretoolcompany.com
Love the table idea...that's the next upgrade I'll do to my SROR bumper.
Thanks for the ideas.
BTW...great rig!
Thanks for the ideas.
BTW...great rig!
Excellent work
I love this truck.
Great attention to detail on making everything look like stock.
Keep the updates coming.
I love this truck.
Great attention to detail on making everything look like stock.
Keep the updates coming.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Threads
- 558
- Messages
- 8,123
- Location
- Kamloops, BC Canada
- Website
- www.shopraddcruisers.ca
Nice clean work, going that extra mile for clean is very pro..
Did you by chance fuse the winch itself? Only reason I as this is I have heard of a malfunction with the winch that started melting the main battery terminal.
Not so good when you out in the backwoods miles away from civilization.
Rob
Did you by chance fuse the winch itself? Only reason I as this is I have heard of a malfunction with the winch that started melting the main battery terminal.
Not so good when you out in the backwoods miles away from civilization.
Rob
- Thread starter
- #39
Nice clean work, going that extra mile for clean is very pro..
Did you by chance fuse the winch itself? Only reason I as this is I have heard of a malfunction with the winch that started melting the main battery terminal.
Not so good when you out in the backwoods miles away from civilization.
Rob
No, the winch is wired directly to the batt. I thought about using a breaker but a fuse or breaker of that size (300-500A) is not cheap or small, so I decided not to. Maybe I will regret it someday if my truck is on fire, but I hope not (knock on wood)
