Building a tacoma

Hey whats up guys, Im gonna start off by saying that I'm an experienced 4x4 builder and I've done alot of work on Chevy, dodge, and ford trucks and suvs, but I have not done a toyota or any other foreign vehicle. My fiance's brother came to me and asked me to build the truck his grandfather gave him for his 16th birthday and i agreed, however, I do not have experience with these kind of trucks. He has a 2002 Tacoma 4x4 regular cab short bed. not sure of the engine size or anything, but I would like to learn as much as possible about these trucks so I can tackle this job for him and build him a nice reliable truck. So if there are any off road allies that can throw some tips my way on what size lift, tires, performance parts etc as well as the pros and cons of running these trucks on and offroad after mods I'd really appreciate it. So please help guys

 

How capable are you planning on making this truck? What kind of off road are we talking? Rock crawling? Baja racing? Mall crawling?
We need some more specs on the truck too. Like does it have the E-locker? 3.4L? Manual?
Gears and locker installs are fairly simple on these trucks because the 3rd members pull out of the truck.
If it is going to be an off road monster then I would SAS the front axle with a D44 or a flipped Toy axle.
All Pro makes some very strong flexible springs for a reasonable price. I wouldn't go much larger than a 3"-4" lift because these trucks get very tall, very fast.