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

1997 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/5030089

 

Damn it....
wrong thread.

 

Why not?

I bought the 04 from Copart. It needed a front end.

My 98 frame had rusted thru. It had 300k on it and I did not want it replaced. It had good sheet metal and front end. Made the repairs and swapped front ends and now have a great driving 04 with a 98 front end.

I have an 04(ish) with less than 75k on the clock.

 

How did you go about buying from Copart? I thought most of the auctions required a dealer license.

Is the title branded as salvage?

 

There are dealers that will allow you to use their licence if you can prove that you have liquid funds to purchase wrecks. The average is about $100 to use their licence.
Copart does allow the public to purchase cars, but the hoops to jump thru is much greater than $100.

Oddly enough, this truck has a clear title (1st one I've bought in 20 years),

I watched this truck come up on the auction block for 15 months. I'm pretty sure there was something shady going on with insurance company that listed it thru Copart.

 

Interesting. How'd you go about finding the dealer?

 

I live in Hawaii. Proving rather difficult

 

Ahaha Jo Koy. Yeah man, on the drive to work I’ve played count the Tacoma, 45 minutes of driving I was over 150.

 

Word gets out.

I still have to have specialized work done on these trucks. Usually I have to have frame work done and I'm not set up for that. All most all frame shops buy wrecks from Copary or similar to fix or sell directly to guys like me. I just tell the shop owner what I'm looking for or show him/her what I've already found and show that I'm good for x# of dollars to bid.

If I win the auction, I drop a $100 into the tip jar and go to Copart the next day to pick up the car and pay for it there.

Obviously you need to show that you are good for the money. I only have superficial relationship with some of these guys, but I would never spend more than I could afford.

All these shop owners have equipment and chemicals to make bodies disappeared.

As if present, I'm split on buying from Copart or directly from a repairable dealer. Those guys only want clear 1k/car. Copart fees can eat that pretty quick if you can't get to the yard at a timely manner.

My purchase before the Tacoma was bought from a dealer in new Hampshire. I never even heard it run. So in short, don't think the best deal will come from buying at Copart. The dealers are reasonable I've found.

BTW, I always come back to the frame shop after I'm done and driving the car.

I tip the frame guy $100.

The reason is I know I may need his services in the future. The frame guys know my project truck frame work never is a priority. They know the truck isn't going to be driven as soon as they are done. They use the frame work on my truck as fill in work when other hot jobs drop off.

Because I tipped them, my next project gets much more attention.

 

"We got ugly ones with big wheels." (34 sec in) Looks 10 times better than all those lifted Tacomas with 20"x 12" rims

 

Same truck as mine too. Haha.

 

Amazon

 

When I replaced mine, I just reused all the lines

 

Awesome the heat helped! As long as the flare on the line, the threads and nut is fine you should be good to use the same line. But it’s up to you. If you feel more comfortable changing it then do. OGGGG

 

Yeah the nut and thread is fine just the hardline looks a little boogered but seems fine. I'll know for sure when I put the damn thing back together

 

Wasn't too bad of a swap for me. Got it done one night after school

 

I could've if I didn't run into this issue but with another car I tend to take my time and work slowly throughout the week instead of "rushing"

 

Replaced mine and cured it. A clogged breather can cause pressure to build. Prob still a good idea to replace the seals at some point...

 

Yeah I’m going to have fun tonight swapping my power steering pump. Looking forward to the forearm burns. I work all weekend that’s why I have to do it tonight.