Time623’s 95 Taco Build and Trails

Been wanting to put together a build thread for a long time to keep track of everything I do with my truck, mods and maintenance. Shes nothing crazy and no show truck, but she is my baby.

Here is how she sits today with 293k miles.


Suspension
Bilstein 5100's and OME 883
OME CS019R Leafs with 10" 5100's
JBA UCAs
Snowbound Spindle Gussets

Armor
Trail Gear Low Profile front bumper with Smittybuilt Winch
4X Innovations Sliders
DIY Rear Bumper and Swingout

Lighting and Accessories
Blue Sea Fuse block
Paranoid Fab ash tray switch panel
Wolfbox Digital Rearview Mirror and dash cams
20" Front Light Bar
2 Pods on rear bumper
LED Headlights

Wheels
4Runner TRD PRO SEMA Wheels
285/70/17 Wildpeak MT

Maintenance To Do List:
Something will come up soon I'm sure

Mod To Do list
Seat Swap - Leaning towards BRZ, or maybe TC seats
RTT or maybe Ripcord style GFC

The Journey
This truck was bought lightly used in '99 by my father, and I was raised in it. Took us on trips into the mountains and across Arizona. He eventually upgraded (or maybe just upsized) to a Tundra, and kept the truck for when my brother and I could drive.
My first experience working on a car was repairing some wiring on this truck from rat damage, during the years when it was mostly just sitting.


Being in High school, some poor decisions were made..
First, it had some old decals on the doors from my fathers business, and I got an eraser wheel to wipe those away.
At the same time I tried to erase the factory red/pink decals on the side of the truck.. They never really went away unfortunately. Something about the decals and the Arizona sun pitted the paint underneath, and the scars of the decals are still there. The same thing happened with the pink Toyota decal on the tailgate.

With the decals removed, I did what everyone young and dumb was doing in 2017, and plastidipped everything I could. Did the emblems, wheels, grill, and even thought it was a good idea to cover the decal scars with plastidip. Ended up with black stripes which thankfully I removed only a few days later.



I was looking for all the cheap mods I could do, and settled on adding lights. I started with a small light mounted in the grill, and quickly added a bigger one mounted in the bumper.

From here I started cutting the bumper for clearance, it didn't turn out all that great unfortunately.. Thankfully a change was coming.




Soon after, I got in a little fender bender with an old guy. He was at fault, and because of the minimal damage to either vehicle he just gave me some cash to avoid dealing with insurance.



I threw this at my first big upgrade a Trail Gear Low Profile steel tube bumper. After getting it painted and mounted I was in love. I relocated the turn signals to the corner lights.



I drove around for a little while, and soon after went to test it out with a friend. We went up some old trails, alone in my truck (bad idea). Ended up stuck in a ditch from water crossing the trail. We were stuck here for some 6-8 hours until some people from an offroad Facebook group came out to the rescue. They pulled me out with no issue. I wouldn't have been stuck if I had lockers..




This experience made adding a winch to the bumper a priority. So just a little while later I added a SmittyBuilt winch to the bumper.
I was still a broke high school kid so not much happened except picking up an old camper shell. Found this one on facebook for I think $150. Didn't fit perfect and leaked in the rain, but a tarp and some bungee cords were a lot cheaper than a new shell. Took the new shell on some trips and trails.




After this I was off to college.. And had even less money to spend than I had before. Didn't do much of anything to or with the truck for these years, except drive it to and from class. I did have the classic Tacoma LBJ failure, as many of us have.. Thankfully I was still in my neighborhood and going slow so the damage was minimal.






Dont mind the tires.. I really was broke at the time, not that its really a great excuse.
Got new LBJs, CV and tires together after this.


Not too long after had a run-in with another poor driver. Got cut off and had a fairly low-speed T-Bone incident with a honda.. Truck made it out with scratches and a broken corner light. Bent it a little so it doesn't fit perfectly straight anymore, but just loosening the mounting bolts and reorienting it have left it much better than it looked that night. Not bad considering the honda was totaled. Driver had no insurance, and I didn't mind since I didn't have much to repair except a corner light anyway.





Took it on a couple adventures like this. Saw some snow, not easy to find here in the valley of the sun.



Sold the shell a while later to open the door for a new shell. The first one had a bent rear door, needed shocks and had no key.. Not to mention it was likely designed for a Toyota Pickup not a Tacoma, so it never fit all that great.

Didn't take long to find a new one. Picked this up for another $150, after my cheap shell experiences I will never be able to justify the $2000 for a brand new one..



At the same time I was growing out of the plastidipped stock wheels, and picked up a new set off a 3rd gen TRD Offroad. Took the new combination out on a camping trip to test it out.


I love how these wheels look on a 1st gen. I really wanted to get the 4Runner TRD Pro wheels, but they were so in demand used that I could never find them at a good price.
This was the last change I made until I was out of college. So the rest of the time was spent mostly just daily-ing the truck, and a few small adventures like driving a few hours to pick up a Miata for a friend.



Once out of college, I finally had a bit of money to spend on the truck. First step was refreshing the very worn out old suspension. I went with 5100s and OME 883s, with an AAL in the rear. This made the truck look so much better, frankly I think it looked a bit dumb for all those years sitting so low with a steel bumper and winch..



Now I was working a lot, and not getting out enough and truck was getting a bit old to me. So I did what every dumb kid does after getting a job out of college, and bought myself a new car. Thankfully I wasn't too dumb, and got it used and fairly cheap.



These two do make quite a good pair, even if they're both vastly underpowered 2 doors..



Not much happened with the truck after getting the daily. Ended up parked for weeks on end, and didn't take any trips.
Moved in with the GF and the truck was relegated to street parking..



However, in the last half of 2023, the truck addiction returned. And changes and upgrades soon followed. One of the main priorities was just catching up on all the maintenance. During high school and college, preventative maintenance took the back seat in favor of penny pinching. Besides oil changes not much of anything was maintained, and the list of things to fix were adding up. So restoration began.

First, my tires were getting pretty bad again. And I finally found the TRD Pro wheels I had been wanting for years.



Next, it needed all the routine maintenance, plugs, wires, oil, and fluids all around. Then I went about tackling some of the things that were broken.

The windshield wipers needed a bit of work, and my journey fixing those can be found here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/95-97-windshield-wiper-problems.816622/

I also needed a new windshield washer fluid reservoir, so I relocated that next to the cruise control module in the engine bay.

Next, I'd had leaky valve covers for as long as I can remember, so I finally gathered the courage tackle that project. It went much easier than expected.

At some point during all the repairs and maintenance, I fought with a high idle for a few weeks. Can find the journey to tracking down that issue here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3-4l-high-idle-low-coolant-temp-solved.818945/

All the routine work on the truck made me want some changes, so I got a new grill, headlights and finally replaced the Tailgate Decal.




I also just replaced the shifter bushings, and even though visually the old ones looked pretty good the improvement in shifting feel was remarkable.


Went on a trail run with some guys from the AZ TW group.

The truck was fantastic, and it was a great group of people.

 

Had a busy few weeks..
I have noticed for a while that the trucks exhaust has been getting slowly 'smellier'.
That then turned into white smoke on cold starts after sitting for more than a day.
Eventually tracked it down to a crack in the cylinder head..

Went back and forth a lot on what to do about it. The thread I made to track down the issue, and the fix for it is here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/compression-test-white-smoke-cracked-head.824933/

But at the end of the day, I decided on Remanufactured cylinder heads. First time doing a job this big, and gave myself as much time as I needed to get it done.

Went fairly smooth, except a couple hiccups like this damn high pressure fuel line nut. Absolutely destroyed it, it was seized in there real tight.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fuel-line-stuck-and-stripped.826918/


After figuring that out, disassembly went pretty good. Got it down to the block, and found the mess left behind by the old head gasket.


I spent hours cleaning that surface, starting with a razor blade, and moving on to scotchbrite
to clean up what was left. Hope to never have to do that again..



This is the last picture I took, though I still had a few hours of cleaning after this was taken before it was ready for the new gasket.



The new heads went on fairly easily, though lining up the pins would've been much faster with a couple extra sets of hands.


The clean new heads and new valve covers looked great.. It was a shame to slowly cover it all up with my dirty old parts..



She's back on the road now. Looks and drives the same, but with no more smoke.
I had hoped it would bring some life back into the old girl, but even with new injectors, she's the same old dog.

 

Finally got around to doing the Lower ball joints. Went OEM of course, pretty easy job. Pitman puller was essential. Tried to do it with just a hammer, no dice.

 

Last Saved Post

 

Awesome build so far man! Its something about these 95.5-97 trucks that are just gorgeous. Our trucks were oddly similar at one point with the trail gear bumper and painted factory rims. We also both totaled other cars with our bumpers... not fun but saved my truck from being totaled out.

Funny enough ive also been on the search for trd pro wheels for some time now. Whats the size and backspacing for those wheels also what tire size are you running? My truck is currently on 5100 on stock coils middle setting with an aal in the rear with 5125's. Got a Old man Emu dakars and 882 coils coming to get it lifted higher than its pretty low and stock suspension stance.


Keep up the great build man! Im hoping my truck can look more like yours very soon!

 

Great looking truck! Yeah the 95-97 are definitely the best looking 1st gens.
These bumpers are real sturdy for sure. Nice to see how well it stands up to a much harder impact than I had.
Did your airbag blow on that?

The wheels I got are apparently specifically called the 4Runner TRD Pro SEMA wheels, which are a 17x7 +4mm offset (4.16" BS).

Currently running a 265/70/r17 which were on the wheels when I bought them, so I am just using them up before I get new ones. I didn't mention it but I ended up going through two sets of TRD Offroad take-offs because it was just so much cheaper than buying new tires, and I didn't want to invest in them until I got the wheels I really wanted.
I got a killer deal on the wheels, was $550 for the set with a decent bit of life left in the tires, although they are knock off Chinese tires. Spent a loong time waiting for that deal though.

I haven't decided what the next tire will be, its pretty hard to find other people running 17s with +4mm on 1st gens, so haven't found someone I can copy the size of. Will be at least a 265/75/17, or whatever larger I can fit without too much sledge hammer work, maybe a 285/70/17.

Definitely share how those dakars turn out, I need new leafs as well and I've been worried about the Dakars since I don't carry much weight in the bed aside from the shell.

Which ditch light brackets did you use? Those are on my list as well, once I can figure out a switch panel.. Ran out of the stock switch blanks to use.

 

The accident was actually pretty slow less than 10 miles per hour so no airbag deployment. Those nissan leafs are mostly plastic and thin metal so it got opened up like a blown up soda can.

Thanks for the measurement's on those rims. ill keep dreaming and trading up to get a set of my own! Im having a hard time committing to the fact that with larger tires bring inaccurate speedometer and odometer readings...

Ill also definitely keep you posted on the dakars install. going to attempt the install myself! My truck is using the CBI Ditch light bracket. Very sturdy i can violently shake the truck by yanking on these brackets. Doesnt help my spring are quite soft but you get the point! Heres the thread i started a while back to keep track of mods that ive done.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mauiaustins-high-school-tacoma-build-ava.554811/

 

Took a trip out with some TW guys last weekend.
The trail was my upper limit until I get at least a rear locker, and some sliders.

 

Got lucky on a set of brand new sliders off Facebook. Hopefully will get these put on soon, we shall see.


Been busy the past few weeks with more maintenance. Flushed the brake fluid, which came out completely black. Also got some new power steering fluid in. That also came out completely black. Feels much smoother now.



Greased all the zerks for the first time, grease came out looking like tar.

Replaced the carrier/center bearing, there was nearly an inch of play in the old one.

Almost completely got rid of highway vibrations, still got one vibration which isn’t very bad but the frequency of the vibration perfectly matches the natural frequency of my phone mount… I can hardly feel it but it makes my phone shake like hell. Thankfully it is only at 63-67mph, I think it’s a tire.


Recently noticed the parking brake cable was frayed pretty badly.
So I got a new cable put in. I took the opportunity to check on my brake shoes, but ended up cracking the drum and stripping the thread on a back-off screw..
So the cable job turned into a new rear brake job.

First time dealing with drum brakes, and it was terrible. But got it all figured out eventually, and they feel great. The parking brake holds much better now as well.

Have had a pretty steady leak from the topside of the transmission/transfer case area. I think I tracked it down to the seal between the shifter and the transmission. Resealed it, hopefully there won’t be any more drips. Must have broken the seal when I pulled the shifter to replace the bushings.

With so much maintenance boring me out, I had to get some more fun stuff too. So I picked up an eBay snorkel kit.

 

Got the sliders welded on thanks to the great group at AZ TW.


Started working on a new rear bumper.

 

Moving quick on the bumper build.
Got the frame mounts and receiver welded on and gusseted.


Threw on the bumper and license plate for a trip this weekend and to get emissions done. Bumper is far from finished though. Looks a bit rough still.
Kind of looks exactly how it is, just a metal 2x6 thrown on the rear end. Hopefully when the swingout and bed hoops get built it'll look like a bit less of a backyard build.

 

Got the swingout built, and did a quick coat of paint. Still have a few things to polish up, but pretty happy with it so far.
Bedside protection is next.

Pretty impressed with myself with the welds. If you start to look close you can naturally find some real rough ones, but for just jumping in with no experience I think the majority of them are pretty damn decent.

Picked up a matching TRD Pro wheel for a spare as well, waiting until I get new tires all around to swap that in.

 

Bumper came out awesome! Have you really never welded before?? those welds are way good! Making me think i too could pick up a welder and just stack dimes welding all day on a new bumper...

 

My first welds were only a week before, where I was just helping a friend weld on my sliders. He got me started, then I got a machine and went to town.
Give it a shot, you could be a natural. YouTube is where I learned most of it. There are a few really ugly welds hidden away in there, I’m not going to lie. But I got lucky and all the front facing ones came out really clean.
It pretty much paid for itself with just this one project vs buying something off the shelf too.

 

what kind of metal did you use and how much do you think materials costed for that bumper? also curious what welder you picked up?

 

I used a 2"x6"x1/4" rectangular steel tube for the main bumper body, 3"x3"x1/4" steel angle for the frame mounts, 2"x2"x3/16" square tube for the swingout. Theres also some 1" or 1.5" 1/8" wall square tube thrown in there for gussets. 2"x2"x1/8" Angle for the jerry can, and some 2"x1/8" flat bar in there as well. The hitch receiver was like $15 at harbor freight.

I went 2x6 to fit my license plate, looking back that didn't really matter and I'd probably do a 2x5 or even like 3x4 and just mount the license plate on the tire or on the jerry can mount.
All in on raw materials I believe I'm right around $400, with a bit of scrap left over. I also used a fairly expensive supplier who cuts to size and charges by the inch. Probably could've paid a bit more today to buy full length sticks from an industrial metal supplier, and had a ton left over for future projects. But I wanted to avoid as many cuts as possible, I'm in a tightly packed suburban neighborhood and didn't want my neighbors getting on my ass for cutting 1/4" steel for hours after work every day. Cutting and grinding steel is loud as hell, that's why this project took as long as it did. Only had an hour or so after work before it was getting to late to make that much noise. Hopefully you have a comfortable pair of ear muffs already.

The Hinge and Tire mount plate I got from 4XInnovations for about $160 for both.
Wheel studs were a few bucks each.

I picked up a Titanium 170 welder with a cart on Facebook for $350, he also had a metal chop saw that I ended up picking up for $100.
I'd definitely recommend a 220V Gas welder, not a 120V or Flux-only. Though you need access to 220V which can be difficult. Luckily the dryer at the house I rent is in the garage, giving me easy access to 220v.

Spent another $4-500ish on a gas tank, gas, hood, wire, magnets, 220v adapter, welding pliers etc.
Angle grinder was another $50 or so from Harbor freight, plus $10 for a pack of cut-off wheels and flap discs.

So all in somewhere around $1500.
I tried to include absolutely everything here, because before going into this everyone always said that a welders only a few hundred, while conveniently ignoring that all the ancillary things you will need cost another like $500.
If you can definitely try to find someone on Facebook selling the full set, including helmet and gas etc.

The alternative for me was going to be the 4XInnovations bumper and swingout, which when you add a jerry can mount and shipping/tax would've been $1560. I'm sure shipping to HI would be even worse than here.

So basically I bought that and got a welder for free

 

Went on a trip to Smiley Rock Trail between Mingus Mountain and Jerome.
Didn’t get many pictures on the actual obstacles, it was mostly rough but easy dirt trails mixed in with some tough decently long sections of boulder and rock fields.
Broke in the new sliders nicely. They paid for themselves already, fell pretty damn hard on them on a couple occasions.

 

I think thats a great deal you got for now having the ability to build anything out of metal! Youre right shipping for a bumper like that to HI is pretty much not an option unless we have a dealer. Great job and i love to see guys using their trucks! Gosh this is my reminder that sliders can and WILL save your ass.

 

@time623 You should come up here and wheel some time

 

New Leafs went on last week, went with the OME CS019R set. OME SB43 bushings.
Due to the nature of these leafs, I ended up with ~ 4.5" of lift over the prior stock + AAL setup. I think if I had a stock rear bumper and no shell it probably would've been more like 5.5".
Before:

After:


It came out to just slightly more rake than I would like, but not enough for me to remove a leaf. Hopefully it settles just a little bit, though the CS019R isn't known for settling much. At least now when loaded with gear it should hopefully sit pretty level.

After installing the leafs my 20-21" 5100s were completely extended at ride height. Ride was naturally absolute shit like that, so I replaced them with 10" travel 26" extended 5100s, Part number: 33-185552.

$9 Energy 9.8108G 3/4" Hourglass Shock Eye Bushing

Energy 9.8108G bushings.

With the new shocks installed the ride is actually pretty nice, though these springs are definitely stiff.


Over the weekend I replaced the ITRE and OTREs, as well as UBJs. UBJs were an absolute fucking bitch that turned this ~2-3 hour job into a full day nightmare.. But they're done.