New to me — 1998 Tacoma

I went and looked at the Tacoma this guy had for sale. I’m now on the big island of Hawaii. MOST pickups will see here in a matter of a few days, no matter what brand. But Toyota and Ford Rangers are almost impossible to fine here that are priced reasonable. An example, there are a few pre-Tacoma Toyota trucks priced between $5,000 and $7,000. There have not been too many first gen’s for sale at all. Older 2nd gen’s are going to start above $10,000 upto $15,000. And then you have the 3rd gen’s all over the place and sellers are asking $35,000 plus. Pickup’s here are just in demand.

So I found a 1998, pretty much stock and needs a little work here and there on the body and some upholstery repair inside. Mechanically, the truck runs perfectly. I drove it a little over 50 miles today and it just purrs down the road, shifting great, etc, etc. everything works except the windshield washer tank is missing. All lights, buzzers, horn, stereo, work fine. The only issue other than the windshield washer is the driver side key hole will not lock the doors, neither of them. But the passenger key hole will lock the passenger door only.

This is my 8th or 9th Toyota truck or 4Runner. I bought it to play around with. But I still like to play with nice looking toys so the carbon fiber color hood has got to go along with that grille. So I’ll be checking out this 1st gen section of this forum for ideas. I’ll get a few pics up ASAP. Have a good night guys and gals. Any suggestions or comments are welcomed.

 

Congrats...cant wait to see pics! Sounds like a lucky find with a few easy fixes.

What a great feeling !

 

full 01-04 front end swap. it is a 98 looking at interior though

 

I wasn’t sure about the front end. It was in an accident and the seller told me it was not original front. I definitely want to change the grille. Upholstery is worn at the typical drivers side. A good cleaning and some cool seat covers will fix that. Over the next few days I’ll have more time to go over things in more detail. The seller had done a lot mechanically including new timing belt, water pump, thermostat to name a few. I think he just ran out of money and lost interest. Gives me something to look forward to. It’s definitely not going to a mall crawler!