Hotshot Offroad's 2021 Tundra Build

Yeah the damn winch spare is not centered!

I'll get under there one of these days before the snow flies and spin em around. David @ Ekstrom said that he's seen 35s fit under there... I say fat chance, but who am I to decide! I've only done this once... INCORRECTLY!

 

Cab Mount Chop COMPLETED

Got this knocked out today to make sure that the new 295s will clearance at all angles! Was getting all kinds of rubbing during turns. Modified what SDHQ sent by quite a bit... Made some more bends, and actually cut it down some to make things fit properly. Planning on modifying the mud flaps to allow them to be run and not be contacted by the tires. I have myself convinced that it can be done.

Theirs (bottom) vs Mine after modifying theirs -


Progression -

 

Someone with some better shutter skills than myself took a few glamour shots of the battleship yesterday evening. Quality degrades so bad uploading to the site here! Oh well!

 

IS THIS THING STILL ON?

Yes we still have the truck, and yes, it's still awesome. It's winter here, the days get long, and we just don't get the time to wrench on her like we would hope! Carved a little bit of time out the other night though to work on it.

2/27/22 - Added TRD Pro Grille and hood bulge. I went with a company called Painted OEM Parts. Their turnaround was very quick (approx 2 weeks to my door), and the quality of the paint is very good. Pricy just like it would be from Sparks, but I went with a lesser known outfit because well... I know how that goes!

Also have the replacement front bumper caps to swap over, but that process is a little more involved and I ran out of midnight oil. Will have to be another day. That said, having the primary chrome gone REALLY makes the chrome caps stick out!

Grille Notes - The ONE place I chose to save a dollar was on the sensor garnish, and now I regret it . The OEM one as quoted was $325 which was a hard no from me on a piece of plastic (or so I thought). The aftermarket option was $40 so I took that one. However, the star nuts that came with it were too small so I had to cut them to make them fit (temporarily until I could buy proper sized ones). That and now a full day later my pre-collision warning light has popped on. I'll do a little troubleshooting here to make sure that the sensor is plugged in and seated correctly, but the next step will be to look into either re-calibration options or a new garnish. Not entirely sure which path I will begin with. I'm also considering/researching other garnish options altogether. If they work fine I am going to hunt out something a little less glossy.



Onto a couple pics -



Also, not a new mod, but I figure I had best show off the HotTails in the official build thread!

 

Front Color-Match COMPLETE! Pulled the bumper the other day to swap out end caps from the chrome ones. Aside from the badges this was the last holdout of primary chrome on the truck!

While I was in there I also reinforced the OEM fog light bezels with some JB weld... I thought about plastic welding, but also figured this would hold up just fine. The bezels themselves were allowing for a little bit of deflection over bumps and that was even in the metal end caps. It would be even worse in these plastic ones so I addressed that. While I was in there I also installed a set of new backlit SS3 Max fog lights. Haven't tapped in the backlight yet, but that will be coming soon once I finally decide the conditions which I want the backlight on. Decisions, decisions.

Any guesses as to what is up next?

 

It's not what we last talked about elsewhere in this forum. Although that project IS underway...

'Tis not. While dragging my feet I ended up selling a 40" S8 or two, and instead of making the customer wait 10 weeks for a bar I just shipped it. That said, I will have 8 40" S8s showing up here early next week so that will get back on the radar.

Hard no. Before I even CONSIDER buying a new truck I have to finish this one. I have neglected the mods on it for FAR long enough!

 

You gotta think too... I am also showcasing a business so part of that is representing the products that you offer and sell. It also allows me to speak on the products that we offer since I have used most of them. I'm not going to go and sell the truck and pick up a WRX. I like this community. Last thing I want to do is alienate it entirely!

 

The new WRX is a tragedy. I would never. If I was looking into something like that right now it would 1000% be a GR Corolla.

 

POW!

Morimoto XB Headlights w/ Amber DRL installed and backlit SS3 maxes all tied into DRL

They were WAY out of alignment out of the box so I had to do some late-night adjustments, but so far so good. I haven't gotten much night driving with them yet to weigh in on the performance, but I'm really in love with the way the front-end has come together!

 

6/7 UPDATE -

Got a couple of things knocked out here!

SDHQ A-Pillar Brackets Installed, and Morimoto 4Banger HXB lights in spot pattern currently riding up there. We'll be doing a bunch of testing to determine my long-term winner in that position.







Also, got my @dirtydeeds 10" exhaust installed! I left it without the resonator for now, and to be honest it's not as loud without the resonator as I was expecting! So I'll probably leave it off at least until this upcoming fall hunting season. Might even leave it off moving forward!

Don't have a YT video uploaded yet so here's a small clip I snagged if the linking works.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CeXH69cjaNA/

 

6/21/22 -
Truck now has the "Tundra" badge and bedside stickers removed. The Limited badge and the V8 badge are both blacked out, but no good photos yet. Here's some glamour shots from a recent shoot though . And yes, that is I

(wow... Uploads into the forum REALLY compress)

 

I'm almost a full-grown man! COME AND GET ME!

 

Bad ass build Colton! Did staff get a raise that I’m not aware of?

 

Ha! Hardly! This is what a decade of selling your soul to corporate America is worth...

They sure do! I love the look for sure!

 

Now you just need a new C8…boom. #singlelife