New 2nd Gen owner.. what now ?

I recently inherited a silver 2005 TRD off road access cab prerunner. I like the truck and always have ever since my Dad bought it brand new. Its a great truck. Its tough. It runs great. It has 136,000 miles on it. And all those miles are trips to the dump, to home depot, to pick up firewood and to doctors appointments. So a lot of tough miles. Okay maybe 3 or400 highway miles.

So now its mine. I want to restore it and make it my daily driver. Its not a pretty truck right now. No actual body damage and mechanically up to par. Just years of accumulated dust, dog hair, dark stains in the interior, scratches, exposer to sun and wind, yellow cloudy headlights. A few dings on the tailgate. Its been a work truck. Now I wanna make it a 'driving to work' truck with a weekly trip to Costco. Long story short.. I want to make it look as nice as I can.
My other vehicle is a 2019 MGM TRD off road 4X4 DCSB. Ive been a 3rd gen owner since 2016.

Any tips for me, fellow TW members ? maybe paint restoration, interior carpet, seats, headlights and taillights. A website with good info, maybe even a shop I can take it to. Anything will be appreciated.

 

welcome

 

I’d just drive it and continue to let it be a work truck. That way you can “baby” the 3rd Gen. Once you let a work truck get lazy, they get used to it, and then they don’t want to work.

Regular maintenance and drive it.

Welcome to TW

 

So trucks are like people.. hmm good tip. I still want to make it look nice

 

Oh and once we sell the property and it stays full-time at my house.. it will have retired from doing the kind of work that it's used to

 

Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

Any pictures?

Has all the scheduled maintenance been taken care of? If not. Catch up on that as well. It'll save you a ton of many headache's .

 

My new profile pic has it parked right next to my new (ish) one. But I'll look for more pics

 

Nice! Has the head gaskets been replaced? Beware if they haven’t 05’s are prone

 

I don't remember my dad ever mentioning something like that. The only recalled it for the leaf springs a few years ago.. maybe longer. There's been no leaks or loss of power. But thanks for the tip.

 

I'd keep it just because it was your dad's
truck . No matter what it needed!

 

I’d keep it, restore to its glory days and just have it there if you have the room.

 

05 had a potential head gasket leak. doesn't mean that every 05 has it.

The paint is a pita to keep up on.
Get a buffer machine and some nuFinish (the orange bottle)

You can try to buff out the headlights too, it will make them slightly more clear, but no miracle.

Get some mothers back to black for the outside trim

Get armorall or vaseline and wipe down the door seals

Spray tire foam all in the engine compartment then rinse after 30 min or so.

Now you got a new truck (lol)

 

Do a bit of spit and polish and drive it. Fix it up real nice and you won't want to use it like a truck. Always good to have a nice ride and one that actually can be used without stroking out when old cat lady bashes her van driver side door in it as she heaves her mass of blubber out of the drivers sofa seat and uses the wide open door as a weight holding device. Your vehicle side is used as a anti tip over device as the van lists dangerously due to excess weight on one side.

 

Nice truck, & you know the history from day-1. That's a huge plus! FWIW I just got new headlight assemblies From @RockAuto , for a little over $100 to my door for the pair. I'd polished mine out a while back, but they were cracked anyways so... It's a DIY job and pretty simple. Sounds like your dad kept up with the maintenance well, that's gold! Enjoy your new old ride. Keep us updated, and we like pics BTW.

 

I will do just that. Just looking for tips

 

Good tips thank you. Just what I was looking for. I think I'll just get new headlights though.

 

Thanks Chuck. I'll keep you updated. Still using it at the house for dump runs and such. Getting the house ready to sell. Soon I'll bring it home and get to work. I'll keep ya updated. Yesterday, after I got back from the dump, I snatched a pic while admiring it's profile.

 

Factory headlights are gonna be like $700

$300 aftermarket headlights will need to be disassembled and all joining parts watersealed somehow, rrv silicone or something. Maybe plastic weld???

Point is, good headlights are gonna be expensive...