Spent $15,000 Overhauling My Toyota Tacoma For My Birthday

How's it going everyone welcome back to the Tacoma Beast channel where as you all know, it's all about the taco today We're in South Dakota at the C4 fabrication facility and we're gonna be overhauling Ken's 2015 Toyota Tacoma TRD off-road. He's giving us free range to do whatever we want with it And that's exactly what we're gonna do with us today is Caleb. He's the owner of C4 fabrication. How's it going, man? Thanks for having us. Yeah, it's going great Mateo. We're excited to have you here, dude. What are we gonna do this week? Well, we've got some new products. We've been working on for the second gen Tacomas Rear bumper high clearance with some swing out options stuff like that So we're gonna be putting some of those items on this truck this week and just kind of transitioning the look of his whole truck Dude, I can't wait. Not only that we're also gonna be wrapping it switching out the headlights and the grill. It's gonna be awesome Let's do it What's up guys? I'm Alex. I'm Brian. So today we're in kind of a time crunch today Our goal is to get all of the armor and accessories ripped off the truck and that way we're ready for tomorrow to install all the C4 products and all the new accessories Yeah, let's get going. I have no idea how it's gonna look but I've told Mateo I completely trust you Just surprise me. Let's do something Brian and Alex just finished removing the front bumper and skid plates. Now, they're moving on to removing the rear diff skid Since we're in a time crunch and we found that most of the bolts are seized We're gonna go ahead and use the grinder to cut off the ones that we can reach Make the process a lot faster and easier smoother. I Just finished removing off the grill and taking off the headlights and Alex right now is working on removing the snorkel. How's it going? It's going good. It's a little tight in there, but we got it. We're getting it done The team just finished removing the high clearance rear bumper. We basically have the entire armor off I've gone ahead and remove the headlights and the grill from here I need to remove the roof rack. They're gonna remove the tent and the overland bed rack. We're basically done for the day Sometimes it's just easier to get inside the box to take the box off think in the box Ken is on my iWatch right now. Ken. Are you ready to come see your truck, man? I can't believe it. I'm super excited for it, dude. I know it's your birthday today. So happy birthday. We can't wait To show you what we have in store for you Best birthday party ever you got that right? Well right now I'm working on removing your roof rack Pretty much all the armor is has been taken off And then Jake from lucid wrap will be able to start working on the wrap The Leitner cab rack is coming off and won't be coming back on Ken wanted to try something new something different But it gives us a great opportunity for us to take a look at the different options that are out there So as you can see this cab rack is bolted down Straight into the bed. It's got this awesome pods on the side And that's one of the reasons why Ken really got this bed rack in the first place But it wasn't until he got his fridge installed that it became really hard to access the back of the truck So because of that reason he no longer needs the pods And he's gonna be trying out a new bed rack that I can't wait to show you So it's the end of day one. We started the day off a little bit behind schedule Thanks to the grinder and the team that we have working on this project. We were able to make up some time So we're back on track. We have Jake ready Doing prep work so he can start the wrap for Tuesday morning What's up, guys? I'm Jake owner of lucid wraps. I'm here at the c4 facility to get going on Ken's overhaul She's old and dusty so she's stiff and dry Digging into the door panels taking them off to get the door handles off is caked with dust Ken definitely uses his truck It's the start of the day. We did great progress yesterday And today's goal is gonna be to have Jake start on the wrap He's gonna start all the way from the front and work his way all the way to the back As soon as he's done with the front I'm gonna jump in there work on the headlights the grill and then Brian and Alex are gonna knock out the front bumper Just finished wrapping the hood now, I'm jumping onto the fenders right now just laying the panel out Today Jake has to take the lead and so far he's been killing it It's incredible to see him work his attention to detail and everything. He does is wild It's also crazy to see how easy he makes Wrapping look like it makes me feel like I can go buy a roll of wrap Tomorrow and just wrap my truck and I know it's not that easy. All right guys So we're installing this new heretic 30 inch light bar into our bumper. We've never installed these lights into any of our products So we're pretty excited to see how they work and so far Everything's working really well everything fits Aside from the fog lights We're gonna have to make a new bracket so they don't stick too far out. But other than that, everything's working pretty good Because of the c4 fabrication hybrid bumper originally being designed for the Baja design light They started to realize that in order to install the heretic Pods, they were gonna have to manufacture their own bracket It's so cool that because of this facility they're able to do that. So that's exactly what's gonna happen behind us on this machine They're gonna design their own bracket to make it work What do you think dude? It's uh, it's really cool. You guys can just manufacture this like What it took you guys like less than 30 minutes, I think to make this happen Yeah, and now you have brackets that are gonna work. Yeah, so then we'll go send them over to Anthony and he'll form them up Oh, so he's got a bend them. Yeah Cool man, let's go do that All right, Alex come check out the headlights that are going on this truck. Look how sick these are These have how many projectors one two, three four projectors. They're extremely bright these are the Alpharex Nova series and I've been dying for Kent to rock these just because How bright they are and how good they look? Oh man with the wrap that's going on The truck this black is gonna look so clean while I work on installing the headlights Jake is in the back installing the wrap on the bed sides and Alex is still working on adding the light bars and winch to the front bumper All right, so to install these it's extremely easy They're basically plug-and-play for the TRD off-road models. You are gonna have this adapter. I'm gonna come in So all you got to do is connect this right in there Make sure it clicks. There we go. And then I'm gonna grab this one right here and then we're gonna connect this one So that's two connectors and then this one which is insane how Ken has it all rusty and beaten up He uses this truck So that's a good thing, but it's crazy to see this connector how rusty it is We connect that one. So in total there should be three connectors That's pretty much it I like to keep the wrapper on the headlight as I'm wiggling it in Because it you will scratch it if you don't have it a lot of you guys get excited when you get your headlights and you Want to take this off right away? Make sure you leave it make sure you install it and then after you can go ahead and that's when you really Get to enjoy that peel process Before I screw everything back on I want to make sure that everything is working fine You don't want to screw everything on and then find that it's not and you have to pull everything apart again So we're gonna go ahead and check to see if the DRLs are working Seems like they just did just fine and now the headlight Everything's working great Now I'm gonna check to make sure the turn signals are working properly That looks so awesome What's up, Ken? Happy birthday. This wrap is gonna be one wrap. You can't unwrap We're getting ready to install the c4 front bumper The next step in doing that is we're gonna go ahead and drill a hole through these two brackets Reason being this bracket here helps support the headlight And then that will give us an opportunity to remove this middle bracket It just gets in the way and it's used to clip on the stock front bumper So we won't need that for installing the c4 bumper We just got done removing the middle bracket The next step is to cut this off with a grinder It just gets in the way and you don't need it and it helps us fit our c4 front bumper Alex and Brian just finished removing the center bracket. They've been prepping the front bumper to be installed now It's time for us to see if it all fits The team's really focused Alex is working on preparing the sliders. He's adding these top plates. They're looking really nice Brian over here is wiring up the winches and all the lights and Then Jake actually camped out here check out his tent over there To knock out all the panels that were missing So he installed the c4 logo that's looking really nice and our Tacoma beast bed side decal And we move over to the driver's side He's actually working on installing the c4 decal right now and then he's gonna move on to installing our bedside Trucks looking really nice We got installed the sliders the high clearance rear and tomorrow the up top overland guys are coming install the roof rack and the bed Rack. All right Let's get these sliders Install the two sliders have been installed Alex. What are you working on right now? So we're getting the rear bumper prepped to install We're gonna start with installing the heretic lights rear backup lights And then we have our plate that we used to fit it in our bumper This plate works with a lot of different brands like Baja or heretic And one more thing to keep in mind is you want to add anti-seize to your screws because they are stainless steel this will help from breaking them or Ruining the threads basically, I think them up and then what about the Ken's getting a single swing out, right? Yeah, correct Cool. We got to set that up as well. Yep So we have the single swing going on Ken's truck, right? Currently, we're working on doing a dual swing design for the second gen So hopefully, you know later next year 2023. We'll have that 2022 that that would be awesome. Yeah, so let's get right into it. Cool So we're just finishing up installing the sliders we did have to drill out two of these holes into the frame and then use this thread cutting bolt to go in there and Attach we do have an option where you can actually drill out your own holes in the bottom of the frame So we went ahead and did that for Ken knowing that he pushes his truck to the limit This option would allow you to use a high lift jack to jack up your truck using your sliders Or if you're actually rock crawling and banging off of rocks things like that So now that we've got the bumper adjusted where we want it We're gonna throw on our frame support brackets and just go right over the bumper and then under the sway bar Jake has to leave Tomorrow morning and he won't be able to be here to wrap the new girl that's coming. It was supposed to arrive today Seems like it's not gonna get here So he's gonna wrap it this grill to kind of keep it as our emergency grill And then he's teaching me how to do it in case the other one does arrive. I can wrap it myself So you give me some pointers. What's the next step? I'm not Trying to melt it or burn it. I'm just I'm using the torch for heat. Let it cool off a little bit No stretching a little bit there. I'm just a tiny bit. How am I gonna be able to do this by myself when you're gone? You can we can FaceTime Mateo ran into an issue with getting the grill shipped in on time I stayed an extra day just to see if it would come in so I could wrap it for him Unfortunately is not here. So I gave Mateo a little crash course on how to wrap the grill and Hopefully he's got it. He's got it No What's the problem We ran into a small issue. The bed is a little tweaked because Ken drives this truck and uses it no surprise to that, but we found that there's a Larger gap between the bed and the cab here and then on the other side You can only stick the tip of your fingers So what we're gonna do is remove the deck drawer system and try to adjust the bed And that way we can get our rear bumper to line up correctly. So we're gonna get going on that In order to fix the problem we had to unbolt the bed This allowed us to kind of move the bed around and adjust it to where we felt like we needed it to install our rear bumper It was just really hot and I couldn't move so I was doing okay, but I would hate for you guys to leave me All right, so now that we got the deck drawer system out We're just gonna loosen up all six of these bed bolts so we can adjust the bed once it's where we like it Tighten it back down Okay Right, it's not sitting down from the factory. They put these little pins in to help align the bed just on the assembly line Unfortunately, they're kind of limiting our Adjustment on the bed. So we're just gonna cut them off Just to give us a little more adjustability. It's they don't do anything really once the beds bolted down You got it out, that's it Yeah, I think we're gonna have to I was gonna pop that last the pin off in the back to just to make it easy After doing this it took it took a little longer than we thought but after doing that we were able to get the bed lined up enough to where we could fit the rear bumper and Actually when it was all said and done the rear bumper fit pretty good and we're happy with how it turned out Morning of day four here game plan for today We're gonna lift the vehicle up Alex and Brian are gonna work on the skid blades while the Optop Overland boys Micah and Grant are working on prepping the roof rack and the bed rack So they'll start installing that once we drop the vehicle they'll start with the roof rack then the bed rack while Brian and Alex will come to the back to install the swing out and Finalize the deck system I just checked the tracking number for the grill and it's showing that it's not gonna arrive until tonight at 9 p.m Which means that I'm gonna have to finalize wrapping it in the morning I'm a little bit nervous for that, but I think I got it Jake taught me really well. So we'll see what happens So we just finished up installing our front skid on the Tacoma We're gonna get ready to install our transmission skid and our transfer case skid few things to note about these is they fully cover the catalytic Converter yet. They do have cutouts so they can still breathe Then we do have an exhaust relief right here and we have our c-channel crossmember So when you do come down on rocks, it doesn't crush the skids into the bottom of the vehicle And now we're gonna get ready to install these on the truck One cool feature we have on our access plate for changing your oil is these bolt protector rings So your bolt goes in this hole and as you can see, it's inset and that way if you You know get on some rocks or something and gouge this area You're not going to ruin your bolt and you can easily take it out and put it back on for changing your oil I'm Michael with up top overland. I'm the engineer behind the bed racks and roof racks that we make today We're going to be installing our alpha series roof rack and EX and a full height truss on a second gen Tacoma So one of the biggest advantages of our rack is the design at the front is an actual splitter We don't contact the roof of the vehicle at all We're catching wind that's coming in from the front we push it underneath the rack and let it use the aerodynamics of the vehicle and the front slope is designed to Push wind up and over the things that you have loaded to the rack with this Light setup that we have in here. We're able to adjust come inside I'll show you we're able to adjust vertically the load bar here that this light bar is going to mount to We can raise it up and down to get it perfect to where we want it to not just close But exactly where we want it to be so that doesn't block any light transmission and that we can line up any light bar Perfectly so with this thing set like this Let's set this guy in and it's gonna line up over the hardware and it's it's dead level with this So that the angle of the splitter actually just pushes the wind and the light bar starts to work with it I'm gonna bolt the light bar in place we'll play with the angle adjustment on it with a level to make sure that it's perfectly parallel to the front of the vehicle and Then we'll start snapping in the quick wire harnesses that keep the lighting and wiring Protected inside the rack make it plug-and-play So a lot of engineering goes into the roof racks to make sure that you can put them together in your driveway and put them on the truck with basic hand tools, but one of the things that People seem to have a lot of issues with are the electrical and the lighting for the for the light bars in the front and the pods on the side So we've developed a harness that you can buy for these roof racks It is literally snap in plug-and-play solution for all of the lighting in the front and the sides And it'll connect to the the back racks over the bed racks or the toppers as well. So this is the quick wire We make these in-house. They've got these little snap clips in them that align to the holes that are machined in the racks So you take this guy, it's gonna set your front one and then you just follow yourself down snap it in This hole is the pass-through for the main connectors So you're gonna feed those through there and then the purple is gonna snake through this load bar and come out on the other side for that scene pod While the gray one is gonna shoot across this load bar and come out on the other side that keeps all the wiring inside the rack hidden The main cable stay is behind the armor keeps everything concealed So you don't have to worry about trail damage and you don't have to do any soldering cutting or crimping These plugs will pigtail back to the additional rack that's going at the rear of the truck these remaining connections will drop off For your driver's side rear light any rear lighting that you might have on the roof rack and Then the purple and the black are gonna feed through the load bar To the other side of the roof rack for the right rear passenger rock right? So the bed rack goes together in three major assemblies your side one side two and then your load bars that bridge across You'll set this up on the ledge. The legs will rest even on the ledge Then you're gonna line your cargo tracks up to your rail system and start all your hardware You won't leave everything loose until you're finally put together Then you square everything up and tighten it down Now we're gonna take this thing up over the front of the truck and put the roof rack on to the cab All right. We have the grill. So as you guys can see here This is a stock grill and then this is the one that we're gonna be installing is the TRD pro style grill But we needed the bezel To be removed from the stock one, which we couldn't do off the aftermarket one that he had on in order to install it I'm gonna do that right now And then I'm gonna wrap it. That's gonna be the challenging part Oh My god, I just forgot everything he said While I'm working on wrapping the grill Alex is about to start installing the snorkel My guy and grant just finished installing the roof rack right now. They're working on installing the bed rack And over here Brian and Eric are working on installing the swing out So now we got the swing arm installed we just install this little strut What that does is when the swing arm is loaded with the tire and fuel and all your other accessories It just helps opening the swing arm. We also got the latch on and Adjusted and one nice thing about this latch is it'll never get harder to use The other thing is that we use these Delrin pads And what that does is it actually supports the swing arm on this side and it helps it from wiggling All right, guys, so I'm at the point where I think it's safe to cut it in here. We've gotten this far. I Really don't want to mess up now All right, fellas. I'm done wrapping the grill. It did take me a couple of hours to make it happen I really wanted to make sure that I got it, right I asked the team if they saw any of my imperfections and they did find some of them But it wasn't enough for me to rewrap it So it's time for us to put the grill on the truck and see how the front end looks All right. Let's see how this thing looks That looks awesome. Alex. What do you think man? I think it looks great Our dual wall construction gives us a channel to conceal and keep the wiring safe The bigger these rigs and builds get the more lighting they have on the sides the front the higher current demand We designed our racks to house those wiring harnesses and keep everything protected when you're on the trip Right, Micah and Grant just finished installing the all-new Expedition Essentials recovery board quick mount right now I have it unlocked the way it works is you get your max racks place them right here and Then you have a key. All you do is Put in that key and lock it in place cover that look how sick that looks We're on the final stretch here Micah and Grant just finished installing all the accessories around the bed rack and Install the CVT tent right now. We have to install one more Pelican case the license plate The rear view camera and need to mount one more tire and this truck will be finished Ken I cannot wait for you to see this Jordan what's happening today? We are doing a huge a huge overhaul Morning of day five they finished buttoning up the truck. Is there anything else missing? I think we're good to go. Awesome, man Ken is outside. He's waiting. He's really anxious and so am I do you think he's gonna like it? I think he's gonna love it. Let's go show him. All right, he's right outside Let's go meet him. How are you my man? Happy birthday How are you feeling I'm nervous I've built my truck to look the way it is and I've put it all in your hands and I'm just like Well, dude, we worked really hard on it and we can't wait to get your reaction I don't know what it looks like. They've told me they've wrapped it I have all new armor on it Mateo's telling me I need a tattoo that this thing looks so badass that I'm gonna want to like change my whole physical Look as well to match the look of my truck Ken the moment of truth is here my man. It's happening. Let's open those doors. Oh my gosh Those headlights dude those headlights. Oh my gosh that color dude Come on nice Look at that thing Whose wheels are these dude? Those aren't my wheels You guys killed it. Dude. This rear bumper is freaking ridiculous I love these sliders like everyone always is like you need a vertical slider, but I got kids They got to put their feet somewhere. Yeah, and we got the skid plates Yeah All the way back all the way back the attention to details everything follows the line of the Tacoma and just compliments everything Check out the latch What a strut even yeah a freaking strut Alex really a strut. Oh my god Dude that thing is solid that's not going anywhere. I Always struggled with getting things in and out of my truck, which again I loved the storage but having this open is just it's you know, it's completely different Like the whole truck is different this really my truck Mateo So I'll have Micah from up top over and go over some of the features and I'll let him talk about it 19 inch full height bedrack. Yeah, two by two load bar to support the weight of the bigger tent Yeah, you've got an EX on top of it. Yeah, you've got heretic lights all the way down the side Yeah on the same switches that you used to be on so you don't learn a new perfect. Okay This guy's docked up here connected through here Yeah, all your wiring harnesses are plugged in and concealed all the way through the inside of the rack. It's so clean man The rear harness connects to the front harness through here. Yeah, there's no more wiring running through the bed Oh my god Any of these spaces you got max tracks mounts on the side plenty of storage on the inside to mount things to? Yeah, the other side you got your propane tank. We've got it flip so you can still get your hose connected to it Yeah, let me show you the axe and shovel front runner mount for axe and shovel. These are snowboard binding now So no more rubber clips rubber craps. You literally snap this off ratchet it down and it does not move So this is a small detail, but I'm just gonna point it out. I love that. I love the handles Yeah as getting up and up into my truck I'm constantly I'm constantly getting up here and just to have a Handle getting a freaking handle right here. So let's move to the rack. Yeah got your pelican cases up here Yeah Loaded this a half-inch higher than the roof rack so that the tent doesn't sit here and bang and bounce and vibrate and all that Crazy stuff. You've got a two-tone bronze with a matte clear. Yeah black stealth on the outer This is all UV 10-year power man. We do that in-house. That is awesome. Tell me about this You know one thing I'm a bigger guy. I weigh 250. I've met I've seen plenty of pictures of guys standing on the roof racks I would never even consider doing that because I'm a big guy. Could I could I stand on this? Like like actually like right now I can get up and like feel confident let's get up there and climb Yeah, we will we will get up there really like like the design is like such that it's so stable It'll hold us up. It distributes the weight across the whole thing and we use aluminum for the construction of the rack Yeah keeps it lightweight, right? Yeah still use a steel foot Wow So it distributes the weight to the outside edges. Is this thing gonna whistle? No, it's gonna be dead son Like that's not gonna whistle. So see the split. Yeah, we don't touch your roof. No, no, no Oncoming air still going under here flow truck use them the way Toyota said you should yeah, this front is for these guys I love it. It's gonna cut the way. I love it the top of it. Amazing. That's freaking awesome Dude, I hope you're happy dude. I love this. Thank you so much. Oh, man, you're ready to take it on an adventure Can't wait. Let's go dude. Let's do it. So we're gonna take Ken out to the Badlands of South Dakota Super cool Awesome bluffs and a lot of rolling hills makes for great photos and it's just a good time for off-roading See these bluffs over here, that's where we're headed we're gonna be driving right on Over all I'm super impressed with this build I know how much work went into building it originally and I'm looking at all the details on the truck now and I could not be More appreciative for everyone that came together Worked and collaborated to build this beast. I am ready to take this out in the first adventure All right, Takoma beast. So we just got done with the build. We brought you guys out to the Badlands Man the Badlands is incredible all these views the landscapes the build though insane You shot through my expectations, man We're so happy to hear that and we look forward to doing another build with guys me too, man We want to know what you guys thought of Kent's overhaul Make sure to leave a comment on the comment section down below If you guys enjoyed this video make sure to hit that like button if you haven't already done So make sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next video