aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

Didn't think I'd get around to it this fast.. but had a few spare hours and weather ended up being good so I decided to take off my blitz bumper and get going with the fitment of the coastal front.

Wasn't expecting to make as much progress.. but it went together quicker than anticipated.

Ita all tacked together for tge most part and needs to be pulled off to run all the weld beads before cleaning up, but its together.

Took a bit of a gamble with welding it together prior to fitting fenders and other parts, but the idea was to get a baseline of the bumper in place for the factory front end and work back from it to get the lights, fenders and hood in place where it needs to be. The fenders being fiberglass should a bit easier to modify if needed, but worst case scenario ill take a grinder to it for more serious adjustments. Cant wIt for the fenders to deliver to really get the swap going !

3 hours into the bumper so far. No complaints at this point, went together pretty straight forward. Peobably could have done the mating edges better with more time, but for 3 hours of work completely by myself id say its as close as I need it to be. There wi be plenty of grinding to do anyhow to get it all ready for paint.

Planning on doing a color matched top half with a black lower section but haven't decided in that fully yet.

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[aemravan]

Well, as usual, I started off with a VERY optimistic time frame [emoji28][emoji28]

The bumper is fully welded now and I started the clean up process. This time around I am about 4 hours in with welding all the stuff.

Did my best to keep the exterior welds to a minimal to reduce grinding time, but not enough experience for that yet. The structural interior welds I was pretty pleased with, the amount of exterior welds is not so good. But nothing a little (well..quite a lot actually lol) grinding and body filler won't fix.

Id day i have another solid day of grinding and body filler finishing and then another full day of pulling it off for primer and paint.

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[cwilliams563]

Well, as usual, I started off with a VERY optimistic time frame [emoji28][emoji28]

The bumper is fully welded now and I started the clean up process. This time around I am about 4 hours in with welding all the stuff.

Did my best to keep the exterior welds to a minimal to reduce grinding time, but not enough experience for that yet. The structural interior welds I was pretty pleased with, the amount of exterior welds is not so good. But nothing a little (well..quite a lot actually lol) grinding and body filler won't fix.

Id day i have another solid day of grinding and body filler finishing and then another full day of pulling it off for primer and paint.

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Great work so far, can’t wait for the final product on that front end! Hope the new front end body lines up with that bumper, or at least close enough since you knocked it out first lol.

Wish I had 1/10th of those skills, the equipment, tools, and knowledge to do myself. As of now a big job for me was installing my lift and minor electrical stuff. My soon to be installed Victory Blitz front steel bumper (preassembled and powder coated of course) and Victory roof rack bolted on and all of this has been new territory for me.

 

[xtremewlr]

Looks awesome man! Nice work!

 

[momo.75]

Great job on the build! Looking awesome!:thumb:

 

[aemravan]

Great work so far, can’t wait for the final product on that front end! Hope the new front end body lines up with that bumper, or at least close enough since you knocked it out first lol.

Wish I had 1/10th of those skills, the equipment, tools, and knowledge to do myself. As of now a big job for me was installing my lift and minor electrical stuff. My soon to be installed Victory Blitz front steel bumper (preassembled and powder coated of course) and Victory roof rack bolted on and all of this has been new territory for me.

Thanks!

with regards to the new front end lining up, my plan was to get the bumper in place around the factory front end it was meant to be around so that I wasn't working with an entire floating assembly to set in place. If the fenders hurry up and get here I'll find out quick what sort of fitment I'm working with. From what I could tell, more than likely the fenders will need to be trimmed near the bottom where they mate to the bumper, which would be ideal so that I could get that gap perfect.

As the bumper sits now, the wings come out about 1 1/4" past the factory fender. Not sure what the tacoma fenders will sit like, but if it does not look right I'll take an angle grinder to the wings and cut out the extra inch in width and weld the caps back on (a lot more work than it sounds but very doable). Hopefully this plan works out, but I wont know until Greyhound makes its way across the US with my fenders.. lol .


With regards to the ability and tools.. tools are obviously a biggie. In particular the welder. Other tools are literally nothing special.. As a matter of fact, I have seen guys knock out bumpers using $400 welders from harbor freight with great results so all in all, just about anyone can get into it. I have been wrenching on cars since I was 16 and was fortunate enough to have my dad who is really handy with tools to learn from. Other than that it is just practice and time lol. I have 0 official training of any sort on anything that I do. Welding being one of them. I haven't welded a day in my life until just recently and there is definitely a learning curve to it, but it is very doable. I wish I started sooner. If you look at the way some of my welds came out they are hideous at best lol. But since I have to grind down all the exterior welds anyway it doesn't matter much.


Below are 2 examples of my welds. One I consider pretty good for me, the other...well you can tell for yourself lol. No shame here for me though, not afraid to share my learning experience

 

[aemravan]

It's taco time !!!

Got a very big surprise call from greyhound that my fenders are at the hub for pick up... what ??

So after picking them up I started the take-apart process.. and , well, because there's really nothing to it and it took all of about 15 minutes I decided to start mocking stuff up.

Man.... if I can get the final fitment anywhere close to this, it is going to look oh so good!.

I couldn't mock up the fenders because there is going to be quite a lot to chop off of them where they meet the bumper. Probably 2 inches at least. So ill need to figure out a good way to do that and not go too much.

I have a feeling there will be quite a few custom brackets to lock everything in place. I also have a feeling that I will be fiberglassing the edge that meets the door, but we'll see.

It is looking sweet right now!

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[aemravan]

A better look I'm the day time. Spent all of 15 minutes doing a rough trim to get thr fender to clear the bumper and see what challenges lay ahead..

I'll definitely be adding material to close off the fender to door gap. Don't see a way around it. The rest of it roughed REALLY close so I don't see what I could adjust to bring that in more.

Otherwise, if I cam get anywhere near this fitment when said and done, I'll be ecstatic.

My plan is to be able to use the factory tacoma hood latch, but if that doesn't work to close and latch as perfectly as it sits now I'll just cut in my aerotech flush mount hood latches, though I domt want to.

Next step will be to finalize the headlight wiring and start making brackets to lock thr headlights in place, then lock thr grill in place, and then hopefully dial in the fender fitment.

Once I am more or less happy with how it sits I'll address the door gap. I already have the resin and fiberglass material so won't be an issue, but will definitely add a solid day of work.

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[aemravan]

made a bit more progress at lunch today since I'm working from home. The lights are wired in and good to go. Took me a bit to realize that the high beam power wire is always hot when the lights come on and the ground wire is what they are using to kick those on. Well, since the Tacoma lights came with a common ground wire for their hi/lo beam circuit, I ended up just splitting the ground into 2 separate wires coming out of the light, and VIOLA! DRL LED works, lo beam works and hibeam kicks on the hibeam solenoid flap.

The best part? The turn signal plugs right in, DRL plugs right in. Now i am contemplating whether I want to also wire in the Coastal LED turn signal round lights that are meant to go in there, or to kick those on as a DRL, or get rid of them completely and either plug the holes and grind smooth or just stick a round ditch light pod in there.... decisions decisions...

Hopefully more to come tonight when I get a chance to make the brackets and start locking stuff in place. Exciting times for sure.

 

[aemravan]

Did some more work this evening.

Got to fabricating some quick brackets in order to start setting the lights and grill. I'm either going to have to reinforce them a little, possibly just weld them on to keep them solid, but thats the last of my concerns. if it all fits, those details will be easy to sort out.

Getting the grill mounted ended up being a lot easier too. Just 2 simple brackets back towards the radiator support and a bolt each into the headlights. Until I get the hood latch I won't know if my placement will work or not and have the hood latch properly, I am really hoping so.

I'm glad i ordered the headlight trim piece. It needed a little modification and I'll need to clean it up some and paint it, and since I had to cut it, it will mount via some permanent epoxy straight to the light, but I think it looks a lot better than leaving it uncovered.

The next thing to tackle will be the fender mounting..I need to trim the RH fender a bit more to sit it properly before I turn my attention to the LH one. I am hoping to get that sorted tomorrow evening and then start addressing the fender/door gap. If all works well, ideally i want to at least get the fenders ready for paint this weekend and possibly even spray them and let them dry while its nice out.

The before/after thus far. Once I saw it, I couldnt unsee it...especially with the current choppy coastal front bumper the hard lines of the '15 tacoma go so good together!

 

[aemravan]

Just went up and down the street. The lights are pointing up to the top of second story windows lol . I got some adjusting to do... possibly need to scoot the bottom of thr lights in more because I doubt they will have enough adjustment.

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[montijo505]

Looking good so far


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[aemravan]

Made a bit more progress today. Slow going for sure, but progress nonetheless.

Was able to rough in the driver's fender and rework the headlight mounts a bit to angle them lower. With the light adjustment close to maxed out the lights are low enough on the road and looking good.

I had to trim the bottom of the grill down a bit too to get it to mate to the new light position.

Tomorrow I will pick up some half inch spacers to start making mounting holes for the fenders. Hopefully the hood latch arrives early too because I still don't know if it will work or not.

Once I can finally pin the fenders in and hood latched tomorrow the idea is to then verify/adjust the gaps as needed and then turn my attention to the fender-door gap.

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[xtremewlr]

Made a bit more progress today. Slow going for sure, but progress nonetheless.

Was able to rough in the driver's fender and rework the headlight mounts a bit to angle them lower. With the light adjustment close to maxed out thr lights are low enough on the road and looking good.

I had to trim the bottom of the grill down a bit too to get it to mate to the new light position.

Tomorrow I will pick up some half inch spacers to start making mounting holes for the fenders. Hopefully thr hood latch arrives early too because I still don't know if it will work or not.

Once I can finally pin the fenders in and hood latched tomorrow the idea is to then verify/adjust thr gaps as needed and then turn my attention to the fender-door gap.

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That's coming out really nice man!

Does the Tacoma hood directly swap over? As in, the bolt holes lined up without issue? Do you need to modify anything for the hood latch?

 

[aemravan]

That's coming out really nice man!



Does the Tacoma hood directly swap over? As in, the bolt holes lined up without issue? Do you need to modify anything for the hood latch?

Thanks man ! I'm super happy with the progress.

Funny you ask about thr hood and latch, I JUST finished that now. Lol.

Yes and now. You need to install the Tacoma hinges if you want both bolt holes to line up on the hood, which I did. In the front. I installed the Tacoma latch but had to make some modifications and raise it about an inch from where it was to lock in and line up.

I dont know if it would be the same if I didn't start with a coastal front bumper or not.

At this point, the difficult, unknown part is done. Fenders are secured with custom brackets, grill in place and lights locked in. Needs some very minor adjustments on the driver side light gap, but overall I am super happy.

I had to cut metal standoffs to space the fenders up to line up and make 2 custom brackets to secure them in. Eventually I'll make these brackets proper brackets and clean everything up, but for the time being it's all together.

Did a rough fit of thr winch and ill need to trim bottom of the grill to clear the control box.

Next step will be to fine trim the fenders and start fiberglass work... yay...

First goal is to fill in the door gap, and second goal is to possibly shave down the fender bulge at the bottom where it kicks out a bit too aggressively compared to 4runner door, but we'll see.

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[xtremewlr]

Badass. Looking really good.

 

[aemravan]

Progress as of today:

-painted the radiator support and fender aprons black

-installed rivet nuts for the fender and headlight mounts so that I sont have to use nuts on the opposite side.

-adjustwd tge good to fender height and gap

-trimmed the fender and remade new mounting brackets.


My brother, who does body work for a living and is VERY good at what he does, stopped by today and gave me some feedback and input. He said "Hey, just a thought here...but what if you just chop off this bottom of the fender and i'll push it further back in place and you pin it so we can see what the rest of it does"

End result?

My grill is aligned and fender to door gap is less than half of what it was before. I am so stoked. We trimmed the fenders down bit an remade the mounting brackets and it just about closed off the gap. I half less than a quarter of fiber glassing left on the fender.

I am hoping to get it done throughout the week and start prepping for paint.

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[aemravan]

Took a bit of time and aimed my lights now that everything is pinned in. Needless to say I am pleasantly pleased the way they came out. Plenty of adjustment left and aimed right as I need.

Lookimg forward to a productive fiberglass week this week!

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[Ed_C]

Wow :rockon:

 

[aemravan]

Let's get started with the funnest, my most favorite, part of thr build.. fiberglass...

What did I get myself into?? Lol. But in all honestly it's not all that bad. Once the outer layer hardness with the indent of the door gap ill pull it off amd glass from the inside.

I'm probably going to do one at a time just to see what it comes out like. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me as you can tell, but getting close.

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