New guy,Taco Roofer

Let me first say that I have always loved Toyota's, even when it was warm enough not to! (Jk). I started with an '86 2wd drive pick up (maroon color) and drove the wheels off of that thing until a roll over at 110mph sent it to the grave.

My next love affair was with a sweet '83 4x4 pickup. Completely restored with a 6" lift, 35" tires, a gorgeous interior, complete with updated Tacoma seats and a modified 1st gen 4 runner canopy flawlessly mounted to the bed, made this beauty a real head turner! Those were the days... The single mans days that is haha! Once I got married to my wife who had kids already, I needed more than a two seat, mini monster truck to get everyone around in!

So along came the love of my life... a very clean 1989 4Runner. It was love at first sight! Mouse grey interior, stock form when i bought her, classic stripes that you very rarely see and a glove box with complete service records from the one owner before me and at $2700 cash, I new we were meant to be together! She got a few little mods here and there over the years. New tires and wheels, a great sound system, a 2" Roger Brown body lift and some other knick knack things to make her my perfect 4Runner but the two things I could never justify tackling were the thousands it would cost to get a bigger motor swapped in for more power and the thousands it would cost to get the A/C system to work again! She was a great rig but she would never be able to match the comforts of a modern truck.

If you hadn't guessed from my user name, I'm a roofer. I've been in the roofing industry in one way or another for almost 25 years now. So when a guy gets off work and it's been 120 degrees on a roof, the last thing you want to do is crawl into a 100 degree 4Runner and start the 45min drive home in the summer time lol!

So I sold the old girl and with some money I had saved up and the sale of the 4Runner I had enough to get into a 2010 Tacoma or older. I already had my mind made up of course! My mom has owned a gorgeous 2002 double cab since it was new and I loved the style, size and power that It had to offer. I knew my rig was going to be a 1st gen but just in case, I did barrow and drive my bosses 2nd gen Tacoma for almost 2 weeks before i made my purchase.

I drove almost 6 hours to pick up my 2004, 4dr, 4x4, trd Tacoma. She was a little ugly at first glance but had the makings for a sweet ride. She had just turned 143,000 miles, had a nice Leer canopy and everything seemed pretty clean. The motor was strong and suspension was sagging so I new it was good to go!

So far on the truck I have just driven it and worked out the little maintanece things that had been let go over the years. I got her back to running really well and reliably and have recently started in on the fun mods! Last weekend she got a full OME suspension! 882 springs with and ad-a-leaf in the rear. The rest was finished off with new shackles and bushings all around, JBA uca's in the front along with a diff drop and a carrier bearing drop for the driveline. Better safe than sorry I would think.

Anyways, what a long read right?! A little long winded I suppose but I have been using Tacoma World for a long time as a place to reference things and figured it was time to join up and give back at some point!

A few pictures also...
My old 4Runner

The Tacoma with black wheels when i bought it.

The Tacoma with stock alloy wheels!

Some random wheeling pic lol.

And a recent pic with the new suspension installed. ( I got about 5+ inches lift from the old worn out suspension)

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome aboard

 

Thank you for the warm welcome folks!

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks! I see your from Southern Oregon also... sweet!

 

Yep, there are a few of us on here!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wheeling-spots-in-southern-oregon.627601/

 

Sweet! Thanks for the link!

As you know, it's raining right now so tomorrow will definitely be a go play in the mud day haha!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Beautiful rig! Of course, I am a little biased.

 

Nice truck man! Gotta love those tighty whities!

 

Welcome to TW!