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

Ill buy bull bar if I u take it off

 

Bahamas thanks... I like it because the front of this truck is ugly without it!

 

I would remove the steps, the front mud flaps.
I also would replace the bull bar with a plate bumper.
It is your truck though.

 

That was JMHO. Since it is a Prerunner, you won't be worried about approach angle. But if you hit anything substantial, it can bend back and damage the truck, just so you know. It's happened to others here.

 

I wanted to do a plate bumper but they are expensive/ I don't have tools and supplies to build one! And also was gonna wait till I got an actual 4x4 that's a newer 1st gen

 

Ya I've heard bout that too. If I find a stellar deal on a new bumper then ill definitely get rid of the bull bar!!

 

doing stuff...

 

was the bumper a PITA for you as much as it was for me?

 

front or rear?

 

rear. front is a piece of cake

 

nope... rear came off nice and easy

 

meh, filled it back up today and the superglue held the fluid in, but I don't see it lasting very long considering all of the other little micro cracks and with the pressure coming from the inside of the crack.

The link Madjik man posted with the fiberglass seems like a much more comprehensive repair to this seemingly common issue, but not a project I have time to perform on my DD at the moment with work, school, and kids.

 

damn. the bolts on mine were so seized up, i'm lucky i didn't strip the heads

 

I recently made a decision to go all black ops style with the green theme since it looks the most pleasant for my eyes at night.

 

Great job man, looks awesome! Was the key light ring a pain?

 

Thanks! I think the hardest part for me was crawling under the steering wheel panel in order to tap into the dome light wires. I almost had a hernia doing it . I could have tap via the a-piller and saved my back but I didn't want to deal with removing the "oh sh*t" handle and pulling out the piller panel possibly damaging the mounting tabs.

 

Currently in progress, so it's what I'm doing to my Tacoma right now

My new (used) topper came with nicely blacked out windows...not with tint, but with spray paint I prefer to be able to see out the back...and if we ever use it for camping, I'd also like to see out the sides, so this stuff has gotta go. I read that nail polish remover might be a good solvent to at least soften the spray paint a bit, because the scraper with blade that I bought wouldn't cut it much.

So here are my tools...long blade scraper, shop paper towels, and nail polish remover (I tried both non-acetone and regular, the regular seems to work better on this paint).

IMAG4598 by Kathy / Analog Soul Photography, on Flickr

My first bit of progress:

IMAG4599 by Kathy / Analog Soul Photography, on Flickr

And thus far...almost half done...and I can see me with rubber arms once I'm done with this rear window (will see about removing the side ones to do this):

IMAG4600 by Kathy / Analog Soul Photography, on Flickr

And here's the amazing thing...you can still barely see in where I've scraped the paint away...the windows are already tinted, it appears.

IMAG4601 by Kathy / Analog Soul Photography, on Flickr

And here's the topper on the truck from the side, you can see the Wheeler's five pack is still making the rear sit high, but once it's loaded with camping gear, I'm sure it'll level out a bit. Also planning on doing the front end suspension as soon as I recover from the cost of this one...and after I do my timing belt.

My truck with new (used) topper by Kathy / Analog Soul Photography, on Flickr

 

Try graffiti remover from goof off. Its in a spray can. Works pretty well. You can find it at lowes or home depot.

 

Thanks! I got a good bit cleared...but I'm suffering from the aforementioned rubber arms, so I'll look for that to do the rest