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

Everything you need is here, once you get the model#: https://vantrue.net/support/firmware

My leather interior is mint, except the driver's side seat. The bolster on the lower and upper is ripped, beyond what can be easily fixed. Every other seat in the truck is mint.

I could pay ~$1,200 - $1,400 to just re-do the driver's side with an exact OEM match.
Or I could pay $1,500 - $2,500+ for Katzkins depending whether I only do the fronts or fronts and rears, but if only front, color won't match rears.
The Seat Shop ("TSS") is OEM-matched, usually b/c they use the same material vendors for leathers, all clips etc., it's basically OEM+ at half OEM cost.

I personally would rather drop the $600ish with TSS on matching driver-only, than to spend $1,200 with Toyota on matching driver-only, or $1,500 with Katzkin on non-matching Katzkin fronts. It's just more practical. TSS just makes more sense. It's the only guaranteed OEM+ offering out there. And for a truck like mine with under 80k miles on an otherwise pristine interior, Katzkins make no sense, whatsoever. If my interior was shot, I'd be all-in.

If CA is anything like GA, what those stupid assholes do over here is make a couple nights out on the town, gather up a few hundred cats, and drive to an adjacent state with more-lax laws and/or they have a fence who doesn't give a damn about the laws.

The laws requiring ID to sell only work for legitimate recycling places and stop the crackheads/tweakers, who usually aren't as organized as the crews who go on sprees and move the goods across state lines. It's those guys causing the problems.

If you really want to effect the supply chain, you need to put regulations on the end product, and work backwards. Monitor/track the precious metals being processed out of them, and work backwards in the supply chain. Make sellers of those precious metals prove their supply chain. If it's harder to make $$ on the melted product, it'll be harder to sell the raw goods. I mean, you should target it at multiple levels, but at least attack from both ends - make people put a face on the raw product, and make sellers of the end product prove a legitimate supply chain. Then put stiff-as-hell penalties if caught (prison time). You'll see change, really quick.

 

Have you tried an upholstery shop to see if they can repair it?
We've got one here in town that I've dropped off all manner of crazy things for work and I'm always impressed with what they do. Worst case the drivers seat may end up with a couple new seams.

 

@RUSTYNUTS yes I am pretty certain he was in Hawaii.

 

I've had this suggested before, for sure. I may end up doing that.

The one upholstery shop that's close and all the hotrod guys use, and I've used in the past, they do pretty solid work, but they rotate thru staff a lot, and all the best long-term staff get assigned to the high-dollar projects, so you can get weird shit. Like, a few years back on a previous truck, I went in to price out seats, visors, and headliner (I was strapped for time).

Their pricing was extraordinary for headliners ($400) and they wanted $1,400 just to do the captain's buckets in vinyl, so I picked up the headliner material from them instead, did the headliner myself, and had them do the visors. Their guy f'ed up my visors and made them oversized by 3/4" or so, they hit the overhead center console when closed. The stitching was really shit quality too, not evenly spaced or straight. I went back, showed them the oversize problem. They offered to remake for free, so I got some frames from a JY, and 2nd iteration was better.

I've seen their work sitting in the office. They *do* good work, but I just happened to get the shit staff, I guess. Reviews of theirs seem to suggest "it happens".

 

@shifty` you would be under $1,000 for katzkins if you installed yourself. But I get it. Everything else is mint. Well hope you get it figured out

 

I haven't looked with 1GTs, but everyone I know who's done Katskins in the past is bare-minimum $1200 + shipping for full front seats, including top, bottom, armrest, headrest. Did you or someone else find better pricing than that?

I'd still have beef with trying to match fabric texture and color. I know they'll send samples, but...

 

For AC those numbers sound about right. I think I was at 800 for my RC from the TW/Tundras guy. And the color is a bit off and they needed modification to fit.

I think your plan is a good plan.

 

Use @jhuey8947 on the forum here. It was a year ago but I got full front and back for my DC with heater fronts shipped for like $900. Yea color matching will be the biggest issue.

 

If you know anyone in healthcare/gym/physical therapy ask who they use to recover their stuff. That's the bread and butter of the place we use, they'll do auto stuff but it's not anything they specifically target and you need to bring the pieces in they won't disassemble the vehicle for you.

 

My 2000AC heats quickly. My 2018 takes forever to get warm

 

That's interesting. You'd think the bigger engine would heat even quicker.

 

Yeah I thought that was the same one. I remember that sexy truck catchin my eye a couple years ago

 

IYKYK

 

Shoot! I feel like I should know but I never can remember anything on here so sadly I don’t know/remember.

Garage cleared out enough to park?
Finally found a shell?
Got the chase light mounted and working?
Dunno
Happy for you though!

 

Aluminum block cars just warm up slow. My Avalon and the corolla take forever.

all the 1st gen tacos and tundra are iron blocks. Heat soak good and fast

 

I see you mounted to your rack over the cab. I've been considering my options with a shell and no racks. I don't want em stickin out like a sore thumb that would catch on every low hanging branch or collect floating plastic bags while on the freeway. I'm wondering how much my rear shell window would affect the output. It has a fairly light tint, and I'd position them as close as possible to the glass, so I'm thinkin it'll be good. If it's not obvious, I'm talking about mounting my chase lights inside the shell in the upper outer corners of the back glass. The shell will remain streamline, and I won't have to worry about them being stolen. Thoughts?

 

I got shell roof tracks on my 2016 done yesterday. Contemplating it for my 2002 Tundra now. Seems like it might be nice to have on both shells now that I think about it, but the 8’ bed doesn’t really need any extra help storage-wise.

 

I drilled a hole in the camper shell near one of the hinges. Originally I was going to put the light on an extension bracket and put that bracket on the hinge. But I decided against that due to the light sticking up so high. Didn't want it to catch on stuff like you said and screw up how the back glass mounts. With it here I can open up the camper shell window and there's no interference.

I think your idea of mounting a light right up to the back glass might work, similarly to how the popo do it. Easy to undo if it doesn't work how you like it.

 

ahhh. that's not at all where I thought it was mounted in the first pic. Thought about doin the same, but streamline. Your light's a bit more low profile, doesn't look bad. I haven't messed with em yet. You in the dez yet?

 

Yeah, I wouldn't mount a higher profile or heavier light in this spot. Toyed with the idea of on the roof bars like you said, but not the best visibility and a higher risk for trees.

Heading out to the desert this afternoon, had to do a last minute oil change/ air cleaner service. I'll get a test of the S2 on the way out if I have any tailgaters. Kidding

 

Sliders back from powder coating. Getting them welded on Monday!

 

I think you meant 'service the oil and dust'. There's more dust than filter there.

 

After wringing it out in a bucket gas a few times, it looks like new. It looks like that after almost every ride, so it gets cleaned and oiled every time.

 

I just keep an extra filter or two on hand so when I’m lazy I can just switch out and then clean both next time.

 

Shifty is going to shit a brick...

 

I know. I didn't trust myself to do a good job. And I really really like these sliders. The sliders themselves are stainless apparently. The posts and feet are standard stock. The guy at the powder coating place kept going on with the quality of the welds

 

Would love a few minutes with the engineer that decided the belt tensioner needed to be buried in our engines like this. Have it apart, just need to get it back together without too many extra bolts or nuts.

 

Good call. It looks like you went with a glossy finish. You may want to coat the tops in bed liner to give them a little grip. If not they may be really slick when wet.

 

It's funny to wrap sliders in foam and then install them and bash them on rocks

 

That was quick, what did they charge you?