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

Great story, people nowadays underestimate or have forgotten about R12. I have an 80's Toyota with R12 and it blows ice cold still.

 

My '96 Taco (which I had up until about a year ago) only had a factory cassette player. I always thought it was so ridiculous but I never replaced it. I just left the same cassette in the deck for like ten years (Nirvana Unplugged Live in NY). I sold the truck with that tape in the deck! LOL

 

My dad's first brand new car, a 1983 Celica GT, only had AM/FM. It did have A/C and cruise control though. My mom's first new car, a 1985 Ford Escort, did not have A/C, but my mom seems to remember that it had a tape player.

 

@ShamwowTaco
@Plain Jane Taco

Halloween 1998. We'd only had the Mazda for like a month. I had a fun night of trick-or-treating with my dad and went to bed feeling fine. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like absolute shit. My mom took my temperature and it turns out I was running a fever (my immune system is a lot more robust now and I just don't get sick; I get colds, but I don't get sick). My dad put me in the shotgun seat of the Mazda and drove me around with the windows down for well over an hour so I could get some fresh air. At some point during the FIRST run, we hit the local 7-11 and my dad bought me a Slurpee. I finished the whole Slurpee quickly, but it made a comeback a short time later. What sucks is that I was unable to lean out of the window in time, and I threw up all over the inside door panel. Luckily it was vinyl and it wiped clean with ease. We went back home and I slept until maybe 6am. My dad took me for another ride in the Mazda to get me some fresh air and settle my stomach.

I ended up staying home from school on Monday (Halloween fell on a Saturday in 1998, and my dad took me out in the Mazda during the early morning hours of Sunday, November 1st) and spend the whole day on the family room couch, eating Halloween candy while watching Nickelodeon. Doesn't get better than that!

 

@ShamwowTaco

During our time living in Virginia Beach, we had a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder SE 4x4 and the 1990 Mazda B2600i. The Pathfinder had dual airbags, while the Mazda had no airbags. There was a brief period of time from May 1996 through maybe November 1996 where my parents didn't know shit about airbags and how potentially dangerous they could be to kids under 12 or under 60 pounds. As such, when my dad traded the 1993 Blazer (which also had NO airbags) for the 1996 Pathfinder, my parents didn't think twice about letting me ride shotgun. Then, all these stories about kids being seriously injured or even killed by airbags came out, and I did not ride shotgun in the Pathfinder again until like 2001.

I'm not gonna lie, I think that whole "The backseat is safer for kids" thing is BULLSHIT. If you are a baby in a car seat, that is one thing, but once you're five or older and/or not in a car seat anymore, you should be able to ride shotgun if you damn well please.

I was born in 1989. From 1990 to 1992 my dad had a 1986 Mazda B2000 (that's right, another Mazda B-series!). This Mazda was a regular cab and by default had NO backseat, and I loved riding in it...

My mom had a 1990 Toyota Camry LE V6, and when my dad drove the Camry he let me ride in the front. When my mom was driving the Camry, I typically rode in the back. When my mom drove the Mazda, she had no choice because the Mazda had no backseat. In 1992, my dad sold the Mazda to a family friend and bought a brand new 1992 Dodge Dakota LE supercab (as in it had a backseat). In the Dakota, I only rode in the back if there was an adult passenger in the front. By 1992 I was also speaking in complete sentences, and if I remember correctly I questioned my mom as to why I could ride shotgun in the Dakota but not in the Camry. She realized I had a valid point, and from 1992 onward I never had to ride in the backseat of the Camry unless someone else was riding shotgun.

I hated riding in the backseat when I didn't technically have to, and in my eyes being made to ride in the backseat of the Pathfinder at 10 years old was a punishment. When my parents traded the Mazda for a 2000 GMC Safari conversion van in May 2000, I was in hell. Dual airbags became mandatory in all passenger vehicles (excluding heavy-duty trucks and vans) beginning in 1997, and dual airbags had been standard in the Astro/Safari van since 1996. One day in February 2001 when my mom picked me up from school in the Safari (which happened to be the day of my first detention), I gave my mom an ultimatum: "I had a really bad day and I want to talk to you about it, I'm riding in the front." My mom said "Okay," and from then on I always rode in the front when there wasn't another adult present.

My argument was that my parents were good enough drivers that they shouldn't be worried about being involved in accident bad enough to make the airbags deploy. My parents realized that they were not going to win this argument and let me have my way. It ended up being a non-issue, because by the end of summer in 2001 I was not only 12 years old (the minimum "rule of thumb" age for riding shotgun in a vehicle with dual airbags) but absolutely huge for a 12-year old.

My aunt and uncle were much more rigid than my parents, and didn't think kids should ride in the front seat until they were old enough to actually drive. Between the ages of 12 and 16, my relationship with this particular aunt and uncle was not very good because the rules they set in place were downright obnoxious.

 

@ShamwowTaco
@Plain Jane Taco

On a side note, the vehicles my aunt and uncle owned during the time period of 2002-2005 were a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, a 1997 Plymouth Voyager minivan, and a 2002 Nissan Frontier. I rarely rode in the Frontier, but when I did I always rode in the front because the backseat was so tiny.

I found it downright obnoxious that at 13 and 14 years old respectively, my cousin and I were not allowed to ride shotgun in a 1989 Oldsmobile with no airbags. I found it embarrassing that I had to ride in the backseat of a shitty old 4-door. The Oldsmobile died in 2003 or 2004 and was donated to Purple Heart. As for the Voyager, I pretty much used my take-no-bullshit attitude and huge body size to assert what I felt was my right to ride in the front seat. I just started getting in the front seat of the Voyager, and my aunt finally realized she wasn't going to win. My cousin and I peacefully took turns riding shotgun from that point on.

 

Going back to the Mazda, I threw a fit about having to ride in the backseat of the Pathfinder all the time, so my parents made a very fair deal. My mom did not like driving the Mazda very much, but it's not like I was asking for an expensive new toy and it's not like the Mazda was a miserable piece of junk. It was a bit worn out, but it was reliable and safe to drive, the A/C worked, and my mom is quite good at driving a stick shift. My parents switched vehicles every other day to keep me happy.

 

@ShamwowTaco
@DustStorm4x4
@ABA180
@Plain Jane Taco

Going back to the "good old days" story I originally set out to tell, the Mazda did not have a CD player, just a cassette. My dad was making very good money, but he thought it was pointless to spend potentially hundreds of dollars to put a CD player in a truck that was almost ten years old and that he knew he would be selling in 2000. In January 2000, he finally had a cheap $99 AM/FM CD player installed, but that's another story!

Here's how I developed a love of country music early in life:

My love of country music began in 1995-1996, and I probably have a man named Floyd Herman to thank for that. You see, Floyd was my bus driver throughout first grade, and his wife Rita worked alongside him as a bus aid. Floyd's bus actually had a stereo system with a tape deck in it. In order to keep things "PG," bus drivers were only allowed to listen to two or three "approved" stations when they had kids younger than high school on the bus. The local country station was one of those stations.

Floyd's "regular bus" was a Blue Bird TC2000, by the way:


I have no idea what year it was. I just know that it was bus #49, owned and operated by the North Penn School District, it was a diesel (believe it or not, the TC2000 was available with a carbureted 427cid GM V8 as an option until 1995, though this was a rare option), and it had an AM/FM cassette player.

There was one time when #49 had to go in for routine maintenance, and Floyd got an almost-new 1994 or 1995 GMC Vandura 3500 like this as a replacement for a day:



So, some of the songs I heard on #49 and quickly grew to love were:

"Rock My World (Little Country Girl)" by Brooks & Dunn

"There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio" by Aaron Tippin

"I Think About You" by Collin Raye

"Pickup Man" by Joe Diffie (This song probably had the biggest impression on me, considering what I currently drive)

Floyd also occasionally switched things up a bit and put on an approved rock station, and I am 99% sure that I was riding on #49 when I heard "Once Bitten Twice Shy" by Great White for the first time. I can also vaguely remember raiding the entertainment center and smuggling a few of my dad's cassettes out of the house in my backpack, then handing them to Floyd to play in #49's tape player.

And then there was #49 itself. Stereo system or not, #49 was pretty badass for a school bus. Sometimes I feel like this commercial is about buses like #49:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf9iMX6aIJY

I was not in special ed in first grade, but rather I spent a lot of time in what I consider an "extra help" class with kids ranging in age from kindergarten to 4th grade. None of them were low-functioning autistic or intellectually disabled (and keep in mind I was not formally diagnosed with Asperger's until November 1998). This class was presided over by two amazing women named Mrs. Ryder and Mrs. Little, and then I was also in a conventional 1st grade class taught by a woman named Mrs. Ludwig.

However, a good number of the kids in Mrs. Ryder's class still took the "short bus." I was one of the few kids in that class who got to ride on a regular school bus.

 

@ShamwowTaco

I just remembered this Chinese girl named Christina Chen who was in Mrs. Ludwig's class with me. I forget what the occasion was, but we had some sort of activity day in class, and a bunch of kid's parents came in; Christina's mom was one of them. Christina's mom took the time to show every kid in Mrs. Ludwig's class (and we're talking like 18 to 20 kids here) how to write their name in Chinese. I thought that was pretty cool.

On top of that, Christine was the type of girl you grow up with and then take to prom when you're both in high school, regardless of ethnic background. The fact that she was Asian was just a bonus, but Asian or not, she just a sweet little girl who probably grew up to be a kindhearted young woman (Pretty sure she still lives in the area too).

We moved back to California after I finished first grade and I went to 2nd and 3rd grade out there. I'd say my school life started going to shit after about 3rd grade, and became a full-blown dumpster fire by 6th grade...

 

@ShamwowTaco

Going back to the Mazda now...

Also, Floyd Herman only played a partial role in getting me addicted to country music. My mom also helped. When I was doing my homework after school, my mom would play her CDs on the entertainment center (Remember those? My dad bought our shelf system IN JAPAN while on the deployment there in the 1980s; It had a separate AM/FM receiver, single CD player receiver, and cassette receiver, all connected to two HUGE Yamaha speakers; That thing f*cking CRANKED, and with the exception of the CD player everything still works too; It's in storage in the basement). The broken CD player and the fact that the damn thing took up so much space played a role in my dad's decision to retire it. Back in 1997, however, this system was 12 years old and barely broken in. The CDs my mom played most were Reeba McEntire and Wynona Judd.

Virginia Beach had THREE country music stations. My favorite, and the most popular, was Eagle 97.3 FM (http://www.eagle97.com/), out of Newport News. The other two were 99.9 and 100.5, respectively.

When there was a commercial on one station, or on the rare occasion a station played a country song I didn't like, I had two others to choose from!

My favorite song in 1999 was "Drive Me Wild" by Sawyer Brown, by the way. My parents finally bought me a Sawyer Brown CD in August of that year, and then my dad copied the CD onto cassette so I could play it in the Mazda (don't know why he didn't jsut buy a damn car kit adapter).

 

I always had a tape deck in my cars..if not when I bought it, then shortly after. Granted it's more than this but my radio always goes with me just about..so even buying one for a vehicle I won't keep long I can justify as it goes in the next one. Never been a fan of OEM stuff

 

@ShamwowTaco

Do you have a tape deck in your current Taco?

 

Nah, CD. I do have an Alpine tape deck somewhere still I think. Top of my skull I went full CD in 2007 with my Colorado..before I used a mini player and tape adapter kit

 

I think cockfighting is deplorable, but I love this meme! It's funny because it's true!

 

Looks like you could use one of these stickers.

 

@ShamwowTaco

I like listening to Shania Twain, and I shamelessly admit this. However, Shania Twain is not something I go around blasting in my Tacoma with the windows down, at least not when I'm by myself...

For the longest time, my boss said I was her only straight male friend who listened to Shania Twain (or at least freely admitted to it).

However, when the aforementioned boss, who also LOVES Shania Twain, is riding shotgun in your Tacoma, then you crank that shit up!

I've actually told my boss "It's weird for a guy to blast Shania Twain while driving solo, but if he's got a hot girl riding shotgun, fellow motorists will become jealous!" I thought my boss was gonna die laughing.

 

I gotta say if I saw that sign I would be rolling on the ground laughing

Or jack your truck up and leave it on blocks while you watched

Depending on what kind of day I had

I Really need to take a ride down there .

 

By all means take a ride down here, but you'd better be kidding about touching my Tacoma...

 

ICE COLD A/C!

 

So, a church in Doylestown is raffling off a brand new Colorado Z71 (donated by Lafferty Chevrolet). I'm going to enter to win, as the Chevy Colorado is the only "small" truck besides a 3rd gen Tacoma I'd ever buy new. I took pictures of the truck with my iPhone and sent them to my boss, telling her I was entering the raffle and if I won this Colorado she could have my Tacoma for $10,000. She said "$5,000." Half-jokingly I told her because she'd been so good to me, I'd let her have the Tacoma for $5K. Keep in mind that I know I'm not gonna win this Colorado, but God help me if I actually do win...

My boss really is one of the greatest people I know and also one of the few people I'd actually give my Tacoma to if I somehow got rich overnight. My boss has driven my truck before, she loved it, and as a result considered buying one of her own.. I also know that she would treat my truck right.



Also, if the truck's MSRP is over $36K, why is the cash option only $25K?