Guinnea's wood wagon

I bought this truck a few months ago, from a dealership, for the same price as something 10 years newer. Somehow it still has less than 48k miles on it. The frame is original but it is still very solid considering it came from Albany, NY. The body sheetmetal doesn't show any sign of rust or bondo or repaint. I chose the regular cab because the extended cabs my father has owned seemed to be a little too heavy for the 2RZ engine he seems to adore, and my brother's 2000 regular cab with the 2RZ had more of a car like feel to it.

I'm the second owner beside the dealership. Its got strong evidence of old man owner on it. The cabin air vents have insect screen carefully installed underneath and there was a spare key taped to the frame rail in a plastic bag. I think the dude passed away and it sat in a garage for a few years. It kind of makes me sad to think about it. I'll take good care of it though.

My father is on his 11th Toyota pickup since the one he bought new in 1974 that he almost died in. My brother is driving number 9 with a replacement frame. I grew up driving these things, so I just started driving it like I had never stopped. I keep having flash backs of crashing through lawn ornamentation or brambles or guard rails and being able to get away because I had 4 wheel drive. We used to do some really stupid things behind the wheel. I'm all grown up now though. Now I drive like a grandma because I've been in so many car accidents from driving like a maniac.

Mostly I've owned american V6 automatics because they were fast and I could carry a beverage in my right hand without having to shift. As general contractors we reluctantly judged the subs by the trucks they drive, and we always knew to keep an eye on the guys who drove Dodges because their work was probably only going to last as long as a Dodge, but we knew Toyota drivers, that even if they had no clue what they were doing, at least their heart was probably in it and you could talk to them. The job I'm on now looks like a damned Tacoma swap meet, there must be at least three Tacomas there every day.

I've never tinkered with a newer Tacoma, so I was surprised to see a steering rack instead of the steering box with the pitman arm and all the linking rods. And just as surprised to see the rack sloping back and forth when I made a video of it while sawing the wheel back and forth.

I just changed the oil today for the first time and figured it was time to sign up to the forum before I went and did anything stupid and uninformed. I'm a really good mechanic, like every bad mechanic says about themselves, but I've rebuilt 22r engines and Volkswagen air-cooled engines and they started right up after. What I fix on my cars seems to stay put, and I usually don't do more damage that was there previous. I look forward to learning more about this vehicle that I'd forgotten about that made up such a big part of my teenage life, and I'll try to be as courteous and helpful as I can so we can all benefit from the tinkering I'll probably do.

Thanks,
woodwagon

 

welcome to TW!

Congrats on the new Taco!

 

Nice score! Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW and nice find.

 

Welcome to Tacoma World

 

Good to be here! And never mind on the Dodge comment. I know some very nice people who drive Chrysler products. I won't be the one to bash other brands here. I make fun of France too, but there are some French things I really like.

 

I've been chasing maybe 1/2° of play in the steering and I landed on this "main shaft assembly" in the steering column. I know it's dangerous, but I'm just going to fill it with west systems epoxy. I think the thing would collapse anyway because epoxy does not stick to greasy metal, at all. I think it will work nicely. West Systems epoxy weeps all of the air out. Otherwise it seems there isn't much play in the steering.

 

Welcome to tw

 

Thanks very much! I got my steering pieces back on and it's a lot tighter. Why couldn't they come up with a better way to make the column collapse. There was about half a spline of play in that hexagonal section.