What I love, what I hate: My 21 platinum build thread (Now supercharged)

Wow. You’ve got guts!

if it hasn’t been mentioned already… Anti-sway bars.

 

Thank you for you driving impressions!
AWESOME BUILD!!!

 

@gkelm Thank you for the idea I do have the TRD rear sway installed and factory sway up front. Have not researched the front TRD enough yet to have an opinion what it might do if I swapped that one in. So far though, the TRD rear and OE front seem to work really well together combined with the stiffer suspension.

@MatthewPTguy Thank you, and you're very welcome!

 

Cool, I'd love to have a look. I'm north of you off Ward Rd. so not too far. This is my first Tundra, I had a nice 05 Limited V8 4runner for many years, sold it like a fool.

 

@Rodtheviking Yeah, that era 4runner really seem to have a cult following too don't they.

I should have it all broken in by about this time next week I'm hoping. I'll ping you via PM and see what we can put together. Happy to let you take a spin in it and see what you think. I wish I could have done the same before buying mine but I couldn't find anyone on the forum who was local and had the same gears. Always a little scary to spend that kind of money and feel like you're guessing about whether you'll like it or not.

 

Very detailed and impressive build. I look forward to hearing your impressions as you begin to accumulate miles. I would definitely recommend checking out Kenwood or Pioneer double din HU with wireless CarPlay/android play as it is a game changer.

 

@Psquancher Thank you. I'm still really trying to work with the factory HU. I don't really want to give up the factory look of the dash, or the instrument cluster integration. I'm not opposed though if I just can't get this thing to work the way I'm envisioning it.

Today's task list includes getting the tail pipes and flares on, then working on the tailgate popper. I picked up the tail pipes from the sandblaster on Wednesday.


Having an unfinished ADU on top of the garage certainly makes for a nice paint booth



Wow was that ever an expensive box. Now that I have a water softener here I'm going to start hand washing all my cars at home. Previous to building the new garage (and incorporating $3,500 worth of water treatment systems) you couldn't dry off a car fast enough to avoid spots.


Sides all washed up for the flare installation. I'll show detail pics later of what I did to protect the paint on my 2017. For those who have never run flares before and taken them back off, the rubber gasket traps dirt and acts like sandpaper against your paint. It literally eats through to your primer.

 

The water here is terrible. I'm installing a treatment for our new house this summer as well. I did find some really good water spot remover for glass, that has helped a lot.

 

@Rodtheviking Yeah washing cars with it is impossible. I hate car washes but I hate etched glass and paint even more.

End-of-day update:

Ended up taking it a little easier than I thought I would when I first started the day. Just got the flares on and one of the tail pipes. As I mentioned earlier, the rubber gasket on flares will trap dirt and sand through your paint in no time flat. It's very simple to prevent all that paint damage with about $20 in materials:

- 28 feet of 3/8" door edge guard
- body shop paint marker

Step one: clean your truck. Mount your flares as you normally would. Fully tighten all bolts just as if you were permanently installing them.

Step two: Cut four lengths of your door edge guard: two at 7'6" long (for the rear), two at 6'6" long (For the front). This will give you about a foot extra on each wheel well. Trim as necessary.

Step three: Using the body marker pen, transcribe the fender flare arch while holding the pen at an angle sharp enough to give you about 1/8" gap between the fender flare gasket and the paint line:




Step Four: Remove the fender flare. Peel an edge of the door edge guard and start at one end. Peel off 4-8" of the guard at a time and press it onto the truck just inside your paint line. The edge guard can be easily contoured and re-applied many times without consequence. Pull it up and re-stick it as many times as it takes to get it right.


Step five: Inspect the edge guard for accuracy. burnish it down with your fingers once you're happy with it.


Step six: wipe the body shop marker off with a damp rag.


Step seven: Re-install your flare. Fully tighten all bolts. Make sure you can see about 1/8" of the door edge guard around the entire perimeter of your flare. I know it's a pain but if you can't see that edge guard, remark, take the flare off again, and adjust. Anywhere it's not touching that edge guard WILL eat through your paint in a matter of weeks.


Here is what you are preventing by doing this:

 

Tail pipes painted and polished. Got the passenger side one on.

 

what do you use for the glass ?

 

This stuff, works awesome.

A little on a damp sponge and keep working it back and forth and crossways for about a minute, rinse and repeat if needed.

$20 DRIVEN Extreme Duty Glass Cleaner

https://www.amazon.com/Driven-Extreme-Glass-Cleaner-Bottle/dp/B0021YZER2

 

Ordered Lamin-X headlight and fog light covers...jury is still out whether I'll keep the tinted headlights or not. The idea was I wanted them to darken them a little so they'd blend in a little better with the grille. Open to thoughts?

 

After six weeks of work, these are the last boxes that still need to go onto the truck. They contain the tailgate lock, tailgate poppers, and dashcam GPS. Hard to believe but everything else is now on the truck.



The changes I'll be making with round two are,

- Once I get my 500 mile break-in done I'm shipping the trans valve body out to IPT for rework. Truck will be down for a couple of weeks.
- Swap the TPMS sensors out with my 2017. Apparently, they are not compatible between the two years.
- After speaking with Bubba at Ironman again last week, I ordered some 1/2" strut spacers for 1" additional lift. It rides firm enough for me in its present state so I don't want more spring pre-load but I do want less rake. This will leave me with 3/4" rake. Should be livable, I'm thinking.
- Throwing out the Fix86. Ordered Taco Tunes' new JBL interface. This one is supposed to eliminate the amp altogether which means now all I'm controlling externally is sub volume.
- Replacing two sections of PPF. This was my first time hand-trimming pieces for custom applications and I'm not happy with the way they a couple of them turned out. Once I learned on these two pieces the rest went down okay.
- 35" tires have arrived but I might not put them on yet. I was really hoping to have a little fun with what's left of these 295/60's. Will make another call to Magnuson today to check ETA on charger development. It's been a month since I last spoke with them.
- Ceramic coat
- I may pony up and convert to the SwitchPro. I went a little analog with my previous thinking. I can see myself adding more electrical whiz-bang as time goes on so having individual big, clunky switches really isn't going to be the best long-term solution if I start adding more things. One thing I'm already considering now is an inverter.
- cell phone mount. Not sure what to do about this yet. I'm left-handed and nothing I've found so far is designed to mount to the left side.
- FRAC, GPS-in-motion, Hypertech. I have the Hypertech already from my old truck, just waiting on the FRAC so I only have to tear the dash apart once.
- Techstream: a few convenience tweaks
- Truxedo installed (off of my old truck)


Round Three, once it finally becomes available:

- Supercharger
- any other great ideas I come across as I catch up on all the rest of your great builds.

 

I was hoping it would be as simple as moving the wheels and tires over from each truck but alas, the TPMS's are not compatible between 2017 and 2021. I have found a number of oddities like this between the two trucks. The rear seat belt receivers are different, too. Fortunately my 2017 hasn't sold yet so I was able to get them both down to Les Schwab for the TPMS changeover.

2017 with 3/1 lift/level next to 2021 with Ironman pro. The Ironman is bout 1" taller. I do kind of miss those RX330 projectors. I think they looked pretty cool on that truck.

 

For a guy who's as impatient as I am, forcing myself to turn every errand into a 15-20 mile field trip has been absolute torture. 500 miles can't possibly come soon enough.

 

Finally had time to get the Helmholtz resonators on last night. After bending up two pilot bits trying to use a standard hole saw I finally went to my 1 3/8" stepped drill bit and chewed the rest out with my die grinder. The 2" harbor freight hole saw was only good for marking. Took a quick 1 mile test drive through the neighborhood. Sounds a million times better in the cabin now.



Drilled to 1 3/8" with a stepped drill bit. I then ground the rest of it out to 2" with my die grinder. The 90' hash marks are so I can line the resonator back up to match the hole.






Monster truck parking only lol

 

Finally made it to my 500 miles. Got the oil changed and of course took it out immediately for a little limited-slip fun. Traction control keeps it pretty well in check if I get too crazy with the gas pedal. Driving (a little more) normally, I'm really digging how I can actually accelerate around a tight corner now (example: coming out of a parking lot) instead of just spinning the inside tire.

Nothing more going to happen to it until next week because the wife took it out of town to her dad's place for the weekend. She would have taken her car except it looks like it has a fuel injector shorting out, so she took the truck instead.

 

Wow, so much has changed since my last post. Most specifically, we got 10" of snow followed by freezing rain. What a great opportunity to test out my new limited slip capabilities. I will say I am extremely impressed with this truck's 2WD abilities. I was able to back out of my garage up a pretty steep driveway in 2WD, and make it about halfway up a major hill out of our neighborhood before finally stalling out. Even then it clearly wanted to go and might have if I spent enough time babying it along further.

I am also very pleased with the Ironman suspension's ability to absorb even the most terrible of road conditions. This setup truly shines in the conditions we have right now.

Beyond that, not a ton happened since my last update but I did get a few things done. Namely,

- swapped out my 295/60 Toyo AT'ss for 35 General Grabbers. This was done the day before the snow came. Probably helped a lot with my ability to 2WD climb.



- Replaced my F86 with DSR1/Maestro programmed by *********. Finally, the stereo works! It completely replaces the JBL amp. I mounted it under the center console just to the right of the shifter. Going to see if it's not too late to get my Fix back to Crutchfield for a full refund.




- Got the rear tailgate lock installed. Ran the B+ wire for the popper through the harness between truck & tailgate. Confirmed the lock harness supplies constant ground. rather than run another ground up through the harness I will just tap into that from inside the tailgate when I do the popper. For now I just buttoned it back up. Will have to get to the popper another time.



- popped the deck out of the dash. Installed the FRAC. Ran wire for front camera. Still deciding which camera to get.

- ordered one of these for DVD/GPS/TXT in motion
https://naviks.com/i-24076930-2020-...v-usb-playlist-in-motion.html?ref=brand:95567

 

Wow, in today's world this really surprises me but Crutchfield just agreed to take my Fix86 back and give me a full refund. I am almost 70 days past my delivery date. I have to return it in the original packaging is all so thankfully I still have all my boxes.

 

Okay, that was a little fun lol

 

Love the build. Ironman told me that the actual lengths of the coils are different on the passenger’s and driver’s side to account for the passenger side lean. Does your 1/8” difference in height on each coilover level you out from side to side? I have a set of Ironman Coilovers I intend on installing soon.

 

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out too. I assembled my own coilovers b/c I wanted to powder coat the springs a different color but yes I was told that by Bubba. Make sure I add 1/8" to the driver's side. I did, and it sits level. The spring itself is not different length btw, you tighten the retaining nuts down 1/8" more than the passenger side. If I recall it was 9 5/8" for pass and 9 3/4" for driver as measured from the mounting bolt center to lowest point on the spring perch. hope that helps!

 

Can you expand on the RX 330 headlight conversion? That looks pretty cool!

 

Thanks, I liked them a lot too. Made the front of the truck look just right IMO. The hardest part is getting the headlights apart. You literally bake them in your oven just long enough to heat the glue up but not so long you start melting important stuff. It took about 20 minutes for mine if I recall. Then you have to pry the crap out of them while still hot to get the glue to finally give up. Once you finally have the lens off then you can start the "easy" work of fitting in the projectors. It was four years ago when I did it and the guy I bought the projectors from is no longer in business unfortunately but they are popular enough among the retrofit crowd I'm sure they're still out there. They were fantastic lights once complete!

 

Cool, thanks! I figured that was the process, just didn't know if you bought them somewhere like that. Most of the "projector" headlights on the market look pretty cheap.

 

No problem! I agree, I didn't like any of the of-the-shelf solutions. Not only do they look terrible IMO but the light output never seems to be as good as something that's been engineered by a multi billion dollar international company.

 

Well just went through all 5 pages of this build. Absolutely amazing and so jealous. I wish I could have been there just learn.

 

Lol thanks. Anyone local is free to stop by anytime. I have no problem at all letting other enthusiasts take it for a drive to see if they think any of these mods are worth their time too. To that end I was telling a friend the other day that my # 1 favorite mod I smile the most about is the sound deadening. It was a hell of a lot of work but the truck is SO quiet inside. Going from the (undeadened) 17 to the 21 is like night and day.

 

This weekend was spent hanging out with the family followed by buttoning up many of the loose ends. Specifically it was our first real maiden voyage in the new truck as we went out to the Ridgefield Wildlife Preserve. It's only about 20 minutes from us but we've never been therebefore. It was absolutely stunning. We are particularly enamored by birds of prey and this trip did not disappoint. It seems a little shallow to attribute any level of enjoyment to the vehicle carrying us but this is one of the very reasons I fell in love with the Tundra when I bought my first one in 2017. I love love love how that back window rolls completely down. So cool to have all five windows down + sunroof open and drive under trees with enormous raptors perched not 10 feet overhead. Definitely a memorable first trip and looking forward to many more.

As far as things that got buttoned up this weekend, the entire interior is almost completely back in place now. I still have to pull the deck out one more time once my NAVIK GPS-in-motion shows up but other than leaving myself an easy way to get that popped back out the interior is totally back together.

Also got my front bumper liners back in. Everyone talks about "can you run 35's with xyz lift" but what really needs to be taken into consideration before that question can effectively be answered is the wheel offset and backspacing relative to the hub. The farther your outside plane is from the hub surface, the wider the turning radius of your tire. This in turn will cause the tire to contact the body mount, and/or front liner. My wheels are 20x9 ET25. My tires are 35 x 12.5 General Grabbers. without using a heat gun, I was able to trim and screw my lower front fender well liners back into place with zero clearance issues. I do not rub going forward or backward at any angle of turning on flat ground. Over moderate articulation or with enough speed while going backwards and turning, I will very lightly rub the rear body mount. I do not plan to do anything about it except wear the tires down naturally. I figure once they have 8-10k miles on them I will probably never hear from that body mount again. Due to variations in tire manufacturers it is likely I will need to revisit this if I have the truck long enough to change tires but for now my clearance issues are minimal enough to even call them a non-issue. My test for whether it would be an issue btw is how likely my wife is to call me in a panic while driving it. If she can drive it without creating any weird noises, there's nothing to worry about. ;0

Lastly, I redid the front suspension a little bit. I was not happy with the raked look (Ironman raises 3.5 both front and rear - no leveling) so I added 1/2" strut spacers. This resulted in an additional 1" lift up front (2:1 ratio) which brought the truck within 1/4" of spot-on level from front to rear. I am much, much happier with the look now. Also added driveline and sway bar spacers. They are not included in the Ironman setup.








Oh yeah, and I got my Truxedo LoPro back on it too. I guess they no longer make this one and it's been replaced with something with an even lower profile. Not worth $600 to me though to get a new one when I already have this one from my previous build. Still looks really good IMO.


Rear heated seats and triple USB charge port, check


The last time the truck had this many parts on it was nine weeks ago when I drove it home for the first time. This has been a fun and rewarding build but I'm also happy it is coming to an end. I have two other major projects waiting for me after this one is done + a full time job that needs a lot of attention.


front/rear anytime cam + switch panel. I may still convert to switch pro at some point in the future. Probably if I add anything else. As for now these four switches from front to rear are,

- bed 12v
- light bar (only activates with high beams)
- rear heated seat power on / off (so I can keep them from accidentally being left on)
- expansion



I had to pull it forward and cut on it pretty good but the front lower fender liner is back in with zero clearance issues.


Still plenty of room to turn before I start making funny noises.


Didn't have to remove too much plastic honestly. Just trimmed it in a couple of strategic spots, deepened some slots so it could still slip into place, and re-drilled it to attach back into the factory mounting holes.