Project "I'm in over my head"

It's good to be back. I took a brief break from the Toyota life and decided to get a 08 F250 Powerstroke. Horrible idea. I spent a bunch of money making it bigger and faster and then something always ended up breaking and it was usually really expensive to fix. Soooo I sold it and bought a 96 4x4 5 speed 3.4L. This is my 7th Toyota and my 5th Tacoma. This is the roughest one I've had but I think I can get what I want out of it.

My suspension plan is pretty simple, for now I want to replace all components. I'll do 5100's up front. AAL or possibly shackles in the back. It rides like crap and currently has a spacer lift and blocks in the rear AND a body lift. I just want to run some 33's and get it riding better.

Body wise it's rough. It was rattle canned. The front clip has probably been poorly replace because everything is kind of loose. Paint wise I would like to go grey or maybe plasti dip the whole thing a matte red color. It has some wagon wheel type wheels that I like and will end up keeping.

It has a flowmaster dual exhaust. I'm going to can that and go back stock. I think I'm going to tear out the carpet and bedline the floor. Eventually I would like to get the factory bucket seats wrapped in tan leather. I'll include some pics of how it sits now. Stay tuned I will be doing a little at a time.

 

subbed. Excited to see the outcome.

 

Subbed with this because I like popcorn, plus I wanna see what you do with this badboy. '95-'97 front clips look the most badass

 

I completely agree these are my favorite. I've had them all

 

Are those 33s, because I understood cutting and beating back the pinch points and moving rear axle to center to run them properly without damaging them when fully compressed. I think there is a thread on a Expedition West white double cab O4 running BFG 255/85/16

 

@CLL17P theyre 35's. I like running 35's but it has a body lift and spacers and blocks so all that is gonna come off and I'm gonna go back with 33's

 

This beast is in process lol. We have been struggling with upper control arms to set custom King bypass shocks; the coil-overs fit right in. We will be fabricating our own uppers. We installed a small block chevy V8 400 lol a month ago lol.

 

Alright so I'm gonna show y'all all the different things I'm working on resolving. Had some time today so I took a ton of pictures and made a list of stuff I need. So just giving you a heads up this post is pic heavy. Also the truck is parked for a while till I get the suspension issues squared away.

 

This bumper has gotta go

Gaps between hood/fenders/doors are all jacked up. So they're all getting replaced or "adjusted"



Armrests on door panels are expanding or something....gotta go


Hard to see in the picture but the mirrors are jacked up so I'm going to get some new ones

 

Something I'm not really sure on...there is a strange relay or something under the hood wired to a switch on the dash. No clue what it does but it is functioning and powered. I can hear a click coming from it when you flip the switch. I was told the truck has an aftermarket locker but the guy I bought the truck from didn't know much about it. Could this be related? Any ideas?

One of the wires coming out of the relay /box is just cut and hanging there. I have the battery disconnected just in case

 

Take a picture of the rear axle, i imagine your locker is factory and the clickin your hearing is a aftermarket alarm

 

I will when I get home. Do the 95-97 have factory lockers? There isn't the normal RR Diff switch just a cheapo light up toggle

 

Well I have no idea if those came with them or not I thought they did but it was rare or somthing?! But I dought that's a locker, if so you can find out from just looking at your rear axle and your front diff

 

Finally making some progress. Got the front end stripped

Still trying to decide if I want to go back with the regular 95-97 front end or go ahead and swap to 01-04.

I hate the body lift but I love the look of 35's on it. And the only time I'm off the road is driving in the field behind my house from time to time. The sole purpose of this truck is to drive 10 minutes to work and back everyday. Soooo I may keep the body lift for the time being

 

Hi Dillion, you could consider Fiberwerx conversion to 2011 tacoma fenders. Here is our build in progress on 91 pickup with referenced fenders. The coil-overs are temporarily placed until we fabricate upper control arms to support coil-overs and bypass shocks. We too like the 35s, although we removed them and installed snow tires lol, since we are in Steamboat Colorado.

 

@CLL17P that looks awesome but I'd say it's a tad out of my budget lol. Trying to keep this rebuild simple. I don't have a lot of tools or mechanical knowledge but I'm trying to do it all myself and keep the cost down

 

Salvage yards and pick up a cheap welder that works lol. All the best and practice patience

 

Wow you don't see a lot of pre 2000's 1st gens with power options. All the junkyards I've ever been to with 90's Tacomas were all manual windows/locks/mirrors.