Yoda Offroad's '17 DCLB TRD OR

[4WheelYoda]

Hello everyone! I'll be sharing my build throughout this thread though it will be a slow one. The goal of my build is to create a very capable vehicle for light to medium trails while maintaining as much as the great 3rd Gen Tacoma style.

I will do my best to keep this post up-to-date to reflect changes!

Current Mods

Exterior
Truck Shell - Leer 180
Front Recovery Point - Bullet Proof Fabrication
Rear Recovery Point - Smittybilt Receiver Hitch D-Ring with 3/4-inch Shackle (Master Lock Swivel Head Receiver Lock)
Chrome Removal - Painted Rear Bumper Caps and Grille to dechrome

Interior
Mobile Phone Mount - Hondo Garage Un-Holey Dash Mount/RAM X-Grip for Smart Phone
Console Organizer - OCD Organizer/Tray

Communications (Call Sign: KM6TBF)
CB Radio - Cobra 75 WXST
HAM HT - BTech UV-5X3
CB Antenna - Firestik Firefly 2
Ham Antenna - Comet SBB-224 NMO Tri-Band
Hand Held Antenna for HAM - Nagoya NA-320A Triband HT Antenna
Antenna Mounts (front) - Relentless Fabrication Ditch Light Mount
Antenna Mounts (rear) - Cali-Raised Bed Accessory Mount (both sides)
Antenna Accessories - Firestick SS-3H Heavy Duty Spring & Firestik K4-8R9 Fire-Ring

Lighting
Ditch Lights - YITAMOTOR 18W 4" Square LED spots
Grille Lights - Nilight LED Spot/Flood Combo Off-Road Lights

Safety and Recovery Gear
Hi-Lift - All-Cast Hi-Lift
Recovery Strap - ARB Recovery Strap
Axe - OLD! Axe (gift from Dad) Cleaned up, Painted black and OD Green
Shovel - OLD! Shovel (gift from Dad) Cleaned up, Painted black and OD Green
Hatchet - Coleman Camp Axe
Storage Container - Rubbermaid 1191 ActionPacker 35-Gallon box

Misc
Hi-Lift Jack Mount - Relentless Fabrication
Axe and Shovel Mount - Relentless Fabrication with Quick Fists
Bed Supports - Total Chaos Fabrication 48676
Wheel Locks - Gorilla Automotive 73631T (12mm x1.5)

Removed Mods
Relentless Ditch Light Mount for my CB Antenna

Future Mods and Ideas
Front Bumper - Overland Series Front Bumper
Rear Bumper - MobTown Off-Road High Clearance Plate Bumper w/ Tire Swing
Rock Sliders - MobTown Bolt-On Rock Sliders
GMRS Radio - Midland Consumer Radio MXT400 Micro Mobile 40W
HAM Radio - ICOM Original IC-2730A 144/440 Dual Band Amateur Radio

More to Come...

 

[4WheelYoda]

After painting my Grille and Grille Surround I had a problem with the surround peeling. I believe i may have forgotten to prime it prior to painting it. (oops) Since I got tired of seeing the chrome through I decided to repaint and add in my lights. The process was pretty simple @JusCampin gave me his old Grille after replacing his with the SR grille so I modified that one to handle the lights and then scratched it up and primered and painted it.

I painted it using PlastiDip on the Grille and Surround. The emblem is painted using Super White color match paint and about 5 coats of gloss.

Before:

After:

 

[Rob Daman]

welcome

 

[Anthony29]

welcome nice truck

 

[Tyler]

Welcome to T3G. Nice truck and well written build thread. Do you have before and after of the rear bumper cap color match? And how you did it.

 

[4WheelYoda]

Welcome to T3G. Nice truck and well written build thread. Do you have before and after of the rear bumper cap color match? And how you did it.

Copied and pasted from my blog post regarding the mod I uploaded some of the pictures.

Description:
The Off Road trim package from Toyota comes with far to much chrome. I personally don’t like the way it looks on Off-Road rigs and I think that feeling is pretty common. Toyota knew this and decided to mess with us by giving us Chrome grilles and Bumper caps unless you buy the TRD Pro or Technology Package. Well, Shame on you Toyota spray paint is pretty cheap!!!

The Tear Down:
I started by looking at the bumper caps and thinking to myself… How do these wonderfully ugly things come off? I was able to pry them out after watching a few videos and broke a tab in the middle of them that I couldn’t get without fully removing the bumper. They came off pretty easy if you don’t mind bending that soft plastic on the bumper and have the chance to warp it. I, however, decided when I had to repaint them would remove the entire rear bumper. This proved more work involved to complete the project however the finished product came out much better. The process is long and not the easiest to read however the video I followed can be found here.

The front grille was much easier to take apart. Another video I watched, though you have to fast forward to about 2:20 to get to the good part, shows which clips and bolts to remove to get the grille removed. Next, you need to remove the screws on the grill surround and push the clips out. Once you’ve done that the grille will be in 3 pieces. I removed the center Toyota symbol and began prepping for paint.

The Prep:
Once all the parts were apart I brought them into the garage and cleaned them up and sanded them down some to allow the paint to stick. I used Rust-Oleum Primer and sprayed all of the chrome parts. After a few coats of primer dried I sanded down certain parts and got it ready for paint. For paint, I used Dupli-Color Touch Up Super White for the Toyota Emblem and Bumper Caps and Dupli-Color Touch Up Paint Black for the grille and grill surround. Each part that got painted got 4 coats of paint on each side. After all 4 coats dried I used Rust-Oleum Acrylic Enamel to try and match the gloss from the original paint. I found that 5 coats were perfect. I did coat the interior of the bumper caps with the clear coat also just to keep it even although that is never visible and eventually will be replaced with trail armor.

Re-installation:
After all of the parts were dried and ready to be reinstalled the first time I had to pry the plastic away and place it in. Now during this process, the screwdriver I was using to pry up the plastic slipped and I caught the newly painted bumper cap. luckily I hit the part that is covered by the bumper and not visible.

 

[Tyler]

Nice job. It’s such a needed thing to do IMO. Not sure why Toyota thought chrome would be cool except for maybe on the Limited.

 

[4WheelYoda]

Nice job. It’s such a needed thing to do IMO. Not sure why Toyota thought chrome would be cool except for maybe on the Limited.

They know how much we dont like Chrome and figured we'd pay the higher dollar to get the tech package and color matched caps. haha or go pro and hide all the chrome