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

Good to know, thanks

 

Got some sliders delivered while I was out of town. Hopefully getting them burned in this week along with my CBI frame plates that have been collecting dust for a year.

 

Link doesnt work but I'd trust tim

 

Those are dope

 

I'll eventually rivnut mine... but it was frickin raining and I'm an impatient mutha.

But you and @Fernando are totally right. Self tapers don't hold for shit in sheet metal.

 

Sweet man. Always nice to have options

 

We power wash at dawn.

 

By power wash you mean sandblast?

 

I wish. Maybe eventually. I'm just trying to get an idea of how bad it is so I can decide what to do with it.

 

4 link it

 

Built a rear door for my rack.

Keep the dogs in the truck at night while camping, rather than chasing squirrels all night (in.. Out... In... Out)

 

I wouldn't say no to that.

 

got a '95.5 sittin at a salvage yard here (50 miles away) ... airbag was deployed

the '98 they had was taken to the crusher (fully gutted i guess) I did not even get to see it but it was green

 

was it very hard to take the pickup box off?
I need to do that to mine, have loose paint up behind the spare tire carrier on top of the frame, can never properly wash that area in the winter in sub freezing temps
is there any original frame paint anywhere on yours?

gotta save the MT!

 

It's easy to check for that slop in the steering column. Reach up from underneath and hold the column, then try to move the steering wheel (with it unlocked). Even a tiny bit of movement is worthy of the tack weld. Before I did mine, if I was on the highway, I was constantly adjusting back and forth. Now after tacking, I can hold the wheel steady, and it runs as straight as an arrow.

 

There's 6 fasteners holding the bed onto the frame, 2 bolts up front, 2 behind the wheels, and 2 back near the bumper. The 2 at the bumper I cut because they're poorly located and were pretty rusty anyway; I couldn't get a socket on them and there wasn't any room for the breaker bar. But there was room for a grinder. The other four came off with a breaker bar and a jack-handle cheater. After that, its just dealing with wiring for the lights. The taillights have to come out, and then the wires are attached to the bed in various places along the back. Lastly the gas filler just pops out once you take off the gas cap.

I used a couple of ratchet straps and some pulleys to lift it from the rafters of the garage - its not very heavy. I'll need to rework my rigging though because the tailgate end is the heavy end and so it wasn't lifting level. Its currently sitting on a couple of sawhorses.

The frame paint is toast. Its either, gone, flaking, or flaking and packed with dirt. It'll have to be repainted.

I've been going through this truck one piece at a time and the frame is the last thing I'm not sure about. Definitely want to save it

 

Yeah that sounds like me, even with perfect alignment numbers I'm always having to adjust the wheel in small amounts to keep it from wandering. I always figured it was just because of the lift, no sway bar, added weight, etc...but sounds like I need to look into this steering wheel fix.

 

Best cheap mod you can make on these trucks IMO!!

 

I agree with @Seagull233. Pretty easy to do if you have a welder. Made a big difference in mine in that my steering column used to clunk a lot on rough roads as well as needing that .5-1" of correction back and forth on the highway

 

Should look at the steering rack guide as well.