'06 Tundra DC - We'll call it the "Pre-Lander" Build

murphdawg

New member
Well I finally did it! After years of lurking here and various facebook pages, I pulled the trigger on a first-gen tundra.

I've had tons of Toyotas over the years, but never really had a tundra in mind until I started stumbling across them in the overlanding community. Although still scarce in this world they still have a cult like following as many of you know. I looked all across the country and was open to flying somewhere and driving back. I'm currently in the PNW area and ended up finding a truck locally down in Portland, about 150 miles away. It kinda just worked out and all the stars aligned at once, including selling my Highlander Hybrid for way above what I thought it would be worth. Hitched a ride with my buddy and down to Portland we went.

Truck had probably 30+ professional quality photos and was at a dealer who seemed to know what he was talking about in regards to Toyotas, he had a good size inventory of a few tundras, sequoias, tacomas and even landcruisers. Truck was exactly as pictured, virtually no frame rust. History proves it spent all of its life in california and nevada, and it was solid. Dealer is the type of guy who does timing belt and water pump on every vehicle they get unless its documented to have just been done. I inspected everything and work was up to my standards, or so I thought? I'll get to that in a little bit.

Went home with the truck and couldn't be happier, although lots of little stuff to change immediately, I was the owner and excited!

Got home, noticed the ac did work! After about 2 days of diagnostics i figured out that the ground screw on the compressor had been removed, timing belt mechanic insists he never touched it, oh well it got fixed.

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murphdawg

New member
Started going through pretty quickly with all the basics

- LED headlights
- interior/exterior LED conversion

Then started to lay out what I wanted to do for lighting. I went the the offroad custom design 8 gang switch mount panel, can't say enough about this stuff. I ended up grabbing the dual port panels to do power to the rear doors eventually.

From there I did 52'' curved lightbar on the roof w/ APOC industries mounts, 22 inch lightbar on the bumper and pod lights in the rear bumper.IMG_2935.jpg
 

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sn_85

Observer
Love where this build is going. I just picked up a 2006 DC Limited myself and it'll be more of a camper build, so quite the opposite of a pre-runner build lol. Still nice to a see another first gen build thread on here and I hope to start mine soon. Out of curiosity, where did you get your Tundra from? Looks like a place I may need to keep my eye out on in the future.
 

kybray44

New member
Love where this build is going. I just picked up a 2006 DC Limited myself and it'll be more of a camper build, so quite the opposite of a pre-runner build lol. Still nice to a see another first gen build thread on here and I hope to start mine soon. Out of curiosity, where did you get your Tundra from? Looks like a place I may need to keep my eye out on in the future.

My guess is from Jordan Motorsports in Portland. They advertise pretty often in Craigslist and will have lower mileage 1st Gens often. https://www.jordanmotorsport.com/used-cars-portland?model=Tundra .
 

murphdawg

New member
Love where this build is going. I just picked up a 2006 DC Limited myself and it'll be more of a camper build, so quite the opposite of a pre-runner build lol. Still nice to a see another first gen build thread on here and I hope to start mine soon. Out of curiosity, where did you get your Tundra from? Looks like a place I may need to keep my eye out on in the future.

I bought it down in Portland but not at Jordan Motorsports, it was at a different independent small dealer in the city. Couldn't be happier and even while I personally think I paid a premium, they have only increased in value. Not that I really care
 

murphdawg

New member
Great looking truck! Where did you source the wheels?

Believe it or not it was a local facebook marketplace guy. Russian dude and his father. They had a whole shop full of them. Already had the falken wildpeaks mounted on and everything! Super stoked on that find
 

murphdawg

New member
Spent the better half of a month trying to find an OEM grille for a decent price. I went diving into forums and kinda
came up with a crazy idea to frankenstein a tacoma TRD grill into the OEM shroud. Turns out that had been done
before, so I opted for a 2014 Tundra grille. Turned out exactly how I wanted!


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Kpack

Adventurer
Haven't seen that one done before. Turned out nice, and of course the Toyota racing stripes are a good touch. What did you use to attach the two pieces of grille and does it seem solid?
 

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