NH03Tacoma's 1st Gen Build

I bought a very average '03 from some fly-by-night Russian car lot a few miles from the Manchester Airport 7 months ago. The plus side of things was that it only had one previous owner. I bought a color match topper off Craigslist For $200.00. Then I proceeded to add 25k to the overall mileage.


I was totally unaware of the frame issues that these Tacomas had, till I joined this community. So fast forward to last week, when I went to get an oil change and the spare tire carrier recall. My spare was missing! They went ahead and conducted a frame test and determined that I met the criteria for getting a new frame! I needed all new suspension anyway because my stuff was still original from back in '03... so I figured I might as well get the good stuff and lift it a bit since the labor is free because of the timing of the situation.

Toytec Ultimate kit with Total Chaos UCA's:


Now I'm just waiting for Monday 10/21/2013.....

 

No wonder I lost my spare tire somewhere random...lol



This section is the reason why the service advisor made the call to get a new frame ordered.

 

Day 2 progress:

New output shaft seals and shifter lever seals.



New O2 sensor. Expensive piece of shit.



New Add-A-Leaf inserted into the new Toyota leaf pack.



Toytec diff drop installed.



Toytec ultimate lift kit with Total Chaos upper control arms.

 

Day 3 and its completed.

At 8:00 am



At 2:00 pm



Finished and needing wheels and tires... time to use the search button again! It will be interesting to see how much the suspension settles over the next couple of months. When I first measured it, the distance from the ground to the bottom of the fender flares up front were Before: 34 1/4" Now: 38 1/4" and the rear was Before: 36 1/4" Now: 38 3/4".

 

That was cool. You def going to have one clean truck once you get news tires

 

Thanks!

 

That's awesome, though I'm wondering.. do you have any pics of the new frame??

 

These are the only other before install frame pictures I have:

 

That's better than I had expected! I, umm, I'll be right back













...okay. Why don't people (when they get their frame replaced) get it Line-X'd? I mean since it's brand spankin' new off the crate, wouldn't that almost guarantee no rust in the future??

 

That may be an option somewhere. It was adamantly disallowed in my case...LOL

Up here in New England they do some magic "oil coating" which is supposedly a mixture of various things unknown.....or.....Toyota offers their undercoating which we all know works so wonderfully.

I asked them this several different times through the whole process. The mechanics said they wouldn't work on it if I were to oil coat the rolling chassis before hand because they said its like a nasty liquid tar that gets all over everything and is next to impossible to clean up without solvents and lots of work.

To me, it seems logical that one should undercoat (whichever method they choose to use) when its a rolling chassis. That way you don't miss a spot.

But the mechanics and service advisors kept saying no no no... we don't do that...

 

Well, just as long as you threw that out there.... even if it did get shot down almost immediately. Either way, YOU GOT A NEW FRAME.

That alone is awesome

 

Still would be pretty easy to undercoat or truck bed line it. With it being so brand spanking new the prep time would be so little you could get right to spraying I sprayed most of my frame and axel in about 2 - 3 hrs and that's with prep time.

 

In a couple of days I'll be running this combination. The 2005-2007 Tundra / Sequoia OEM wheels P/N 69465. It will help dress up my Tacoma a bit over my sandblasted stockers. Along with some 285/75R16 Cooper AT3's. I can't wait!

 

oooooh. Lets see some after pics for sure

 

Wheel deal fell through. Kinda bummed about that. Oh well, at least I got the tires. No frame or wheel well rubbing issues!

 

looking good. what size tire did you go with?

 

285/75R16 Cooper AT3's