New member here (pic heavy!)

Hi everyone,

I've been an a casual lurker for awhile since buying my first gen back in February.

It's a 2004 Xtra cab with 313,XXX miles as it sits today with the good ol' 2RZFE (and auto trans)

When I bought it, it looked a little tired and battle worn so I took it upon myself to breathe some new life into it DIY style.

Notable mechanical things done:
-First thing I did was put all fresh fluids in.
-New brakes + tires. Discovered that the original drums and shoes were there.
-Front shocks
-New spark plugs, air filter
-I sold the camper top and removed the U-haul hitch receiver which shed a LOT of weight off.
-New accessory belts
-New top and bottom rad hoses + fluid flush
-Lower ball joints due to my passenger side failing on me while I was driving. Seems the PO replaced the driver's side at one point, but the passenger side was the original.

Aesthetic restorations include:
-Lower valance. I used Chemical Guys tire and trim gel to really bring it back. I reapply once a month or as needed.
-Patching a small hole in the grille with body filler and painting it with trim paint
-Completely new tailgate. It unfortunately arrived with some damage so I tried my hand at some DIY body repair + paint. Since the original rear badges for the tailgate are no where to be found new, I found a seller online who makes vinyl replicas of the original, and plan to put the door stickers on in replacement of the chrome badges to match.
-New tail lights. When the U-haul hitch receiver was installed, the driver's side tail light was spliced into for the trailer harness, and whoever put the light back on must have tightened it too much since the housing was cracked. No pics of the rear with the new tailgate and lights yet, but will come soon!
-New chrome bumper piece
-New rear bumper
-Mud flaps! Finding mud flap brackets were a pain but I knew I just HAD to have them.
-Repainted the wheels. These things were dirty and had surface rust. Went through to get the rust off, prime, then paint. I also added a little black paint on the Toyota logo on the plastic caps to make it pop a little bit.

I've also gone through and replaced the 4 main speakers with Infinity brand component speakers and installed a crutchfield sub+amp combo unit under my seat so it doesn't take extra space. Loving it so far. I just disconnected the door tweeters as they didn't add to the overall sound stage that well. I have a Boss BE62CP headunit that I installed to have Apple Carplay that works great!

I'm currently in the process of sanding down the hood, grille filler pieces, driver's door, and roof in preparation of a DIY paint job, so you'll see the fillers missing in my latest photo

Photos from the PO in their for sale ad:





The week I brought it home, my friends splattered the camper with stickers. I bought a set of tailgate vinyls from an online seller to test out how it would look for when I would buy the new tailgate.


A photo soon after I replaced the chrome bumper bar and restored the lower valance:


This is the sub+amp combo unit. The amp doesn't power the speakers (not necessary for the speakers I bought) and the kit came with wiring, power cable fuse, and other nice little bits.


Also bought new battery terminals to accommodate the extra power cable, and since the previous ones were looking a little worse for wear:


The unfortunate ball joint failure I had on the road last Saturday:


Had it towed to my house, which was a whole 1/2 mile away. The morning after, we took a look and saw this:




This was taken today! I picked up my truck from a trusted mechanic after they replaced my ball joints. Grille fillers are missing since I was sanding them to prep for paint.



Currently on the search for a tailgate liner with a cap, if anyone knows where I can get it from! Thanks in advance.
Look forward to chatting with you all.

 

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