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

Where are these girls getting all panty-dropped about a truck???

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Ah - right. Pennsyltucky.

Carry on.

 

I live in the Philly burbs. Pennsyltucky is the part BETWEEN Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

 

Can just add that yet another 3rd gen owner that I know in Austin just yesterday traded his '16 in for one of the last 2015 2nd Gen's. That's now 4 people I know that have done this.

Just like the other 3 I know, all complained about the drive train. Transmission more than the motor but all of them couldn't stand the constant shifting even after the TSB(s). However all of them all agreed they wish they could have kept the styling and interior of the 3rd gen.

Wife and I are getting close to buying a 2nd truck and without a doubt it will be a 2nd Gen Tacoma.

 

Haha ohhh mannn. I love my 2nd gen, but a '17 TRD Pro in Cement Gray is badass. Every type of 1st and 2nd gen is OK in my book, but highly selective with the 3rd gen. Generally speaking, the re-design just can't seem to grow on me.

 

THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER "DRUNK GRANDPA" STORY! IT'S MORE OF A "CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP" STORY. PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING! YOU'LL LOVE IT!

My uncle (Dad's younger brother) is awesome. He is proof that you don't need to go to college or have a boring desk job to be successful. He did got to Penn State briefly but dropped out. Anyway, he is an entrepreneur. His primary source of income is the hubcap and wheel business he started back in the early 1980s. Most of his income came from repairing damaged wheels. He had contracts with high-end dealerships and body shops, and he made a fortune. He of course also bought, sold, and traded hubcaps and wheels. Today his primary focus is fixing bent and/or scratched wheels. He's done everything from worn out old economy cars to a Bentley Continental.

He's also flipped cars, including totaled vehicles he buys cheap at insurance auctions. In like 1989, he bought a low-mileage 1987 Toyota Camry that had been rear-ended at a high speed. The Camry was white with a red vinyl interior (not cloth), and a no-frills base model. It had A/C, automatic transmission, and a cassette player, but no other options (crank windows, no cruise or tilt). The key was that this Camry was damaged in the rear. The car had been hit so hard that the entire trunk space was gone and back end had actually been pushed into the backseat! Luckily nobody had been riding in the back at the time of the accident because they probably would have been killed. Despite this, however, the car not only ran but drove as well. The impact just missed the rear wheels and they were not rubbing on anything. More importantly, the front end was not damaged. As such, everything under the hood was undamaged. The A/C blew cold and the engine started and ran like nothing was wrong.

My uncle bought this Camry for next to nothing, and with a buddy following behind him, drove it to a friend's garage with no license plate or insurance. He didn't get pulled over. My uncle knew every pick-and-pull salvage yard owner in the area, and one such person had a similar Camry in his yard that had bad front end damage but was was untouched in the rear. The back end of the Camry was cut off and transported to the garage where the white 1987 Camry was being kept. With help from his friend, a trained body guy, my uncle cut the white Camry in half and welded the back end from the donor Camry on it's place. As per PennDOT regulations, the Camry was inspected, passed with flying color, and was issued a rebuilt/salvage title. The Camry was then repainted in the factory white (the donor Camry was a different color and there tons of weld marks and bondo). Once the Camry was painted, the salvage title was the only evidence the vehicle had been in an accident, and only the most experienced auto body/collision people could tell why it had such a title.

My aunt and uncle had just that their first child (a daughter), and that Camry was their family car for 2 years! They never had a problem with it. By 1991, the hubcap store was doing awesome and my uncle decided to buy my aunt a new car. She decided she wanted a Volvo 240 sedan, black with a tan interior and a sunroof. This was my aunt's car so my uncle let her choose everything. However, the Volvo 240 unlike similar sedans in its class was a rear-drive car, and the only non-negotiable item was that it had to have a positraction/limited-slip rear end. My uncle has never bought a new RWD vehicle that didn't have posi. No dealer in the area had a Volvo 240 in black with a beige interior and the options my aunt wanted, so they ordered one. My aunt and uncle paid like $27,000 IN CASH for that car! For a 1991 Volvo! That's a lot of money for any car in 1991!

The plan was to trade the Camry, so when the new Volvo came in, the dealer inspected the Camry and was impressed with how nice and clean it was. It also had surprisingly low miles. It somehow slipped through the cracks that the Camry had a rebuilt title and top dollar was paid for the Camry. The Volvo people wanted to give them the complimentary intro to their new car, but shocked that they didn't seem to care about the Camry's title, my uncle didn't want to push his luck and politely declined. The check had cleared and the new Volvo was theirs, so they left.

A day or so later, the salesman who sold them the Volvo frantically called my uncle demanding to know why he hadn't mentioned the rebuilt title. He was understandably worried about losing his job. My uncle's reasoning was that he didn't hide the fact that the car had a rebuilt title, the title had been right in front of them the whole time, and they should have looked into it further or made things easier and just asked. The Camry had been in a major wreck, but it was repaired properly and a perfectly safe car. I think there is a proper and ethical way to sell repaired salvage vehicles, and that all the dealer cared about was it's bottom line. The salvage title just annihilated anything remotely resembling resale value. They were just mad that they'd paid for the Camry as if it were just another mint condition low-mileage used car, and not lowballed my uncle so they could wholesale it.

My uncle never heard anything about the issue again and the Volvo was a great, trouble-free car up until they sold it and bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee in 1998.

So yeah, that's the story of Franken-Camry!

 

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What do you think?

 

I aint got time to read that bro!!!!


I will possibly have time after work lol.

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Get your own material.

 

My uncle bought a totaled 1987 Camry at an insurance auction. The car had been rear-ended so hard that the trunk and rear fender had been pushed into the backseat. My uncle and a friend who owned a body shop cut what was left of the back end off the 1987 Camry, cut the back end off another totaled Camry with front end damage but no rear damage, and then welded the donor rear-end to the 1987 Camry! The car passed a safety inspection, was issued a rebuilt title, and then repainted so nice that a layperson would never be able to tell it had been in a major wreck. A Volvo dealer that took this Camry on a trade in 1991 found that out the hard way!

 

Haha!!! Thats pretty crazy man!!!!

 

I have plenty of my own material, just nothing car-related that is that good!

 

The Volvo dealership neglected to notice that Camry had a rebuilt title and paid top dollar for it when my uncle traded it for a brand new 1991 Volvo 240. My uncle paid about $27,000 CASH for the Volvo so it was his and the Volvo dealer was screwed.

 

The car in this picture is a 1997-1999 Camry, and the damage is on the right side instead of the left, but the damage to this car is similar to the one my uncle had...

On my uncle's however, the damage was concentrated to the LEFT side, and whatever rear-ended my uncle's car missed both rear wheels so it was able to actually drive...

https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/wreck-us1-2.jpg

 

Also, the roof was not damaged like the blue Camry in the picture... But yeah, my uncle actually fixed a car that would have gone to the crusher today...

If it was safe enough for his wife and infant daughter (my cousin; now she's my age and married), then it was safe enough for a Volvo dealer to put on it's used car lot...

 

That's just like my 1997 Tacoma! Although I have a clean title

Chopped the roof below the windshield line and welded a Junker on top. Less than a quart of bondo on the entire truck.

1997 lower body
1999 roof
2004 bed
2003 tailgate
aftermarket fenders
1997 hood
2003 doors

 

The roof didnt even cave in?