Potential Project Truck

So recently I was afforded the opportunity to turn my Tacoma into an off roader/weekend driver/project truck. For the time being, I plan to use it as an around the farm truck...go get a load of firewood, buck season starts next monday in WV so hopefully a trophy buck will need to be retrieved from the field next week, etc.

It is a 2002 4x4 TRD with 252k on the clock. Aside from the herculiner I recently laid down, it is 100% stock. Since I bought it from my dad, I have babied it. My dad never did any of the needed preventative maintenance for the first 200k. I have changed the timing belt, water pump, t-stat, diff fluids, t-case fluid. My dad never even greased the u-joints on the driveshafts!!

Anyways, back in June, I was rear-ended and thought the truck was headed to the grave. Frame was bent, driverside of bed was bent up like an accordian, bed pushed up into the cab...$6500 worth of body and frame later...I have a shiny repaired truck. I drove it for a few more months, and it just doesnt do well on the interstate anymore. Its hard to control, engine seems to have a shimmy in it since the wreck, and a couple other things. Overall, it is still a good truck and I want to keep it around for a long time because I know how good these trucks are...this is my 2nd tacoma and 4th out of 5 toyotas i have owned overall.

I need some ideas on what I could potentially do to my truck. Im open to almost anything, while keeping in mind the truck will be used for trips to 84Lumber/Lowes, hauling firewood, gravel, furniture, etc. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Attached are some pics of the truck. The first pic was taken the day I got her back from the body shop after the wreck. I had the fender flares painted to match. 2nd pic is of my tacoma and tundra in the rare Oct. snow we got a few weeks ago. 3rd was from the wreck.

 

long travel suspension!!!

 

no SAS it!

 

X2

Did they replace the frame or just repair it?

 

Get it right-side-up before you do anything...

 

SAS.

 

It's a shame to have to turn a truck with $6500 in bodywork into a farm only truck. With that being said, if you no longer feel it to be a safe highway vehicle, and you plan on using it for serious payloads, the first thing I would do, assuming the springs are good, would be look into a helper spring set up or even air bag set up to even the load for gravel and firewood. Keep in mind, it's not a full sized truck. Just make sure you can stop the truck with any serious amount of weight in the bed. There is a video on here somewhere of a stock single cab 4x4 that is used on the farm only and it does really well. If you plan on doing serious off road, then you can spend as much as you can afford and probably want more. You can do so much to these trucks and be able to drive it on the street legally or go nuts and have a trailer rig. Like the commercial says, "What's in your wallet?"

 

dayNnite & fireturk...I definitely had those 2 options in mind while starting this thread

kmok...the frame was not replaced, just straightened as much as possible by the repair shop. My local Toyota dealer had applied the protective coating approx. 2 years ago.

Norton...yeah my bad, I forgot to rotate before uploading

 

I couldn't help my sarcastic response.

That said, I have to agree with Monkeysuncle's initial thought, it's a shame to relegate the truck to "project" status. Have you had the alignment checked? What about getting the shop that did the work to "make it right"? (Aside from high miles and minimal preventative maintenance before the wreck, I understand it drove/road well. Assuming that's the case, it SHOULD drive/ride correctly now that the insurance company invested $6500 to "fix" it...)

 

Monkey...Luckily the other guy's insurance picked up the tab for the repairs and a 2011 Ram 1500 rental to drive for the 30 days it took the body shop to repair. The entire suspension could be replaced...shocks/struts are def. shot, leaf packs will need to be replaced, as well as the coils, bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, and so on. Like I said before, my dad had it for the first 200k and replaced absolutely nothing. When you drive it, you can def. tell almost all components of the suspension need replaced.

The truck will stay as is til after the holidays. I just want to get a plan in place so I can start on it once spring time rolls around. Thanks for the info!

 

No problem! I picked up on your facetiousness! The body shop did a thrust force alignment before I picked it up. I got up under it and took measurements as best as I could...rail to rail across, diagonally from the front of the bed to rear, from ground to bottom of rails, etc. Everything checked out fairly well. It could just be in my head that it doesnt drive right! The truck will get used but in no way abused even as a farm truck/hauler. I like to think I take pretty good care of my vehicles.