13 spruce mica in NY

Hey guys, my name is Peter. I finally got my first new vehicle at the age of 21! I just sold my 2011 ford focus to my girlfriend to replace her 1999 saturn and I decided it was time for a truck but don't really like full size trucks.

The focus was almost new, bought it at 15k miles. Did lots of mods, smoked tail lights, 3d carbon factory body kit, ses rims from another model, tinted windows, led interior/plate lights, Morimoto Mini H1 retrofit in the headlights, added a spoiler and probably a few other things.

I did not want to get rid of this car because I got it for such a steal, take care of it very well and have a shop manual for it and everything. I will share some pictures even though you only care about the tacoma. I love pictures (threads are useless without them) so here it is:





Yes I did two different retrofits lol



And just because I have to share my retrofit before and after.


halogen high beam silverstar ultras


Morimoto Mini H1 retrofit with 4300k bulbs high beam



Awesome improvement and well worth the $300. That being said I was afraid of getting a vehicle with halogen lights because I saw how much of an improvement the HID retrofit was. But the Tacoma has some damn good lights, I don't even use high beams.







Here is the Tacoma. 2013 Tacoma Sr5 6 foot bed in spruce mica. Love the color! Very hard to get a picture of it showing green though. I feel like I have a black truck and a green truck.




Modifications I want to do.

-Some type of bull bar. I saw a Hilux brush guard and I think that looks awesome. I hate the look of the full size brush guards.
-Tonneau Cover
-Maybe a projector retrofit if I ever have spending money again (although I do have a spare set of Morimoto Mini H1s and bulbs, all I need is the harness...hmmmm)


I am sure I will find much more to do to it after I own it. I decided on leasing because if I bought it payments would be $459 a month for 72 months. I needed the lower payments right now which are $342 to lease. The buyout price will be $21,150.

So in 3 years the truck be 3 years old and will have less than 36,000 miles. (I walk to work every day) and the buyout price will be $21,150.

Right now in my area 5 year old tacomas with 75k miles go for $21-23k anyway.

So basically yes, I will be paying on it for 3 more years than a used one, but I can start from day 1 with my maintenance and take care of the truck. I constantly wash and wax my vehicles and keep everything clean and working.

That leads me to my only question in this post. Do I want to undercoat it?

My first intentions were to while all the bolts were fresh, rip the bed off and do a full and complete undercoating of the bed, the frame and everything under it and even paint the whole exhaust with flat black header paint. Reason being I live in NY and they salt the crap out of the roads and things just rot apart.

Then I started reading people find that undercoating traps moisture and dirt/salt under the undercoating and basically rots things away without you being able to wash the contaminants out. So I would like some input on that from you guys! These tacomas are pretty damn good at not rusting though, I will admit that!

 

Welcome!
Being that you live in New York, I would highly suggest some kind of protection before the weather turns...

 

Welcome! your 4wd? i love WNY, would not mind moving if it was not for a few laws that i hate and can’t stand. got a bunch of family close to buffalo. most of them have one of the big 3 and no toyotas, and i think they get the OEM under coating but could be wrong.

 

I have to find some type of under protection for it before winter!


I live in Binghamton which is about 10 minutes from PA and an hour directly north of Scranton PA.