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

Sometime in the fall of 2011, I brought this to college with me as part of a presentation for a class project:


After class, I had quite a bit of time to spare before my next class, and I decided to go the Chic-Fil-A around the corner for lunch instead of eating in the cafeteria. I had the Rheem A/C fan grille in the shotgun seat, and it flew forward and took a chunk out of the dash when I braked for a red light:

Never bothered to fix it... I think it gives the truck character to tell you the truth... Needless to say, I buckled the fan grille in with the seatbelt for the rest of the drive to Chic-Fil-A and only kept it in the cab while the truck was parked so nobody would steal it. For the drive home, I put it in the bed like I should have done in the first place...

 

This scratch appeared on the right side of the dash sometime in 2010 or 2011 before I got my license. I have no idea how it happened. Still there 7 years later...

 

And then there's this tear on the driver's side of the bench seat that mysteriously appeared... I have no idea how it got there...



But I have a feeling that a certain Boxer/Labrador mix named Tully would fess up immediately if she was capable of vocalizing and forming words...

 

And to top it all off my truck has just over 71K original miles. My dad has held onto all service records since the day he bought it, and now that the title is in my name I have continued that tradition. We even have the original window sticker somewhere! The A/C blows 41°F at the vents, there are no idiot lights on, and the truck runs and drives great...

 

This thread is just weird....

 

What is "normal" anyway?

 

Not this thread.

 

Just cracked 70K today..though mine in Oct 2012 had 6600 miles, so I'm sure I'll put em on faster.

 

Has anybody's vehicle (Tacoma or not) been attacked by Artillery Fungus? This happened back in 2011-2012 (may have even been 2010) or so and thankfully it has happened since. We used to live in a townhouse (2007-2016), and the HOA in our old neighborhood took care of lawn care and landscaping. One year, they put down a batch of mulch/fertilizer that was contaminated with this fungus...

My 2010 Tacoma is silver, the 2004 Honda Odyssey my mom was driving at the time was silver, the vinyl siding on my parents' house (and every other house in the neighborhood) was this bisque/cream color), and the Carrier central A/C units in the backyard were gray. Why is this important?

Artillery fungus is attracted to lighter colored items, and it actually shoots little black spores at them. Basically I came out one day to find my truck, my mom's van, an entire section of siding on the house, and the A/C units covered in black specks. I tried for close to a year to get this shit off of the truck and the van, and pretty much gave up on the air-conditioner and the house. My mom did some research and found out what artillery fungus was. My dad's 2008 Acura TL was "Carbon Bronze Metallic," a grayish brown color. Since it was a relatively dark color, the Acura was spared from the wrath of the artillery fungus was. If I remember correctly the landscaping company was forced to eat the cost of replacing everyone's mulch because a good number of people had the same thing happen to them...

 

My mom found out that trying to remove the black specs caused the fungus to multiply and spread on the service it had attached to.

Like I said, I tried for close to a year if not more than a year to get this shit off my truck. I bought all sorts of stuff (Goo-Gone, etc) and used the aforementioned Carrier air-conditioners as test subjects so I wouldn't damage the paint on my truck.

Finally, I brought the Tacoma to the Thompson Organization's detailing center. I'm pretty sure the artillery fungus started before I got my license, but I had my license by the time I decided to let the professionals handle it. About $375 later, the crew at the detailing center was able to remove all noticeable traces of the artillery fungus from my Tacoma. Even after almost $400, there were still small traces of the fungus, and the supervisor told me that he'd never seen anything like it before and his guys got quite a workout de-fungusing the Tacoma. I brought the Odyssey in a short time later and it cost over $400 to get it detailed because it considered a "full-size" and would have cost more than the Tacoma anyway.

The air-conditioners and certain parts of the house still had artillery fungus on them when we sold the place and moved out in 2016...

If my truck ever gets bombarded by Artillery Fungus from contaminated mulch, I will take the landscaping company to court if they refuse to pay the detailing bill...

 

One of my biggest problems is that I take things too seriously. I realize this, and I am sorry...

 

So? Be you man. If people don't like it they don't gotta read your posts.

 

I'm still running the OEM radiator. First thing to try is replacing your pressure cap. It's a recommended practice to replace it annually or test it. On my 2TR-FE the OEM coolant bypass #2 pipe was the culprit of my coolant loss. Look at the forward portion of the timing cover between the intake manifold and timing cover just below the thermostat housing. If your bypass pipe is composite replace it. The small nipple in the rear of that pipe tends to crack as does the flange mounting to the timing cover.

 

Another picture..
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This isn't a crazy story, it did not involve any alcohol, and it most certainly did not involve anything illegal, unethical, or amoral...

BUT IT IS STILL PRETTY GODDAMN FUNNY!

I was 24, and my ex-girlfriend was 19 when we met in algebra class at college in April 2013. She farted in my Tacoma on the first date! This was not some girly toot, though to be fair I did not hear it anyway, because it was an SBD to begin with and my Tacoma's bench seat muffled any noise it DID make.

She started laughing, and I asked what was so funny. She said "Nothing." The laughing continued and she rolled down her window. This was an unseasonably warm day in April, so I had the A/C in my Tacoma blasting and the windows up. I then demanded to know what her deal was, and she just said "Okay, I farted!"

That's when the smell hit me, and I rolled down my window too. Luckily at 45 MPH with the windows down the smell didn't last long...

Our first date was to see that movie about Jackie Robinson (Awesome movie, by the way), and then that night I showed her my basement... 'Nuff said

Our second date was at a classic car show the very next day, and later that day we ended up making out in my Tacoma in some random shopping center parking lot...

I found it ironic that I was going out of my way to be a gentleman to impress (no burping, no farting, no jokes about the aforementioned bodily functions, no swearing, etc), and then she goes exactly what I trying not to do. But, after the way that first date went, she could blow up my truck every time she rode in it for all I care...

 

I was sober when I started this thread LOL...

 

I was drunk the whole time!

 

Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Just don't make a big mess or end up with your truck on top of you. Or change the oil at your buddy's house if of the only issue is your folks don't want oil spilled on their driveway.

 

OP here...

Today (March 7, 2017), I was in the area and took some pictures of the intersection where the accident occurred with my phone...

This is a picture of the 3-way intersection where the accident occurred:


My stop signs and the spot where I stopped my Tacoma are both marked in red; The other driver's stop sign and the spot where his Mercedes was stopped are both marked in blue:


A closer look (Again, my stop sign and where I stopped marked in red; Mercedes driver's marked in blue:


Right after the guy hit me, I pulled over to the curb in the area circled in red, got out of my truck, saw the damage he had done, and immediately started cussing him out:


The area circled in red is roughly where the old man pulled his Mercedes over. At least one of the responding officers parked their police SUV where the Verizon cherry picker truck is parked:


The night I got hit, I was doing exactly what the black Jeep is doing in this photo, though unlike the Jeep driver I actually stayed far enough to the right that the guy in the Mercedes had no excuse to hit my Tacoma:


Once again, the area where I pulled over immediately after the guy hit me is circled in red, and the location of the Mercedes when I starting making the left turn is marked in blue. The red arrow marks the approximate location of my left door when the guy slammed into the left rear corner of my truck:


The approximate location of my Tacoma's front bumper when I stopped at the stop sign is marked in red. The approximate location of the Mercedes from the time I stopped until I was almost through my left turn is marked in blue (the Benz was not that visible):


Path of my Tacoma marked in red; Path of Mercedes marked in blue:


The approximate location of the Benz's bumper while stopped is marked in blue. He just floored it while the back end of my truck was still in his path:


Another POV showing the paths of my truck (red) and the Benz (blue) with the approximate location of my truck's left rear corner at the time of impact marked with a gold "X":