Flaunts 2000 Dezert Taco

flaunt · Jan 17, 2014

Figured I would wander over to this site, heard a lot of things, and seen a lot of builds on this site, so i thought why not come bull shit over here about trucks and other non sense.

I have been building this truck for a little over 2 years.

2000 Tacoma 5 Lug 3.4 Manual

5 Lug converted to 6 Lug
Highly Modified JD Fab Long Travel
-Heim Uppers
-84-95 4x4 Spindle Conversion
-Heim Steering
-Fox 10" 2.5 Coilovers

T100 Rear end
-4.88 Gears and Detroit Locker
-Fox 16" 2.5 2 Tube Bypasses
-9" Total Chaos shackles and H70 Springs
-Custom 32 Gallon Fuel Cell

-Complete Incab Cage all DOM ( 1.75 .120 Main and 1.5" .120 in between)
-Beard Buckets with Crow Harnesses
-Fiberglass is Tundra Conversion
-15" Double Standard Method Wheels
-35x15 BFG ATs
-Hella 4ks Converted to HID
-Rear LED Light Box
-K&N Intake
-Optima Red Tops
-Spintech Exhaust
-Custom Driveline
-Solid Motor Mounts
-Frame is plated from front to back

Since this build has been going for awhile Ill take you from the beginning, so pack a lunch,sit back and relax, this could take awhile.

The first day I got the truck, was building the truck on the trailer. "Attempted" to do a 3.4 swap, got sold a bad motor, wiring harness, injectors, etc. After year and half of trying to make it work I said to the hell with it and bought the one I currently own today and started swapping parts.

Had a crummy bedcage and some rusted stay aways so i swapped over my fox bypasses and swapped bedcages, and the t100 from the other truck.

Shortly after i took the truck out to glamis for the first time and it did awesome!

Gnarstow. Safety first kids.

Took the truck out to pismo, and thats when the curse of the 5 lug started.

flaunt · Jan 18, 2014

After that incident, it didn't bother me to much so i went on with the build, added some bump stops to the front end, which in the end made me realize that it really did nothing bumping off the lower.

Decided to really use the truck for what I built it for so a group of buddies got together and we did the Mojave Road.

Accrued some new parts to freshen up the front end, heims to make full heim steering, bumps for the rear, plate work to box in the frame horns to the front bumper, solid motor mounts, battery selector switch, and some more lights.

Got the frame horns to the bumper finished and hit the dezert!

Decided the rear needed much more weight, so i did a gas tank delete.

Picked up this custom 32 gallon cell that utilizes the stock sending unit...

...andddddd waaaalah!

Well now that i had the fuel cell, it wasn't race truck enough, so I went to the next stepped and starting stripping the interior.

Then it began..

Finished the cage, laid down some paint, and also some "peel and seal"

flaunt · Jan 18, 2014

Then i got the stock dash all fitted and put back in.

The truck originally had the F55's but they were not cutting it at all with weight in the rear so i swapped em out with a pair of F67's.

Finally with the truck back together I took it out with a buddy and we did a run from Barstow to Landers via the dirt.

The run went great until on the way home i was dropping off a friend that had a dezert house out there and apparently didn't take the same road i picked her up on.

Ended up breaking the inner tie rod, ripping out the heim, and tweaking the upper arm mounts, it was a rough hit. Note to self: never be in a rush in the dirt.

So that all had to go! And a good thing i decided to.
Ended up doing a upper bushing, lower balljoint, and 5 lug spindle delete.

Must of been welded on a monday..

Next that had to go was the crappy 5 lug lift spindles and ball joints.
So i cut out the lower balljoint slug and fit a uniball and mocked up some 84-95 Pickup 4x Spindles.

Pretty stoked on how they came out

Finished product.

flaunt · Jan 18, 2014

After doing a couple of runs the truck needed some help in the lighting department, so i whipped up this light bar.

Shortly after I went to 35's and methods, and that only meant one thing, gears with a side of locker. Without em the truck was a slug.

Got the group together and did a run from ridgecrest through death valley, the truck did awesome with all the upgrades.

Then, i still hadn't dodged disaster and it happened again! Sheared the head off my new steering clevis bolt that i had installed a couple weeks prior. Didn't know that they vibrate loose so often even with a ton of locktite. Luckily i carry a spare steering rack so i swapped the whole rack out and threw on some spare tie rods I had and drove it home.

Addressing all the problems I wanted to focus on cleaning the truck up more.

The ladies love it.

Added some newer seats

The lounging section.

Added the tubes from the bedcage to the mid point of the c pilar in hopes of eliminating more cab movement, also added a storage rack while i did those tubes.

Added two more ambers under the spares, cant see the led box ambers with the tent cot strapped to the tires on the long distance trips.

flaunt · Jan 18, 2014

A few trips in the books and a lot of dirt miles, i found soon found out the F67's weren't going to cut it, so i quickly swapped out to a pair of H70's. ALOT better.

Did about three pismo trips last summer with the group.

Mounted my ipad for GPS and music purposes.

After doing a few trips, our group wanted to step it up a notch, we decided on doing Barstow to Grand Canyon via the dirt.

The trip was awesome, a little over 450 miles of dirt. Truck did amazing.

Few other trips with the group, cal city, lucerne, and glamis.