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Call in the cavalry: An XR color change / restoration journey

Seamless

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Hello all. A crossroads came in my life a little more than 3 years ago. I needed a pickup to transport parts and tow occaisionally, commute 60miles per day reliably in style, and build more credit history to get into the home buying market. I always loved the x-runners and when I came across an 06 BSP in my area I didn't hesitate and bought it. She wasn't the most babied truck at that point; Various dents around the body, glued on ground-fx parts, sketchy paint on roof and hood. Not to mention Carfax showed 5 clutches and 3 owners at 115k miles....the back tires were bald and the U-joints sloppy. I knew I was inheriting a beat on burn-out machine. However she still ran great and hey, its a Toyota afterall haha. I made repairs and upgrades here and there from things I learned lurking in the forum shadows. First round was a tune up and new fluids all around followed by DT long tubes, URD Y-pipe, borla exhaust, intake, urd short shifter and MAF tuner. For the body I smoked all the lights, made a custom "floating" Toyota badge for the badgeless grill and added a reese hitch. I added a pioneer double din and TRD seat covers to the inside. All these things enhanced the XR experience, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I tore this bitch apart....

You see, I work in the high end hotrod industry where our clients builds can easily top $300k. Its my job to be a perfectionist and do everything along the build process but am primarily a painter /bodyman. I pondered why do I have multiple magazine cover cars and best paint awards under my belt but I always drive beat up turds? lol. Friends would say "that's just how it goes" but I had other ideas. As I had no intention of moving on from the XR and dig projects, I made a pact to myself that once she was paid off the overhaul would begin. That day came in November 2019. I figured that if I got all the major repairs handled and got my supplies together I could work like a maniac and do a full repaint while my job was closed for the Christmas/ new year break.

Picking a color - I've never been a fan of pearl black on cars. If there was another XR for sale in a diff color when I was buying I would have gone with that. The idea of pearl black is pleasant but in reality unless its kept super clean it just looks like dusty black IMO. This is where my willingness to go deep into this project was tested, do I really want to go through all the labor of painting jambs and blowing it all the way apart to do a color change? I considered just going with solid jet black on the outside and leaving the jambs alone because its close enough....then I thought of the crap I would get from guys at work. Plus I'm in FL and black gets HOT. So color change it is, but which? I drove around making mental notes of what looked good to me in traffic. Initially the top contenders were civic si sonic gray pearl or root beer metallic . These are all lovely colors but then the reality set in about material cost and application practicality. Bright colors, and effect colors (pearl/ metallic/ kandy) are much more expensive then solids. They also require a lot more attention to detail in the prep phase and typically the panels need to be sprayed together to have a uniform look. This was all a deterrent as I had ALOT of repairs to make just to get to baseline. This is when I turned my attention to solid colors, they're cheaper and parts can be sprayed at different times and prep doesn't have to be as precise to get a great outcome. I looked at the battleship gray on the new chargers and a solid orange from Subaru. That's when I saw a new tacoma in cavalry blue drive by....that was it! I called my paint supplier and got a little mixed to try.

Now with the color decision made the work could begin. The paint on the hood and roof was really bad and had to be stripped bare metal. Same with the front bumper and hood scoop. The complete body kit was removed, of course every single panel had torn mounting tabs, dents, scratches and the fender flare composite all had cracks. My go-to favorite auto body repair product is called panel bonding adhesive made by SEM. Its a two part epoxy that bonds everything. You can even make parts out of this stuff, ive done it. Every body panel on the truck had dents. I pin pulled what I could and body worked and primed everything. Next the full blow apart happened. Built a rolling cart for the bed and removed all the plastic interior panels. The door handles, mirrors, weatherstripping and black plastics came off next followed by the doors, fenders back bumper and bed. With a fully dismantled truck and Christmas break underway the time crunch was on. Everything was sanded, cleaned, masked and painted in batches and assembled in 2 weeks of long hour days fueled by redbull and leftover holiday ham sandwiches. Hands were leant by good buddies and my amazing understanding GF. I dyed all my black plastics with a product by Eastwood called plastic resurfacer, its fantastic. All the ground fx parts got new gaskets and clips and mirrors got new base gaskets. Before the bed went on, the frame got a pressure wash and black spray paint. The back barrels of the wheels got sprayed black and faces got plasti- dipped anthracite gray. Even the fender liners got painted.

Post paint upgrades - Well I couldn't just go this far and then put a bunch of old crap back on. I got a whole new set of smoked led tail lights and 3rd brake light. For the front I went with black housing headlights with led high/low beam and added tint film to those as well as eyebrows. The fog light lenses were painted a yellow/green tint and I fit and installed a complete grill kit (scoop, grill and bumper) and painted satin black. FYI those kits don't fit at all without cutting and bending. As far as performance I went with a Strictly Street big brake bracket kit and all associated lexus and tundra conversion parts. An s.o.s drop kit was also added along with a Tyger tonneau cover.

Now with a drivable truck again the next round was interior. I installed a full system with image dynamic components up front, coaxial in back, 5ch taco-tunes plug and play amp under driver seat and 8" skar audio dvc sub in a sealed box right behind the center console. Weather tech floor mats were added and sound deadener insulation to all the panels and roof. The audio sounds fantastic and highly recommend this setup.

Eventually boost and wheels will be on the menu …...Im just having so much fun!


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I will show the build process in thumbnails in the next post
 

mejbro

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You sure came outta the shadows in style! Truck looks great!!
Mad respect
 

BSP06XRU

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Looks great... awesome job!
Love the look of the "stoner" eyelids!

Out of curiosity, what do your coworkers at SMC think your "domestic" import?
 
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madtrucker

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I love the color. It looks great. They are nice trucks, it is cool to see this transformation. Keep it up! Love what you have done with it. Boost will be a nice fun thing for you. These trucks are keepers.
 

Seamless

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Looks great... awesome job!
Love the look of the "stoner" eyelids!

Out of curiosity, what do your coworkers at SMC think your "domestic" import?

Thanks! I think the headlights are too big and happy on the 2nd gen so the eyelids help make them appear smaller and more aggressive and line up with the grill nicely. In general people respect tacomas for being a solid truck, the guys at work are all for it as well. We have all types that work there. Some are diehard chevy, mopar or ford guys, a couple are honda tuners, one has a bmw but we all love building cars in general. At SMC we work on anything cool, its about the art as a whole. Just did an aston martin respray, stanced a Maserati, motorcycle swapped a mini cooper, built a luxury hummer, restored an Austin healey among all our normal domestic builds.
 

Seamless

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I love the color. It looks great. They are nice trucks, it is cool to see this transformation. Keep it up! Love what you have done with it. Boost will be a nice fun thing for you. These trucks are keepers.
I have a weakness for a bit of rarity. I hardly see XR's around Orlando and the fact I can still buy parts easily and throw some lumber in the back or pull a trailer makes it a win win. Even tho now I'm scared to scratch it and will prob just rent a uhaul if I need to move stuff lol. I have no intention of getting rid of her.

*Also URD SC kit on the way! Thought I could wait awhile but Im going all in hahaha
 

BSP06XRU

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Thanks! I think the headlights are too big and happy on the 2nd gen so the eyelids help make them appear smaller and more aggressive and line up with the grill nicely. In general people respect tacomas for being a solid truck, the guys at work are all for it as well. We have all types that work there. Some are diehard chevy, mopar or ford guys, a couple are honda tuners, one has a bmw but we all love building cars in general. At SMC we work on anything cool, its about the art as a whole. Just did an aston martin respray, stanced a Maserati, motorcycle swapped a mini cooper, built a luxury hummer, restored an Austin healey among all our normal domestic builds.

I agree 100% with you regarding the big headlights and matching the grill lines. I had the stoner eyelids on mine as well!

X-ROTM08.jpg
 
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Seamless

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Looks good! Those halo rings are a nice touch as well. Is that a custom light up front plate or reflective vinyl?
 

NHXRUNNER

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Looks good! Those halo rings are a nice touch as well. Is that a custom light up front plate or reflective vinyl?
The halo rings were part of the projector. The kit was sold here by an old vendor Luminous Solutions. As for the plate, he photoshopped the XRU logo over his actual license plate.
 
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