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

Get a drop hitch, your kinda maxed at that angle

 

Got my Reese receiver today. But the bumper bolts are froze. So they're soaking and the m12 impact is charging..

 

Already using a 6” drop I believe

 

That's what I run on my sequioa with the pop up. It's almost level. Just go easy with that angle, they suck when they pop off the ball and will tear shit up..ive scraped a few off the freeway.

 

Is that a starcraft? Axle flip and your good. Won't need a new drop hitch.

 

@JKO1998 , the mod section on popupportal.com will make you spend money worse than here...lol

 

If you don't remove every handle, window and piece of trim and vigorously prep it all yourself, a Maaco "paint job" (if one would call what they do "painting") will not last that long. They are notorious for shit prep and spraying over trim, windows etc. The lack of prep in these areas will cause it to peel within the first year or two.

IMO, Maaco is absolute crap. I wouldn't bring any of my rigs to them, even if they did it for free. I have had to repair more Maaco "paint jobs" than I can count. They will find any way to cut corners and it WILL come back to bite you. Do as much work as you can so that all they have to do is spray.

 

Ran the old Mojave Road this past weekend with @dtaco06 @Bergster36 and @Airdog. It's an old 19th century+ route across the Mojave desert going from Laughlin, NV to Barstow, CA. We did about 200 miles of mostly dirt, some rock and quite a bit of sand dunes. Also crossed a dry lake bed and hit up several landmarks along the way. The road had old military forts, ranch homes and mines spaced throughout. All abandoned. Highly recommend this trip for anyone looking to do a Southern CA wheeling adventure, but wait until after summer because it will get deadly hot out there and it is pretty damn remote.

Sorry for the photo dump, but hope you enjoy the pics

photo dump 1/2

 

I know it's bad. But you have to keep in mind Maaco is franchised - 90% of them are absolutely terrible but there's a few of them that produce quality work.

The branch I'm going with is one of those rare exceptions. 200 reviews and 4 1/2 star rating on Yelp. The owner showed me the work they did and it was pretty decent. They had a gen 1 while I was there getting a quote while it was being prepped and they did a pretty good job of getting everything.

Yeah it might end up being a bad paint job, whatever. My clear coat is getting worse and worse everyday and it'll start rusting soon if I don't do something's about it. Fact of the matter is it's cheap and I don't have $3-4K an independent body shop asks for.

I'm not getting this paint job because I want one, I'm getting one because it needs one to stop the corrosion. Eventually I'll get it done properly.

 

photo dump 2/2



The water crossing in the last pic is toward the end of the trail, and you have to cross it to get out otherwise you have to backtrack maybe 10 miles to other exit. It was a lot deeper than the first time I ran this trail about a year and a half ago, and I initially decided to try and find a way around it but there wasn't one...so I went for it. Put her in 4lo with the rear locker on and kept to the right side to keep the intake higher, which unfortunately put my driver's side door into the water and I got a little wet on the carpeting. Cleaned it up good though when I got home and so far it seems okay. It was a butt pucker moment for sure especially when that photo was taken, the truck hit a high spot under the water and felt like it was going to flop for a second.

 

One should also keep in mind that 90% of people can't recognize a decent paint job from a shitty one and probably give decent reviews because their paint is now "shiny". Not saying that this Maaco is better or worse than other, was just trying to convey that if you do all the work, you won't even give them a chance to fuck it up. Remember, they get paid by getting cars in and out as fast as possible, not by the quality. They get cars in and out fast by cutting corners. Just something to think about.

 

It says ita a palomino pony, and that’s all.

Plan is flip the axle, and maybe some bigger tires to get it from the ground a bit.

And then eventually maybe rhino line the outside to refresh and waterproofer it.

It should be pretty fun, no heater like I said but I guess I’ll make do.

 

A palomino nice. How's the floor? No soft spots I hope.as for a heater run a big buddy heater.its a small pop up, it'll run you out. And bear creek canvas has replacements for your sides cheap. Bass pro lemon canvas cleaner works tits. But rewaterproof it.

 

I wasn’t told it doesn’t leak, but only time will tell, canvas is in good shape also.

Floor seems fine also.

 

Good deal..what the charge you for it? Those lil pop ups are on demand. Ppl go crazy for them, you can pull with anything.

 

@eon_blue what's the deal with Unimog guy? That's one hell of a rig.

 

950$ with a generator, but looking back I feel I over paid, by a few hundo, which sucks but oh well. Maybe I’ll try and resell it eventually.

 

Evidently I'm not very good at welding...

The beautiful Relentless Fab joints on the right, and my attempt on the left.



Could be my welder just not being powerful enough and not getting good enough penetration. It's a cheap Lincoln Electric 120v MIG that can on a good day only weld 1/8 steel at the largest. This bumper is made of 3/16 steel.

 

You can make your money back easy come summer time.thats a solid price if it has no water damage and floors good. I got mine for $500, but it took 5yrs of searching.and you got a generator too. Nice

 

dude it was awesome, we saw him coming down the trail on our first day there. He was from Germany and brought his Unimog over so that he could explore the Mojave desert and other trails in the states. We didn't get to talk for very long as he was trying to get to a certain campsite for the night, but he was a really cool dude and let me take several photos of him and his Unimog. It's a beastly machine, looks like it could conquer anything as long as it was able to fit through it haha.