Bought my first Toyota, 07 Tacoma, 79k miles

Hello TW,

I just got a 2007 Taco Base with 81k miles on it, bought in central FL last Saturday. Its a very stock, rust free truck, we had it on a lift and checked the underside and everything looked good. We bought it at SunToyota who took care of minor work before selling it over to us. The truck came with a Leer topper in great condition and roof racks attached to the top.

I have previous experience modding Mazda Miatas for street performance, unfortunately the Wednesday prior to my truck purchase, my rod bearings failed in my ‘99 Nb daily driver. I knew it was time to park the miata, and get myself a truck to DD, so i talked with my bank and got everything setup with Toyota after. Dont worry abt the miata tho, it will be back on the road soon enough.


I bought this truck with intentions of trail riding and hauling my ‘04 and assortment of kayaks/canoes ard to state parks. Im very excited to start this build, and already have several mods picked out. I have been wanting to get a Toyota truck for almost 1.5 years, my Pops has a Tundra TRDPro thats worth taking a look at over in the tundras forum. He helped me pick out the truck, as well as helped me make my first car purchase and i couldn't be anymore grateful, so far im about 300mi down the road and loving everything about it, ill update after my first trail ride, hopefully next weekend.

Thanks for taking a look, hopeful to get some wheels and tires on it soon and have it more suited for floridas inevitably rainy/muddy conditions

Cheers!

 

Nice post Ian! Congrats on your truck, take your time and mod it to fit you the way you want it to be. We’ll hopefully be out on the trails with our Toys for a long time to come!

 

Hell yeah man that’s a good find low miles and equally dependable as any Toyota has ever been. Welcome!!

 

Beautiful, - and welcome to TW.

 

Is she 4wd?

 

Nope. She's RWD, but should be fine for the beaches and trails we frequent around here.

 

Looks like a nice truck! Welcome to TW. Plenty of stuff here to keep you enthusiastic for years to come!

I see that the headlights are a bit cloudy. Mine were too at your truck's age (so like two years ago). Not a big deal, but let me offer a word of advice: while it is true you can "restore" old headlamps using polishing products, it is a temporary fix at best (seriously, a couple months till their cloudy again), and it doesn't come close to the clarity of new headlamp housings. If you have the means to do so, I would suggest swapping to new aftermarket headlamp housings instead of wasting a single cent on "restoring" products. I spent at least $60 on various restoring products before deciding to buy new housings, which only cost me $100, and are clear-as-day after nearly two years on the road. Sure, the restoring kits made my lights look substantially better, but they don't come CLOSE to the clarity of new housings when it comes to actual night driving -- especially in rain or fog. Here's a photo comparing a new housing to freshly "restored" factory headlamp on my truck.



Also, for your sake and everyone else's: Don't waste your money on HID or LED retrofits.. Ugly as they might be, the stupid bug-eye reflector headlights that came with our trucks will outperform any HID or LED lights you can buy today, even at 10x the cost -- especially in rain and fog -- and you can upgrade to higher-wattage bulbs if you want more light, without dealing with the blinding blue glare of HID or LED retrofits. There are several useful threads here on this topic, such as this one. Here's my rant on someone else's thread (but one of the best on TW!)

Hope you don't mind the unsolicited advice, but I hope it will help you avoid common mistakes, and make your night driving as safe as possible.

Oh, and glad you aren't giving up on the Miata either!

 

That truck can potentially last you a solid 30 years of driving.

 

Hey i really appreciate all the advice and will definitely put it to good use i was planning on swapping to newer aftermarket lights like you advise!