Old Gray

After a lot of procrastination, I figured it was time for me to start a build thread for my 03. I have been working on various projects and just finished up my roof rack last week. I'll link to those threads, I really don't want to write everything over again, but I'll repeat a few things. I bought my Dad's 03 Silver Extra Cab V6 5speed TRD last year when my ride at the time took a dump. Dad bought the truck new with 10 miles on the odometer and I pretty much grew up in the very uncomfortable jump seat. I wasn't super psyched about buying the truck at the time, it was more out of necessity and financial sense, but it quickly grew on me and I realized just how great of a machine it is. Needless to say, I'm trying to do everything my Dad never got to do to it and what I want to do to it. So far it's going quite well and I consider buying the truck one of the smartest decisions I've made. I will never let it go and I like to think I'll have the truck forever. With that said, down the road, years from now, a frame replacement is in the cards, we lived in PA for a few years and even with Toyota's half assed coating, it still has superficial rust and potentially more than that, but it's solid for the next decade.

I'm an aerospace engineering student and I also help run my university's machine shop. With that said, I'm excellent with my hands, I can wrench great and pretty much make whatever I want. However, my limiting factor is time. I don't have a ton of it, so building will take time, more than I would like, but I'm looking forward to all that will go into it. I'm also stuck balancing a college kid's budget with two jobs, so I'm not doing anything too extreme, I'm also in North Alabama, so while I have road trips to my home state of California on my list of things to do, my normal wheeling is never anything over the top. Old gray is also my daily and will be for the foreseeable future, so, again, nothing too extreme. For the past year, I have been marred with making repairs or tune-ups to her, plugs, wires, window regulator, clutch, timing belt, water pump, fixing rusty wheel well and bedliner, new belts, O2 sensor, tires and I'm sure a few more I'm forgetting. It all added up and this is the first time I've started being able to have the freedom to make improvements to it.

Next on my current list of mods is 881s and nitro chargers on the front. I've had a blown C/V boot on the drivers side since Christmas and I have been slowly accumulating parts to replace the whole front suspension. I'm replacing bearings, UCAs, LCAs, ball joints, C/Vs, outer tie rods, bushings, and obviously the coils and shocks. I like to think I can have the front done within the next 2-3 weeks. I have to take finals next week, weld a friends Mustang back together and I have a few job interviews to take care of, so when I get four days, the friend who's mustang is getting frankensteined back together and my old man will be helping me put it all together. I'll be doing the back with Dakars and probably Bilstein 5125s in a month or so, after school and when I have more money and time. I opted to go for the 5125s to save money, I'm not the biggest fan of mixing and matching, but I wanted a decent ride up front, so I decided to pair OME with OME and I don't care particularly much about the back, so I'm pairing just to save some coin.

So, what I've done so far:
- Satoshi Grille
- Skid Plate
- LED Interior Dash Conversion
- New Headlights
- Bedliner
- Roof Rack
- Painted Shell
- Light Bar
- Seat Covers/Floor Mats
- WeatherTech Deflector/Vent Visors
- Tint (Dad did this about 4 months before I bought the truck)
- Bedlined kick panels (Dad did this one close to 10 years ago and it still looks great, time permitting, I may redcoat it, but I'm cool with how it looks now)

List of things to do:
- Re-bedline fender flares, used rustoleum and that didn't last long, gonna try Herculiner and see how that works. Pretty tired of the the girlfriend saying a bear attacked my pickup
- Suspension Repair/Replacement (OME 881/Nitrochargers, Dakars/Billy 5125s)
- On Board Air
- ARB Bumper and Winch
- Sliders (I'll probably just weld my own up in the Fall)
- Rear Tube Bumper (If I don't find one I like for a price I like, I'll do it myself)
- LED Headlights
- New Wheels, maybe FJ Trail Teams or 3rd Gen SR5, haven't really looked, but haven't seen many that have caught my eye.

My list of to-dos isn't extensive, like I said it'll be slow and on a budget, so I'm not trying to get in over my head, but that's everything I would like to do in the next 18-24 months.

Here's how she sat before I painted the shell and built my rack, which is basically what she looked like when I bought her. Or I guess I could say it looked like every other silver first gen haha.


And how she sat as of last Friday! Lights aren't hooked up by the way, waiting till after finals to tackle that one.


Here's my two other threads with a bit more of my documentation of what all I've been putting into it:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/camper-roof-rack.541617/page-2
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/long-time-looker-first-time-poster.541210/

These two have more pictures of what I've been up to too, I don't normally think about taking pictures until after I'm down, but I'm hoping to change that.

Anyhow thanks for reading!

 

Haven’t updated in forever, so here I go. I’ve been very reductive emptying my wallet... I’ve accomplished a full suspension replacement including:
LBJ
UBJ
LCAs
UCAs
Bump Stops
Tie rod ends
CVs
Brake Pads
OME 881/Nitrochargers
Dakar Leaves
Bilstein 5125s
Extended Brake Line

And an assortment of other parts. The ride is incredibly good now and the steering is immensely improved. I could not be happier with it.

I’ve also Herculined my fender flares, they look great and I love them. They have held up extremely well. Also hooked up all the lights on my rack-finally. I also spiced up my TRD bedsides a little bit as well. Needless to say, I’ve been busy.

I haven’t gotten to do much wheeling and I’m not entirely sure how much I’ll get into this Fall, but I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do now. I’m hoping at some point to go for quite a bit of a wheeling trip, maybe the Outter Banks for a week, but that all depends on school. Hopefully more soon!