toyota

Overlanding Through The Mall Parking Lot

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Hey everyone, been awhile…again…I’m glad to be back to show off something different than what I’m use to. This is my girlfriend’s newly modded 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD-Sport 4×4 overlanding hotness. She’s been wanting to do something on her Tacoma for awhile and with the start of her employment at Gatto’s Tires Service she got some great discounts on some parts.

After much research and putting what her wants and needs are she settled on Rough Country 4 inch lift. We had to comb through hundreds of threads on forums on people’s opinion on them. It’s more of a mixed bag on people’s reaction, it was hard to figure out from people who do off-roading every weekend that needs a better setup to the person that just wants the tougher look of a lifted truck without breaking the bank. This setup from Rough Country works for what she needs.

With that done we looked to wheels and it was pretty easy. She went with Rotiform SIX-OR wheels 17×9 in matte black. We were looking at a set of wheels from Stealth Custom but they only release wheels every 3-4 months and they go out fast! So we’ll pick up a set later down the road but these Rotiform’s are amazing looking on trucks.

For tires she ended up with Toyo Tires Open Country M/T in 33s, such an aggressive look and surprisingly not loud on the road. No rubbing, but if we decide to go 35’s we’ll need to do the cab mount chop, but for right now it looks amazing.

Till this past Sunday when we were cleaning out the garage I saw the roof box and decided to see how it will look on the Taco. The girlfriend was not pleased with my suggestion but I as soon as I was done mounting it to the roof, the clouds parted and a ray of golden sunshine came from the heavens and it looks overlandmazing! Enjoy the pictures everyone and I hope you like the new truck to our growing stable.

Flickr Hi-Res Overland Taco Poser Set

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Wekfest 2017

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What a way to end the year with an awesome show like Wekfest. This is my 2nd year attending and plenty of amazing builds, with a lot of them seeing for the first time. With this show concentrating more on the builds you definitely saw a much higher caliber of builds than most shows that Florida hosts. A lot of people bring their A game to this, with plenty of unique and creative takes on cars. Not going to bore you with the details, so i’ll let my photos speak for themselves. I guess we’ll see what 2018 holds for me, The Rolex is up in the air for me right now, hopefully I can get in again but it’s not looking in my favor. Thank you so much everyone that has peeked through my post and photos, it does mean a lot. Till next time.

Flickr Hi-Res Wekfest 2017 Set

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Simply Clean Nine

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It’s been a quite year on the photography side of my life. I’ve had lots of personal events happen to me throughout the year, not to go too much into detail but I almost died do to some issues with my liver. But here I am, alive, strong, and ready to get back to what I love doing. For this year’s Simply Clean it would be 11 months since I’ve done anything with my camera. Had to break in the new year with a good piece of glass to rent. I’ve always wanted to try out Sigma’s Art Series Lenses, so I picked up their 35mm Art Lens and wow it is amazing! I wish I had the USB lens dock to further calibrate the lens to my 1Dmark3 but it worked really well out side of the box. Sadly the weather didn’t play 100% so it kept wanting to focus on the clouds on the paint of the vehicles. Plus being almost a year out of practice it took a few dozen shots to get back into groove of things.

The event itself though was amazing, I think this year I saw more friends than ever. I can’t thank Nickoli enough for creating this event and making it better and better every year. Since the first event I always felt I was home surrounded by friends with one passion. Enough of me blabbing, expect one more coverage next month for Wekfest. Again, enjoy the snaps!

Flickr Hi-Res Simply Clean Nine Set

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The End of The Year Wekfest Sauce

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Wekfest has been a big name for car show events for a number of years now. Most of you have seen coverages of their San Francisco / San Jose event and has seen some amazing car builds the west coast has to offer. Wekfest back in 2011 started a USA tour to bring true car enthusiast together under one roof and show off actual full car builds rather than seeing wheels, bags, and calling it a day. I was honored by the Wekfest staff to show off my own build at the event. It’s far from a full build from what I saw at the event but it is slowly getting there. Lots of mixture of vehicles the Wekfest staff choose for the event and I think it was a great way to end the year. Hopefully I caught enough of the show so you guys can see how many awesome builds us East Coast enthusiasts have brewing. Till next time guys which I think will be for Rolex 2017. Enjoy the pictures and show some love like always.

Flickr Hi-Res Wekfest 2016 Set

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Clean Culture 2016 Meet Up

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It’s been awhile everyone! Well, to the one or two who still follow this site. I don’t blame you, but thank you for still sticking around. Hopefully I’ll be updating this a little more as there are a few events coming up.

Well this past weekend I attended this year’s Clean Culture Meetup at the West Palm Beach convention center. Quite a bit different from the other events this year so far. it was different as I didn’t have to wake up at 6am to get ready and drive a few hours out to the meet location. It started at a sun high’s afternoon at 3pm, so I took a nice morning to check over the car and then at noon I set off to SoFL. Thankfully as I just got off the Florida Turnpike my good friend Sparky from Cloud9ab just got there as well. I pulled the good ole I know so-n-so inside to the front person at the gate to go on through. It was a good meet overall, it’s been a few months since my last car meetup thing, so it was good to get out clean the ole girl and show off for a bit. Enjoy the set everyone!

Flickr Hi-Res Clean Culture 2016 Meetup Set

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Riverside Chatta Pre-Meet

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2016 so far as been a great start for my camera. It’s been snapping away like crazy and this past weekend was no short of that. I packed up my Audi, aired up, and headed north to Chattanooga, TN for the first annual Riverside Car Meet. This was my first time in Chattanooga and the 9 hour driver was well worth it. I just want to thank the whole staff, I usually don’t travel this far for a first car show/meet, but the over 4 month of planning I knew it was going to be a big deal. Plus the location was an awesome idea for holding about a 100 top of the line cars with vendors.

I’ll get into the show next post, this right now is about the quick little pre-meet friday evening on a long hill street. Pretty awesome to see 40-50 cars on one long street and amazing food and drinks over at The Bitter Alibi. Enjoy the pictures everyone, I’ll be post the main meet pictures next week.

Flickr Hi-res 2016 Riverside Pre-Meet Set

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2016 Titan Motorsports Open House

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This past week Titan Motorsports open their doors for their annual open house. Every year, Titan Motorsports holds a dyno show, car show, and bikini girl show…what better way to spend a gorgeous florida Saturday? Lots of nice car’s this year inside the Titan compound, especially my boy’s S2000. Good thing I didn’t take Summer, she would have been jealous and looking at me mad that she isn’t looking that good. It was a bit weird driving my newly bagged Audi Avant for the first time to a car show and leaving my S2000 in the garage. Enjoy the pictures everyone.

Flickr Hi-Res 2016 Titan Motorsports Open House Set

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Simply Clean Family 7

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Well it’s that time again, for gorgeous cool weather, smell of fresh wax and tire shine and of course la brujha. If you don’t know what the brujha is, you’re lucky. Apart from the drinking, Simply Clean goes deeper than the average car show. If we go back a few years back Nickoli always stressed the importance of Family. With social media getting bigger and bigger so does your friend circle. Simply Clean with how big and popular it is, brings everyone under one roof. Thankfully this year the rain stayed away and everything felt even more organized than the previous years. It was great talking to old friends and meeting new people. Always taken back when I’m walking around taking pictures and someone new stops me to say what’s up cause they follow me or know of me because of my car. That’s what keeps me coming to Simply Clean shows, you are always guaranteed and awesome time. Big shout-out to all of the staff at Simply Clean, much much love!

Full Flickr Set – Simply Clean 7

Titan Motorsports VI Annual Open House

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It’s been 3 years since I’ve been to my first Titan Motorsports open house and its crazy how much has changed, especially with the scene. It’s nice to see a power house like Titan Motorsports bring in a good mixture of cars. But the real reason wasn’t just for a meet, it was to raise money for their favorite charity, The Just in Queso foundation founded by Tijuana Flats. They help the near by community with food straight from Tijuana Flats. Last year they raised over $14k, which is amazing! But this year they want to beat it! Hopefully we’ll get word soon that they did. But I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, enjoy everyone!

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Simply Clean 6

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Another year and another amazing time at this year’s Simply Clean event. We come to Destination Daytona at 7:30am and the long lines were already forming outside. This year was a little different for me personally because I was secretly working on my car for the past 3 weeks as my full fender flare kit from Circuit Garage finally came in almost a year and 3 months of waiting. You had no idea how hard it was not posting any updates on my progress, only my girlfriend Roxie knew about it. My boys at De’Caudella’s auto body shop did an amazing job on Summer and with the attention she got at CCW Pre-Meet and Simply Clean 6 show it was all worth it!

The show it self was good as well, Nickoli always puts the right mix of cars inside the pavilion. As always its the meeting of old friends from all over the east coast that you don’t regularly see is awesome. I also met a lot of new faces too from my instagram which was always nice to put faces behind the screen names. Thanks again Nickoli and the rest of the staff at Simply Clean, you made another successful show. Time to see what’s in store for 2015! #sc7prep

Full Simply Clean 6 Set – https://www.flickr.com/photos/djdorifto/sets/72157649116225427/