Greetings.

I just took possession of a 2014 Taco base edition access cab. I am looking to do some upgrades to make this a snazzy little city truck. So far I have upgraded the wiper control to intermittent and added a pair of JBL tri-axle speakers to it. I could not believe the poor quality of the speakers that I removed from this vehicle. I have owned a lot of Toyotas in my time and never had one that sounded so poor. Those stock speakers were like a Chinese imitation of a speaker. They went into the trash. (Cone attached to a plastic frame and virtually no magnet... really?) I am wondering if anyone has done wheel flairs on a vehicle that never had them. (no buttonholes)

My only brand new Toyota was a '99 Tacoma SR5. My plan was to put a million miles on it. That plan was thwarted by a drunk driver. We seem to be a magnet for drunk drivers. My wife's new 98' Rave 4, T boned by a drunk. Our six-speed Matrix XRS destroyed by a drunk. What a zippy car that was. Other accidents took out another Matrix XR and a 2000 Corolla. That Corolla, I got for a song. It had a lot of miles but a relatively new Celica engine in it. I learned how to replace a headliner on that one. EZ PZ. We had a '95 Camry wagon that served us well, my son eventually used it for road rally competition. He would finish first being the only one in his class. After my wife was involved in a couple of accidents I thought that protecting her was more valuable than gas mileage, so she is driving a 2013 Venza. My son likes to tinker and has a 2000 MR2. The Corolla engine bolted right up to that. He also has a 1982 four-door Tercel. It needs some front wheel hubs, which are impossible to find. His daily driver is a 2001 Avalon XLS. It is in mint condition with less than 60,000 miles on it. Lastly, my '95 4Runner is my resto project. Yes, it is the dog of the 4Runner family but I love that it has a tailgate. It is in pretty good shape for its age. I found a plastic dash cover that snapped right in to cover the cracked old one. It has a new engine and rubber all around.

We don't have the issues of metal rot here in the piedmont of North Carolina, something that took most of my VWs growing up in Pa. but the sun will eat an interior. That Corolla had rotten plastic in the doors of the driver's side. I patched it with fiberglass while replacing the window winder motor. The decal on one side of the 4 Runner was badly faded. I ended up blowing those off with a pressure washer.

I look forward to reading your adventures, tips, and tricks on this site. I am getting too old to take the banging around of off-roading but love hearing about it. Yotta for life.

 

Welcome to TW!