Intro and What I am up to

Long winded intro:

Dad bought the Tacoma off the showroom floor in 1997. A man of simplicity, he chose the straight cab 4WD, auto (2.7L) with manual window cranks and door locks. He also had a wild side and, after several hours of negotiation, got the am/fm radio with cassette upgrade. He needed that for his extensive Bowie, Springsteen and Fleetood Mac tape collection. He was unsuccessful pulling off the state of the art dash clock. Fast forward 22 years later and he gave it to me when the Alzheimer’s got too bad for him to safely drive. That was also a heated negotiation as I kept telling him to hold onto it in his driveway till he died and I got it in the will (he still has a sense of humor). In my mind it is still his truck and I just am just a registered and titled borrower. I brought it home, knocked the dust off and realized what I had. He gave me a like new truck with 100k miles and the only complaint would be a faded paint job (thanks to the paint department at Toyota for that awesome long lasting red paint). I have basically had it parked in the garage for two years with only the occasional trip for mower gas and landscaping projects.

I have now decided it is time to bring it back to its glory. “Old Red” is getting a shade tree bare bone budget restore back to its OEM glory.
1. Yanked the front grill for a good cleanup and new marker lights and headlights.
2. Yanked off rear bumper for new black paint (Dad didn’t pay for chrome)
3. Replacing side mirrors.
4. Work out a deal with the sketchy tire guy to yank off the tires to rehab and paint the fancy OEM steel wheels back to showroom new gray.
5. Detail the crap out of the wheel wells.
6. Convince myself not to change the radio out to Bluetooth (keep it OEM).

Wish me luck.

 

Sorry about your loss, but awesome that you got to keep something that belonged to him.

Post pics of this thing!

 

Maybe merge your two threads together as well.

 

Welcome to TW

Great story. Post some pictures please.

 

I’ll drag it out later for more.

 

You south/west U.S.? Snap a pic of the underside frame...Show people how beautiful the frame can look after 20+ years without salt.

Sound system upgrade and you're good to go

 

Tennessee. I’ll snap some later. Little to no snow.

 

Welcome to TW. What a great project.

 

Fuck that thing looks mint

Keep it stock please!

 

Welcome to TW!

It's a beautiful looking truck, enjoy it.

 

Welcome to Tacoma World from north Louisiana.

 

Stock all the way. Even going to keep that classy radio with cassette and awesome Toyota door speakers.

 

Dad didn't tint those windows did he???

Great truck and better story!

 

Nice truck... enjoy.

 

Someone said something earlier that I need to clarify. Dad is still around and gets to see it every time I go visit at the nursing home. We bring him outside for the fresh air. Don’t worry though, we have him in a good one. Also, another funny thing is that the windows were tinted but removed the tint due to windows being scratched from his riding partner, Scooter the chihuahua.

 

Gonna go broke trying to find replacement clips for all my stuff.

 

Thanks for the pictures and the story. Your Dad sounds like a cool guy.

 

That paint looks great!