Stealth Custom Series 2013 Holiday Contest

After reading all of these great submissions, I almost didn't post this. My wife said I should still give it a whirl, so here goes.

I guess a good place to start my story is when I made the decision to go back to school. I was working as a paper pusher, and it was pretty much a soul killer of a job. So I got out of there. Spent the next 2 years getting my associates to work on computers and graduated in 2009. After graduating I landed a pretty descent job with a home loan company maintaining their databases. If you read the previous sentence with a feeling of foreboding, you obviously have read the news the last 5 years. You guessed it, the economy went down hill, and loan companies like the one I was working for went belly up. Since I was last in the door, I was first out of it.

Being newly graduated and unemployed was not a good place to be. Just a few months prior I had asked my girlfriend at the time to marry me. We were knee deep in wedding planning and wedding bills. I took a temp job working 3rd shift at the local hospital maintaining their computer systems to help make ends meet. So regardless to say, it wasn't the funnest time in my life even with being excited about getting married.

I guess now is a good time to bring my lovely old car into the story. During all this time I was driving a 1998 Honda Civic. It was a reliable car, but it wasn't the flashiest or fanciest of vehicles as you all are well aware. Fortunately for me, it was paid for and all I had to do to it was basic maintenance. Hate to admit it, but I really liked that car.

After getting married in the fall of 2010, and applying to everywhere under the sun for a better job. I finally landed a great job working for a local cities' I.T. department. For the first time my wife and I were making a descent living and we could finally replace my old civic that was starting to get some personality.

We looked at a ton of new vehicles, everything from sedans to suvs and finally the Tacoma. I'd never actually considered getting one myself, until we test drove it. Like everyone else on here, I fell in love with the Tacoma pretty fast. It wasn't long til I was driving my new 2012 off the lot.

Soon after getting the truck I discovered tacoma world. So hats off to everyone for all the helpful info and the awesome builds you post on here.

This is how she looked after driving her home.



Several months later I added step bars.



I don't have a pic, but I have also added the OME roof rack as well. So thanks again to all of the forum members for posting info and reviews on parts. Really helped me since I have never really done anything like that before.

So yeah I really love my truck and plan on having it a long time. Guess I will wrap this up by saying thanks for reading my story and hope you all have a great holiday and new year.

 

I don't really have a big long story like everyone else.

My parents made me get a job if I wanted a car when I turned 16. So, at 15, I started working at Carquest here in town. I looked and looked, and finally found a car I thought I could drive for a long time. 1993 Honda Prelude, 5 speed manual. Black. "The Fast and The Furious" always made me want a car, and I always wanted to rice it up. Luckily for me, I didn't have the money for all that back then.
(Not my car, but exactly like it)


After about a year and a half, I decided I was tired of the car, and I wanted a truck. This was around the middle of 2004, I think. I looked around and couldn't find anything I could afford. My dad decided he wanted a new Tacoma at the time, so he sold me his red 1994 extra cab 4x4 Toyota, and he bought a Silver 2004 Extended cab 4x4


He bought the '94 back in 97, I believe. I drove it through my senior year in high school. By then, gas was starting to go through the roof (for the time, anyway...I wish prices were that low now...) and I didn't think I could afford to drive it back and forth to college. I stayed on campus, but came home on the weekends to work. It was about 72 miles one way...plus I would randomly come home to see my girlfriend that was still here. I decided, after I drove that truck for about a year (Got it with about 100k miles on it) that I needed something better on gas.

At this point, my dad was regretting his decision to buy a brand new truck. He liked it, but he's - let's just say - Frugal. He didn't want to have a brand new truck and take it places he was taking it to go hunting. He sold his 2004, and I sold him back his 1994. I drove his Honda Civic around for a couple weeks until I could find something I liked.

Then, in 2005, I found a black 2002 Honda Accord Coupe V-Tech for $12,000.
(Again, not mine, but just like it. I can't find any pictures of mine right now.)


Got some eyelids for it, threw on some Euro tails, and a cold air intake. Not to mention the 2 12" subs in the trunk. I thought I was bad. I drove that car my first couple of years of college. From 2005-2007. Then I decided I was tired of having a car again. I'm a truck guy. I hunt, I fish, I haul stuff. I need a truck . When the 2nd gen Taco came out in 2005, I was in love and I told my mom and dad I was going to buy one. Of course, working 16 hours a week, I couldn't really afford a new one. I had to wait for the prices to go down a little on a used one. I went to the post office one day, and sitting in the parking lot was a white 2005 extended cab, 6 speed, 4x4 for sale. Everything I wanted, except I was really wanting a DCSB. I went inside and talked to the lady who was selling it for her husband. It had 27k miles on it and they wanted $22,000 for it. I got in for a test drive and couldn't ever get it to go in reverse. Slightly embarrassing. Finally got it to work and went for a ride and was definitely in love. The next day I had a for sale sign on my accord while I was at work. Sold it 3 days later (only got 10k out of it) and went to the bank to see about a loan. Dad co-signed for me, and I was able to get 60 months for the $12K (Like I said, I was working 16 hours a week...still didnt' have a lot of disposable income, especially considering college loans and all that crap). Bought the truck in March of 2007.



I immediately had to get some new wheels on it.

16x10 Pacer Magnum



Tinted the windows and put a billet grille on it.


Then, I decided I was tired of chrome/polished aluminum. Didn't have the money to get new wheels, so I decided to powdercoat the ones I already had. One problem...I dind't have anything to drive while I didn't have wheels on my truck...so I borrowed some wheels from a buddy that he had on his Taco before he sold it.

Finally got mine back



New grille


Bestop


Added a flowmaster and some Wet Okoles and some Duratracs.

Paid off my 60 month loan in about 34 months, so now she's all mine. I plan on driving her until the wheels fall off. Bought her with 27k on her, now I'm at 105k.

My dad has been looking for a Tacoma for about 3 years. He FINALLY found exactly what he wanted. 2013 MGM, Access cab 4x4 6 speed. It had 5k miles on it, and he haggled and haggled and got them down to 27,400 out the door. He sold his red '94 (That he had for about 16 years) to my cousin's husband. He's still crying about getting rid of that truck. His first mod on the 2013 was, of course, wheels. I showed him pictures on here, and he decided on SCS Stealth 6 wheels. He got them in, and everyone loves them. I wanted to get a set for myself, but I didn't have the money for wheels and tires (since my current wheels are only 16"), so I've held off.




Had to get a cool pic before he got rid of "our" truck...since we both owned it.


So, apparently my story was a lot longer than expected. I apologize. I expect a lot of tl;dr. My story isn't inherently happy or sad. Just a timeline of my vehicle life.

 

Bump! I want to see more stories!

 

One more day left!

Bump for the silver stealths

 

Vin is the man! won't see many wheel companies doing this.

GLOSS black Stealth's word.

 

I have always loved my vehicle. From my first car (1991 Geo Storm) to my current vehicle (09 dclb prerunner) no matter how lame it was. It was mine I could do whatever I wanted with it, go where ever I wanted. There has just always been something about having my own vehicle.

I’ve had a few cars : 1991 Geo Storm, 1993 Honda Accord, 1995 Subaru legacy, 2002 Mitsubishi eclipse, 2008 Subaru Impreza and now 2009 Toyota Tacoma. This is over the course of 9 years. None have them have even come close to being as awesome as my Tacoma that I just got 10/15/13.
Here's how she looked the day I brought her home




My vehicles have improved over the years. Starting with a $500 car up to a $26,000 Tacoma. Each vehicle has been better than the previous one, but none getting as much love or care put into it as my Tacoma has.

I have always wanted a Tacoma but could never afford one, so I made do with what I had. Usually that was just spray painting the rims black and it looked 100 times better than stock. I’ve never really done much upgrading/modding to my vehicles along the way nor have I wanted to, but now that I’ve got a Tacoma that’s all that I want to do, so most days I daydream about what I could do. There are so many things that I want to do but, money is of course an issue.

So far I have debadged the tailgate, removed bedsides, blacked out my door badges/Toyota emblem and got a flowmaster 40 put on with the birthday money. I had requested that my family gave me money rather than presents (if they were to give me anything) because that was the only thing that I wanted to get. There is soo much more I want to do: BHLM, Weathertech floor liners, Wet okole Seat covers, Nfab steps, 4 inch spindle lift with 33’s but, my fiancé is 6 months pregnant so any extra money we have right now is being saved to pay for the delivery of the baby (Which I had no idea was so much even with good insurance). So I’ve just being doing the inexpensive things that I can “afford” to do being as I had the paint lying around and got some fishing line from a friend.
Here's how she looks today




This is by far my favorite vehicle I have owned and I look forward of a long life of upgrading it. There is no greater joy than getting to upgrade my rig. I know it doesn’t seem like there are that many things I want to do to it but the amount of time it will take me to gather the money to get any of it done makes this quite a few things to me. Even if I don’t get to do any of the mods listed above over the life of my Tacoma I will still love this truck as much as I will love my little baby girl that is coming in april!

I would like to say thank you to SCS for being such a great company with holiday spirit to put on such a contest as this spreading hope to all. You don’t see many if any businesses that really care about their consumers.

 

Gl everyone! Thanks Vin for giving everyone the opportunity for such a great prize. Merry Christmas to all, and all be safe during this season

 

This thread has been a lot of fun to read; so many great people, awesome trucks, and adventures!

 

Awesome guys! Thank you to all that entered and for sharing your stories. To those that are just showing support, thank you as well! We hope to make this a TW tradition so if you don't make the cut, there's always next year.

We will take this weekend to sort through all the wonderful posts. By Monday we'll have to 10 finalist and the voting will begin then.

 

Part 2 for the voting is up!!!

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/of...tom-series-2013-holiday-contest-part-2-a.html