79 Series Mods Ranked: Best Bang-for-Buck Upgrades in 2026
Building a 79 Series can run the cost of a second vehicle if it gets away from you. Bull bars, canopies, lift kits, GVM upgrades and full electrical fitouts are real money - and they all have their place - but they are not the upgrades that quietly do the most for the daily ownership experience. The mods that change how the vehicle feels every time you walk up to it tend to sit under a few hundred dollars each, and they pay back in comfort, protection, and resale value for the entire life of the truck.
This guide ranks the ten best bang-for-buck mods for the 79 Series - judged on real-world improvement per dollar spent, not on Instagram appeal or build-thread bragging rights. The two upgrades that lead the list - the Cup Holder Armrests Pro and the Centre Console Armrest Lite - are also the two best-selling products on 70 Series Store, for the same reason they sit at the top here: they fix the daily frustrations Toyota left in the cabin for a fraction of the cost of anything else on the list. Every one of the ten is available directly from 70 Series Store, every one is DIY-installable, and every one starts earning its keep from the first drive after fitment.
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1. Cup Holder Armrests Pro
Toyota fits the 79 Series with door cards that have no integrated armrest and no useful drink holder. On a short drive it is a minor annoyance. On a 600 km day across corrugated road with a coffee in one hand and the shoulder resting against the hard plastic of the door, it becomes the upgrade owners reach for first. The Cup Holder Armrests Pro addresses both problems in a single bolt-on unit that mounts to the door card at the correct height for highway driving and retains a standard drink bottle or travel mug securely at speed.
This is the best-selling product on 70 Series Store for a reason that has nothing to do with marketing. The padded armrest surface takes the strain off the shoulder and elbow on long days behind the wheel, and the integrated cup holder is sized for the bottles people actually drink from - not a token recessed hole that drops a coffee on the first corrugation. At $197 fitted with no permanent modification to the vehicle, this is the cheapest meaningful comfort upgrade on the platform, and it is the one mod that quietly compounds across every single trip from the day it goes on.
2. Centre Console Armrest Lite
Toyota left the space between the two front seats of the 79 Series entirely empty. No armrest, no storage, no cup holders, no flat surface to work from - just a transmission tunnel and the gear stick. On a short drive this is tolerable. On a dual cab covering long distance with a passenger, two phones, sunglasses, a wallet, a takeaway coffee, and a handheld UHF, the absence of a centre console is a genuine daily frustration, and most loose items end up wedged into the seat fabric or sliding around on the floor.
The Centre Console Armrest Lite fills that gap for a fraction of the cost of a full aftermarket console build. It mounts to the factory floor tunnel without modification, provides a padded armrest at the correct height for highway driving, includes a storage compartment for keys, wallet and phone, and adds integrated cup holders that retain drinks at speed across corrugations. The Lite version covers the function of the Centre Console Armrest Pro at well under its price point, which is exactly the trade-off this guide is built around. Together with the Cup Holder Armrests Pro above, these two products are the highest-selling items on the site - bought by owners who have done the maths and worked out that fixing the daily cabin experience is the highest-return upgrade money can buy on this platform.
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3. Bonnet Gas Struts
Toyota still ships the 79 Series with a manual bonnet rod, which is the single oddest cost-saving in a vehicle that sells well above $70,000. Every time the bonnet goes up, the driver has to reach into a hot engine bay, locate the rod, slot it into a small bracket, and accept that the bonnet is now propped at a fixed height that may or may not suit what they are doing. For an owner who checks oil and coolant before a remote trip, services the vehicle themselves, or runs through a daily pre-start in a working environment, the bonnet rod is one of those small factory annoyances that adds up fast.
Bonnet gas struts replace the factory rod entirely with two pressurised dampers that mount to the existing bonnet hinge and body bracket points. No drilling, no permanent modification - installation takes around 30 minutes with a basic socket set and the bonnet sits at full open against any wind or gradient. At $107 fitted, this is one of the cheapest upgrades on the list and one of the most consistently appreciated. It is also one of those mods that becomes immediately permanent - once fitted, the factory rod ends up in a drawer and never comes out again.
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4. Soundproofing Door Seal Kit
The 79 Series cabin runs loud at highway speed and the door seal is the main culprit. Toyota fits a flat pinch-weld rubber that does not form a proper airtight seal between the door and the body, and as the rubber ages and hardens with UV exposure, the gap that was always there grows. The result is a roar of wind noise above 90 km/h that turns long drives into a fatigue exercise and makes phone calls and conversation harder than they need to be.
The Soundproofing Door Seal Kit replaces the factory rubber with a bulb-style seal that compresses fully when the door closes, sealing the gap almost entirely. Independent testing has measured noise reductions of up to 3.5 dB at 110 km/h - a meaningful difference in a cabin that was already overspecified for volume. The sealed door also stops fine red dust, diesel fumes, and outback smoke from entering the cabin, which anyone who works or tours in remote conditions notices on the very first trip after fitment. The kit fits pre-2024 models, installs in under an hour, and costs less than a tank of diesel. Few upgrades on any vehicle deliver this much measurable improvement for this little money.
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5. Gear Stick Extension
The factory gear stick on the 79 Series sits low and forward - fine for a short driver and tolerable on a short drive, but a small daily annoyance for anyone over about 180 cm or anyone covering long distances. Every shift requires reaching down and forward, and the angle puts the wrist in an awkward position. On a manual vehicle, where the shifter is in use constantly through stop-start driving, gear changes on hills, and engine braking on long descents, the geometry of the stick matters more than most owners expect until they fix it.
A gear stick extension raises the shift point by 80 to 120 mm, depending on the version, and angles the knob into a more natural position relative to the driver's hand. The result is shorter throws, less reach, and dramatically less fatigue across a long day behind the wheel. Installation is a five-minute job - unscrew the factory knob, thread the extension on, refit the knob. At $32, this is the cheapest mod on the list and the kind of upgrade that becomes invisible within a week of fitting because the driver stops noticing it, which is the highest compliment a mod can earn.
6. Heavy Duty Floor Mats
The factory carpet in a 79 Series has a shelf life measured in months once the vehicle starts doing the kind of work most owners buy it for. Carpet absorbs everything - water, mud, diesel, red dust, dog hair - and releases very little. One wet trip up a beach access or one return from a station job is enough to embed stains and odour into the fibres that no amount of cleaning recovers. Once the carpet is gone, the floor pan underneath ends up wet, the underlay starts to rot, and a buyer at trade-in time can smell the difference from outside the vehicle.
Custom-moulded heavy-duty floor mats - the Mudtamer range is the popular choice for 79 Series dual cabs - replace the factory carpet's role entirely. They are injection-moulded to the exact contour of the 79 Series floor pan, front and rear, and the raised edges contain spills and mud at the mat surface where they wipe out or hose off in seconds. Fitting a full set on day one of ownership means the factory carpet underneath stays as it left the factory, indefinitely, regardless of what the vehicle is used for. For a vehicle that holds its value as well as the 79 does, this is one of the cheapest forms of resale-value insurance available.
7. Dash Mat
Australian sun is unforgiving on a black plastic dash, and the 79 Series dashboard is one of the more expensive interior trim pieces on the vehicle. Once it starts to fade and crack from UV exposure - and it will, particularly in northern states - there is no cosmetic repair. The cracks spread, the surface starts to powder, and any glare from the windscreen is amplified by a degraded matt finish. A replacement dash from Toyota is a four-figure job once you factor in fitting.
A custom-fit dash mat from Sunland Protection sits flush over the factory dash, blocks direct UV from the windscreen, and reduces dash-to-windscreen glare on sunny days. It is shaped for the specific 79 Series dash variant - Toyota changed the dash twice across the platform's life, and Sunland builds a separate pattern for each. At $97 fitted, the dash mat costs roughly five per cent of a dash replacement and lasts the working life of the vehicle. The dual-purpose function of glare reduction makes it earn its keep on every clear day, not just over the long term.
8. Weather Shields
The 79 Series spends a lot of its life in places where the window is down - out on a station, working a site, queueing at a roadhouse in summer, or letting the dog have its head in the air. The factory has no provision for keeping rain, dust, or insects out when the window is cracked, which means the window stays up the moment the weather turns and the cabin heats up to whatever the outside ambient is. On a 40-degree day with no airflow, that becomes a serious comfort issue and, with a passenger, a temper issue.
Weather shields fit above each window opening using factory bracket points and 3M tape, and create a deflector that lets the window stay cracked 20 to 40 mm in any weather. Rain runs over the shield rather than into the cabin, fine dust is deflected upward, and airflow at speed is dramatically improved with the windows down a small amount. A full set of slimline shields from Sunland Protection for the 76/79 dual cab runs less than $250 across all four doors and lasts the life of the vehicle. For anyone who lives in a climate where the windows want to be down most of the year, the return on this upgrade compounds every summer.
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9. Bonnet Protector
The bonnet on a 79 Series is large, flat, and squarely in the firing line of every stone the front tyres throw up on unsealed roads. Anyone who runs the vehicle on gravel for any length of time ends up with a peppered bonnet - chips, dings, and the kind of microscopic surface damage that lets rust take hold over time. Repainting a 79 Series bonnet is a four-figure job and the colour match on the original Toyota paint is not always straightforward once the panel is more than a few years old.
A Protective Plastics bonnet protector clips to the front edge of the bonnet using factory hardware points and creates a clear shield over the leading section of the panel - the area that takes 95 per cent of stone impacts. The shield is moulded to the contour of the bonnet, blends visually with the bodywork, and intercepts the stones before they reach the paint. Separate variants exist for the pre-2024 70 Series bonnet and the 2024-on facelift bonnet, and the fitment is bolt-on without drilling. At $147, the bonnet protector earns back its purchase price the first time the truck does a serious gravel run.
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10. LED Tub/Tray Tail Lights
The factory tail lights on the 79 Series use conventional incandescent bulbs in a single-stage housing - they work, but they are dim by modern standards, slow to illuminate when the brake pedal is pressed, and largely invisible in bright sun or heavy rain. On a vehicle that frequently tows, carries gear out past the rear bumper, or sits in rural traffic at dusk with no street lighting behind it, the rear visibility of the truck to following drivers is a genuine safety variable, not a cosmetic one.
The LED Tub/Tray Tail Lights (Pair) replace the factory housings with a direct-fit LED assembly. Brake response is effectively instant, the daytime visibility is dramatically better, and the dynamic indicator sweep on the higher-spec units catches the eye of an inattentive driver in the next lane in a way the factory globes never managed. 79 dual cab owners running an aluminium tray can switch from a tub-mount lamp to a tray-rail-mount unit in the same range. At $267 the pair, this is one of the few mods on the list that also visibly improves the appearance of the rear of the vehicle - a side benefit, but a real one.
Honourable Mentions: Bigger-Ticket Mods That Still Earn Their Keep
The ten upgrades above are the ones that deliver disproportionate return for their cost. Beyond them sit a tier of larger-ticket mods that are not strictly bang-for-buck plays but that still pay back if the vehicle is used hard. The Ultimate9 EVC Throttle Controller at $299 is the closest thing on the platform to a genuine performance mod - it remaps the accelerator pedal response curve via the OBD port without modifying the engine ECU, so it does not void the factory warranty and can be unplugged in two minutes. The difference in drivability is felt from the first kilometre. An aftermarket exhaust system is the next step - it costs four to five times more than anything on the main list, but the change in throttle response, exhaust gas temperatures, and (on V8 models) cabin character is felt every single drive. A 2-inch suspension lift with shocks matched to the loaded weight of the vehicle is the foundational mod for any vehicle that will tow or tour, and it is the upgrade that determines whether every subsequent accessory adds value or pulls the truck out of legal compliance. Black Duck seat covers protect the factory upholstery permanently and are effectively non-optional on a vehicle being used for any kind of working role.
If the budget allows, these belong on the build before anything decorative. If the budget does not, the ten mods above will keep delivering value while the larger pieces wait their turn.
How to Order Your Upgrade Build for Maximum Value
The bang-for-buck list is roughly ordered by return per dollar, but the right sequence to fit them in depends on what the truck is used for. A new owner of a working dual cab should start with the Cup Holder Armrests Pro and Centre Console Armrest Lite first, because they fix the two biggest daily cabin frustrations and they happen to be the best-selling products on the platform for that exact reason. A driver who covers long highway distances should put the door seal kit and gear stick extension straight after, because they directly address the fatigue points that build over a 500 km day. A weekend tourer who has the truck mostly for trips should prioritise the dash mat, weather shields, and bonnet protector, because exposure damage compounds quickly on a vehicle that sits in the sun and runs gravel.
What all ten share is that they are DIY-installable, ship anywhere in Australia, and start earning back their purchase price from the first drive after fitment. None require workshop bookings, engineering certification, or a day off the road. They are the upgrades that make the 79 Series feel like the vehicle Toyota would have built if comfort and protection had been priorities, not concessions.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single best bang-for-buck mod for the 79 Series?
The Cup Holder Armrests Pro. It is the best-selling product on 70 Series Store and consistently ranked by owners as the upgrade that delivers the biggest daily improvement for the price. At $197 fitted with no permanent modification, it fixes two factory shortcomings at once - the absence of a real armrest and the lack of a usable cup holder - and it does so on every single drive after fitment. The Centre Console Armrest Lite at $247 is the close second, with the same kind of compounding daily return.
What is the cheapest 79 Series mod that makes a real difference?
The Gear Stick Extension at $32. It raises the shift point by 80 to 120 mm and angles the knob into a more natural position, dramatically reducing reach and wrist strain on long drives. Installation is a five-minute job with no tools beyond hand pressure. For under the cost of a tank of diesel, it changes how every gear change feels.
Does the Soundproofing Door Seal Kit really reduce cabin noise?
Yes, and the difference is measurable. Independent testing of the kit has recorded noise reductions of up to 3.5 dB at 110 km/h compared to the factory pinch-weld seal. The bulb-style replacement rubber compresses fully when the door closes, sealing the gap that the factory seal never properly closed. Beyond noise, the sealed door also prevents fine dust, diesel fumes, and bushfire smoke from entering the cabin - a benefit that is particularly noticeable for owners who work or tour in remote conditions.
Are the bonnet struts and bonnet protector specific to the 2024 facelift?
Both products are available in separate variants for the pre-2024 70 Series bonnet and the 2024-on facelift bonnet, because the bonnet geometry and hinge points changed between the two generations. When ordering, the correct variant for the model year of the vehicle should be selected. The 70 Series Store product pages list the year range covered by each variant, and the Bonnet Protector Facelift 70 Series (2024-) and Bonnet Gas Struts (2007-2022) are the most common pairings.
Can floor mats be fitted to a 79 Series with factory rubber liners?
Yes. The Mudtamer heavy-duty floor mats are designed to sit either over the factory carpet or over a base-spec rubber floor. The mat is injection-moulded to the exact contour of the 79 Series floor pan and sits stable on either surface. Fitment is identical for both configurations and no removal of the factory floor covering is required.
How long does it take to fit all 10 upgrades?
Realistically, a full Saturday. The cup holder armrests, gear stick extension, door seal kit, floor mats, weather shields, and dash mat can all be fitted in under 30 minutes each with basic hand tools. The centre console armrest, bonnet struts, bonnet protector, and LED tail lights take closer to 45 minutes each. The total combined installation time across all ten upgrades is around six to seven hours, and none of them require lifting the vehicle, removing major trim, or booking a workshop slot.
