My First Long Travel Build - 2000 Prerunner

Hello everyone! Finally decided to start a build thread. Hope you enjoy the build as much as I've enjoyed working on it so far. I like to take a lot of pictures so bear with me.

As she currently sits: 5-19-18





6-25-17



5/22/15


About the truck:
So here the back story to my build.. My dad bought this truck and drove it off the lot mid 2000 if I remember correctly. it served as his work truck during the week and would be what we took the dirt bikes to the desert/races during the weekends. Many good times in the truck over the past 15 years and has been a great truck. In September of 2013 my dad lost the battle against cancer unfortunately, and his truck was handed down to me. My dad had said that when he got too old to race dirt bikes anymore, he would build another toyota (previously had built a 87 pickup sas'd 4x4) but one he could still go as fast in the desert with. Since that didnt get to happen, I decided to build the truck into the prerunner that my father would have loved.


2000 Tacoma Reg Cab Prerunner
2.7L I4 - 390k-ish currently
15" wheels with Bridgestone Revo 31.5x10.50x15

Suspension:
5100 with TRD Coils from a 4x4 DCB
Deaver 3 leaf AAL and 5100 rear shocks with custom U-bolt flip.

Misc mods:
Plasti dipped emblems and grill
Tube front and rear bumper
Glassworks front fiberglass 6.5" flare fenders
aFe Stage II hot air intake with Pro Dry S filter
Magnaflow 20" exhaust with turndown
Marker light turn signal mod
Cali Raised Led amber pods
2 flood and 1 spot Hella 4000 converted to HID
McNiel fiberglass hood

Future mods in no specific order:
BBM long travel race kit installed
10" Kings with remote resivoir
2.0x4 King bump stops
Tundra rear axle with 4.88 LSD
CB Radio
New wheels with 35s
Retrofit headlights

How the truck looked when I got her.



BUILD PROGRESS:

7/17/14 Started out simple with my first mod and learned how to plasti dip since most of the emblems were loosing their chrome in some spots.



Was about 100 degrees out so the plasti dip dried too fast so it gave the grill a velvet effect.

8/2/14 Dug up an old tube bumper my dad must have had from one of his previous toyotas out of the side yard, so I figured it belonged on the truck. Took some minor tweaking to fit how I wanted it to.




9/11/14 Got my new fenders and started the install. Was the first experience with fiberglass other than my surfboards and was a learning experience. Haha.


10/18/14 Bought a Tuff Stuff 30" light bar and mounted it into the chrome on the stock bumper. I was pretty surprised how solid and well it held the bar. Made driving at night in the desert waaaay better!




10/29/14 Spent too much money.. But no mods. Put a down payment on a kit from Chris at BBM, bought some 10" travel King shocks, and some new King bump stops both off classifieds.


12/19/14 Went and picked up my finished kit from BBM.


1/22/15 Build unfortunately went on hold due to limited funds and since I started racing District 37 Grand Prix. I ended up blowing the top and bottom of the race bike as well. But a buddy down the street was cleaning his garage out and had a magnaflow he sold me for $40 so I went ahead and put that on since I hadn't done anything to the truck in a while. It was sitting for a while, so for the first couple days I had it on you could smell the dust burning out of the exhaust haha.

3/25/15 Utilized the discount on Amazon for aFe products along with my jar of change and Coinstar to order an aFe intake.


4/1/15 Performed some much needed maintenance on the truck. Replaced the rotors and pads on the front brakes. The rotors on there were scary bad! I have no idea if or when my dad last replaced them, and it's not like I can ask him. Did that along with an oil change.

4/18/15 Bought a custom bolt on tube bumper with 3 Hellas converted to HID from classifieds and had new light tabs welded since one was broken. Then ordered some new bulbs from the retrofit source and swapped those in. Still plan on getting some new 55watt ballasts from their site. Very happy with the new bulbs. Then made my own wire harness and wired the switch in the blank next to the cluster dimmer switch. Did the turn signal mod as well that relocates to the side markers, but didn't take any pictures. Also replaced the flasher with an LED flasher unit since I had the lower dash off.



Comparison of the new bulbs (far left) to the existing ones that came in the lights when I got them.

5/20/15 Put on a new license frame that my buddy made out of one of my old dirt bike chains.

5/22/15 Finally remounted my radio antenna after having nothing but static for so long! I didn't want to mount it through the fiberglass and never got around to buying a replacement. So I did what a couple other members have done and mounted it under the fender horizontally. Actually worked out pretty good and I don't really notice a loss of signal really that much from the stock position. Gotta love zip ties!


Well that was a hell of a long time typing and getting up to date on my progress. Now that it's caught up I'm just gonna be updating through comments to make it a bit easier. Hopefully next week ill install the fiberglass hood and then by the end of June or July finally install the front long travel kit!

 

First!!!! Sub for awesomeness!

Sorry about your Dad. Wish you the best during your build.

 

Thanks man, appreciate it. We all miss him a lot. I hope to make nearly half the progress you have in such a short time. Weighing the motion of picking up a welder and learning a new trade.

 

sub for later and nice build man love it when people build up the single cabs.

 

Thanks a lot. Figured it was time to start the thread since I always snoop around on everyone else's builds. Haha yeah my only concern with being reg cab is when I start building the cage ill loose some leg room. I'm not the shortest of guys.

 

Got bored and decided to give the truck some angry looking eyes. And adjusted the passenger side fender so that it doesn't contact the hood anymore. Cleaned up under the grill too to get ready for some black paint to spray.

 

Man its been a while.. I have tons to update on.. kind of.. haha Im working again, have all the parts needed to install long travel, just need to find a place to have it done.

Ive got stuff to post very soon. Unfortunately half the pictures i wanted to post are on my old iphone that refuses to power on now. oh well. I updated the OP to a current picture from a trip last month. Going back up to the sequoia forest again this weekend.

 

I got around to finally adding some amber light to the front of the truck a few months back, and really like this shot! Amber pods from @CaliRaisedLed turning the ground into lava in Lucerne Valley.

 

love the truck.. selling that kit i see? if youre interested in a trade or anything hit me up
909122105

 

So its been a good while since I've update. Mostly because nothing was going on with the truck. I started getting some motor issues since it had so many miles and ended up having a shop drop in a low mile used motor. I ended up selling the race kit and picked up a Total Chaos +3.5 kit to keep the truck more of a daily.



Also went with some new Method NV wheels in bronze. Ill probably get a picture of them when I get them mounted. Oh yeah and Monday Ill order some 285/75/16 BFG KO2. So maybe picture soon. Just waiting on King to finish building some shocks and I want to order some other fresh parts to replace when we do the install. New tierods, LBJ, and some wheel bearings.

Build is back on for now till the front end is finished off.

 

Before you put it together re tap the grease zerk threads. I forgot to being to focused on other things. Ends up being a pain.