PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

My parents bought a fully loaded 1990 Camry LE V6 brand new and had it for 8 years. R-12 A/C was never touched once in eight years and about 80,000 miles. In 2008-2009, my uncle had base model 1987 or 1989 Camry that he used as a parts-running vehicle for his hubcap and wheel business. Factory A/C was one of the few options this no-frills Camry had. The automotively-inept wife of one of my uncle's employees was driving it once and neglected to realize that the engine had no oil pressure and/or was overheating. An otherwise-fine 2.0L Toyota 4-cylinder died a miserable premature death at about 120K miles. My uncle has a lot of connections in the auto salvage business and was able to get a junkyard engine installed for next to nothing. They were able to swap the engine out without touching the A/C. My cousin (daughter of aforementioned uncle) borrowed the car while her 2006 Scion was getting inspected or something, and me and my cousin spent the day together driving around in that shitbox Camry. As shitty as that Camry was, it ran like a dream, the factory stereo cassette actually sounded halfway decent, and the R-12 A/C was freezer-cold. Gotta love Toyotas!

 

My 2010 2.7L now has almost 71K miles and the A/C has never been touched! My air-conditioner blows 41°F at the vents, as tested by a tech during a routine oil change at Thompson Toyota in the summer of 2016.

 

My 2000 Tacoma has 210k miles on it.....never had to touch the a/c system.....still blows ice cold

My rule of thumb with anything on a vehicle besides normal maintenance, if it's not leaking or making noise leave it alone

 

X2
Your problem is the bench seat not the truck. I'm 6'3" and I am comfortable in the Tacoma.

 

I'm 6'9" with a DCSB '15 and have no problems at all

 

Great input!

Can't say I'd want those restrictions but great post.

 

@LocoLocal
@Plain Jane Taco

One of my favorite pastimes to this day is to explore auto salvage. A friend of mine owns one in Morrisville but I haven't done any serious adventuring there since October 2013.

Anyway, my best day of "junkyarding" was on a hot July day in 2006. My uncle (the well-connected hubcap and wheel entrepreneur) knows a guy who owns a junkyard in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area. Details were discussed, and the owner arranged for my dad and me to come out to the junkyard.

One vehicle I remember in particular was an early 80s MOPAR 4-door of some sort. I distinctly remember that it was a 1983, but I forget whether it was a Chrysler New Yorker, a Chrysler Fifth Avenue, or a Dodge Diplomat. I know it wasn't a Plymouth. For having been languishing a junkyard for God knows how long, this car was not in bad shape. The paint was terribly faded and peeling, but there was no body or structural damage to be seen. There was very little if any rust. Written in the windshield in white chalk was "NO BRAKES" or "BAD BRAKES." The car was partially settled into a mixture of mud and weeds, so it probably would not roll. I opened the door, got behind the wheel, and turned the key...

Not surprisingly, the car pretty much fired right up. A good number of the cars on the property, even significantly damaged ones, started and ran just fine. Most notable was a red 1990s Buick Skylark that had the entire rear end smashed in but not front end damage. It was well over ninety degrees that day, so my first inclination was to see if the A/C worked. To my absolute amazement, the A/C not only worked, but actually started to get cold fairly quickly!

This car had the 2-barrel 318cid V8 under the hood, and based on what I smelled it seemed to be running rich. The car stalled out a few minutes after I first started it, but I started it again and it actually stayed on this time. The A/C, probably still R-12, was blowing FREEZING. The factory AM/FM radio still worked too, so I tuned to 96.1 (the Lehigh Valley's country station), and the quality of the 23-year old speakers was actually pretty good. I cranked up Toby Keith, reclined that fine "Corinthian leather" bench seat, and took a break from the heat in air-conditioned comfort.

All this car seriously needed as a tune up and new brakes to be a viable daily driver. I'd had my learner's permit for about 6 or 7 months at the time and I had a couple grand in the bank, so my immediate thought was to buy this car to fix up. It had a clear title and had been sold to my uncle's friend, but it was merely being stored at the junkyard. Unfortunately, it was already spoken for and destined for the demolition derby...

Good times!

 

My parents bought a brand new fully loaded 2004 Honda Odyssey EX minivan in May 2004. We had that van for 9 years and more than 130,000 miles, and it was absolutely problem-free, including the A/C. My glasses would fog up when I stepped out of that van on a hot day.

 

My 96 Tacoma 2.7 MT , I had it for 20 years , 135,000 miles . Never touched the A/C . Give you an Ice Cream headache too .

MM

 

@LocoLocal
@Plain Jane Taco

I've had quite a bit of experience with these vans. My parents bought one new in 2000 and owned it 4 years, and the bar where I work had one as a work vehicle/rolling billboard.

My dad was in the Navy for 25 years, and we moved A LOT. In 2000, right before we moved from Virginia Beach to Washington, my parents decided that a conversion van would be the way to go for moving cross-country every 2 to 3 years. Since 1996, I'd been keeping myself entertained with a 9-inch TV/VCR combo and was perfectly content. However, a conversion van had the TV and VCR built in and had a much more comfortable backseat than our 1996 Pathfinder. In May 2000, my parents traded their old 1990 Mazda pickup for a 2000 GMC Safari conversion van at what was then Hall GMC-Pontiac in Virginia Beach. It was blue with gold pinstripes and a tan cloth interior. It was a high-top, converted by a now-defunct company called Glaval.

In terms of reliability and dependability, the van was great. It had the venerable 4.3L V6 under the hood, mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission with a 3.42 open rear differential. The van DID NOT have a G80 locker, but it did have the trailering special package that enabled to tow up to 5,000 pounds. We lived in Washington (state) for the first 2 years we owned the van, and it didn't make a difference having an open rear since the weather there was so mild and it rarely snowed.

We moved back to Virginia, though the DC suburbs in the Northern part of the state, in the summer of 2002. My dad found out quite quickly that a rear-wheel drive van with an open rear was not well-suited to commuting to work in the snow. Luckily we had a 4x4 Pathfinder and just used that in really bad snow.

The worst problem with that van was WITHOUT A DOUBT the air-conditioner! While full-size GM conversion vans typically have rear A/C from the factory, Astros and Safaris just had a upfitter "rear fan." This is one of the reasons I believe Glaval went under...

Apparently, the conversion company tapped into the existing dashboard/front A/C to pipe cold air to the back vents. The van did NOT have rear heat, which wasn't a problem. The dashboard/front heat worked great and was adequate enough for the whole van. The A/C worked great during the first few months of ownership, but when a bunch of my relatives rode in the van during a vacation in Maine, they complained about it being hot in the backseat. My mom had to turn up the front A/C really high to keep them comfortable and made herself very cold in the process.

By the time we'd owned the van for a year, we were living in Washington. It rare gets above 75°F in the SUMMER, but we had one of those occasional unseasonably warm days in the spring of 2001. I turned on the A/C one day when my mom and I went shopping and got warm air. The van had like 15,000 miles on it and was still under warranty, so we took it to the local Chevy dealer and they recharged it for free. The A/C worked for the entire summer, but in spring 2002 it was the same song and dance...

My dad and some Navy colleagues were going to the USS Abraham Lincoln which was docked at a base in mainland Washington. It was unseasonably warm and the A/C wasn't working. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and spent the entire trip playing PlayStation. My dad and his friends, on the other hand, were wearing full dress uniforms and were quite uncomfortable.

Aside from the A/C, a recall on the brakes that was taken care of by GM, and some electrical problems, that van was solid. In the summer of 2003, the TV quit working right before a 7-hour drive home from Maine. By this time the warranties from both GM and the conversion company were expired. It was 3-year/36K mile for GM bumper-to-bumper, which was needed to fix the A/C for free; presumably 5-year/60K for powertrain (still good); and unknown for the conversion.

In 2004, my parents finally had enough and traded the GMC for a brand new Honda Odyssey EX in May of that year. The GMC had less than 35K miles on it at the time we sold it and was in immaculate condition, but the TV and A/C did not work. We had the Odyssey for 9 years and 130K+ miles but never had to service the A/C...

My dad recently dug up the window sticker for the Safari and I ran the VIN through CARFAX. According to the report, it was purchased from Koons Honda-GMC (where we traded it for the Odyssey) and wound up in the city of Grundy (in Appalachia region of Virginia). It is currently on it's third owner and resides somewhere in Ohio.

 

@LocoLocal

I entered my truck in the non-judged section of the Carlisle Truck Nationals in August 2016, primarily so I could go back to my truck and take a break with the A/C in between hours-long sessions of walking around the grounds. While sitting in my truck taking breather and blasting Def Leppard, a guy about my age approached me and asked if I wanted a free set of lowering blocks (I think that's what they were) for my truck. This guy was a local guy who was there with friends, and he owned a black 2005 regular cab short bed 2WD 5-speed. At least that's what it started life as. He bought it used while living in Florida, and by the time he paid it off it was a basket-case by Tacoma standards. It had over 100K miles, the A/C didn't work, and the frame was rusted. He started to tear it down in his garage. Unfortunately it was not until after he completely tore the truck down to the frame that he got a recall notice about the rust. At this point the recall would have been void. It didn't matter to him because he intends on building a new frame largely from scratch, with some salvageable pieces from the original frame as well. He plans on building a new interior from scratch, lowering it, and I think he said something about adding a 6-speed manual from a Corvette to compliment the new engine. He intends to add a stereo and reinstall the heat, but he does not plan on putting the A/C back in. The interior will supposedly be built from scratch. He showed me pictures of the truck in a complete state of disassembly on his phone. I wish I had pictures.

 

No, it was a 2005 Tacoma...

 

Hey Charlie!

 

@Blackout14 @WBF610 @HomerTaco
Know this guy?

 

Well boys, looks like we've got ourselves a club.

 

1. Its a fat ass problem. If you have a normal size ass then you will fit. If your ass looks like you have basketballs hanging from your back, get a different vehicle.
2. Its a George Costanza problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwEmQNd6wMA

 

Hello!

 

I wish you had the pictures too!

You'd could put an LS engine on a bicycle and you've got my attention!