Polishing a turd: Fixing up my $1,500 1998 Tacoma

I abandoned the driver side and worked on the passenger side today as it was closer to finishing.





From a distance, it's starting to look kind of normal! That green on the tailgate hasn't come completely off yet. The green has sunken down into several scratches, and I haven't finished taking it all off. But at least it's not neon anymore.

 

Very interested to watch you save this beauty. As another poster said, a noble endeavor indeed. Good on you for taking it on!

 

Also, if you run out of luck with Amazon and the junk yard, don't forget Rock Auto! They carry parts for old vehicles like this. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/toyota,1998,tacoma

I also like to use car-part.com It's kind of like a search engine for junk-yards. Not all of them use it, and I would definitely call ahead to confirm what you've found on there is actually in stock since they're not all good at updating their databases. But, it's better than driving all around town all day.

 

I see you put quite a bit of time into removing those stripes, here is some food for thought...

This would be a great candidate for raptor liner (or another bed liner if you prefer). Prep basically consists of just scratching the paint up a bit with a 3M red pad, masking off windows and rubber, and spraying it on, since it is textured you don’t have to worry about little imperfections or anything. It is VERY easy to work with, and SUPER forgiving. Really great stuff. I did my Bronco with it and it came out fantastic.

I reckon in the same amount of time you’ve put into removing the stripes and working on the paint you could have it all prepped, masked, and sprayed.

Thats my .02, and I’ll leave it there lol.

Ps. Here’s a picture of the bronco all done. And I did put a lot into the prep, but I also did EVERYTHING, inside, outside, interior, mirrors, bumpers, etc etc. Just doing your trucks exterior body would be a cakewalk.

 

You are definitely correct! I've spent way more time on getting the black and green paint off to get down to the original color than I would have thought it would have taken. At this point, I feel like I have to see it through instead of giving up and going a different direction, but I do kind of think it would have been better to just raptor line the darn thing to begin with. If I do decide to go that route, it'll be easier to find replacement fenders as it won't matter what color they are, and I won't need to worry about the hood chips as it'll fill in with the raptor liner.

As it currently stands, I'll probably try to pull out the dents in the fenders as best I can in the spring and drive it with the Evergreen color for now. I do intend to spray the bed at some point too, possibly this spring. When that happens, I may just decide to spray the whole thing. We'll see how I feel about it then.

Your Bronco came out great! That's a really good look!

 

That was going to be my suggestion, too. RockAuto is always good, and you can return the parts if they aren't correct. Not so sure about Amazon.

 

Fantastic to see this truck being "restored" from the previous owners... questionable taste.

 

If you end up replacing the nozzle, there is an upgrade available.

$20 2011-2013 Genuine Honda Odyssey Front Windshield Washer Nozzle 76810-TK8-A01

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LIRXIN0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_vbZt29Fmbz2wM

Fits like a glove and gives you a spray which is height adjustable.

 

Good on you for reviving this old truck. I'm about to pick up a 4cyl 5 speed 4x4 I think a 2001 or 2002 regular cab in a couple days for $1200. It apparently has a clunk in the rear axle and needs a lot of TLC but I'm hoping to clean it up and do like you are with yours. Good luck on future repairs!

 

Love the progress! Alot of time spent well!

 

I’ve picked up a few things at partsgeek.com like a replacement washer fluid reservoir

https://www.partsgeek.com/

 

I've used both partsgeek and rock auto before, but it seemed like most of these things were just cheaper on Amazon this time around. Sometimes by a lot, sometimes within a few bucks, but I remember loading my shopping cart on rock auto and loading my cart on amazon to see which came out better when I was doing the shocks and brakes, and amazon won, but I don't think it was by much.

The brake pads that they sent were for the wrong vehicle, but the seller overnighted me replacements when I pointed it out. Now I have an extra mystery set of brake pads as they didn't make me send the wrong ones back. I also ordered the wrong shocks at first, as I got the type for a 6 lug instead of 5 lug, so I had to return those. I've had good luck with returns on Amazon, so I wasn't worried ordering parts from them even though it seems weird that I can get brake pads from the same place that I get cat food and video games from!

 

A 4x4 for $1200 would be difficult to pass up, regardless of how loud the "clunk" is! Good luck, and I hope it's a cheap fix for you!

 

It was a little too cold for me to sit outside scraping paint off today, but I wanted to get a little more progress done. Something I've been trying is spraying down the paint with lacquer thinner and then driving to the car wash while it soaks. Spray it down again, and then pressure wash it off. I tried that today on the last bit of green stripe on the driver side fender and got most of it off. I took my plastic putty knife with me, and I'd rough up the edges and then power wash it until it didn't seem to be grabbing anymore, then rough up the edges again. It worked pretty well! I ended up spending $10 at the car wash, but I think I saved myself a couple hours of scraping work, so that seems like a fair trade.

From a distance, it's starting to look kind of normal on the driver side now. Still some work to do, but I'm pleased with the progress. I did notice some spots that seems like the clear coat is coming off on the driver side fender. With that massive dent, I kind of wanted to replace it anyway, but we'll see if I can find the right color at a u-pull-it yard within driving distance. I've been scouring through car-part.com but shipping is prohibitively expensive on something like that, and there are very few yards within 150 miles driving distance to me that have any Tacomas.

It was snowing when I took the pics, so some of those white streaks are just snow flakes. Although there is a little scuffing on the bed that looks white too, we'll see how well that comes out when I get to it.

 

Are you going to be replacing the taillights with factory ones? They don't match without the neon green tailgate!

 

Man, I remember Those Altezza tail lights used to be all the rage in the early 00’s!

 

I was actually looking for you on rock auto for that body panel, since that's the biggest and most obvious thing that's damaged. Not too bad of a price, especially if you're going to end up doing some kind of liner over the whole thing anyway and not color-matching.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...l+l4,1317613,body+&+lamp+assembly,fender,1380

I imagine you'll need some clips and such too.

 

nice work!

 

I think I'll just leave them. I don't have any strong feelings about them either way (stock vs. these aftermarket ones). My philosophy on this truck is to fix the things that bug me, and those tail lights don't bug me.

 

Wow, that's cheaper than I thought. I hadn't bothered to look at what a new fender costs because I didn't want to have to paint it. That's cheaper than many of the new fenders that I've seen. At that price, you've got me wondering how much it would cost to get someone to paint it green.