T100 Fender Liners from Rad Rubber & ...

Back in December 2017 I bought a used (obviously) 1998 T100 SR5 A/T 4WD that lacked splash guards/fender liners. I’ve read posts here and all over the internet about engine splash guards. Yes, as of today, the factory guards for my model are still available, but for about $150 for a pair without hardware and before taxes and shipping. Uhm.. Please, no.

So I put on my best DIY hat and scoured the internet for appropriate and appropriately priced materials. I pretty quickly landed on 1/8”-thick, 60A-strength neoprene rubber as the ideal material in every way but one... cost of raw materials. Every internet source of said material was a trade-off between buying just enough, but paying a premium for the material to be cut off someone’s bulk roll or buying a bulk roll of my own at a reasonable rate but having enough for 10 vehicles. Let me stop here to answer the question that’s nagging the OCD types who answer all questions with additional questions... I have no idea if these materials are available in a nearby brick-n-mortar business. That kind of research doesn’t fit well into my current daytime occupation.

Back on topic, my internet research came to a head with the discovery that almost every other Toyota truck owner can buy a full set of splash shields that are custom cut for their application from the previously identified perfect material from a company called Rad Rubber. (radrubberdesign.com) Unfortunately, the best option for me as a T100 owner — on their entire site — was to use the “Contact Us” link to inquire about where they source their raw materials...

A few minutes later I noticed that I somehow missed a call and I had a voice message that started like, “Oh, yes. Message is for John. John this is Eddie with Red Rubber. you sent an email..” My first thought wasn’t — as you probably suspect — ‘Wow! That was fast!’. It was, “I wonder if he knows that speech to text calls his company Red Rubber?”

Anyway, I called him back immediately... and I got him on his cell enroute to some business thing... Ends up Eric isn’t just their customer service guy.. he owns the company! I know it’s a niche product in a niche market but it’s always nice to deal with a company like that.

Anyway, Eric proposed that I make a poster board template for him, mail it to his office, and he’d return a quote for me, that should be within the ballpark of the other models sold on his site, differing only in proportion to actual size of the final pattern. I liked the idea enough to eagerly consent, so we talked about 10 minutes more. He answered a few of my questions and clarified how to make the template in a way that the final product would fit uniformly on its fasteners, avoiding heat sources, & generally be understandable/reproducible on his end.

I’m posting this to motivate myself to follow through on this possibility, because I’ve got a few other higher priority projects on my T100 right now... Before you argue, let me say, my T100 has been on jackstands for almost 2 years!

I’m back working on it, now, after an extended hiatus. I’ve got gallons of Royal Purple and boxes of Billsteins and boxes of Spicer and boxes of MOOG. UPS says I’ve got a box from Marlin Crawler arriving within the hour. The Post Office says there’s one from Torq Masters due today by 8 pm. Not to be outdone, Amazon says something called a ‘no-slip’ will arrive today, a Denso 471-1218 should arrive tomorrow, & despite my intention to set the T100 aside on the Lord’s Day, a DENSO 280-0166 is scheduled to arrive Sunday! But the plan for tomorrow can’t be to make templates for fender liners because my young and quite strong nephew is available to assist, so the plan is to get the transmission/transfer-case hanging from its own hardware once again, for the first time in over a year!

But I should be able to get these templates done sometime in the following week. So, IF — in the next 10 days — I don’t update this to say that I’ve mailed my templates off to Rad Rubber, please feel free to harass me about it!