It lives. $200 taco part 2

A few months ago i posted my 'new' $200 1st gen.



It was a beater but seemed to run well and the price was right. The tires were so bald i could almost see the air inside so i swapped a set of not quite as bad tires off of aother project to test it out as I made plans.



The owner thought the heater core was plugged as it had no heat. But a little troubleshooting showed it was actually getting an air lock from exhaust leaking imto the cooling system, I pulled the head to put in a new gasket and found that the head itself was damaged. It looks like someone busted a plug in #3 and just ran it until the parts came out. But it cracked the head in the process.



Since the engine had a few billion miles on it i decided not to invest in a new head and just swapped in a low mileage used engine instead. And out came the old, and n from florida came a garbage engine with a dead cylinder and overall low compression. A few irritated conversations and a couple months later, and a decent engine arrived.

In it went with new rear main, thermostat, belts, hoses, plugs, clutch etc. and since i have to put a little of myself in every project, i slammed my arm into the radiator support when a bolt finally broke free and i got 8 stitches before starting it up for the first time.

It test drove fine, so on with some new meats.



Then the fun. As you can see there were some good rust outs and dents in the bed. Not really cosmetically pleasing.

So a litle body work was in order.

 

The last day or two ive been doing paint. I should have the last of the bits and pieces put back together tonight and still have new rear springs and shocks waiting to go on. Then ill start planning for a winch etc. but as she sits its turned into a decent 20/20 truck (looks good at 20 feet or 20mph). All told im into it about $2k with the engine tires etc.

 

nice truck for 2k. good find

 

looking good so far man! so, the engine is in good shape now?

 

Thats awesome man. Nice build!

 

Nice find!

Where in CO did you find a deal like that! (CO plate in a pic)

 

Nice!
I'll bet it's worth 3,000 now.

 

Thanks all

It seems to be. I have a couple oil drips imhavent investigated yet but starts and runs fine. I havent put enough miles on it to judge for sure but mpg seems normal for the engine. A couple more tanks of fuel and ill have a good average.

. It was local when i got it, not sure where the PO picked it up from. From the looks it spent a lot of time in the middle of truck trash island

Im thinking about putting it up on cl for $6k, see if i get any takers! Tacomas are oddly expensive around here. On the off chance it sold id roll it into at least an extended cab, ive got kids

 

Awesome man I like it!

 

Good stuff! It is nice to see tired old turds resurrected.

 

Nice score dude! keep up the good work!