BlackSheep’s Notebook: Customizing My Daily Driver

I came home from a weekend trip with my childhood (and still) best friend and found my truck in my driveway for the first time. Me wife and I had test drove it a week or two earlier, and she picked it up while I was out of town. Compared to other build threads, I don't have a lot done, I know. It’s a slow process for me. I didn't really do anything for the first year and a half I owned it. I wasn't super enamored with it at first. It was just a way to get from A to B. In fact, I had also test-driven a 2013 F-150 that I was leaning toward, until I finally became sold on Toyota's well-known reliability and decided against the Ford.

Here is where it sat when I got home that late June afternoon:

Most recent photo:


Mods so far include...

Performance:
Flowsound 17" muffler
37x12.50r17 Kanati Trail Hogs
5.29 Nitro gears and rear ARB air locker

Suspension:
Radflo 2.5s each corner, set to 3" up front
Toytec shackle, set to 1"

Protection:
DIY bed stiffeners
DIY fab'd sliders

Utility:
Century Royal cap
uni-strut bed rails
bed bolt tie down anchors
DIY Spare tire mount
no-name Walmart seat covers
rear seat fold down
DIY under seat storage
120V outlets in bed
cap roof cross bars

Omissions:
DIY CMC
sway bar delete
debadged
front bumper trim
OEM engine skid trim
bed rust delete lol

Lighting:
Philips CrystalVision Ultra Bright White Headlights
restored headlight lenses with PlasticX and elbow grease
Front window tint
DIY smoked tail lights

Just for Looks:
blacked out grill emblem
blacked out RW wheel rings and center caps
RW shift knob upgraded with DIY TUNDRA letters and retro colors


Build Back-Story:
I got it with 93k on the odo. It was a one-owner truck that spent its whole life in the KCMO area. The PO had kept it bone stock, and kept up on all the maintenance, which was always performed by the dealer that sold it new. It was perfectly clean, except for a couple minor dings here and there.

The summer following my purchase, my wife and I and our two kids took the truck to Moab for some camping and hiking. I convinced her we should try out the truck's off-road capabilities on a couple fairly pedestrian trails while we were there. After all, there was rock everywhere in the desert and I had a self-proclaimed rock warrior! Those experiences caused me to see this truck in a whole new way. Camping is one of our favorite things to do as a family, and I began to see it as the perfect platform to build and customize for all our adventures. Thus, I started looking at suspension kits after we got home. Six months later, I finally made up my mind on one and ordered it. That's where this all began...

Radflo 2.5" 3/1 level kit. Self-installed, except for one damn spring bushing I could not extract for all the money in the world:









Prior to the level kit, since I was in need of new tires, I put 35x12.50r17 KO2s on the truck. They looked great, I thought, but they just didn't perform like I wanted. Plus, knowing I was going to level it, I thought 35s might look a little small. So, I returned those to Discount Tire, and found a set of used 37x12.50r17 Dick Cepeks I threw on after the level (shown in the after-level pic above) to get me by until I could afford new tires. Here's the only photo evidence that my truck sat on 35s on stock suspension and no cutting, which apparently is a big deal to some:


One could say there was some cutting involved in fitting 37s. Somehow, I don't have photos of that process. Keeping the high offset RW wheels meant not as much cutting as others have done, I suppose. I still had to chop a healthy amount off the body mount, cut about a foot up the pinch weld, and an inch or so off the bottom of the fender panel, as well as some of the plastic liner. Also cut a couple inches off the factory engine skid, and about 1 1/2" off the underside of the bumper so I could push forward the liner. I also removed the sway bar entirely at this time. Here are a couple pics of the finished CMC. I've held off on welding plates in because I'm thinking of adding some 3/4" Bora spacers to gain the clearance for 13.5" tires, but I'm not sure I really want to do that. It's hard enough getting a good contact patch with 12.5" tires on the RW wheels.



Somewhere along the line I fully debadged the already mostly debadged Rock Warrior trim, and painted my wheel center caps and faux beadlock rings black. I also painted the grille emblem, which subsequently rattled off somewhere on a mountain road in Colorado. (This has since been replaced thanks to the kindness of @RainMan_PNW, thank you!) The beadlock rings were a giant PITA. Several of the bolts stripped out and I had to drill off the heads to get the rings off. I still haven't gone through the effort of fully extracting them and replacing, so I have several holes in the bolt pattern of the rings. Oh well.

Upcoming items to do to the truck:
fab bumpers
wheel spacers and maybe a little more CMC
UCAs
beefier engine skid and transmission skid
cab lights

 

Looks great. Love the RW wheels.

 

I actually found a Tundra grille emblem a couple years ago along Kingston Peak trail here in CO.

 

What rear shocks are those?

 

They are Radflo 2.5s. Same shock as the fronts without the coils.

 

They look pretty beefy.

 

I guess they're ok. I don't really know how they'd perform compared to a 2" resi. I don't do any high speed type stuff or super technical terrain that would push their limits. The ride sure softened up when I put the cap on and threw my 37" spare and a couple sand bags in the bed.

 

Nice!

 

If you need a new grill emblem, I’ve got one in the “Pay it Forward” thread. Nothing like seeing someone just jump in with both feet!

 

I completed my first little project since starting this thread. Fab'ed up some bed stiffeners. I've read where some guys on here have experienced some cracking, and with the added weight of my cap and its yet-to-be-fab'ed rack, I thought maybe I should bolster my bed. Material, fasteners, and a can of bed liner paint cost me $35. I used 3/16" x 1 1/4" steel bars and used grade 8 hardware. The hardware accounted for half the total cost by itself, and I didn't use all the material I bought. So, pretty cheap.

Didn't end up using the narrower bars or the flat panel. I had thought to maybe tie into the existing tie-down brackets at the rear of the bed, but after looking at it, I thought it wasn't worth the extra effort. All this took a lot longer than I anticipated, as it was.


Mocked up pretty much how I wanted it.


For sure not the best bead, but it's pretty solid. I am getting better lol.

This was probably my only unforeseen, but preventable 'oops'. I didn't line up the lower hole on the upright flange with the opening in the panel behind the tail light, so I had to cut it out bigger so I could get my socket on it. Sawzall provided a quick workaround.


Finished and installed. Time will tell whether or not they hold up or make a difference at all.

 

This is awesome. Great job tackling this!

 

Nice job on the stiffeners, report back if they help anything out? This seems like a good plan for mine too with the added rack weight.

 

Despite the fact that my truck's PO took very good care of it, he was completely unaware of or unconcerned about the bed rust problems common to Tundras. It had a plastic liner, so it was not visible without crawling under the bed. I did not know about this issue, either, prior to joining the forum, so I didn't know to check for it. Suffice it to say, ten Kansas City winters took a toll on the bed.
I first discovered it fall 2019, and it was pretty advanced by that point. All four corners had rusted through in multiple spots. By summer 2020, I was ready to address it. I got estimates from a couple local shops that I know do quality work, and neither one's approach seemed economical to me. So, having never operated a welder in my life, I bought one, pulled the bed, and did it myself. To say I was nervous about the outcome is an understatement, and so to motivate myself, I picked a time 10 days before we closed on the purchase of a new house, to force myself to finish it and not let it drag out for weeks.

I soon discovered that learning to weld on thin auto body panels is probably not the best way to figure out how to run a bead. I burned through the panels and had to enlarge the patch areas several times, and ended up with some downright ugly welds on the first few. But it turned out backing myself into a corner with the move date was a good idea, because I pushed through those frustrations and actually got all the holes patched, sealed, undercoated, and the bed reinstalled, with days to spare. While the bed was off, I cleaned up the rear of the frame and undercoated it, too. I still have yet to do that for the front half of the frame, and the rear axle. Here's the process and finished product:

 

The truck’s exhaust sound has bugged me for some time. I have wanted it to fit the truck’s size better, but thought I’d have to spend upwards of a grand in it to do that. But, thanks to the forum (you guys are great at helping me spend my money, but I can’t say I wasn’t warned lol) I found and bought a cheap muffler from CarID and welded that up. I just did it while it was on the truck, because the inlet pipe bolts were so rusted in place I couldn't quickly get them off. Welding up under there with the truck on ramps was a giant PITA. It was nearly impossible to get the top 1/3 of the pipes continuously welded. I also learned I need to turn the temp way down for this thin metal. I'm definitely going to have to remove it all and do it on a table at some point in the near future, but for now, it works.

 

There is a thread I found on the forum for restoring the RW shifter knob, which seemed like it would be a fun little thing to tinker with. So, I was bored one day and unscrewed mine and scraped off the leather piece to see what I could do with it. As usual, I wanted to see how cheap I could do this, and also as usual, I didn't photograph the process, unfortunately. I wasn't sure my idea was going to work, honestly, so I didn't want the evidence on my phone in the event of failure. It actually ended up working out ok, and seems to be holding up well, so far. This is just a design I made in Word and printed on a piece of regular printer paper. The plastic is material from one of those washable zip loc baggies lol. I cut both sides of the paper and the plastic like a sawtooth pattern using the edge of a plastic cake icing tool, so that the corner of the barrel curve would tuck in around the aluminum. Spray adhesive holds it all in place. The recessed sides where the screws are is just rattle can paint with matte clear coat.

 

Gonna turn this into a slider. Yes, one. If it goes well, I'll buy more for another

 

Keep up the good work man Tundra looks great

 

That bed rust project was really ambitious, but you did a great job! Was the rust visible from the bottom?

Keep us updated on the slider!

 

Thank you

 

Thanks, it was a hard way to initiate myself into welding, but I'm glad I did it. Yes, the rust was visible from underneath. Without the liner in, looking up from under the truck I could tell how blue the sky was lol. Not good.

I fully intend to update with the progress of the slider

 

It’s confirmed. My new favorite thing is welding.

 

way cooler than buying some

 

I thought so. Making things is fun

 

Nobody bothered me all afternoon today so I was able to finish fabrication of both sliders. Next step is cutting material for the brackets, then installing them on the truck!

 

Got all the brackets made yesterday. Time to get them on the sliders

 

Guys, I’m getting pretty ok at running a decent bead...

 

Sliders installed this afternoon!

2”x4”x1/8” steel tube, painted black with Rustoleum bed liner paint. Took almost three cans. Welded to the frame with five 2”x2”x1/8” tube brackets each side that I cut 8.75” long. Each slider weighs 49-50 lbs.

Edit: I borrowed my design from @Mountun Goat. Thanks, Dan

 

Dude! Your sliders look mint! I might even say the student outdid the teacher haha, I’m so stoked I helped someone out slightly

 

lol i'm not sure about that, but thanks for the praise. however, i AM sure that working with metal is the hobby i wish i had discovered about 20 years ago! front bumper is next

 

Agreed, metal working is my favourite- I’m glad you finally found out about it. Better late than never boy! I’m excited to see your bumper work