2004 Toyota Sequoia Limited - La Puerca Plata

[J4roe]

Hello all. First time caller, first time listener. Or something like that, not sure. Just picked up a new to us 2004 Limited. 204 and change and the thing is in immaculate shape!!! Wowzers! AZ desert car so absolutely no rust anywhere. Truck came with tranny cooler and sending unit/gauge in the cab. Tow hitch receiver in the front of the vehicle behind the lower grill for presumably a winch as there is also power that has been fed and fastened on the lower front bumper grill next to said receiver. The truck also came with a good light subtle sounding exhaust, remote start and limo window tint. The latter two are absolutely worth their weight in gold out here in Phoenix in July and August on those 116 degree days. Leave the truck running with AC, run in to the grocery store for 15 minutes come back out to a cool cab vs coming back out to a 152 degree cab and then it takes the whole 10 minute ride home for the evaporator to get cold... LOL tough for us dezert rats.

That's a brief summary of what we have to get the page started. We bought this truck for towing, camping and light overlanding around the southwest and mainly and more importantly MEXICO. In saying that, I do have limitations on the styling/body/ride height because the truck's main purpose above all else is that it has to tow down the highway and do it efficiently. I don't want to ruin the aero package with bumpers or crazy lift height. No long travel even though my brain wants to. Initially, I want to see if I can retain a little rake for that purpose.

What I've done so far:

1. 55w HID headlights
2. LED 3k Amber Fog Lights
3. Disconnected DTRL
4. Full interior dome/door panel light swap 6k wedge style LED (bright AF)
5. I cut and polished the clear coat 3 times with MeGuires (only the best) and then I sealed the clear coat with a Ceramic coat

What I have on the way (have received last night and will receive today):

1. 1.5" billet aluminum strut spacer
2. 1.25" billet hubcentric wheel spacer

Items ordered and on the way:

1. 285/70/17 Toyo Open Country AT3 (10 ply E1)
2. Motor Trend floor mats

We have a time crunch to get this stuff on the truck as we have a Mexico trip planned a week from today. I really didn't wan to go down the route of Bilsteins for the lift because it's a waste of money. I come from the prerunner mafia and all those little nickel and dime middle steps break the bank. Our future plans include a mostly stock looking Sequoia but with full heim UCA's that I will fab and factory replacement (possibly extended travel) KINGS BROOOOOO! This will truly be a beefed up mid travel looking stock vehicle nothing crazy. 33" tires for a little ground clearance and the absolute least amount of lift we can get away with. The rear will go with the 100 spring or equivalent aftermarket and 2.5 smooth body shocks. I would also like to fab my own beefy lower links, possibly the pan hard bar and I will 100% be deleting these running boards and fabbing some clean, tight and right rock sliders.

My posting might be sporadic because I'm on about 3 other forums and I'm currently about 70% done with fabbing my roll cage for my Tacoma. I 100% hate Facebook with a passion and personally I believe it's a national security threat so you will never find me over on that part of this forum. Either my thread brings ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD or it doesn't...

If you want to check out my build thread for my truck you can wonder over to either Tacoma World (more preferable if cursing and obscene comments are offending to you) or DezertRangers but reader discretion is advised on DR as there are no rules.

TW

El Honcho - 1st Gen Taco build

BUMP!!! Any more updates?

www.tacomaworld.com

DR

Chair-Runner (Honcho) - Gen 1 Taco

Ok DR, I've introduced myself and now it's time to start an official thread so I don't convolute the introduction section with a million pictures. My introduction includes a little back story and history of the vehicle. The truck is a gen 1, 99 Toyota Tacoma 3.4 auto. 295,xxx and change on the...

www.dezertrangers.com

Well SF hope that was entertaining and you'll have me back...

Joe

 

[J4roe]

 

[J4roe]

Tuned up the JBL front speakers and they sound brand new again like it's 04 inside CIRCUIT CITY

 

[J4roe]

The second set of pictures of the truck were from purchase day WITHOUT WAX. The first set of pictures on initial shakedown run out the DEZ, that was after one coat of cut and polish WITHOUT the ceramic coat.

I will update with some current clear coat shots so you guys can see what I'm working with here...

 

[J4roe]

Speaker MOD pics... Swear to Gosh they sound brand new!

 

[J4roe]

Shine Armor CERAMIC TOP COAT.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LHB3B2Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[J4roe]

AND... my absolute favorite clear coat mirror finish picture goes toooooooooo....

This guy!

 

[J4roe]

New MEATS

Decided to go with BFG because they were in stock and I used to be BFG for life so I said BFG it is. 285/70/17. I had to cut the pinch seam for the cab and remove the mud flap to get them to clear at full bump, full lock.

Also installed the 2" coilover spacer. I think I'll have to add one inch to the back to get rid of the CALI LEAN. Also known as the BRO LEAN. Overall she's starting to shape up.

@ Discount before lift



Rubbing with 1/4-1/3 steering input




Cut out the pinch seam for the cab and removed mud flap. This area will get bed liner coat in a few days. 33's are now clearing at FULL BUMP, FULL LOCK.




2" coilover spacer



Finished shots

 

[mikonos25]

Nice work! I have a 2001 with 315k. Mechanically perfect. My girls grew up in it so never getting rid of. New carpet and leather and had a shop do buff/ceramic. Same color as yours. Redid all 4 corners with KYG, nothing special, and all four ball joints. Mine sits up an inch and a half higher in back not sure why but looks good. I think your rear springs are done.

 

[J4roe]

Nice work! I have a 2001 with 315k. Mechanically perfect. My girls grew up in it so never getting rid of. New carpet and leather and had a shop do buff/ceramic. Same color as yours. Redid all 4 corners with KYG, nothing special, and all four ball joints. Mine sits up an inch and a half higher in back not sure why but looks good. I think your rear springs are done.

Yea I didn't touch the rear. It's possible the springs have sagged a bit or I just need to add an inch spacer in the rear for right now. Eventually plan on the longer LC spring with a 2 or 2.5 bypass or smooth body shock in the rear. I hear you on not selling something like what you have. My other truck is my Tacoma and it's the same for me. Had it for 12 years and it has too much sentimental value to let it go. It's actually becoming a race truck/desert prerunner right now. When I did the 2" spacer lift on the front I went over the front with a comb and someone has been in there recently. Ball joints and In/Out tie rods felt good with no play at all. Upper ball joint boot is not dry rot and appears newer. All of this stock crap just has to last another 6 months and then it's getting replaced with heims and uniballs. Thanks for the like!

-Joe

 

[J4roe]

Apparently I haven't been keeping up on my SF thread. La Puerca has been to Mexico twice now in just a month of time and has performed fairly well... mas o menos. Our only concern has been the stupid VSC traction control. I guess in the limited there's no switch to turn it off so when you're in 4HI and break the smallest amount of traction in sand it just puts the motor into limp mode. Pedal to the floor, engine at 1,500... so stupid... No donuts? No fish tails??? WTF?! No chance!

Our first trip with the PIG went pretty well. The only downside was that we couldn't get up this steep 3 or 400 ft sand hill outside of our little home away from home, Cholla Bay Sonora Mexico. We realized the VSC was killing power and we had two kayaks on top of the roof and 6 people in the car bitching so I said F it we'll try again in a couple of weeks when we come back.



Our second trip it was just the GF and I. We towed our 97 Seadoo GTX Fish Pro down to do a little fishing. The Sequoia doesn't even feel a single trailer w/ jet ski. We got 14.4mpg on the way down, 220 miles. I never saw more than 120 degrees on the gauge for the inline sending unit for the transmission. Torque Pro reads a little high I believe and it never got above 150. While we were there on one of the days it was too windy to get out fishing we decided to do some wheeling and see if we could redeem ourselves and make it up Competition Hill. We again had issues doing anything remotely satisfying with the stupid VSC. We then tried the center diff lock and learned that it turns the VSC off. Once that was off it's a different machine. We made it up without effort and without airing down the tires. I've since learned that you can go under the hood and unplug the sensor from the master cylinder and that will turn off the VSC as well. Kind of dumb really. I will pry wire in a switch to disrupt the circuit essentially making it seem like it's unplugged.






Overall we're really satisfied with our purchase and hopefully soon I will start fabbing up some items like rock sliders and maybe modify the bumpers a little bit. Until next time.

Peace!

Joe

 

[mikonos25]

Looks like a great trip! Just redid my lights with BXBuilt. Super pleased. Takes some funky oven heating to take apart else a breeze. Fogs make no discernible difference in lighting now but not LED units. Which brand

fog lights did you use?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[J4roe]

Looks like a great trip! Just redid my lights with BXBuilt. Super pleased. Takes some funky oven heating to take apart else a breeze. Fogs make no discernible difference in lighting now but not LED units. Which brand

fog lights did you use?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So those headlights are retrofitted? Our lens needs the scuff and buff treatment but too lazy to spray the 2k clear coat over it when I'm done so they keep going back to hazy. AZ sun is INTENSE out here in the DEZ. I definitely like the projector look as I have projectors on the truck which you can see in my avatar. Those are a completely new housing and everything. They're on Amazon and Ebay. The retrofit kits are nice but I have way too much going on right now to be putting head light housings in the oven and tinkering with that right now. Definitely have the ability but right now I don't have the time. We're going to look at new head light housings, complete units online. The only thing about projectors is they are NOT as bright as open headlights. It doesn't matter what you do, what wattage HID or LED you run, they're always going to be less bright. It's a fact. Now IMHO they're plenty bright if you run a projector headlight with a 55w HID bulb. I personally like 8k but 6k is supposed to be the brightest temperature of light spectrum. Closest to sunlight. LED may be fine too but I personally like HID bulbs more than LED. I think they're brighter. The only downside of the HID is the ballast. Most people HATE HID because of the ballast. I've found through trial and error with the Taco that if you do NOT mount the ballast very securely with zip ties and the ballast is allowed to move and vibrate you will get the dreaded FLICKER and subsequent broken ballast that does not supply electric to the bulb. IE no headlight scenario. This is the most common concern and why many people have gone away from the HID. I think many people are morons and do not understand relationship very well. Once you secure the ballast, you will have no problems. This is with my full long travel Tacoma. ZERO problems. AAAAAND THIS IS HOW WE DRIVE IT.... ↓↓↓↓↓↓

Ok so now that I'm over that rant about HID vs LED... LOL

So for clarification unless it wasn't evident, I use HID in the headlights always. To answer your second question, we put LED in the fog lights because I wasn't concerned with their brightness as much as the primary headlight that keeps you safe. We also chose to go with a 3k Amber in the fog light position because out here in the DEZ and down in good ol MECHICO we need Amber lights at night to cut through the dust. Here are the fogs ↓↓↓

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GTD6FB5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

HID heads

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NCDDJTG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Your truck looks good. Thanks for putting me onto some headlight options. I will show the wife later and see what she thinks. She wants new housings so I think we're in the market to do something.

- Joe

 

[mikonos25]

Holy moses, that run looks crazy, love the pass! I am just starting to get into "off road" and never been in a rig like that Taco. To me it means putting a rooftop tent on it and parking in campsites. I got a close friend in California that used to be into that stuff and he wants me to put a "Total Chaos" suspension on it. I'm in Michigan now having lived 12 years in California with the Sequoia so working through all the underbody treatments to keep it from rusting. Three seasons now and so far so good. You know A LOT more about the lighting than I do. I thought the LED were the best...

Thanks for the tips and keep us posted on progress.

Michael

 

[J4roe]

Holy moses, that run looks crazy, love the pass! I am just starting to get into "off road" and never been in a rig like that Taco. To me it means putting a rooftop tent on it and parking in campsites. I got a close friend in California that used to be into that stuff and he wants me to put a "Total Chaos" suspension on it. I'm in Michigan now having lived 12 years in California with the Sequoia so working through all the underbody treatments to keep it from rusting. Three seasons now and so far so good. You know A LOT more about the lighting than I do. I thought the LED were the best...

Thanks for the tips and keep us posted on progress.

Michael

Yea that's what we got the Sequoia for. Towing and overlanding/camping. I don't want to modify the body and ruin the aero package so nothing crazy. I plan on making some upper control arms like Total Chaos or any other performance suspension company makes. 1" uniball upper arms with heims on the ends instead of bushings. That and some coilovers and this thing will rock.

I think the bulb type for lighting is personal preference. LED uses less energy and has comparable brightness. LED is definitely the future. HID was the middle step from old school to new school LED. HID are halogens but High Intensity Discharge halogens. LED's are great don't get me wrong but I still think with a projector headlight the HID is brighter.

My girlfriend got a new 2020 Civic Turbo hatchback and initially we put LED's in there for ease and no ballasts to deal with. She didn't think they were as bright as her old Honda Civic with 55w HID. I told her that's because the new Civic has projector headlights and will never be as bright as the old headlight housings that are traditional. We returned the LED's to Amazon and put in 55w HID's and adjusted the cutoff line and now she is really happy.

 

[MEX916]

nice build!