Before and After

Hi guys, just thought I'd share my progress on my 95.5!



Clifford when I got him in April last year .


Clifford this afternoon.

The before pic doesn't show the old damaged tailgate, but here's the replacement:



Parts list:
Sony stereo from Best Buy
Tailgate shell from carparts.com, painted matte black
Decal from The Decal Doc on Ebay (custom order, $40)
Bilstein 5100s
Toytech eibachs
2" add a leaf
15" Pro Comp wheels from Summit Racing
1.5" Spidertrax spacers
33" Toyo Open Country M/Ts
Bigass sledgehammer

It's a long slow process and I love it. Next is painting the bed protector thingy.

 

looks bad ass, that is very clean for a 95... whats next on the list? sliders?

 

No way - I'm a girl, I need sparkly lights!

 

Soooooo sliders wrapped in glitter wrap?

 

Looks pretty slick!!!!!

 

How many miles on your truck?

 

250k. These pics are pretty flattering - he's clean for a 95, but not flawless.

The guy I got him from knew nothing about his history. He came with no stereo and no records at all, and the plastic that goes under the front bumper and the right front blinker were both in the bed. Still pretty darn clean though.

Next up is probably the AC - I don't really need to go through another Sacramento summer without.

 

Clifford is a very handsome boy!

 

Getting the dam 33s on was a NIGHTMARE that lasted about 2 months. The wheels he had on were 16s off a Tacoma although I believe that he came with 15s and someone swapped them at some point. I was gonna leave them but that wasn't in the cards...

1st I got tires to fit on the 16s, but the shop realized they wouldn't quite fit and recommended wheels with a little more backspacing. Or maybe a little less, I don't know. Whatever. So after a bit of thinking I had them order the tires in a 15 and picked up the pro comp wheels to fit, which were cheap and look better than the original in my opinion anyhow.

Then the dumb wheels rubbed on the stupid brake caliper, which was annoying as heck, so after about 3 years of reading (THANK YOU, Blackdawg, your build thread has saved my life 6 times as well as being super inspiring) I ordered the Spidertrax to get the wheels off the calipers.

I took a sick day on the day the Spidertrax came, I was so excited. Then the tires rubbed on the body inside the fender.

Then I cussed a lot and cried and drank my boyfriend's whiskey.

Last week I was all set to just return the spacers and grind a lil bit off the calipers, because who needs brakes when you have $1500 worth of Toyos sitting in a heap on the driveway, right? But after about an hour (3 hours) of arguing, my boyfriend wouldn't do it - and the tools are his and he wouldn't let me do it either. He started cutting a bit of the body out of the wheel well with tin snips, but it wasn't enough.

So then we gave up 5 times. Put the wheel on with the spacer, took it off, put it on without. Kicked it and went inside because it was too hot and swore to give up and go to Les Schwab.

After I announced I was going to sell the Toyos on Craigslist and then just leave myself at Les Schwab's mercy, my boyfriend found on Blackdawg's thread where he said he just beat the inconvenient parts with a hammer until they behaved.

So that's what we did.

 

Hammer works ever time.

looking good!

Love the color. Miss mine when it was like that.

 

I would have never thought of it but it makes perfect sense and worked easily. I plan to get to the hammered bits with some primer and then paint - it's not visible but I'm hoping it will rain in CA one of these years so I might as well protect it.

Your rig in this color has kinda been my main inspiration - I love that look and it isn't too crazy for a truck that honestly does most of its miles on highway 5.

Some dbag has broken into two of my coworkers' cars in the last two weeks and stolen stuff in our parking lot in broad daylight. I'm paranoid as hell and looking into wheel locks. Pep Boys has a set that says it will fit so I may stop on my way home.

 

just dropping by to say nice truck

 

HOLY MOTHER OF BALLS am I pissed. State of CA randomly selected me to have to get a STAR smog this year when I renew my registration. No big deal, happens to every Californian once in a while.

Except I have an illegal catalytic converter. WHICH I DIDN'T INSTALL. So the goddamn thing was on there when I bought it and some shady mothertrucker smogged it for the sale and I'm sorry, I just ASSUMED that if it smogged the cat was okay and, you know, CALIFORNIA LEGAL.

So I called the shop that smogged it last year and yelled at the guy until I got sick of yelling, hung up on him, reported him to the board for doing a shitty job smogging it last year, and ordered a new cat. Took up my whole afternoon and I still get cranky every time I think about it.


Anyway here's what I did yesterday:
Lost a valve stem cover but that just gave me an excuse to go to Pep Boys and pick up a set of cute ones.

This trail is SUPER easy but I'm a beginner so it was pretty fun. Plus it's like 5 minutes from my house.

 

He's(Tacoma)a beast now!Nice OP!

 

If anyone is feeling really patient, I need help understanding audio components. Or if someone has a link to a thread geared towards 5-year-olds that would be even better because I don't even know what to ask.

 

http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/basics.asp

There you go Ms. Scorcho.

 

Thank you! Lots of little words and short sentences, which is exactly what I needed

 

Truck looks so good. I wanted to paint my old 95 this color

 

Guy lets you off with not having proper cat and you yell at him? Or am i missing something? (idk how these smog checks work)

 

No he let the previous owner off during the pre-sale smog that CA requires. So I got a clean smog cert when I bought it but it was a lie.