9/10/2013
I have some good and bad news to report. I'll start with the good.
Got me some new shoes for the 4runner again...My last set was the Tundra 17's and 285 Nitto Terra Grapplers, which I REALLY liked, but were a tad too loud for me. The rear tires had some very minor cupping, but it caused some excess road noise that was becoming a bit bothersome to myself and my family. I know that some of you mud terrain guys are probably shaking your head, but commuting every day to work was getting a bit old. Fortunately I found a great deal on some FJ 17's and 285 Duratracs with around 60-70% tread. I sold my Tundra's to SantaCruzRunner since he was looking for 33's and loved my set up and picked up the new wheels and tires last saturday. They guy I bought them from had a Tacoma and was super cool/easy to work with.
I obviously wanted to stick with the black and red theme so I decided to go all out and paint them properly. Plasti-Dip is great, but it doesn't hold up well to abuse (which I will be putting these wheels through) and it is kind of a pain to repair. Decided to go with a Duplicolor Semi-Gloss black since I've had great results with the Duplicolor on my flares.
So pretty...
Nice and beefy!
All roughed up and ready for primer
I used grey primer since it makes it a lot easier to see what spots you missed and I also had a can sitting in the garage. I did 3 coats of primer.
Finished up with 3 coats of black pretty late and let them cure overnight.
All done and on the truck. They came out great and I really like the semi-gloss. I decided to do a little something extra with the Toyota symbol on the center caps since it was easy to take off. I used a color match paint for a Ford that I had laying around the garage. I had used it for some other projects before and matches the sunfire red pretty well. Overall I'm very happy with how they came out.
It looks more pink in this shot, but its very close to the red.
My impressions of the Duratracs is they are awesome! I have heard they have a hum to them, which they do, but it's very subtle. They are very aggressive looking, but the road manners are superb. Mine are load D which is noticeable from the Load E's I've had for the last two sets of tires. On the highway they are louder than my old BFG's, but still a lot quieter than my Nitto's. I'm hoping to get them out on the trail soon.
Ok on to the bad....
I've had my supercharger for about 2 months now sitting in my office. I've gotten a lot of the parts thanks to some very generous members and local stores. I have been waiting on one last piece to be able to install it, the dynamic tensioner bracket. This piece is only available through Toyota and with a hefty price tag of $250 (includes a new dynamic tensioner). I really didn't want to spend that much since it is about half of what I have into the sc at this point. I contacted a TTORA forum member shelshelly90 regarding one he had for sale 2 months ago.
Dynamic tensioner bracket and bolts 3.4 tacoma - TTORA Forum He immediately responded saying it was still available. I jumped on it and paid him within the hour. After I paid he said he was on vacation would try to get it out to me ASAP. I told him that's fine since I didn't need it till around August 10th anyways. He told me to contact him a week before and we ended it as that.
July 30th I contacted him to see if he was able to send it before August 10th. I get no response for a week till he asks again for my email address. Another 4 days and it's past the 10th and he finally gets back to me saying he doesn't have one to send to me as his fabricator isn't getting back to him. WTF, I'm pissed. He specifically told me it was available and in his possession. Now he's telling me he doesn't have one made. He gives me some attitude and tells me that he will have 6 done by the end of August. Normally I would tell him to F off, but this is the only one I've seen available other than Toyota so I'm kind of screwed. I suck it up and agree to wait.
I email him again at the end of August and he says it's going to be a bit longer. I suck it up and wait again 2 more weeks and email him two days ago. I finally get an email back today saying he can't get a hold of his fabricator and has no clue if they ever will be made. So freaking frustrating and before I can respond he refunds me my money without even talking to me. I'm happy to have my money back, but it's two months later and I have no bracket. I really don't care about the time it would take, it's the fact that he led me to believe that he had it available and would ship it when he was back from vacation. Also the lack of communication was pathetic and he just brushed me off each time I contacted him about it.
So anyone looking for a bracket needs to avoid shelshelly90 as he cannot be trusted. I will be removing his info from the Supercharger thread and post a warning as well. Sorry about the long rant, I just hate people like this.
Update: They guy hasn't gotten back to me and is shipping just the hard to find flat head bolt. I feel better about this, but still was ridiculous how this all went about.
Anyone got a spare sc bracket laying around?
out: haha
