Just Another Tacoma in SoCal

What’s up guys,

Long time Toyota admirer, first time Toyota owner. Long story short I’ve always liked Tacoma’s, LandCruisers, and 4Runners but went from Chevy crawlers on 40s in Johnson Valley to Ford prerunners in the Baja deserts to where I am right now.

Long story short, this Tacoma was purchased new by my uncle back in 2010, he bought a color matched shell and had the bed carpeted and drove it like this until he passed away a few years ago. Recently I found out my aunt was interested in selling it and I couldn’t pass up a vehicle my uncle owned and the added bonus is that he was on my level when it came to maintenance and taking care of his vehicles. It has 52,000 miles on it and not a scratch, scuff, or stain anywhere to be found.

Current plans for this truck are to figure out what it’s going to take to get some 33s under it, what wheels I want to run (leaning towards methods of some sort or the SCS Ray10s if I can actually find some) build a drawer system, and drive the thing all over 395, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Baja.

I’m really stoked to have a dedicated trail/camping rig I can just hop in and go when I have my prerunner under the knife.

Anyways, pictures to follow, and I look forward to meeting a lot of you and learning something about Toyota’s which I know little about.

 

First piece of the parts collection bundle, snagged these OME 885’s off a fellow member for $100, they’re basically brand new. Thanks HPHOU186

 

By the way if any of you are on Instagram shoot me a follow id love to follow some of your builds on there, I know a lot of people have gotten away from forums and are on social media now.

@S00TLYFE

 

Well, the Bilstein/OME plan didn’t last long at all, buddy made me a killer deal on his old kit after he went full kill on his Taco with the LSK kit.

I now no longer own a vehicle that doesn’t have Kings.

That being said, if anyone needs a pair of OME 885s, I got a basically brand new set for $120 obo

 

Nothing too major here, waiting on selling my Prerunner and my old commuter car before I go crazy on parts, but I gotta have Bluetooth on road trips, so I bought this Sony XAV-AX1000 and put it in. Overall so far I really recommend this unit.

The Crutchfield kit included a Metra dash kit, I chose to purchase the Scoshe one and I’m glad I did. The difference in quality is night and day. The wiring kit to get the steering wheel controls to work required some additional attention that I still have to figure out, but this will do for now.

Before:



The Scoshe dash kit.


I opted to use crimp & shrink connectors when assembling the harness.


It’s also worth noting this unit mounts perfect with the factory radio mounting tabs, it’s very sturdy. Highly recommend this unit.



The (almost) final product. Going to sand the radio trim piece down a little for better firment.

 

That kit looks like shit compared to the Metra. Beautiful unit though.

 

Personally I didn’t care for the Metra, it came with my install kit and I got a Scoshe one from a buddy who works for them. The metra one is for sale brand new in the plastic if you want it $10 USD plus shipping lol

 

Haha I ordered the same kit as you so that won't be necessary

 

Nothing much new just got the windows tinted and still stacking parts. Got the rear shocks just waiting for King to finish rebuilding my Coilovers and adding compression adjusters to them.

 

Man that King setup is sweet! Great looking truck man!

 

Thanks man! I appreciate it. Thinking about buying the camburg stuff for the front but wondering if it’s overkill for what I’ll use the truck for. I do already have a built prerunner. Tough call but I can’t go back to not having a truck on Coilovers and bypasses again.

 

Damn that's a sweet looking F series! Camburg makes great stuff though, so I wouldn't hesitate to run their stuff.

 

Got my coilovers back from King. Needed some new uniballs and a hose replaced, also sprung for compression adjusters since I opted for them on my rear shocks. Also thought a truck that will see a lot of city driving and off-road use could benefit from being able to make quick adjustments. Sprung for finned resis because with my discount it wasn’t much of a price difference. Waiting to get the billet UCAs from Camburg, going to buy their fabbed spindle and LCAs soon as well.

 

Picked up my reservoir brackets from powder coat this morning.

 

Treated her to Camburg UCAs, Kings front and rear, and some 33” wildpeaks.







Kind of digging the stock wheels to keep the old man truck look. Took the truck out the following weekend up to 395 for some weekend exploring with friends.