1997 Toyota Tacoma Cover Truck Rebuild - Back From The Dead

Interior And Stereo Build
(16-26) One of the biggest challenges of this rebuild, aside from the fast approaching deadline, was juggling the paint and interior buildups side by side and simultaneously. Moving inside, they don't call him Adam "Hand Made" for nothing. His knuckle tattoo even reads "HAND MADE". Adam worked his magic beginning with building a custom gauge pod to house Dakota Digital gauges in the newly formed instrument cluster. Next, he built a dash mount to house an in-dash TV and control unit for the sound system. Jumping around inside the cab, Adam began to assemble the sub boxes and amp racks. Although, with only a few pictures to show you the progress, this is no easy task. This sort of custom work takes hours and hours of measuring, trial and error, and patience to make sure everything will fit perfectly after its fiberglassed, smoothed, and painted.

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Laying Down Some Art
(27-39) Just like with the audio install, these recap pics makes it look fairly easy, but custom paint work takes a lot of time, patience, and talent. Matt made a ton of skull stencils to help him with the outlines and to ensure that each skull had some diversity. Strapped with his airbrush, he spent hours and hours spraying the black skull graphics that adorn the Tacoma front to back. Each graphic contains a skull at the cusp with a special personality representing different people and special characters of the buildup. The stencils allow for outlining, but the true freehand detail is what really brings each skull to life. The airbrushing is continued throughout the door jambs, and even the tailgate jamb to add that extra little bit of detail to the final product. After many tedious hours of airbrushing, it was finally time for Matt to spray some candy. SEM Color Horizons offers many vibrant colors and candies for one-of-a-kind custom jobs like this. With the paintjob coming together Matt could go now unmask the graphics and finishing stripping the graphic and adding final shadows and detail to give it that 3-D effect. To really go the extra mile, even the frame and suspension was powdercoated, painted, and airbrushed with skulls throughout.

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Final Assembly
(40-43) Matt also painted all the custom interior pieces that Adam built and made sure that the same detail carried into the cab. On schedule with a few more all-nighters left, it was time for the final reassembly. Adam got to work wiring everything and getting the stereo system fitted and mounted. The door panels, dash, electronics, center console, and the rest of the custom interior was assembled and wired for function. The crew worked hard getting everything back together and detailed out. The best part was Gunner, the owner of the Tacoma, had not been allowed to see his truck until it was fully completed. Nothing brings tears to a grown man's eyes quite like the first time he gets to see his dream turned into reality!