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

Very helpful video, thank you for sharing!

 

Did you happen to notice that someone referred to Tacomas as the "Glock of motor vehicles," and that they "start no matter what," in the comments section of the video?

 

Ball joints
Remove camshaft inspection cover to inspect belt and water pump
Rear axle seals
Rear cam seals
Radiator
Fan clutch
Etc...

 

May 10, 2019:

Port Coquitlam, British Columbia
Home Depot Parking Lot

 

May 10, 2019:

Coquitlam, British Columbia

 

May 10, 2019:

Port Moody, British Columbia

 

May 11, 2019:

Port Moody, British Columbia

A neighbour's guest has great taste in pick-ups

 

May 12, 2019:

Coquitlam, British Columbia

Taco owners are such friendly folks.....a pretty much empty parking lock, but of course this driver did the classy thing and park next to me....

 

Precisely correct. Private Property.

Now, I'm in Canada so legalities may differ, but I suspect they will be similar. I used to be a Private Investigator. There is a reason one has to get a license (at least in Canada) to be a PI. Its because it is illegal to take pictures on private property (which PI's do alot of) unless you have license. This includes malls that are Private Property owned. Now, my days was way before cell phones and the camera's they contain...and obviously there are selfies and such being taken by many many people, but the law still stands. You cannot walk over to your neighbours house and start taking pictures of their property contents or inhabitants unless you are properly licensed, or explicitly been given permission. I know, old laws, new era...but there are probably still a few "cant drag your dead horse through town on a Sunday" laws on the books also.

In future situations Charlie, I'd merely explain to the 'official' what you are doing...and if they still don't acquiesce then move along. Like others said, some Mall Cops are gonna mall cop.

Keep up your photos, I enjoy them

 

My dad taught me to drive in his 1965 Ford 1-ton pickup with a 4 speed on the floor at age 13. Been driving manuals almost exclusively for the last 39 years, including three motorcycles.

 

As of 2:20pm on Wednesday, May 15th, 2018, my mileage is 96,825.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, and then I will be walking my boss's dog before driving up to Bethlehem to help my grandma pack for her move to Florida, and also bring some stuff to the women's shelter.

Just the trip to my Grandma's is over 60 miles round trip. I also have to drive 10 miles back home from work tonight. I expect to exceed 96,900 miles tomorrow. If I drive Uber Eats on Friday, that combined with driving to work and back on Saturday (20 miles round trip) and going to a car show in Quakertown and back (40 miles round trip) should put me past 97,000 miles before the weekend is over!

Who thinks I might actually hit 100K before the end of July?!?!

 

In October 1998, my dad bought a used 1990 Mazda B2600i LE-5 pickup for two reasons...

1. He wanted a pickup truck for utilitarian purposes.
2. He wanted a cheap and reliable commuter vehicle.

My dad's requirements were minimal. We were living in Virginia Beach at the time, where summers are downright ghastly for the Mid-Atlantic, so air-conditioning was the biggest requirement. We looked at a number of different trucks, most of which were 2WD. My dad was not actively seeking out a 4x4. All of the truly decent ones (including a 1993 Toyota Extra Cab 2WD pickup) were more than my dad was willing to spend. He came across the Mazda in a newspaper ad, and we drove all the way out to Chesapeake to take a look. This Mazda had higher miles than my dad would have wanted (not quite 100,000 but well past 90K; It was 8 years old at the time so that's about average), and was not exactly mint, but the positives far outweighed the negatives. The guy selling it was the original owner, who'd purchased it new in Illinois (The rear bumper was rusted badly), and he had all the service records. The truck had A/C, a cassette player, and aftermarket cruise control. My dad test drove it and was thoroughly impressed. The truck also had a manual transmission and 4-wheel drive. We took the truck on a test drive and my dad was thoroughly impressed. It ran and drove good, and everything worked. We brought my mom back that night to take a look, and she approved, so my dad wrote the guy a check for five grand and we drove it home.

The Mazda was not without its flaws, the most obvious of which was an oil leak that developed sometime in 1999. This leak was slow enough that it didn't affect performance or the health of the engine. A rear leaf spring had to be replaced at some point due to rust, and a wrecked B-series 4x4 from a junkyard donated the replacement parts. The A/C in that Mazda blew ice cold, and when the summer of 1999 brought record-setting heat waves, it never let us down (gotta love R-12!).

My dad would let me shift gears from the passenger seat. He'd hit the clutch and tell me which gear to shift into, which succeeded in acclimating me to driving stick lefthanded. It would have been great if we'd moved to England! Around my 10th birthday, he let me sit in his lap and steer while he drove around the block.

The Mazda was never unreliable, though it did overheat once in about April 2000 due to a faulty thermostat. The day before the truck overheated, in a completely unrelated event, my mom rear-ended some idiot in a 1990 Chevy 1500 who stopped at a green light when he freaked out upon seeing a cop car out of the corner of his eye. Since my dad had paid cash for the Mazda and it wasn't worth very much, he only had liability insurance. The Chevy my mom rear-ended had no damage due to the trailer hitch, but the Mazda's front bumper was bent completely in half. There was no damage to the frame, radiator, or condenser. The A/C still worked great, and like I said the overheating the next day was unrelated! However, we'd just left the 7-Eleven and I had a full Slurpee. The Mazda did not have factory cupholders, and like an idiot I left my Slurpee in the center console. A short time later, my mom hit the Chevy and the Slurpee went flying. A good portion of it spilled all over the center console, gearshift, and radio. The damage ended up being only $500 for a new front bumper, and my dad traded the Mazda for a brand new GMC conversion van a month or two later.

I miss that truck...

So many good times!

 

My biggest complaint about the Mazda from 1999 onward was the lack of a CD player. Our other vehicle was a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder, which only had a CD player and no tape player, whereas the Mazda had only a tape deck. I bugged my dad for the better half of 1999 to have a CD player installed in that truck, but thought it wasn't worth it to put anymore money into a truck he'd be selling in about a year.

This is rather ironic, considering that my Tacoma is the same age now that the Mazda was in 1999, has roughly the same amount of miles, and has a high-powered sound system that puts the factory systems in some high-end European cars to shame. It all started with a Pioneer CD player and component speaker system in 2013 (roughly $240), and then I talked my dad into letting me have a backup camera installed in the Tacoma, which he agreed was a good idea. To install the backup camera, I'd have to replace my perfectly functional Pioneer head unit (the one that drowned with @Jamesboy2233 's truck in the flash flood last summer) with a double-DIN unit. My dad was fine with this, even when I ended up spending about $400 when all was said and done.

But back in 1999, I couldn't convince my dad to put a $120 CD player in his old Mazda truck!

My dad did end up having a CD player installed in that truck in January 2000. He gave me the factory Mazda tape deck and I ended up tearing it apart to see what it looked like inside. The CD player was a cheap (like $100) off-brand unit ("Rampage" I believe...?) off-brand unit, but it served its purpose. The one annoying thing about it was that whenever we were listening to a CD, and power was cut to the stereo mid-song, the song would start over at the beginning. This happened whether the truck had been parked with the engine off for a few minutes or a few days, and also when the CD player was in use while the truck was off and my dad went to start the engine.

No CD player in any vehicle we've ever had, whether it be factory aftermarket, has ever done that. I've CDs in the Tacoma's CD player for weeks at a time, and the stereo always remembers where I left off.

The Mazda also needed new speakers, but no way in hell my dad was putting anymore money into the stereo. If I had that truck today, I'd rip out the near-useless rear jump seats and install an enclosure with two subwoofers of at least 10 inches, and an amplifier or two. If I remember correctly, the Mazda had four speakers. The front ones were in the lower dash, and rear ones were in the trim panels. I'd go the same route as I did with my Tacoma; Double-DIN touchscreen radio with Bluetooth and backup camera, component speakers (tweeters and woofers) in doors, and 6x9s in factory rear locations. The factory front speaker locations would probably be left empty.

 

I spotted this in Doylestown Borough after work on May 4th, 2019. It is a 5th Generation (1990-1999 according to Wikipedia) Subaru Sambar "Kei Truck". What's most impressive is that the owner was able to make a JDM vehicle emissions-compliant in a state is that one of the most draconian in the country about vehicle inspections!

Nearby Delaware Valley University uses vehicles just like this (made by some South Korean or Chinese company) as groundskeeper/maintenance vehicles, but they are NOT street legal and only used on the campus.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that this particular example does not have air-conditioning (the generic brand knockoffs used by DVU do in fact have A/C). Regardless, this is a pretty cool little vehicle!

Also, the owner has added an aftermarket CD player, and (I'm presuming) new speakers. I would have done the same thing!

 

REVIVING THE THREAD!

 

Pennsylvania also requires you to show proof of insurance and registration in order to get your vehicle inspected! I think this is just another example of "Big Brother's watching." However, the law doesn't bother me that much and my biggest grievance is that I have to give my "papers" to the person checking my truck in as opposed to just leaving them in the glovebox. I would prefer to leave the paperwork in the glovebox to minimize the risk of it getting lost.

 

Also, yes that is a Corvair parked next to the Subaru, and no this is not a car show. It is just a public parking lot!

Doylestown is pretty cool like that!

 

Incidents like this are why ordinary people have a less-than-favorable opinion of law enforcement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRpNVVornOg

The moral of the story in this case is to always keep your seatbelt on until you are making eye contact with the cop who pulled you over!

 

Local school district has one (non street legal) for maint use between buildings. They love it. Don't know how they acquired it though.

 

Dammit! Then I'll have competition!

Is it a stick shift?