Wrecked 2000 Tacoma Build. New member, New Truck, New Build

I picked up this 2000 Tacoma for $2000 with plans on swapping its engine into my 93 pickup but I ended up figuring out that I might as well fix this up since it could be a pretty nice truck too. Its a 2000 Tacoma extended cab trd sr5 3.4 V6 5 speed manual Rear electric locker 6 inch fabtech lift with 35's. It didn't come with wheels and tires since the guy wanted another $1000 for his brand new tires and wheels and I wasn't about to pay that much for them for a parts truck so a couple pictures show my 31's from my 93 pickup installed on it so that i could tow it home. He had hit a tree texting while driving.
Front end damage

Passenger side

Drivers side damage with the 35's I bought and my tow truck

 

Damn thats gunna be good. Keep us updated.

 

Welcome! Love to see what your going to do to that once the front end is glued back together...
Good Luck!

 

Welcome from Washington!
Looks like some fun
There are a couple guys parting out some Tacos on CL in our area, i think one a 98 and one a 99 and then there is a 02 i think

 

And that's why you don't text and drive. Welcome to TW and good luck with this. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

 

Hey thanks for the welcome. I towed it into the frame shop on Friday night so they are going to take a look at it late Monday or Tuesday and get me an actual cost of straightening it out. The Passenger front tire is pushed back a couple inches. I'm planning on converting the front end to the 2001 to 2004 style since its already needing to replace just about all of that. I have a big parts search ahead of me that's for sure.

 

i should probably stop texting and driving...

 

Well after waiting 2 weeks the frame shop finally gets it up on there rack only to tell me that they can't fix it. So there went $85 for nothing there. I towed it to 2 other shops today it looks like I can replace the front of the frame with a straight used frame that I would have to find and they would sleeve it and weld it. Either that or I could do a complete frame swap. I wish the first shop would have just told me that before putting the frame on the rack to measure it out and charge me.

So now I have to decide what to do. I could replace the whole frame if I can find a used one that's not damaged. That just seams like its a ton of work swapping everything over. I could buy a used front section of the frame and have it welded on. With those first two I will run into problems with the dumb fabtech 6 inch bracket lift because of the cut front crossmember and weather or not anything in the lift is bent. I would rather have a long travel anyways but how hard will it be to find parts and convert from a bracket lift to a long travel? Or my original plan was to part it out and keep the engine and ecu for a 3.4 swap into my 93 Toyota Pickup. Hmm any advice?

 

Here are some pictures and a little sheet of paper that I got for the $85 to check the frame. It has a few measurements on it. Click on the thumbnails to open the images larger.

 

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engine appears to be in decent shape for such an accident. lift looks in surprisingly good condition too.

i want to see how this puppy turns out

 

Nice truck. Hope it comes out all good.

 

Right now I'm planning on buying a 93 4runner for cheap to swap the engine and rear locking axle into but I have to sell my audi a4 quattro that I don't drive anymore first. I have way too many cars and while I have a huge driveway its just becoming too much of a car lot with shuffling cars around. I need to keep one truck running as i work as a Carpenter so I can't have my pickup down while I'm figuring out the wiring for the swap to actually work. The frame is too shot for my liking so I figured I would swap the engine instead of swapping a whole frame and then fixing the rest.

 

i say you do a fiberwerx 2nd gen conversion for the front of that or put an 01-04 front end on that. that has A LOT of potential..

 

i say........................................................................ sell me your locker!

 

Your thinking on the 4runner right? Im really wondering what some different conversions would look like on the 4runner. I haven't seen anything on the 93 bodystyle before. I know that I'm going to want some fenders that are a widened a bit just not so much that it looks funny from behind but I also want to know what an 01-04 conversion would look like on the 93 body style of runner. Whats the 2 gen conversion? Isn't it already a 2nd gen runner? I haven't actually bought it from my friend yet and I don't know much about 4runners. I just bought my 93 pickup 2 months ago so I don't know much about them either. Well besides having to change the headgaskets and all the other work that I have done so far.

Haha sorry but that is staying with me. There is one on Seattle area craigslist that I saw for like 325 or something like that though. That's so freaking cheap you should check it out. Not sure what city just saw it when browsing. Ehh I just looked it up its a detroit locker brand new though. Here it is along with another that I found if your interested.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pts/1697909090.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/pts/1686280656.html

 

my truck was almost as bad cost arma leg and months to fix not worth it

 

Your link isn't working. Probably only viewable by your facebook friends.

 

Here's what the tacoma looks like now. Its on a standard cab Toyota pickup frame with the 22re. The bed has been shortened front and back. Real cool guy who I sold it to, he also did all the work to make this. His name is CJ
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And here is what i did. 3.4 swap into a 1991 4runner. Land cruiser fj80 rear springs with bj spacers up front. Elocker from the tacoma in the rear axle. And I just bought a brand new trd supercharger for it as well but I am waiting to install it till after I get fuel upgrades.