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

On the subject of rope hooks, mine were rusting as well so I finally decided to tackle them a few months ago. The previous owner had wire brushed the bigger patches off a while ago but the rust was coming back.

Removed the hooks with a ratchet, applied lots of phosphoric acid and sanded down the parts that weren't fully converted, then primed with a few coats of Rustoleum stops-rust primer and covered with a few coats of Rustoleum black hammered metal finish paint to hide the surface imperfections from the converted rust. Taped over the bolt threads to avoid getting them painted.


That brown stuff on the bottom of one of the hooks is primer, rather than rust. I think they came out looking alright.

Unfortunately, it appears that either there wasn't enough paint in the heads or some got stripped off while tightening the bolts because a small amount of surface rust has seeped back in over the course of a few months. I might remove the bolts again to re-spray them since I still have plenty of leftover paint if it looks like the rust is progressing further.

 

did you use a #4 phillips head to remove those?
i tried a #3 but started stripping

 

I used a #3 because it was the largest my ratchet set had; it's mostly for socket wrench use.

I originally tried just a plain screwdriver but wasn't making any progress and the ratchet got the bolts off without much trouble at all. The previous owner said he had never removed the bolts before because he didn't have a ratchet (he had also tried with just a screwdriver), which means so far as I know they haven't been removed since the truck was purchased.

In your case I'm not sure if some anti-seize might be useful. I did apply lots of phosphoric acid before I removed them, so perhaps that had an effect. I actually removed them because the acid was moving rather slowly and it was starting to rain so I wanted to take them inside to keep working.

 

thanks, my rope hooks have never been removed, just decades of summer humidty behind there as far as i know
the 1st one I attempted started to move but then stripped and i stopped until I can locate a #4 head, will also look at how a ratchet will fit onto them

 

Bed is back on and bolted down. Everything is remounted and working as before. Well, except the alternator. That's dying so I just picked up a reman replacement. I'll use that until I get around to doing the 140amp alt and keep this one as a spare.



Way more travel for the shocks than before.

 

Especially over @Blackdawg...

 

Just from my photography background, truck is half in the shade, sitting in a driveway under a carport, not much composition, plus mall crawlers usually get looked down on on this forum. Not bashing your truck cause like every one says you do you .. glad you won

 

Did the radiator mounting holes line up?
or did it take some modification?
And does the hood hit the rad cap?
Thanks.

 

What's with the fucking shit talk? 1st time a 1st Gen wins and @Taco critter deserved it. He crushed it from day one.

The fuck outta here with the bullshit.

 

Who knew grown ass adults would be crying about their internet vote losing.

What a time to be alive.

 

Nice. I like it. Pricey though, but like the use of the seats.

Great place. Billings is the biggest city in MT...and really Wyo for that matter to give you an idea haha Snow isn't quite as bad there but the hail is. I grew up in Wyo and the education system there is way better I think. But the economy is not good in wyoming really.

Billings is a bit east so most the mountains and stuff around a bit of a drive, like 1.5 hours minimum and up to...well as long as you want to drive haha Billings is growing pretty fast, but not like Bozeman..aka bozangles..which is the hot bed for all the cali relocates as of now. Winters are long and can be hard, summer is really only about 4 monthish in the basin and 2 or less in the mountains so be ready for that. ha But its a nice place overall. I love it.

nah.

A)I don't really care that much
B)Ironically, I never do good in those things, ever. So never expect to win.
C) I only did it because someone here posted it to try and get 1st gens up there instead of a 2/3rd gen. Which Id say we did pretty well! So mission accomplished

 

I think because the 2000-2004 hoods are different you possibly can use the 4 runners radiator without it hitting the hood, the 1996-2000 the radiator hits I believe

 

Ok, thanks for the info. Been looking at these for a bit.

 

Dudes been campaigning for this since it started like 6 months ago. 'Bout time he won lol . Gonna be weird not seeing him in it from now on. Correct me if Im wrong but you cant win twice, right?

 

I’m not 100 percent sure, but 90 percent from what I have been following, hopefully you get a response back from @00-5vz. He has the newer hood.
If I could fit the 4runner radiator in mine I would definitely get it just because there is some much more radiator length, but Im sure the radiator cap hits the 1997 hood

 

Youre gonna have to let us know what the free swag you get is

 

Officially a 1st gen owner (2003). 4 cylinders, manual trans, 4x4. Drives like a dream, even with its high mileage (300k). Need suggestions for a security system, stereo upgrade and a hitch!!!

 

Alternator swapped out. I think I'm done working on the truck for a bit now.



The old one was the OEM stocker with 323,258 on it. Not too bad me thinks.

 

nice white letters out, any story about the wheels?

 

Replaced my passenger shock, it seems the bushing didn’t like bouncing around on a mail route.


Rotating the tires and it seems as though my “sketchy at speed” feeling is from a shit ton of slack in the rack, now to research what rack to get.