Being led to the light

In the early 2000's, I bought a '78 FJ-40 on 33's with a GM Vortec 4.3 engine swapped into it. It was essentially bullet proof, & I wheeled it all over CO and even took it to Moab a couple times. Ended up selling it on the web to a guy in TX. It was Pepto Pink with Purple accents & spatter throughout. Yes, you read that correctly, I bought it like that. It was a fresh build at that time. Whenever someone would comment about the color scheme, I would look to my girlfriend and tell them "it's hers"!

Later, I ended up with a first year SR5 V6 4x4 pickup. Drove it on a Transporter tag for about 3 years and never even registered it. It overheated driving into Las Vegas one time, and I had to have the heads all re-done. It was a great little truck, despite the early 3.0L shortcomings, as well.

Now I'm on my 3rd Yota, a 3rd gen 4D 2WD V6 Taco & I love it. Found it at the local dealer in FL with 7,500mi's on it, still smelling factory fresh. It's a little project for me at this point. I've only put about 500 miles on it since buying it a couple months ago. I think one of the key fob batteries just gave up the ghost, as I got the 'Fob Not Detected' message on the dash, after installing new LED tail lights yesterday afternoon. I'm looking forward to doing my first oil change on it & plan to do most of the maintenance otherwise, myself. At 50yo I'm a little tired of paying shops to mess stuff up for me (I can do that all on my own, lol). I secretly call the truck Nita in my mind, named after an ex-gf who was also a project.

My truck is black, my brains is whack, save my seat.. I'll be right back.

 

I grew up in a Toyota Hilux country. For years I dreamt of having a diesel Hilux. No need to , you can't get a diesel Hilux here, so I found a 2014 Tacoma DCSB with a manual trans and decided this is the way. I have been absolutely thrilled with the quality and I love driving it. The 1GR noises are almost diesel-esque