As promised guys, I'm going to do a quick review on the fiberglass bed that I bought from Corey (Slacker) at ToyotaFiberglass.com (Precision 4x4). Keep in mind that I'm not your typical "build a truck to wreck it on rocks and trails" kind of guy. My intended use for my truck will be a semi daily driver, trips to the beach, hunting, light very low risk off-roading and other things of that nature. I've always wanted one of these First Generation Toyota Pickups and I have invested a lot of time and money in bringing it back to life so I intend to baby it and keep it looking good for as long as I own it. That being said, here we go:
Cost:
Guys and gals, you get what you pay for. When you spend $500 on an old original steel bed then you'll likely get $500 worth of rust and spend hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars and countless hours getting it to an acceptable condition. I searched the entire country almost nonstop for nearly two years for a decent rust free original bed with absolutely no luck at all before I got up with Corey to build a fiberglass bed for me. An original Toyota steel bed would be great, but they come at a price that can't be measured with dollar signs. Even if I found a good original bed, I would likely have rust issues later on down the road since there are clearly flaws in the construction of Toyota beds given the fact that nearly all of the original factory beds are rusted in the same places - along the seams where the skits meet the bedsides, under the bed rails, around the tailgate hinges, at the seam where the wheel wells meet the bed floor, etc. If you have a rusted bed, then it will be in one of those places, if not all at some point. Fiberglass possesses an amazing characteristic...IT DOES NOT RUST! After dealing with all the metal work on my cab and frame, I was sold on doing the fiberglass bed. Unless you are an expert metal worker, you would feel the same way. With all that considered, the extra cost for a fiberglass bed was justified for me by negating the future headaches of dented steel, rust and bodywork. Here's the breakdown of the bed cost for those of you who were wondering:
$1,895.00 --> Shortbed Box
$450.00 --> Tail Gate
$80.00 --> Tail Gate Hinge Core
$29.95 --> Hardware Kit (For flares, taillights, bed mounts, markers, etc)
$40.00 --> Fuel Door and Lock
$100.00 --> Tailgate Hardware (Handle, latches, strikers, etc)
$500.00 --> Freight
$68.00 --> Crate
$80.00 --> Customs
$3,242.95 --> TOTAL
Now before everybody gets their panties in a wad, let me explain a few things. Unless somebody doesn't know what they have, there is no way in hell that you would find a near perfect bed for any less than $1,000 (Although I have seen people get really lucky) so $1,895 is actually rather reasonable for a read-to-paint bed in my book. Also, keep in mind that I had a crappy stepside bed on my truck and I had absolutely no factory bed parts so I was either going to have to get them from Corey or find them somewhere else. I chose to have him build me a complete bed that is pretty much ready to go instead of searching for parts myself. Obviously if your budget is limited or you have several of the parts that I didn't have then your cost comes down. This bed was also shipped clear across North America so $500 in freight seems like a rather reasonable deal to me. If you live up in the Northwest, you might consider heading to Corey's shop and picking it up yourself. At this point in my build, $3,242 is starting to become a drop in the bucket compared to what I have spent so far - If anybody tells my wife that I will hunt you down!
Pros, there are a lot:
Shipping - rather quick considering the distance. This bed traveled over 2,800 miles in less than 10 days and arrived on time in excellent condition. Only shipping damage was a little bit of the epoxy rubbed off from moving a little in the crate, but that's nothing to me. Corey crated it up very well using about 25 lbs of screws - the crate would certainly rust away before it ever rotted! Corey also handled all of the customs for me as well.
Light weight - The bill of lading had it weighing in at 380 lbs crated. I'm guessing that after I removed all the lumber and the 25lbs of screws that it probably comes in around 350lbs. I'm not sure how much a factory steel bed weighs, but it seems like the fiberglass bed would likely be lighter or similar. The trucker, my friend and I were able to push it off the freight trailer directly onto my truck backed up to the trailer and then my friend and I were able to get it off my truck and into the garage with no problems.
Bed floor - the bed floor is a flat and NOT corrugated like your typical bed floor. To me, this is a plus since I'd much rather have a flat bed floor over corrugated for looks and since it isn't going to be abused I don't care as much about the strength that corrugation provides. Corey can explain the construction and strength side of it, but the floor is rather thick and appears to be very strong.
Construction -
This thing is SOLID! Now granted, I have yet to mount it on my chassis, but the bed skirts, bed rails and tail gate are by no means flimsy.
The lines and dimensions are true and spot on to the original beds. I measured the width and height between the body lines on my cab and matched them up to the bed - I needed a tape measure that reads smaller than 1/16 of an inch to determine any differences.
Comes sprayed with epoxy sealer so after some touch up of any scratches caused during shipping it can be easily sanded and sprayed with a urethane surfacer primer and top coated.
Bed mounts/cross members are well reinforced
The fiberglass work on the outside panels is impeccable! Truly amazing that somebody can take fiberglass and resin to create something like this! Corey had warned me earlier that there will be waves in the panels because the original beds all had a bit of waviness in them and that's what he took the mold off of, but I have no clue what the hell he is talking about! I looked down the bedsides and they look damn near perfect (pictures below). I plan on shooting it with guide coat and blocking it to see if I need to straighten anything out, but from what I can see I don't think it will be necessary. The tail gate appears to be very rigid. I put a little bit of weight on it to see if it would flex at all and it didn't budge. I would assume at this point that it would at least take the abuse that any regular steel tail gate would.
Everything is pre-drilled for the tail lights, tail gate stays, tail gate strikers, fender flares and marker lights. The bed mount holes are not pre-drilled which I feel is better so that I can get it perfectly lined up before I drill them out myself
The hardware kit is spot on and cheap - GET THE HARDWARE KIT! For those of you that have bought hardware in the past, you know how expensive it can get and $30 for the hardware is the best you're going to do. Not to mention, I had no idea that there would be that much hardware involved in putting this thing together.
Cons, now the bad part. I'm not here to simply praise Corey for everything he did right since that wouldn't help you guys out, but there are a couple things that I would have asked him to do differently.
Fuel door (this isn't really Corey's fault) -
If I had to do it all over again, I would go with the Trekker style fuel filler pocket instead of the fuel door. In looking at it, I just think that it looks like a better design.
Fender flares (again, this isn't really Corey's fault) -
I would like to have the fender flares molded into the bed like how the front flares are stamped into the fenders so I don't have to use the rubber factory fender flares. I asked Corey about this, but he doesn't have the molds to do such a modification (and I don't have the money to pay him to make the molds to do it).
Bed interior and undercoating -
Corey uses an acrylic paint to spray the inside and underside of the bed. I am planning on spraying a bed liner in the bed and underneath so I'm not too certain that the liner will properly adhere to the acrylic paint. I'll likely have to sand it down with some 80 grit before shooting it. This by no means is a deal breaker, but had I known that is how he did it then I would have just asked him not to spray it.
Cost -
Yes, it is expensive. This is something that everybody is going to have to get over. If you want a good product, you're going to have to pay for it. While I consider Corey a friend of mine and an excellent asset to the YotaTech community, he is a businessman through and through. He does this for a living and apparently has a lot of success doing it. A good businessman doesn't discount his service or products just because a customer feels like the price is too steep.
Time frame -
For me, it wasn't a big deal to wait over 6 months for a bed since my build wasn't even ready for it yet. I placed my deposit back on October 31, 2013 to get in Corey's production line up. He told me that I would be looking at an April or May completion date and he stayed true to that promise. My bed actually came at the perfect time for my build. If you need a bed next week, you aren't going to be getting it from Toyota Fiberglass. The man is busy busy busy! Expect and plan for at least a 6 to 12 month wait, but it's obvious if that many people are going to him then the products must be good and it is. You could also use the wait as a budget plan. Corey allowed me to put down a deposit to get in the line up and then I just paid off the balance when the bed was almost done. I'm sure that he would let customers pay a little as at a time while you wait so it doesn't seem to hit your wallet as hard.
Bottom line folks, I am very pleased and if I had to do it all over again I definitely would. I talked on the phone with Corey several times over the past 6 months - we'd have half hour conversations about Toyotas and life in general. He's a really good guy and talks up his products to the point where he almost seems cocky, but he's not... I can tell you that he's just telling the truth. If any of you are looking to buy any products from Toyota Fiberglass, I would highly recommend do so! I'd like to give a shout out to Corey for his knowledge and craftsmanship - Thanks pal, you've got me one giant step closer to a dream!
Annnnnnd here are some pictures, I'm sure I'll add more as I progress:
From BC Canada:
To Maryland, USA:
Uncrated:
What waves??? I'm thinking that maybe Corey doesn't see straight...
yep, no waves...
Ok...so maybe this wasn't a "quick" review...
Scope out my build thread to see more about finishing the truck that features this bed at:
http://www.yotatech.com/f197/kawazx6...-build-264229/