New to Tacoma World

Hey Guys - Been following all your builds over the years and loving all the tips and tricks. I've been coming here for info since I bought my 08 Regular Cab in 2013.

I hit some black ice over the winter avoiding a lady stopped in the middle of road for no reason and smacked a telephone pole.

Here's a pic of the old girl, my 2.7L Reg Cab. I loved this truck, so I bought it back from my insurance company when they totaled it out.


And here's what the telephone pole did. Current it still is sitting in this state, but I have plans to go SAS and rebuild it to her former glory. Rock crawler ftw.

Yikes.

So I decided to go and find my perfect dream truck, a 1st Gen Tacoma Access Cab. I found one in Cape Cod that had be previously owned by a Toyota Tech. Somewhere out by Falmouth, MA. He took fantastic care of the Truck, and it had recently had it's frame replaced. For the price it was a no brainer!

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I have been looking at the Overland Style that's popular now, and it's always appealed to me so I began my build in the practical sense. I started with finding a cap, which I found on craiglist off some guy in Boston. For a Buck and a Half it was a steal.


Immediately I had it color matched. I did some research and went with Maaco. A lot of people have had problems with them and I can understand why. But I was lucky, as the painter must have gotten laid before painting my cap, because it came out Tits.


With the help of my buddy we installed it in the parking lot.


I stopped at Home Depot on the way home, and grabbed enough framing lumber to build a shed and started designing my platform. I used GoogleSketch, which is a great 3D Modeling Software. They actually have a 1st Gen Tacoma on there for a free model, and it is exactly to spec.


I will be updating the build of the platform this week, as my phone died and I didn't get many shots of the process, but it has storage cut outs, two 24" Drawers and all sorts of pockets and organization. I carpeted it completely and will be adding a mattress pad to the top platform for camping. Adds roughly 175lbs of weight to the bed (with 0 supplies...), so I'll be adding a helper spring when I do my lift and tires!

I hope you enjoy this, as I enjoyed building it so far and I am loving my truck. The 3.4's have just enough power to get out of their own way. I don't feel the cap or the platform at all behind me, but noticed about 1mpg drop on my average. If I remove the rack, poof back to 18 mpg.

Thank's for reading!

 

Nice looking 1st gen! Welcome! And yeah, following the builds is what reeled me in too lol

 

Thanks Brother! I seriously learned so much from everyone else, I should reference them in my foot notes. Haha I am a big fan of @RSB Overland Build, just wish I had the Sheckles to get it all done right away. I guess all will be good in time.

 

Welcome to TW! Digging the build so far. Just wondering, are you gonna color match the front bumper too? Looks like it's from a white Tacoma.

 

Yes! I spotted this right away when I bought the truck. It is tough to tell but it's actually silver. I already have swapped out the chrome grill for a Black OEM Grill. It pops out much more now that the Black Grill is installed. This week I am installing a light bar on the crash bar behind the Lower Valence of the bumper, and will be stripping and painting the bumper myself. I got my first air gun last month and have been painting random shit my girlfriend owns as practice.

Her dog looks fantastic in Radiant Red.

LMAO. No but for real I wanted to practice a bit before I painted anything on this truck. I have seen too many rattle can jobs to want this kind of sloppiness on my truck.

 

nice find on the first gen, I'm currently searching for one for myself to go along with my 08 and hope I can find one as nice as yours.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Thanks Dude! Yea I couldn't believe it when I found it, I looked at around 20 or so Trucks over 4 months before pulling the Trigger. We have a lot of snow and ice up here from December through March so it is a Truck heavy area of the country. Lots of bad , some good, and no perfect. But who want's perfect? Lol. What reeled me in, was that every time the tech took the truck to his work on his free time he logged the visits in the service records. So I have everything that's ever been replaced or worked on since it came off the factory line...That's impressive!

 

Thank's brother! I have been reading as a guest for many years now but wanted to actually converse with you guys!

 

don's see service records like that often, nice to have. My search has turned up a few prospects but I really want a red access cab and not a double cab which seems to be the only ones coming up but I am being patient as I do have my 08 Tacoma to keep spending money on.

 

When I asked for the car fax the guy laughed...and handed me over a stack of papers that looked like I just applied for a Student loan. LMAO. It was so nice to see what was done and when, so I can continue the preventative maintenance and not worry if certain things had been done or not. Finding a 1st Gen at a Dealer is hard enough. They still stand by the Truck when you do.3

I like the DC's but the short bed doesn't work for me. I do a lot of fishing/hunting and overall outdoorsin' so I need plenty of room for my gear. My saltwater rigs are 10 feet long...But with the cap they fight snuggly through the rear glass. One of the main reasons I went with a access cab!

I LOVE MY 08! It's so good on gas and so reliable. I can't say which I prefer better, but I'm honestly leaning towards my 1st gen.

 

So I finished the camping platform last night before the rain came. I was hurrying big time, as I didn't want the fresh carpet to get soaked.
Came out awesome, imo.


It's ready to get loaded up with my camp supplies and a mattress. I'm driving deep into the woods this weekend and staying all three days in it.
I'll be rescreening the sliding windows before I do, but it's been 100% weather sealed!

 

Looks awesome! I have a red taco I'm doing almost the exact thing to it! Got the extra long Yakima bars too! Dig the sleeping platform! Do u happen to have the google sketch-up file still and would u mind sharing?!

 

Lurv it!

 

Red is beautiful.

 

Nice Box

 

Nice looking truck! How much did Maaco charge to color match the topper?

 

I am also interested in this. truck looks great though