Green Turd - 1997 Tacoma DLX 4x4

So, I've had this truck for roughly two weeks now. I came from daily driving my 1994 Ranger 2WD 2.3L 5 Speed for four years to this. I got sick of going nowhere fast as well as the lack of traction in the winter, so that's where this comes in!

I bought it from a buddy. Well, actually I am good friends with the past two owners. Two owners ago, it was bought by my friend from somebody he knows where it had sat in a barn for the better part of 10 years. It needed an engine and my friend sourced one and put it in as well as the lift and almost everything else before he drove it back down to Key West (where he lived at the time). Long story short, the top end was toast, so he replaced EVERYTHING from the head gaskets up days before he had to leave. It's been back and forth from here in Michigan to Key West quite a few times, and then when the guy I bought it from bought it from my other friend, he daily drove it and took it back and forth from here to Tennessee a couple of times.

The body of the truck has 139,xxx miles on it.

Modifications:

31x10.5x15 Cooper Discoverer AT3
1.5" Spacer Lift
2"? AAL in the rear
Thrush Welded Muffler
JVC Head Unit

Unfortunately, a lot of things were ghetto fixed on it. At some point in its life it was involved in a minor front end collision. The bumper is pushed up a bit, and the entire grill is zip-tied into place. I also had to replace the hood prop rod, and battery hold down because they were missing... It needs an air box (also broken but zip-tied into place for now) and a windshield washer reservoir.

So far, these are the things I've already replaced since I bought:

Hood Prop Rod & Grommet
Battery Hold Down
Hood latch
All of the headlight retaining bolts/springs
Rear sliding window latch
Owner's Manual
Antenna
LED Dome Light
A GOOD cleaning (It was disgusting, still is a bit but I'll wait until it warms up)

All in all, it's in good shape mechanically but cosmetically it needed/still needs some work.

Future Plans:
Bilstein 5100s (Buying fronts within the week, this thing rides like a lumber wagon)
Alignment (wasn't ever aligned after it was lifted -_-)
Magnaflow (The thrush is too loud for my liking for a DD)
H4 Conversion headlights
New grille
New headunit and front speakers
Replace the fuel door lock
Replace the driver's door jamb switch

And that's about it! Like I said it's a daily driver and I have my car which is already my money pit lol. Here are a few pictures I snapped tonight. It's about 2° outside so I didn't feel like standing out there too long. Please excuse my terrible photos.

 

Sounds like a good project. I hear ya on the ranger thing had one just like it and the taco is a world better. Seems atleast from the pictures a sound start. Warning though you might start dumping car money into it hanging around here hahah

 

Thank you! You may be right, I actually JUST purchased the front 5100s on Toytec haha.

 

There's the start of it all hahah

Keep us(well me so far) posted on the progress I like the gen 1 trucks.

I'm planning on wrenching on the truck here soon with some 5100s. Its still sitting stock from way back when I joined so the wallet has been lucky but there's no old lady in the picture so I better get it in before a future wife finds me

 

It was necessary to upgrade to the Bilsteins IMO, I hate the way it rides now. Eventually I will get the rear 5100s too because the rear with the AAL rides SUPER stiff, almost worse than my car which rides 1" off the ground.

 

Yeah still going to be a little stiff in the rear but atleast you'll be able to keep your teeth. I don't mind the ride in my 2011 reg cab but it needs leveled so I can tell it apart from all the old guys trucks back home

 

What's the best bang for your buck DIY front bumper? This one is worse than I thought due to that front end collision. Part of it is zip-tied in place...

 

Cbi has one or you could build you own if you can weld. I don't have much knowledge on first gen bumpers the only one I helped build was for a ranger and it was a pain to get level on the truck

 

I almost pulled the trigger on an entire new grille, side markers and lower trim tonight, but I think I'll just buy new markers (or figure out a way to fix the current ones) as that's really the only thing broken on mine.

I did buy a new door jamb switch for the driver's side because somehow that's broken. Nothing exciting other than that!

 

Honestly for the side markers I would probably just replace them. Everytime I've tried to fix lights and housing it ended up just being a bandaid fix. Plus I don't think they are too much to replace

Funny you said about side markers since my driver side one just burned out..... well I just noticed it when I was up early during a snow storm. It just a tad to cold for me to want to go replace it

 

They're actually pretty expensive, like $60 for the pair.... which is by far the most money I've ever seen for a set of side markers.

 

Damn yeah that's kinda high. You have a junk yard close to you. Might be able to pick up one or parts need for cheap

 

What's broke is it the lens/housing or electrical not working

 

Well on the driver's side, the screws are stripped and I'm going to have to find a way to get it off, found that out when I went to replace the bulb.

On both sides the clip where it screws to the grill is broken off and it was being attached with what looked like wood glue LOL.

 

I would check junk yards for new housings. You could make a tab out of some thin metal and glue it to the housing the use a self tapping screw to fasten it down

 

Gotta love those ghetto fixs you find on used trucks lol

 

I don't ever remember seeing this body style in any of the yards around me but I suppose it's worth a look again.

 

Can't hurt to look. If you want I can look around. Maybe I can find some that will be a chunk cheaper than 60 bucks

 

Go-parts.com has the housings for 15 bucks a piece if I looked for the right part. Everywhere else seemed to be 60-70 bucks a set

 

I still see them for $34 a piece on that website, only thing I see for around $15 was the turn signals.