Back in a Tacoma, '97 4x4 3.4 Auto 200k miles

Sold my '05 2.7 2wd, reg cab last year and bought a VW GTI, instantly missed having a pickup for hauling crap.
I've been keeping an eye out for 1st gens but anything not all rusted out is $5k around here. Found this one on main street, totally on accident with a for sale sign in the window. Interior is rough, seats are junk but the headliner, dash and door panels are in great shape. Engine runs/sounds good. It lists to the left-front, may need a shock. Truck was from S.Cal so the frame and body are in terrific shape.

 

Looks good! Any pics of the interior and the mileage? If it snows a lot where you're from I'd look into coating the frame.

 

201,000 miles. I should have taken an interior picture before I shop-vac'd it out. I'll get a pic tomorrow.
One issue is the hood won't pop up with the pull in the cab. I can get to the latch but pushing it to the left doesn't open the hood. I'm assuming I'll need to pull the grill?

 

Is the latch inside the cab broken or is it the cable itself?

Watch this video:



How much did you pay?

 

Latch in the cab works and I can hear it move, just no pop up and the hand latch under the hood doesn't seem to do anything when I raise it.
I paid $1,300

 

You paid WHAT!?!?
If that isn't the deal of the century I don't know what is. Wow.

 

Well, he did say AC doesn't work either.

 

And I thought I got a great deal... I paid $2100. Nice find, looks like a great truck.

 

$1300 won't get you a totaled first gen around here. If you were from NC I'd pay you at least twice that for it. Nice find.

 

To pop the grill off you have to have the hood open.

Unless you man handle it and rip it that is.

 

If you do end up ripping off the grille you're gonna break the retaining clips either way. They break really easily even if you're careful.

 

$1300 is a steal but I'd remove that body lift if I were you, for aesthetic and safety reasons (mostly aesthetic). Replace with an affordable suspension setup if not looking for anything fancy

 

Look great and for $1300!! Tires/wheels worth that...

 

lean to the drivers side is normal.

body lift needs to come off asap tho

 

Yeah you're gonna break most of those clips haha. When I took mine off the first time those clips were so brittle they were basically exploding when I put pressure on them with the screw driver.

 

Yeah body lifts don't look very good in general, easy to see the frame to clean it though. I plan to remove ASAP, looks like about 4" pucks in there. Do I need a suspension lift for the 31's that are on it now? If yes, what should I be looking at? I'm in the flat lands so not much rock crawling going on.

I had to grab the cable with vice grips to pop the hood, is it just stretched out that much? I took the grill off and removed the AC condenser. The mounts and one of the lines on the driver side were broken and it was moving around. The grill was wired on and half the tabs are already broken, I may be haunting the local junk yards for a replacement.

 

31s are the stock tire size for the 4x4s so you shouldn't need any extra clearance for those.

 

That's crazy cheap! Also - what color is that, like a metallic brown? I almost bought a truck that was repainted that color when I was looking for mine and I think it looks really good!

 

Great deal, great deal

 

Good to know, back to stock height is next up after fluid change.