Newbie Gen 1 Forever Daily/thread

Hi guys I'm BigMike,

Bout time I properly make an account since its been over a year at this point of lurking.
I've been lurking here ever since Pops gave me his old Tacoma that I was begging to get once it failed California Emissions.

Its a long story but this truck means a lot to me. My dad bought it 2nd hand in 99 and put a total of 280k miles on the thing as his daily driver back in the Bay Area over the next 19 years.

About 2 years ago the girlfriend made him get rid of that "loud ugly truck leaking oil on my driveway" So Christmas of 2018 I flew from my home state of Florida to my Pops in Cali and a week later I arrived back home with my new 1995(.5) Tacoma with a grand total of 326k miles on it after the trip. As of yesterday it just crossed 345k, 19k miles in 14 months aint too bad.


The Good:
-Its a 3.4, 5 speed, 2wd, DLX with a sunroof model so plus (lost the sunroof cover RIP)

-The motor is strong and running at 345k but Im expecting to rebuild the motor at 400k because she is getting a little tired and runs real rough in the mornings.

-Blown out muffler. I'm putting this here because the noise the truck makes is specific to this truck, and I've only heard one or two there 5vz motors that sound like it, which makes it special to me.

-Has A/C, Cruise, Power windows, and most importantly an arm rest; not a full bench.

-Gas Mileage is better than my old 5.7 Hemi but worse than my BMW 325ci



The Bad:

-The body is rough. No rust on it basically at all since it lived its life in California 100% of the time before I brought it to Florida. Even here it hasn't really started rusting, but the hood makes me cringe every time I see it because there IS exposed metal on the front.
Also dents galore. It needs full bondo work and paint to look good again, but at least all the panels are good and not rotted away.

-The motor is not BAD, BUT it is a high mileage car so eventually I'm gonna have to do something. Whether that's a swap or rebuild is still up in the air because that's not exactly around the corner.

-It needs a new radio and speakers, preferably MORE speakers since one in each door is totally not enough as well as an aftermarket headunit from this century. Guys I swear this headunit is so old some hipster dude probably is gonna put in his 1993 Geo Metro once I'm done with it.

-A/C needs some sort of examination. Really temperamental compressor activation is driving me nuts. Either its a bad compressor or a failing switch somewhere that's controlling it.



I've barely done anything to it minus change the oil, spark plugs which one of which was seized in the head, and the alternator which died a few months after getting it back home.





Now I "know" this is a "rare" truck (I cannot put those quotes big enough), because of how its configured, but I have full intention on driving this to oblivion and back. I love this truck with all my heart and its about time I started working on it.

So 2020 is gonna be my year of starting to "restore" the truck.
Goals:
-Lowering
-Wheels
-Paint
-Clean up rotting rubber/bushings

In that order hopefully.

Attached are some photos of the old girl. She will forever be known as "My Dads Truck" to me but I'm happy with that.

 

Sweet! Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome aboard new member

 

Nice!!
Check the tie rods

 

Welcome to TW!

 

She's a keeper. Ha. Welcome to Tacoma World. Thanks for the introduction.