[spiritcollector]

good looking truck!

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by spiritcollector

good looking truck!

Thanks a lot!

[97BlackAckCL]

Well, after weeks of waiting I finally got the satin black roof rails installed on the truck. Here's a little before and after side by side



Driver's side installed



I was able to use the stock Toyota OEM black roof caps so I was able to avoid painting the stock silver caps which I now have 2 sets of and swapped them out for the black



I was trying and planning to mount an ARB awning on the passenger side roof rail for use when I go to concerts but after nearly 2 hours of fighting with the provided mounts from Rago I discovered that the powder coat thickness was preventing the bolts from going in correctly. Frustrated I scrapped the awning mounts for now and mounted the other bar.




Overall I'm happy with the look of the new black rails and the silver delete. Here's the finished product with the OEM black caps installed.




And both sides done



Further back shot to show the black theme

[97BlackAckCL]

Went ahead and threw my canvasback liners in, I ordered them back in March and didn't want to put them in until I ripped the back seats out, but since they mount with velcro I figured I could always rip it out later. The fitment is great and they even include Milk Bones for your dogs



Installation was super easy



I also got the additional flap that goes over the headrests, still planning to get something more solid to go over this area to keep the dogs from falling through



And, I went ahead and started populating my Rago storage panel, I have a lot of stuff to go on, but I figured the First Aid Kit should be front and center and easily accessible.

[RouRou]

how are you liking those NFab bars so far? I hear alot of issues with rust and the step for the front being too far foward.

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by RouRou

how are you liking those NFab bars so far? I hear alot of issues with rust and the step for the front being too far foward.

I like the looks of them better than the stock running boards, but I don't use them as much as I did the stock ones. I use to rest a foot on the boards when getting in and out but I don't find myself doing that as much with the N-Fabs. The steps line up perfectly for where I would need them, but I'm 6'5" so I don't really have a use for the steps anyway. They're more of a looks thing for me at this point.

[RouRou]

the wife and i are definitely not that tall lol. the stock running boards always seem to get in my way though. it gets old.

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by RouRou

the wife and i are definitely not that tall lol. the stock running boards always seem to get in my way though. it gets old.

Yeah, the N-Fabs are a definite improvement in that aspect. I used to rest a foot on the running boards because they were so in the way I didn't really have a choice lol

[97BlackAckCL]

Could have sworn that I posted these pics with the black roof rails, but I don't see them in this thread so figured I'd throw them in here. Definitely loving the blacked out rails, they really complete the black on blue look

[97BlackAckCL]

Threw on a little mod yesterday, installed the Diode Dynamics Tail As Turn Module. This changes your LED panel in the tail light to be your turn signal as well as your brake light. I've noticed a lot of cars these days with LED tail lights have this feature.



The module has the added feature of allowing the big clear turn signal at the top of the light to be converted to a second reverse light. Here's the module and the LED bulbs that I used. You have to tap the green wire in order to add the second reverse, I don't know why they don't just do this out of the box.



When I first got the truck I installed 194 wedge bulbs in the reverse lights, when I removed the stock reverse light bulb housing the stock bulb fell out and into the tail light housing and it's been in there for almost a year. So I figured this was the perfect excuse to get it out. Took a couple minutes but I finally got the stock bulb out of the housing



Here's a comparison shot of the stock bulb, next to the LED wedge I had in the reverse (same bulbs that I have in my interior), and the new 921 LED bulbs that I replaced as the lower backup lights.



And here's the stock amber rear turn signal bulb, being replaced with an all white reverse light, this thing is huge and insanely bright!



I broke out some 3M double sided tape



And mounted the resistors to the metal body panels away from all the other wiring



Then tied up all the wiring.



Here's a day shot of the reverse lights, I planned to get some night shots but it thunderstormed and was pouring last night when I was going to go out so I said screw it. You can see that both the upper and lower clear lense are lit now.



I put the flashers on to test functionality and this is what the flashing turn signal looks like now, you can also see the new 921 Profile LED bulb in the lower reverse lense. I'll post some night shots hopefully tomorrow, I can't imagine how bright these things are going to be at night.

[97BlackAckCL]

Took a couple shots of the reverse lights at night, holy heck are they bright! They definitely help light up what's behind you and help the backup camera really see at night



Up close



My fav shot, you can really see how they light up the road!

[cmoekim]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

I wrapped tied up the modules and wrapped them in some piping insulation to keep them from rattling around.

Just FYI.. Those load resistors get extremely hot when in use. They are encased in relatively large heatsinks for a reason. In your pic, it looks like you might have them wrapped up together with the rest of the harness, which is probably fine for low duration turn signal use, but I'd personally be wary of using the hazards for any length of time if that's the case. I ended up mounting mine out of sight, to the sheet metal with 3M attachment tape, in hope of further facilitating heat dispersion, and I'm still somewhat apprehensive about leaving them on.

Also, instead of using the T-taps, I just cut the wire and spliced in a female connector. I leave my Aux reverse lights disconnected most of the time as I think they might be a bit too bright for around town, and I wasn't confident those T-taps would hold up to repeated handling.

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by cmoekim

Just FYI.. Those load resistors get extremely hot when in use. They are encased in relatively large heatsinks for a reason. In your pic, it looks like you might have them wrapped up together with the rest of the harness, which is probably fine for low duration turn signal use, but I'd personally be wary of using the hazards for any length of time if that's the case. I ended up mounting mine out of sight, to the sheet metal with 3M attachment tape, in hope of further facilitating heat dispersion, and I'm still somewhat apprehensive about leaving them on.

Also, instead of using the T-taps, I just cut the wire and spliced in a female connector. I leave my Aux reverse lights disconnected most of the time as I think they might be a bit too bright for around town, and I wasn't confident those T-taps would hold up to repeated handling.

I did end up removing the insulation and updating the post.

[97BlackAckCL]

Just a small little mod, I installed my Tufskinz foam inserts into the center console. I went with black with the gray insert to match the black and gray dash. Quick and easy mod but it adds a nice contrast and will help protect the stock plastic which had started to get scratched up a bit. Before, as I was cleaning up the cupholders



And here's the insert kit before install



Installed the cupholders first



And installed, I had originally thought about doing blue but thought it might look tacky, I'm really liking the accent look with the gray and black. Matches the dash nicely

[97BlackAckCL]

Just broke 10K miles on the truck yesterday. Had to take a pic at all 9's and then on to 10K






Almost 11 months to the day since I bought it. The shorter work commute has definitely lessened my mileage a lot. Today we celebrated at the dealership for her 10K month service, free oil change and had them do the state inspection while it was there. Passed with flying colors, even my tail as turn, double reverse lights and smoked amber corners passed. Yay :gheywave: