drizzoh's build thread

drizzoh said:
Lol the tC is on Flex Z's and currently serving as my dd and is the best car I've ever owned.

Build thread here if interested: drizzohs 2014 tC2.5 thread - Scionlife.com (https://www.scionlife.com/forums/scion-tc-2g-owners-lounge-1824/drizzohs-2014-tc2-5-thread-233075/)
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Nice build.
I had an 06. I still have that FB group for tC's. Used to be the largest one til the one dude deleted it by accident. It was the original.

Used to have iForged wheels and Work XD9's. I miss it. Think I liked it more than the Tacoma.

Dude, I really like your Tacoma. I wish I took my time with it and upgraded as stuff came out. I rushed it early, upgraded some stuff and then even better stuff came out. :(
 
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bonifacio said:
Nice build.
I had an 06. I still have that FB group for tC's. Used to be the largest one til the one dude deleted it by accident. It was the original.

Used to have iForged wheels and Work XD9's. I miss it. Think I liked it more than the Tacoma.

Dude, I really like your Tacoma. I wish I took my time with it and upgraded as stuff came out. I rushed it early, upgraded some stuff and then even better stuff came out. :(
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I think the 1g tC's were better to drive from the factory than the 2g's were, but mines so dialed by now it's going to be hard to get rid of to get the next project.

Thx d00d, the truck is getting pretty rad too but it's definitely taken more work than I was expecting. with how popular these trucks are, I really thought it would be a lot more polished from Toyota. All the work will be worth it in the end but damn does it hate me. The last 2 things that really bug me about it are the audio and the rear ride quality (even with all the other upgrades and suspension tuning I've done) so I'm hoping that finishing the stereo + installing the Hammer Hangers that are sitting in the floor in my parts room will correct both issues.
 
drizzoh said:
I think the 1g tC's were better to drive from the factory than the 2g's were, but mines so dialed by now it's going to be hard to get rid of to get the next project.

Thx d00d, the truck is getting pretty rad too but it's definitely taken more work than I was expecting. with how popular these trucks are, I really thought it would be a lot more polished from Toyota. All the work will be worth it in the end but damn does it hate me. The last 2 things that really bug me about it are the audio and the rear ride quality (even with all the other upgrades and suspension tuning I've done) so I'm hoping that finishing the stereo + installing the Hammer Hangers that are sitting in the floor in my parts room will correct both issues.
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Did you check out head units? When you do don't forget to check and see if you lose the factory settings. Like the locks and lights. I know that the Chinese Android units retain those options, but it's sketchy. I replaced the Android after it died with a Sony XAV AX-8100. It's nice I guess. But then I realized I was playing with cluster color. It felt weird since it was blue for so long. It was red. Then it dawned on me I'd have to plug in the factory head unit to change it back. Unless there's a way to do it through Techstream.
 
bonifacio said:
Did you check out head units? When you do don't forget to check and see if you lose the factory settings. Like the locks and lights. I know that the Chinese Android units retain those options, but it's sketchy. I replaced the Android after it died with a Sony XAV AX-8100. It's nice I guess. But then I realized I was playing with cluster color. It felt weird since it was blue for so long. It was red. Then it dawned on me I'd have to plug in the factory head unit to change it back. Unless there's a way to do it through Techstream.
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The output from the factory headunit to the amp was absolute trash so I have a Pioneer DMH-WC6600NEX showing up next week with the Maestro kit. Absolutely love the Maestro in the tC. It should retain most of everything, but I don't mess with those vehicle settings hardly ever once I get them set.

I did look into the Stinger too but it's just not good value for money. Loses a bunch of settings and doesn't support wireless AA. They had good customer service but did not give me any of the answers I wanted to hear.
 
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drizzoh said:
The output from the factory headunit to the amp was absolute trash so I have a Pioneer DMH-WC6600NEX showing up next week with the Maestro kit. Absolutely love the Maestro in the tC. It should retain most of everything, but I don't mess with those vehicle settings hardly ever once I get them set.

I did look into the Stinger too but it's just not good value for money. Loses a bunch of settings and doesn't support wireless AA. They had good customer service but did not give me any of the answers I wanted to hear.
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Nice. I was looking at that and the 7600 since I used to have an Avic-D3 way back. But I was reading a lot of the 7600's were dying on people. Impulse bought the Sony and grabbed an AAWireless. I'm just meh. I'd be curious if the truck's settings carry over. Is that what the Maestro does or just steering controls and stuff?
 
bonifacio said:
Nice. I was looking at that and the 7600 since I used to have an Avic-D3 way back. But I was reading a lot of the 7600's were dying on people. Impulse bought the Sony and grabbed an AAWireless. I'm just meh. I'd be curious if the truck's settings carry over. Is that what the Maestro does or just steering controls and stuff?
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Carrying over isn't the issue, being able to adjust them after the fact is. It ties into obd2 and adds the option to view gauges and cels, look at tire psi, etc, also. It's hard to say exactly what will be different without having the unit but it should be at least mostly the same. Will find out when it shows up but either way audio quality and usable features > ability to change how long my interior lights stay on.
 
drizzoh said:
Carrying over isn't the issue, being able to adjust them after the fact is. It ties into obd2 and adds the option to view gauges and cels, look at tire psi, etc, also. It's hard to say exactly what will be different without having the unit but it should be at least mostly the same. Will find out when it shows up but either way audio quality and usable features > ability to change how long my interior lights stay on.
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Yeah. I'm now regretting the easy route and jealous of your HU on the way. Damn impulse purchases.

So... in the wheel well. I'm guessing you removed or cut the fender liner then lined it with the Second Skin? What layer did you use there? I never got my liner to lay flat and was thinking about making my own with a HDP roll I bought, but keep putting it off. Never thought of lining it. Considered trashing it and just shit coating it with paint or spray on liner. But that just sounded horrible. Mind sharing pics? :)

1679251046696.png
 
bonifacio said:
Yeah. I'm now regretting the easy route and jealous of your HU on the way. Damn impulse purchases.

So... in the wheel well. I'm guessing you removed or cut the fender liner then lined it with the Second Skin? What layer did you use there? I never got my liner to lay flat and was thinking about making my own with a HDP roll I bought, but keep putting it off. Never thought of lining it. Considered trashing it and just shit coating it with paint or spray on liner. But that just sounded horrible. Mind sharing pics? :)

1679251046696.png
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Not sure what you're asking about the liner. There was nothing there so I just put a layer of Damplifier pro over the section against the cab. There is a small splash shield on the outermost part of the wheel well and I put some heatwave pro on the back side of that. There's nothing where the front arrow is pointing to, that's where the Ark's end, factory never covered that part either.
 
drizzoh said:
Not sure what you're asking about the liner. There was nothing there so I just put a layer of Damplifier pro over the section against the cab. There is a small splash shield on the outermost part of the wheel well and I put some heatwave pro on the back side of that. There's nothing where the front arrow is pointing to, that's where the Ark's end, factory never covered that part either.
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Like angle of a photo. Asking if you'd take a pic so I can see it.
 
Finally seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for this audio setup.

At the beginning of last week, I started actually doing some testing with the system and even though this amp is supposed to be able to accept a speaker-level input.. it was very unhappy trying to do so. Had sound in the rear for once, which was cool, but at 1/4 volume the system sounded like it was trying to unalive itself. Some of the worst noises I've ever heard speakers make. After working on this with JL to double-check I was able to properly use their DSP software and confirming with Focal that I had wired everything correctly, we did some further testing and concluded that the signal coming from the headunit was causing all the issues. Rather than convert the factory signal with LOC's, I started test fitting this last night:

[IMG]


Didn't really want to change the headunit yet, but it's whatever. Should be rad when the rest of the stuff needed to make it work shows up and it will be nice not to have to get a scangauge to see engine vitals. Hopefully this weekend I can start doing some actual tuning and see what these Focal's can really do.

Also badged the doors while it's all apart since I have nothing better to do than wait for parts to show up right now.

[IMG]
 
drizzoh said:
There's a before and after at the bottom of this post: drizzoh's build thread (https://tacoma3g.com/threads/drizzohs-build-thread.13423/#post-90350)

I didn't do anything special, just covered an uncovered area.
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Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
 
bonifacio said:
Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
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check the the side mirror adjustment knob. Mine has a little rattle at times and if I just push down on it or pull up it goes away temporarily.
 
mgmyota said:
check the the side mirror adjustment knob. Mine has a little rattle at times and if I just push down on it or pull up it goes away temporarily.
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After a few times, I went all out. Every panel clip. Wrapped every wire. Lined between the control panel buttons and panel. Even placed TESA tape between the buttons and frame. Tapped that knob. Might just pull the buttons out and try that.

I got some weird rattles in there. drizzoh drizzoh , sending you all the positive energy so you don't get any of the rattles.
 
bonifacio said:
Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
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I think it's just butyl and foil. The Second Skin stuff is incredibly sticky and I prepped the surface well and applied with a roller so I know it has a strong bond. There is no chance of water getting anywhere under it. Did the same to the tC the week I got it (in 2016) and zero issues. The aluminum on these sheets is also very thick, it might take some abuse over the years but I'm 0% worried about it. Should hold up fine.

The door rattles have already been fixed. Plus with the DSP tuning no frequencies under 100hz will be in the doors anymore as well which should help with any annoying rattles that would come up.

bonifacio said:
After a few times, I went all out. Every panel clip. Wrapped every wire. Lined between the control panel buttons and panel. Even placed TESA tape between the buttons and frame. Tapped that knob. Might just pull the buttons out and try that.

I got some weird rattles in there. drizzoh drizzoh , sending you all the positive energy so you don't get any of the rattles.
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The door panels and everything behind every panel that is currently off in the truck (which is all of them) should not rattle ever again once they go back on. Not new at all to getting rid of rattles. Felt tape is the best thing ever for this. Stock this was already the rattliest interior of any vehicle I've ever owned so most all of them have already been dealt with. I had most of the panels off of my Friday-built during the first month. This is the longest I've gone without doing the audio on a build but absolutely not the first. By far the most expensive tho. 😬
 
After fighting with my truck for another entire weekend, the audio system is almost wrapped-up. Feels nice to have all of the interior panels back on and no visible wiring exposed from the install. Everything is clean and hidden. It's taken so much effort to make it look like I didn't do anything, I have to be close to 60 hours on this install so far.

Headunit = Mostly in - Installed and works but waiting on an adapter to show up to keep the factory USB port functional that I overlooked. Looks like all of the important factory truck functions were retained with the iDatalink Maestro but I haven't looked into it too much yet. Was mostly just testing to make sure things worked so I could put all the interior panels back in. But during the setup testing I also noticed the ATB camera was only partially working with the picture looking like when you tried to watch channel 18 when you were 12, so need to look into that when I have a minute and unlock some functions of the head unit. Spent the whole weekend reinstalling everything and further clearancing panels to make everything fit like stock.

The one thing that actually went as planned is that the Overland Equipped auxiliary fuse panel actually fit the JL Audio MAXI fuse block perfectly:

mH5ZNvGh.jpg


Bigass Focal FXE crossovers = tucked away nicely under the rear storage compartment in their forever homes <3:

GNUIZhYh.jpg


Stealthbox and VX700/5i = Behind the seats in their forever homes <3:

DEFmWyVh.jpg


Still waiting on a few things to show up, have a few issues to fix, and the system needs fine-tuning, but this setup sounds phenomenal already even with a flat eq on the headunit. These Flax speakers sound similar to my Focal DFS's in the tC but just.. better - very full and balanced, more natural and less harsh on the highs. The TAM tweeter design blends very well since they're not as directional as a standard dome tweeter. This combo is going to be amazing once it's dialed in.
 
So one cool thing that happened from changing the headunit that I wasn't expecting is that the Compass and Current Song tabs got added to my gauge cluster info screen. So far, the compass isn't displaying but the tab is there. Might be able to make it pop up after playing around with it some more. It's not something I ever plan on using, but if I can make it work somehow it will be cool to have. There's so many things to tweak and configure with the new setup, I've only scratched the surface.
 
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drizzoh said:
So one cool thing that happened from changing the headunit that I wasn't expecting is that the Compass and Current Song tabs got added to my gauge cluster info screen. So far, the compass isn't displaying but the tab is there. Might be able to make it pop up after playing around with it some more. It's not something I ever plan on using, but if I can make it work somehow it will be cool to have. There's so many things to tweak and configure with the new setup, I've only scratched the surface.
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When you say gauge cluster, do you mean the spot between your speedometer and tachometer?
 
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