My 01 prerunner build..

Heya, not sure what to say.. (well happy late thanksgiving)
Been here for awhile, had this truck since June 2012. Treated me alright so far! Previous owner is on here. First one to figure it out.. gets a pat on the back. Or some rep.


Vehicle: 2001 Tacoma Regular cab prerunner. 2WD with rear locker. 3.4L V6

Performance: Deck plate mod. Cleaned battery posts with baking soda. Instructions will be somewhere on this post.

Suspension: Billsteins 5100s,

Lighting: Turn signal mod to where corner lights are turn signals in addition,

Exterior: Decided to keep the running boards.

Interior: Nothing yet other than tools.

Bold=Hope to do soon

Future mods/purchases: LEDS in map lights and dome light, smaller intenna, D rings in bed, tailgate theft, console organizer, and perhaps in the very distant future some homemade rock sliders with a lot of help from my Uncle. LED flashlight, quick fist clamps, bit more touch up paint on the tailgate

But today.. I spent almost 5 hours washing and waxing my truck. That waxing sure takes awhile! Still want to get the hood, and the rest of the top. Sure looks sweet when it started raining a few minutes after I had finished up! The water really beads. Gotta clean out the interior. Been cleaning up someones backyard of leaves, branches, and logs (did with my brother 95 ford). My tacoma couldn't pull any of the logs unfortunately. Might have had to do with the moisture. However, I had left my rear sliding window open when I was hauling leaves to the local dump off the highway.. And well. You can probably guess what happened. And i'll be going out there later today, to do a bit more week. Will try to pull some logs up with this.

But, I hope to wash and wax every 2 or 3 weeks from now on. Weather pending. Does anyone known if there is any benefit to washing/waxing in warmer weather other than the wax drys quicker? As long as I use hot water, I feel like I should be fine.

And, I gotta organize quite a few things. Just bought a tool set a couple hours ago (Half price I think! Can't beat that.) Don't think it will fit behind my seats, so it will probably go in the truck toolbox. Got two tool bags also, gonna make a medical bag for the smaller one, and the bigger one will be for holding tools for the immediate future. Not truck related, but I also purchased a magnetic part bowl. Think it will be useful if I'm working on a project with alot of parts.

And right now, i'm converting a dolly to a creeper. Just have to cut some plywood and it will be ready!

Also recently, I got a tune up. My mileage has been decreasing from 15.94, to 14.9 to 13.9 the past three 23 days or so (avg of 23 days on a tank), so I had them replace the spark plugs, do the engine clean out (unsure of exact wording), and rotate the tires. One thing that I'm still a bit confused about is I had asked them to air the tires up a bit more than the recommended tire pressure for the cold weather. (I had a faulty tire gauge, where the pin was broken so I got a reading of 50 PSI every time, so I wanted the exact pressure) On the printout of the report of what had been done, nothing about the air pressure was on there, so I took it back into the service lane, and asked the tech there to check my air pressure with my gauge, and his gauge. My gauge got 50 of course, and his gauge got 35 or something.. I was thinking what the techs had done to my tires. The recommended tire pressure on the door is 26 PSI for both the front and tires. After the main tech consulted several others (of why someone would have overinflated them so much, someone noticed that I had 16 in rims. Thus making the door recommendation wrong. I guess the door is for 15 in rims? So that's why they decided to do 35 PSI. I will have to see if I get any better gas mileage.


Heres a video of before and after of the turn signal mod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CwBMmhN5jO0
Very impressed with it.
Thanks to my Uncle for helping out a ton!

There is a change in the brightness.

Here is the page I followed somewhat. http://www.lieblweb.com/blinkerconversion.html
Had to change the socket to a smaller socket, and soldered the ground to it. The original socket I bought was huge..
For the bulbs, I had to change from what I had originally gotten (the 1157s), the first 1157s I had bought were to big to fit into the light fixture.
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Battery cleaning

Here are the instructions to clean the battery. My Uncle recommended me to do it. I guess, eventually if the corrosion is bad enough, the battery wouldn't be able to start the engine up. Thanks to him for the instructions!


First step is to mix about a tablespoon of baking sodawith one or two cups of water and slowly pour it over the top of the battery posts. If there is corrosion or acid there it will start foaming immediately. The foaming will stop after the acid has been neutralized. Then you can remove the clamps and clean the posts and clamps really good. If you want to make that job easier, auto parts stores sell a very useful battery post/clamp cleaner. It’s a wire-bush type device that has two different parts. One has a round wire brush that fits inside the clamp and the other end has an o-shaped wire brush that slides over the posts. You simply rotate the tool to clean the parts. It works very well and is really the best way to do a good job without removing any of the lead on the post, which happens if you use something to scrape the posts clean. One word of advice, though; if you get that tool, rotate it in only one direction. The wires in the brush will sort of lay down as you rotate it and if you try to go back the other way, the ends of the wires simply want to dig into the post or clamp. You’ll know right away which way the wires lay as soon as you try to turn it. I think I always turn clockwise and I think that’s the way the brushes are made to work at the factory. Before you reattach the clamps to the posts, apply a thin coat of Vaseline to the parts to help prevent corrosion down the road. Don’t “double dip” in the Vaseline, though. I’d recommend putting a small amount (1/2 teaspoon should be plenty) on a piece of scrap paper or something and take that out to the truck. That way you don’t have to have a clean jar of Vaseline out by the truck where it could get contaminated.

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Will post some pictures up soon. There are some in my gallery I think also.
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Back again..
Bought quite a bit of stuff over Thanksgiving and taking advantage of those deals. Got a 220 piece craftsman for a great deal lets say.. Glad to have that.
Also got these two craftsman bags (10, 13 inch), and a magnetic bowl.
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And a floor mat from walmart. Working well so far!
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Storing some bandages, neosporin, band aids, jumper cables (10 inch bag), safety glasses which are very nice, some work gloves, chemical light, and a road map. I'll continue adding however.
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But present day, (today) I was at school, leaving the parking lot and I see a girl who looks quite stranded. She flagged me over, and her battery was dead so I offered my help. I learned that I wasn't entirely sure of how to jump start a car! I wasn't able to tell if the negative was grounded, but we eventually got it. Ended up calling my Uncle. Turns out the stalled car can attempt to start once you have the cables hooked up, (it doesn't have to be the working car, which I didn't know). There's my good deed for the week.

I'm going to order a sticky light, and a tatical flashlight from superbrightleds within a few days. I'll give ya some reviews on those.