What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

I'm pretty sure it's the wheel bearings.
The 06 pretty much just sits in the driveway til I take it on adventures. I did drive to to Lake Jackson yesterday. For now it's just a receptacle for your wheels and tires.

I'll deal with the wheel bearings and the entire front end rebuild soon enough. I got big plans for 2024.

 

Gear oil was included in the install price, so was the drain n fill after the break in.
So the break in just cost me gas and time.
Jeboost told me there weren't any shavings in the oil either. So I feel like he did a good job.

 

Ain’t no body got time for that!

 

Sometimes I got more time than money

 

For my REM, Tundra set Zuk handled locally while he was at the old place. 2nd Gen Tacoma I bought pre polished from Revolution gear. And the 3rd Gen set, even though they were also revolution gear, were from a friend so I sent out here and found them pleasant to work with.

https://negearpolishing.com/

 

“Mirror lab”

 

My camburgs are still silent lol.

 

That's because you never wheel it, let alone drive it, Mr. Two.

 

But the mirrors aren’t done to that resolution, only lenses. Another interesting but useless fact.

 

Hyugens optics is an interesting yt channel if you can nerd out to boring things.

 

my 01 Tacoma had TC arms. 100k miles with uniballs and bushings. No squeaks. That truck was offroaded occasionally. But yea the tundras a work truck. I have 6 tacos…

but the road salt surprisingly doesn’t eat them up is what I’m getting at

 

Now would you be more upset by
A: the shit wiring job done for a back up cam by a previous owner, or
B: knowing birds are living in your truck, or
C: having to make the wiring job you're doing take longer cause of A in a very very wet 40 dgrees out side?

 

Good news is that harness is short and easy to replace and comes with new taillights. I may have one left but it’s probably the hacked one for brake.

 

Definitely C. Cold weather can eat my cornhole.

A is easily enough fixed.

B it looks like they abandoned ship long ago, and at least they don't chew wires like rodents tend to.

 

Well passenger side is done wired up welded in and works great. Ignore the shit welds Im on 115 at 75 amps with questionable 6010. I'll hit it up at work with 7018E on a 440 circuit. Now for the driver side.

 

I think they were there last year in the driveway before my GLIs clutch decide to leave the chat. Always had little sparrows on the tailgate. I wasnt really upset.

 

I have wire, I could cut and extend it, but I dont have any pins or bulb connector ends. Either way i made it work as one does, as best a job I could. Heat shrink connectors, covers and 3m automotive electrical loom tape. Lol. Its still better than anything onwers 4 and 5 did to this truck.

 

Back to ring and pinion polishing - did some reading. A research project at NASA’s Research Center in Glenn confirmed that superfinished (polished) gears have a fourfold service life in comparison to conventionally ground gears. Technical University of Munich investigated the load bearing capacity of gear flanks with superfinished gears and confirmed that superfinishing, combined with shot peening, markedly improved the load-bearing capacity of gear flanks. Subsequent investigations confirmed the aforementioned findings on load-bearing capacity. The aim of polish grinding is a reduction in surface roughness without altering the gears’ macro geometry, the gears’ flank topography, and the material surface structure. The polish grinding process has to remove the peak surface roughness and reduce the core roughness, and it has to leave intact some of the peak valley roughness so that transmission oil films continue to adhere to the gears. Apparently this technology was used initially in aerospace and nuclear applications were reliability is critical but then picked up for automotive applications like racing where break-ins are not practical and also for improved fuel efficiency.

 

All done. Just have to tape up the driver side loom and tuck it all away nice and neat like. I'll do a low light pic later.

 

His work looks amazing plus he's got all these links to customers builds. Amazing! I was also looking at this fully built unit.

 

I'm going to be having my diffs built by Zuk soon with 4.88s and a locker as well.

ECGS is another option for fully built 3rds though. https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-788575-tacoma-8-4-non-eld-t100-tundra-3rd.html

 

I got a fun little project I'm stewing on . . .

I pulled the plastic factory bedliner out of my DC & to my surprise the body/paint was still in excellent shape underneath.
Picked up a heavy duty rubber bed mat from @dirtnsmores & slid that in place . . . waaaay better for my needs.
Then I yanked that stupid plastic tailgate protector aka 'Knee Hater' and threw it in the trash as well.

Gonna head over to 2 places tomorrow & decide what I want to replace the tailgate piece with . . . either 1/8" sheet of aluminum or stainless.
I'm also going to look at some of that black cutting board type material maybe 1'4" thick.

I'm going to use some threaded inserts, instead of using the torx screws that hold the tailgate access panel in place (like the bedliner plastic was held on by).

I'm leaning towards the aluminum or stainless sheet at the moment . . . just not a fan of 'plastic' . . . but who knows, . . . if it's total sticker shock on the price, I may run plastic. Both shops near me have 'Remnant Sections' , so I may find something that 'works' in there.

If I wasn't so hard on my truck, and had a little more time / money . . . I'd do some cool stained & finished plywood like baltic birch, or marine ply . . . but I'd just thrash it.

Stand by for pics / updates.

 

IDK about anyone else here but I want to see the DIY pics. Also side note if you decide on that aluminum for the tailgate space it off the steel tailgate. Steel and aluminium will corrode when in contact with each other, bi-metallic corrosion is the technical term. Not saying it will, but it could happen.

 

I saw @inv3ctiv3 had some camp-something-or-other brand on his tailgate while watching his video on bolting up the 3rd gen DECKED kit onto a 1st gen AC.

 

If you want my MH panel for the cost of shipping it’s yours. Twas too heavy for me to tolerate and I already have a spray in bed liner.

I’d like a smaller HDPE panel to replace the OEM one with cupholder spots but nobody makes one yet.

 

Well, I can see real good out my mirrors and rear window now.

 

Hella lot brighter than my dual reverse bulbs. LOL.

 

I got welders eyes. Did that shit for almostv20 years in the Navy. But my degraded eye sight isn't an issue nor service connect according to the VA. Lol, I need all the help I can get lol

 

looking forward to seeing what you come up with! I had a flat panel made of cutting board material on my Tacoma for two years and it took a beating daily. Would definitely run that again if needed.