New first gen owner. Should I second guess myself?

That doesn't look nearly as bad as your description! It looks like the teenager tried some DIY stuff on it that "looked easy" but failed.

In my opinion, fix the mechanical items that need to be replaced and go get it detailed at a shop. Start fresh and enjoy your truck for years to come with those miles. Replace parts as needed with the help of folks on here.

Also... Break out the credit cards and say goodbye to your checking account!

Nice looking rig.

 

X2 just needs some love. It looks fine and seems to be a fair price, these things might as well be bulletproof.

 

I think you did good on the deal. I'd start buy going over all the routine maintenance and any other mechanical issue. The body work can wait. Once your sure you want to keep it the fix up the body. It looks like a great truck! Call the local dealership and have them check the VIN for any recalls, avoid the stealership for any other work.

 

Gave it a good wash and wax today and she cleaned up pretty good. I'm really excited about having this rig and taking care if it. I even got my first compliment on it today. Haha I feel a lot better about the deal. Cleaned up better than I thought it would. I started debadging lastnight. The kid ripped of the TACOMA badges to read "taco". Man that goo is tough.

I'm going to do what everyone said and start with the mechanical issues. It squeaks in reverse and makes a little tick when accelerating at ~20 mph so I think it's a u joint. Taking it to a local shop next week. Also, the rear flares are spray painted in an attempt to match and looks bad. I think I'm going to sand them and paint them black until I decide what I'm going to do with truck cosmetically. Any reco's? I'll search the site.

 

If there is overspray, try a good clay bar. It is a little time consuming, but give it 3 hours or so of good honest work (first time) and it should remove most of the overspray. If you have the cash, follow that up with a good high speed polish (probably worth it to take it somewhere if you're only going to do it once. Equipment can get pricy and if you don't know what you're doing, you can do more damage than good). Make sure you get a good sealer/wax afterwards and your truck will look like new. You will really be amazed what that will do to the exterior.

 

This pic shows how different the bed panel looks. Here's my dilemma. I like the flares being silver. Three of the four look pretty bad, especially rear. So ideally I'd like them to be color matched. I don't know that this can be done DIY. I'm thinking about painting them black. In this pic the paint on the flare came off with pressure washer. What would you do? Go black or color match? Again, I'd love to color match but it's gonna be costly.

 

Wouldn't be too bad. I'd look to clean it up first and get it back to where you want it. That'll give you a baseline to mod it however you want. Get some color matched bushwhackers if you still want to go that route.

 

For what it's worth, you could probably find some doors/panels at your local pick and pull. There are a ton of rear-end wrecked vehicles that have nearly perfect bodies to pick apart. You could probably find a color matched panel.

Also, check the pick and pull for a full bed. If a truck had been totaled by crunching the front end, you may get lucky with a good looking, color-matched, non-spray-painted bed! This may be more cost effective (time wise) than clay barring and polishing.

Just my .02!

 

CAMO TACOMA TIME!!!!

 

Nice camo tacoma. I have a few friends that are wanting me to do Natgear camo. I may one day down the road but not now. I've looked at a few pick and pull places. I'll keep my eyes open. Thanks

 

Thats not a tacoma!!

 

Nice camo ...looks good dude

 

Does it have the 22re in it?

 

Well I got the flares pulled off. I guess I'm going to paint them black and hold off on paying someone to color match them. I detailed it and didn't find any crazy surprises. I will say I think the truck is in better shape than I gave it credit for. I wiped the motor down lastnight. Man the bolts on the valve cover were loose. Hopefully that'll stop the leak.

 

Also, the wheel well liners have been taken out. Is this something I should replace or just leave alone?

 

My bro in law is wanting to sell this roof rack. Asking $200. Is it worth it? What do y'all think?

 

being a Limited the flares were color-matched to begin with. maybe the previous owner destroyed them and got a replacement set that weren't painted.

you can try rubbing or buffing compound to see if it takes off the over-spray but be careful with it.

takes measurements for the roof rack and see if it will mount. unless it's from the same model you will have to fab something to mount it.

 

Had this installed with some rear facing lights. I'm going to put a light bar on the front soon. What's a good budget bar? Thought y'all might like to see..

 

They're spot/flood combo. I duck hunt a lot so I'll use them for launching duck boat mainly.

 

I like the way you mounted those hogfan. I actually have some rigid pods like that right now on the ARB front bumper of my prerunner. Was thinking of taking them off and putting them on my yakima rack on the 4x just like this, with a bar on the front. What bracket did you use to mount them?