RTF's 03 4door Tacoma Build

[RememberTheFallen]

Figured I would start a thread to show my build progress and to ask some questions.

This is my fourth 1st gen tacoma now. My first tacoma I had when I was stationed in California and enjoyed driving all over SoCal to the typical truck spots. It was a completely stock 01' ext cab. I sold that truck before a deployment in 2004. I then got a '99 high mileage truck several years ago. Modified it some and added even more miles. I then bought a nice, clean 03' ext cab that I swapped all of my parts over to. It was the first truck I ever built (almost) completely to my liking. Unfortunately, small nagging problems have left a bad taste in my mouth over this truck. Everything I have on this truck will be swapped over to my new one.

The 03' extended cab;

After giving up on the above truck and deciding that I would prefer a 4 door I recently bought a 2003 4 door Tacoma TRD from Toyota South in Richmond, KY. It only had 58k miles and I couldn't turn it down for the price and miles.

How it sits right now,

The plan is to move all of the offroad stuff over from my extended cab and take the parts off the double cab to return the extended cab to stock. I will then sell it to help pay down the loan.


Parts I have now that will go on the truck ASAP;

OME 882s with sport shocks, trim packers, and extender plate.

All Pro upper control arms

OME rear springs with overload leaf

All Pro U bolt flip

Timbren rear bumps

Bilstein 5150 rear shocks (soon to be replaced by NitroCharger sport shocks)

TRD supercharger w/ 7th injector kit and Walboro 190lph fuel pump.

Optima yellow top

ARB front bumper with PIAA 210 lights

BudBuilt front skid

All Pro rear bumper

Trail Gear sliders (currently welded on ext cab truck. Not looking forward to removal!)

Uniden CB

Pretty worn 32x11.50 BGF A/T's on 15x8 Black alloy wheels


I chose the double cab because I wanted the dry, secure storage of the back seat area. It is just me and the girlfriend so no need for the rear seats. I plan to remove the seat and make a platform for a fridge w/ slide on one side (like Box Rockets setup) and storage drawers on the other.

With the extra room of the back seat I hope to be able to do without a shell so I can have room in the bed for moving stuff, muddy gear, trash, etc.


Future mods include;

Fridge

Ham radio most likely installed in the headliner

New speakers and head unit so I can I have an aux port for MP3's.

Some Dynamat in the doors and maybe the floor area to make it a little more comfortable for long trips

End cap mod for winch

Skinny tires by summer

Regear to 4.88 (distant future)


I will add more to this post as I go. Just wanted to get something up here. Have some questions that I will ask in the next post.

Feel free to ask questions or provide guidance.



Joe
S/F

 

[haddix]

Can't wait to see the progress. I live in Richmond where you bought the truck from.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

First problem that I want to address. Rust!

I am well aware of the rust issues on the Tacoma's and luckily have never had an issue. This truck has spent it's whole time in Kentucky. I thought I checked it fairly good at the dealership but noticed this today;

The black coating was flaky and came off easily. Good amount of rust beneath it. The undercoating material higher up on the frame was still mushy and would leave a tar like residue on my finger if I pushed on it. Kinda wondering if the dealership did a cheapo spray coat to hide the rust before I bought it.

Either way, I checked the whole rear section of the frame and didn't detect any soft spots or "dull thuds" so I think it is all surface rust. I have some frame reinforcement plates that I want to weld on so I thinking about stripping the back half, wire brushing real well, welding in the frame plates, and then coating it again right this time. Probably going to remove the bed to do this. Anyone else had to strip the frame down and re-coat it? Would this amount of rust other you?


Second issue is the transfer case shifter.

Since I am 6'6" I take up a good bit of the cab. On my previous manual trans trucks my right leg would just rest up against the tranny shifter. On this truck, since it is an auto, my leg rests against the transfer case shifter. It is perfectly located to dig into my calf. I am hoping that heat and some massaging with a hammer will coerce the shifter into a more comfortable position.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

Got a chance to take a day trip over to Alabama in the new truck.

The girlfriend and I went over to Cherokee Rock Village near Sandrock, AL to dome some exploring and play around on the rocks. I haven't been there in years but it was nice to see it turned into a park and cleaned up. I always loved climbing and exploring in this little area.

After we exhausted our outa shape selves we hit the road north in search of some waterfalls. We took County Rd 275 thru Desoto Falls park.

The road was paved but very steep and winding. It followed the rim of Little River Canyon all the way up Little River Falls at Highway 35.

The falls were very impressive due to the recent heavy rains.

By this time it was getting dark and we decided to head home thru Menlo and Summerville. Very pretty country.

Overall very happy with the truck. The red is starting to grow on me. No annoying problems like the extended cab. Did notice the lack of power compared to the supercharged manual transmission ext cab but it was not as bad as I figured it would be.

Fixed the transfer case shifter too. Got the console and boot off. Started un bolting the actual shifter from the top of the t case and decided that it may be a pain to reinstall. Decided to use the BFH technique. In this case the H was my big foot. Sitting in the back seat allowed the perfect angle to "adjust" the shifter forward and to the right. Now it barely touches my leg.

 

[4xdog]

Thanks for the thread. In a small-world coincidence, I'm working offline right now on the build details for my 2001 Tacoma Double Cab 4WD -- and I too am 6' 6".

 

[RememberTheFallen]

Thanks for the thread. In a small-world coincidence, I'm working offline right now on the build details for my 2001 Tacoma Double Cab 4WD -- and I too am 6' 6".

Nice to know that I am not the only one!

All my friends think it is funny that I prefer the smaller trucks. I think the tacoma has a ton of room compared to my first and longest owned truck. A regular cab '86 Toyota pickup.

Good luck on your build!

 

[4xdog]

...my first and longest owned truck. A regular cab '86 Toyota pickup

Mine was a 1970 Datsun pickup in college, but we replaced that with a 1981 Toyota pickup we owned for 28 years... Small world.

Kudos on the "rational" build.

Don

 

[RememberTheFallen]

Figure it is time for and update.

Shortly after I got the truck it started shimming under heavy braking. So a brake job was in order. New pads, turned the rotors, and cleaned and painted everything.

Work has had be pretty busy so haven't had a chance to swap the lift over to the new truck until last week. Glad I left myself plenty of time because it seems just about every bolt on this new truck was frozen with rust. It took me several days to get everything loose even after soaking it for a week in PB Blaster.

Both trucks on jack stands.

Got the front done.

The front went on fairly easy other than the right side bottom shock bolt.

It would just not go down far enough for me to start the bolt. Even with the factory jack pushing on the A arm.

Tapered the bolt with a grinder and hammered it in a bit until it lined up. Not perfect and dad would be appalled but it worked and the thread came out fine.

The back end of the truck was a whole other problem. Evidently Toyota just did the new undercoating over the existing rust as it was all flaking now. I wonder if they didn't due this right before I bought it because I didn't notice any of this then.

.....continued.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

So there was a lot more rust than I counted on! I figured I would clean up what I could get to now and then come back later and do the whole frame with the bed off.

First I had to get the old suspension stuff off. Needless to say more bolts got cut off then unbolted.

The u bolts and front leaf spring bolts were completely seized. After a pretty nasty busted knuckle I gave up and got out the grinder!

Gonna need some new shocks to put on the other truck before I sell it!

Once everything was off it was time to put a wire brush on the grinder and start cleaning up the axle and around the spring mounts.

Then a couple of coats of primer..
.

Then some black paint on the axle and undercoating on the frame.

All in all turned out fairly nice, hope it keeps the rust at bay for a while.

....continued.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

In my infinite genius I managed to get the wire brush too close to the ABS sensor line. It yanked it out before I had a chance!

I thought no big deal until I looked them up and found out it was a $150-200 part!

So I need to find one of these looking plugs so I can re-wire it.

Anyone have any idea where to find one?

I also got my OME NitroCharger shocks in from Sierra Expeditions also. Kinda surprised in the length difference between them and the Bilstein 5150 10" shocks I have been running.

I don't think I have ever used the whole travel of the Bilsteins though. Hopefully the OME shocks will ride much better when paired with the OME leaf springs.

So the paint is drying over night. Then I have to weld new shock mount onto my axle because I forgot to do it before I painted them. Then the leafs and everything else can go back on.

Pretty excited to be done. The front is looking pretty good.

Post up the rest tomorrow.

 

[mtnbike28]

I would ask the Toyota dealership to check the frame and get a letter or whatever so Toyota will fix the frame later if needed. I had my frame replaced and my local dealership, Midstate Toyota did a great job. Sadly I did lose my sliders when they cut them off and they were rusted badly... as I save up for new sliders, let me know if you want to get rid of those step bars super cheap (maybe trade for a set of brand new rear springs?) PS the red truck looks great!

Mine.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

Got the shock tabs welded on. Had to mount them higher than expected due to the shock length

The shock bushing were also too big to fit my bolts. Had to be creative. Used the old, rusted out lower shock mounts.

Drilled out to fit the bolt. Works for now.

Without a lot of extra weight the truck sat *** high with the OME leafs and dx6l overload leaf. Also got a lot of drive line vibe and harsh ride.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

Almost done with the All Pro bed rack. Pretty straight forward other than a bunch of crappy welds.

Waiting on primer. Hope to have done this weekend and ready for the RTT.

Took the overload leaf out. Lessened the vibes and harsh ride. May add it back after the rack and tent.

Also All Pro rear bumper switched over.

Next up is skid plate and ARB bumper.

 

[RememberTheFallen]

I would ask the Toyota dealership to check the frame and get a letter or whatever so Toyota will fix the frame later if needed. I had my frame replaced and my local dealership, Midstate Toyota did a great job. Sadly I did lose my sliders when they cut them off and they were rusted badly... as I save up for new sliders, let me know if you want to get rid of those step bars super cheap (maybe trade for a set of brand new rear springs?) PS the red truck looks great!

Mine.

Missed this post. Where are you located? Have a decent set of springs but no rear shocks. We can work something out as I don't have a lot of use for the step bars.