PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

It won't last forever. Eventually (and it will take a very long time) the thousands of heating/cooling cycles will fatigue the material and a crack or other failure will develop. I only say this because forever is... forever.

If the truck gets regular maintenance per the schedule in the owner's manual, you should never have to replace the radiator. Barring any other damage due to accidents, engine bay mishaps or other circumstances, of course.

 

As a Puppy my Cocker Spaniel ate lets see the fringe off my carpet, my then Golf Toppers (to protect the driver), and surprised the hell out my GF one morning. I hear this Shreek from the Bathroom, little Jessie just went to find mom in the Shower.

 

Corgi eats the crotches out of underwear, clean or dirty. Even ate through a hamper one time to get at a pair.

Buddy's dog ate his couch while he was at work. Right down to the wood.

We had an Aussie Shepherd that constantly at the rivets off of my jeans and the fly button.

 

Had a another pair of Cockers the ate to Stitching off a mattress and it exploded. Would loved to see it. Fortunately not mine.

 

Ok I may not be able to beat THAT story, but my chocolate lab/saint Bernard's favorite chewtoy was hoses, sprinklers, water guns, anything they sprayed water really. we probably went through at least 50 hoses while he was in his teething stage, probably 30 more after that.
Then my yellow lab ate roadkill rabbit, which is gross on its own, but we started noticing that she was acting weird, not eating her food, tail down, antisocial and slept a lot. So we took her to the vet where after we tried pills and different dogs foods, he pumped her stomach and there was a handful of tapeworms in her stomach.

 

My parents' house in North Wales was built in 1990 and they bought it new after the original prospective buyers backed out of the deal... The next-door houses on either side were also built in 1990, but by 1994 both original owners had relocated due to job transfers. The Lynches moved into one house after the original owners moved out in 1994. The original owners of the home on the other side of our house were gone by 1992 (1993 at the latest).

They had at least one dog and a lot of kids, and the mother drove a minivan almost identical to the one in the picture below (I found it on google). The only difference between the van in the picture below and one our neighbors had was that neighbors' van was a longer "Grand" version. The one in the picture below is also a Plymouth Voyager. I don't remember if it was a Dodge Grand Caravan or a Plymouth Grand Voyager, but it was the same color and it had those same wheel covers...

Also, keep in mind that this story takes place in 1992-1993. The van involved probably cost about twenty grand new and was no more than 6 years old at the time (Chrysler made that specific style from 1987-1990). I vaguely remember the aforementioned mom telling me it was a 1990, in which case it was 2 to 3 years old...



Anyway, here's where the dog comes into play. My mom and a bunch of the other moms in the neighborhood established a playgroup for their young kids. One afternoon, the playgroup took place in the backyard of the neighbors with the blue minivan...

The aforementioned mom who owned the light blue minivan showed me a thoroughly destroyed set of keys, which unfortunately included the keys to the van, and said that the dog had gotten them. My boss's dog Tully has gotten her teeth on my Tacoma keys a few times, but there was never any damage, and luckily she's long since grown out of the teething stage...

The keys to the minivan (and Chrysler was one of many manufacturers that had separate keys for the doors and ignition) were so badly damaged from what I remember that they could no longer be used to start the van... Luckily this was back in the days before "chipped" keys, and even getting a new one at the dealer wasn't that expensive...

 

So basically, my neighbor's dog mangled the keys to her 2-year old minivan and she had to get a new set!

 

I took this picture more than 7 years ago (February 2010) somewhere in Bucks County, but I can't remember where...

 

I met this woman from Bakersfield on DeviantArt, and she did a lot of fanart related to Disney/Pixar's Cars...

I emailed her a picture of my 1996 Pathfinder and she brought "him" to life...

As much as I love my Tacoma, I miss my Pathfinder...

 

Aren't they basically a first gen Tundra?

 

I never thought of them that way... The base models were 4-bangers... and until 1994 the top engine was the underpowered (in my opinion) 3.0L V6...

I also liked the regular cab/long bed models the best because I thought the beds on the extra cab versions were too short. However, I still think the T100 is a great truck, and other people must think so too, because I still see decent 1995-1998 models going for a small fortune!

 

Some people have criticized my driving and how well I take care of my truck...

On numerous occasions, the service people at Thompson Toyota have complimented me on how my truck is one of the nicest they've seen...

Strangers walk up to me at gas stations, at the car wash, and in parking lots, etc and compliment me on my truck...

The most severe damage to my truck was NOT MY FAULT!

Today, I walked around my truck and did a visual inspection, and everything I found was pretty much normal wear-and-tear...

 

The only two decent (noticeable) dents on my truck were caused by my dad...

This one occurred in January-February 2016 when we got an entire winter's worth of snow in less than 2 days. My dad wasn't paying attention while shoveling the driveway and nailed my brand new fender with the handle of the snow shovel! Like I said, this was barely two months after Butch replaced the fender that was destroyed when the drunk guy hit me:

 

This one was indirectly caused by my dad in April 2016. He helped me load the Tacoma full of furniture and other stuff to take from the old house that was still under contract to the new house they'd just closed on. He put a swiveling office chair in the bed but didn't secure it. The drive itself was flawless, but less than a mile from our new house...

I either hit a pothole (it was dark), or braked at a red light, and the damn chair flew forward and left this nice little souvenir in my right rear pillar. Butch quoted me about $250 to fix it, and ended up touching it up for free the last time he did work on my truck. Unless my truck truly does become a sought-after collector's item and I decide to show it, I probably won't bother to fix this:

 

This one was unfortunately my fault. It happened sometime in 2016...

I was loading metal chairs into the bed at Puck, and not paying attention, and one of the legs scratched the roof above the rear window:

 

This happened in November 2013...

All you need to know is that I had an incident on a narrow street with someone in a Lexus SC430 who I'm 99% sure would not have passed a breathalyzer. This person tried to drive between my Tacoma on their left and a brick building on their right, and I don't even remember what caused it. I THINK my foot slipped off the brake while I was in drive and this person happened to be driving by. I bumped into the side of their car going like 2MPH...

My truck had $300 in damage that as you can see I never bothered to get fixed and just had the paint touched up. The Lexus had upgraded pearlescent paint and what initially looked like a black scuff mark down the left side of the car ended up being $1,600 in damage. I told the whole story to my insurance company and they ruled 50/50. My accident forgiveness, which I'm pissed that I wasted, kept my rates from going up...

The damage from the 2013 "Lexus incident" in March 2017:

 

Mystery scratch right above the "Lexus incident" damage, probably caused by a branch or a bush...

 

Another scratch that I unfortunately caused in 2016 while loading metal chairs into the bed at Puck...

 

On the right side, the lip on my rear bumper is bent out a little bit. Don't know how the hell this happened... I have not actually backed into anything in about a year...

 

Somebody hit my left door with their door in a parking lot back in 2012 and left this nifty little souvenir. I had it touched up when I brought my truck in for detailing after it was attacked by artillery fungus in 2011-2012...