What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Spent some time removing the chome wheel well mounding and pin striping today. Took a good bit of work to clean up 18 years of grime under them. I wish I would have taken pics of the fenders right after I removed them. After cleanING and washing, I clayed, then wet sanded with 2000 grit and then compounded the areas. There's still a tad bit of ghosting from the pin strip, but Im not sure if you can see if from the pics. I also added full size mirrors from a 01-04 today.

Here is the before pic:



And a few after:
Looks like I missed a touch of wax in the last photo, it's been corrected now.

 

It looks so much better without the chrome wheel well molding.

 

It wasn't too bad, just need to have some patients and it will turn out awesome!

 

Well, got a great deal on this truck so it'll have to do. I hope I never total it tho, I have my daughter with me 99% of the time.
As far as a 'lift', all I'll do is an AAL in the rear and maybe a 3 inch spindle in the front.
It's a commute truck, so I won't go too crazy with mods, just want it to look good.

 

It's your truck, but if I were you I'd leave it as is. A 3 inch spindle in front will only make it handle worse, and look worse to people who actually know trucks. Not trying to hate, just being honest. It's what I wish someone told me before I almost lifted mine.

 

Baller status

 

5 lugs sit super low though - it won't look like a spindle lift on a 6 lug and help take preload off of the coils to get lift. Not really familiar with 5 lug kits myself though.

 

Well I've finally assembled almost all of my overlanding gear so I loaded up the rear to see how the suspension took it (roughly 450 lb in the bed) aaaaaaaand I'm on bump-stops.....



I have custom alcan leafs, ome greasable shackles, timbren bumps+ Oem bumps, and bilstein 7100 12" short bodies at stock mounting locations.
She rides pretty stiff without weight, but now that I'm fully loaded down it's a dump truck on bumps. I'm showing 4.5 more inches of travel the shock can cycle. It looks like the timbren has been compressing another 2.5 inches leaving 2 inches of shock left at full compression.
I have add-a-leafs already in the garage from my last truck. My question is what would you guys do? I'm going to try the AAL next week but I want to make sure I'm using every inch of my shock as I do a bit of crawling. I've also thought about shaving down the oem bumpstop about an inch to allow for an extra inch of uptravel.

Hoping to gain some wisdom from the depths of tw. Thank you first gen wizards.

 

Did that water heater strap hold the torque easily?

 

Remove the stock bumps. WHy are you double bumped? that just silly.

 

Previous owner. It was my first thought, however if I removed them I'd be maxing out my shocks, wouldn't I?

 

thats what the timbren bumps are for.

 

Yes but they would still be able to compress more after I hit the end of my shock.

 

thought the same. great idea, just think I might go up a bit in strap iron size.

 

i doubt it. They are what, 4.5'' tall? Compress down many 2''? if that? Right now you're not using a lot of your shock. as you are bumping 3'' taller then stock.

The 7100 12'' short bodys are 15.5'' compressed or so. You'll be fine with just the timberns.

 

Ok cool that's what I was thinking as well. I think I'm going to just cut it flat above the mounting plate to leave as much surface area for the timbrens to hit as possible. Thank you for the fast response!

 

When you use it you will be pulling against it. Its not water heater strap, this is what I used https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-3-ft-x-1-3-8-in-Plated-Steel-Slotted-Metal-Flat-Bar/3059253 and I don't think there is any way you could break it.

 

I have gotten carried away on this path lol

 

Sounds good. Just curious - I've used that stuff for other truck related projects and it was next to the water heater strap - my bad. Awesome idea.

 

Yes I know what you are talking about but what I used is in the sheet metal and angle iron section.