My new purchase 97 Regular Cab lil' help

New to the forum and a new owner of a 97 Regular cab Tacoma 4x4. I have been looking on and off for a couple of years now for a gen 1 Tacoma regular cab. These trucks I very seldom see listed for sale but when i do they seem to be beat to hell with 200k+ or priced really high. To my amazement I found this little truck on a lemon lot. The owner just picked it up at an auction local new car trade in at a lexus dealership. One lady owned 97 Taco with 108K original miles automatic. The dealer priced this according to blue book so I guess I would say I was in the right place at the right time.
Pros: Truck is straight no repairs very good paint NO rust and clean frame. Automatic
Cons: The lady was a smoke stack although the interior is flawless from abuse it has a golden tint that needs a full interior clean. The ugly wheels im not sure if its the tires or the rims or both.
Help: Any help on a mild lift and wheels and tires. I'm conservative on the looks and I don't want to ruin the integrity of my truck I prefer to stay close to the stock wheel size maybe bump it up a little bit. Im looking at 02 16" 4runner rims they look to be the same bolt pattern but I'm wondering would i have any clearance problems? or any problems with these fitting? I like BF goodwrich's ALL Terrain tires I think this is a solid looking tire but what size and what kind of lift if any.
Also this is an automatic which I thought was weird because I never see autos accept in the extended cabs are these rare?

 

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Get some bilstein 5100 struts for the front. Put them on highest setting with stock coils and get an add-a-leaf for the rear. Get some 31" or 32" BFGs and you good to go man. Not a huge lift but looks good. I went to 16s and have no problem, also I'm selling my old wheels and tires now which are black 15x8 pacer bullet holes with 32x11.50 BFGs

 

Hey man I'm stationed in Whiteman good to see another single cab Tacoma lover so close nice truck man!

 

for a mild lift and setup this is what id do:

OME 881 coils on Nitrocharger shocks up front
Wheelers Alcan 5 leaf packs for 95-97 tacomas with nitrocharger shocks.

32x11.5r15 in the tire of your choice. The ATs from BFG would be a nice choice.

Be very nice riding, about 1.5'' lift and slightly bigger tires. Should look awesome.

i wouldn't go to a 16'' rim personally. Tires cost more and 15s look better

the auto in our case isn't that rare..but it doesn't do you any favors. You'll probably have 4.56 diff gears stock though which is cool. But you're robbed a lot of power from the auto.

other then that welcome!

 

Looks clean! I see alot of single cab 4x4's around here. I like hearing about what style trucks are popular in different places of the states

 

thanks for all your advise

 

So how much did you end up paying? Nice little clean truck.
I would list automatic as a con but that is just me.
Oh check your exhaust manifold ,they always have cracks.