Buying a wrecked Tacoma - worth it?

there I edited it, photos should be there now. Sorry about that guys! Thanks for the welcome!

and yes insurance is for sure harder if you want full coverage. Personally I usually just get liability but that could be an issue for some for sure.

 

looks real good, that ft bumper makes it look stout

 

That looks great! Funny thing is it actually looks good with a black hood.

 

That’s funny, I’ve had a few people tell me that! Makes me consider just painting the fender and leaving the hood black, we will see.

 

I was also thinking I kind of like the replacement parts in black. I definitely wouldn't be in a huge hurry to paint it.

 

Hard pill to swallow if you smash up a $24k vehicle

 

Nice job and writeup. A+

 

After market hood and fender? I ask because there’s a few big gaps where they mate with the painted parts.

 

definitely! To be fair I’m used to driving $5k vehicles, so I may try and get at least comprehensive at some point. But I’m of the opinion that usually buying less insurance/warranties/etc over a lifetime ends up saving you money. Assuming more risk usually works out positively in the long run. Anyway, to each his own on that one.

yes, like I mentioned in the first post, I used mostly aftermarket parts. That’s how I was able to keep it cheap to rebuild. The worst gap is between the hood and the grill, which I could still tighten up if I wanted to work on it more. The gap you see between the plastic bumper section and the aftermarket fender is actually not the fender’s fault, i reused the original bumper cover and it was a little bent/creased from the accident so it didn’t fit quite right. I was very pleased with how the aftermarket body panels fit.

 

Did you take any measurements of the frame to ensure that it was the bed that moved, and not the frame that moved? The damaged LCA bracket, the point of impact, the gaps, etc...suggest the frame is not straight/square.

 

yes I did take some measurements, the frame is straight. I’m pretty sure the bed shifted because the gap between the rear bumper and bed was also not right. When I loosened the bed bolts and shifted it, the cab to bed gap and also the bed to bumper gap both straightened right out.

as far as the body panel gaps being imperfect, that’s because I didn’t get the core support 100% perfectly straight. If it ever starts bothering me, I can always tweak it a bit more.

 

What you are describing can also be a result of a diamond condition in the frame. I'm not saying it is, but it's possible.

 

Looks good.

 

Truck looks great!

Welcome to TW. We need more members like you, so stick around.

If the plastic bumper portions bother you, and they shouldn't, look into the Running 4 Taco bumper caps. You can buy them raw or painted to match. They are a cheap(ish) solution to replacing your damaged plastics and are cut/designed to work with that aftermarket steel bumper.

https://runnin4tacos.com/products/bumper-caps-2016-2020-toyota-tacoma

 

Well to be fair, I don’t have precise measuring tools and I’m just another idiot working on my own vehicles, so it is certainly possible! But it drives straight and looks straight enough so it’s good enough for me

i appreciate the welcome! I got on a couple of tacoma Facebook pages when I first got the truck, looking around for useful info. I got my fill of people talking about tire size and MPG real quick haha.

Those bumper caps are neat! Definitely a good option if you wanted it to look real clean. But the cut bumper sections definitely don’t bother me. Can’t have too perfect of a vehicle, then I’d be scared to leave the pavement!

 

As a guy who could use a fender and a gas door, where do you recommend sourcing body panels from?

Truck looks good.

 

I got my body panels from eBay! It was the cheapest place I could find them online. The big thing with buying body panels online is your chances of shipping damage are decently high. I have a 1980 first gen pickup that I bought new fenders and a hood for online a couple years back, the first two hoods I received were completely trashed, one of them actually had greasy boot prints on the box and was completely mashed in from being walked over! Luckily the seller was nice about it and kept sending replacements, the third one finally was good. However, with the Tacoma, both the hood and fender showed up in perfect shape!

my advice would be to first look around locally, if you have any good late model salvage yards you may be able to snag oem stuff off of a wrecked truck. I tried that, called a bunch of places near me, couldn’t find what I needed. So my next option was buy aftermarket. And my general opinion there is most cheap aftermarket stuff comes from the same factory or two and it’s all the same so just find the best deal you can on it.

 

Mazel Tov OP! My late brother used to call vehicles like yours "a good 10 footer". Step back 10 feet and she looks pretty damn good! Welcome to TW and great job on the restoration.

 

I did a salvage rebuild with a 2nd gen, mine was much worse than yours and my panel fitment was really bad but so what? I ran a late model (back in 2010's) truck for 150k miles of drive it like I stole it miles for about 10k!
The salvage title isn't as much of a stain when it's an older work truck, buyers are looking for cheap, utility after 100k.

 

I'm honestly surprised it was totaled by an insurance company with that amount of damage. Good find, and good work.