2002 Toyota Tacoma (Bupkis) - JoeyIV's Build Thread

Hi all,

I purchased my 2002 Tacoma in August of 2023, and have since been building it out to eventually make it into a fully off-grid camper. His name is Bupkis which is a Yiddish word that means "absolutely nothing." I figured it would be good to document the progress and show people what I have been working on!

I have been into the offroad scene for years, but this is the first time I have actually owned a truck myself... I'm learning a ton as I go, so forgive me for my naivety

feel free to PM me if ya got any questions!

Here's the truck the day I bought it!



Here it is now:

 

First time I took the truck off road:



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Unfortunately, my transfer case was leaking gear oil pretty bad... Was too big of a job to reseal it, so I took it to a local transmission shop and they fixed it for me. No more leak

 

One of my first DIY mods was installing a new head unit and backup camera. I had never done any wiring or soldering, so it took me a while to get it done... but when that screen lit up and I could finally play my own music... jeez, I can't even tell you the pure joy that ran through me!

I wired the backup camera to the reverse light in my brakes; it's mounted to the top of my license plate. Hardest part of that was soldering and actually running the video cable from my head unit, out under the driver seat, and all the way along the frame:



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Got festive for Christmas time and picked up a tree for the family

 

While doing a couple of odd jobs and cleaning up after the previous owner, I discovered the paint on my truck bed had been eroded away by debris trapped under my drop-in bedliner... yikes:



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After some heavy rain, my dog and I went through some deep puddles in Holy Jim Canyon:



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In February, I took my truck on its first major road trip. I visited my girlfriend up in San Luis Obispo, CA and hit a bunch of offroad trails. We did Prefumo Canyon, Hang Glider hill in Cayucos, and Cuesta Ridge... Cuesta Ridge was, by far, the most beautiful trail I had ever been on... like seriously, can't recommend it enough.



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My headlights were fogged up, so my dad gifted me a black headlight set off of Amazon! Since the headlights he bought were black, I decided to try out a black grill to match... I think chrome looked good, maybe even better than how it is now. I like the black too though. Here's some before/during/after pics of this mod:

p.s. I also got new headlights and stuff which are sooo much brighter at night. Big quality of life upgrade.



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My extra cab pop out window latches broke... unfortunate. I got a set of aluminum ones off

$9 Dewhel Black 2x Aluminum Rear Window Latch Hinge Pivots For 95-04 Tacoma 00-06 Tundra Xtracab

Amazon for like $9 to replace them!

 

After saving up enough, I pulled the trigger on the first major modification for my truck which is a Softopper. I went for one of these for the light weight versatility. I also did some plastic restoration to better match my fenders to the Softopper. Down the line, I knew I wanted a rack to wrap around the Softopper with a RTT... big purchases on the way.



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Finally, after much deliberation, I committed to a bed rack and RTT... I love Softoppers and knew I wanted a rack that would complement and work well with a Softopper. However, not many companies make racks that go around Softoppers for first gen Tacos! The only two companies I could find were Xtrusion Overland and MaxModular (@KB Voodoo). I decided on MaxModular because of their presence on the forums and the customer service I got through a phone call to them. Really cool company. Here's the rack.

I haven't seen any other First Generation Tacoma owners buy the Softopper rack from MaxModular, so I'll definitely get some good photos and reviews up when I get the rack...

As far as tents go, I really like the design of wedge clamshells... However, I didn't have the budget for a name brand one. I found a tent made by the same manufacturer who makes Roof Nest tents, but for a third of the price!

$1,199 Naturnest Rooftop Tent Hard Shell, BAMACAR Rooftop Tent for Jeep SUV Truck Van Tent, Pop Up Car Camping Tent Roof Top Tent, Hard Shell Rooftop Tent Overland Tent, Hardshell Rooftop Tent, Car Roof Tent

It's on Amazon and has solid reviews; I'll definitely continue to update this thread depending on how it performs. If I end up loving roof top tents I may invest in a name brand one down the road.



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Did you end up installing the bed rack and tent? Curious for updates!

 

Yes sir! Posting now

 

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