Purchasing a 1999 TRD Off-Road

Hello. My names John. I’m purchasing a 1999 TRD Off-Road SR5 4X4 with 220k miles from a close friend. He built it to to drive from Los Angeles to Tierra Del Fuego and then up through Brazil. He ended up getting married and have kids and eventually moved on from it. Most of the 220k are freeway miles, but It's basically fully built and ready to roll. List of mods…

TRD Supercharger, headers, Cold air intake, MagnaFlow exhaust, ARB front bumper, Kennesaw Mtn rear w/ tire mnt, OME suspension with beefed up rear springs with 2 1/2” lift, 285/75/16 tires, Shell, Contractors rack, Road shower and 120v inverter in cab. I’m uncertain if the brakes were upgraded. My buddy’s super busy on a job and I’m trying not to bug him too much about the specifics of a few things before I meet with him Monday. It’s a truck I’ve driven a few times and been around for 8 years, so I’m pretty familiar with it, but some of the details aren’t registering.

My plans are to do long camping trips… I guess it’s called “Overlanding” now. I own property at Cerritos beach, just north of Cabo and will be doing the drive from LA to there as well. The only thing that I can think of it needing, is a winch and possibly a recovery kit. To be honest, it might come with tow straps bull pricks and whatnot, but I won’t know until I pick it up Monday. I’ve been looking at the various options out there for winches and it looks like the Engo rated for 9k is a good buy. There’s obviously far more expensive ones out there, but it’s hard to justify paying $500 more for a “Keeper”, or any other higher end system. Mechanically the truck is in great condition, but aesthetically it’s lacking a bit. The shell needs love and has paint flaking off. I don’t want to repaint the whole truck and I’m uncertain to my route, but I definitely want to make her look a little prettier while in the city. lol. It will be my daily driver.

It’s currently at the mechanic getting fluids changed and looked over before I take ownership. Pretty stoked to finally get a Tacoma. My only other small truck was a Dakota. I was always jealous of the Taco crowd, but I finally have a seat at the table and looking forward to seeing how much fun I can have with it!

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Thank you!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome!

That's a social media term IMHO. Long camping trip works just fine.

check out www.monstaliner.com and you should find a budget friendly solution for your shell

 

I appreciate it! I don’t know the condition of the interior bed lining yet. I’ll look into the roll on bed liner more after I pick the truck up. After a Quick Look, it was definitely a great price and solution. I was referring to the exterior paint though. It currently matches the truck paint and I don’t want to do a full repaint to the truck to match the new paint on the shell. My plan at the moment is to paint the shell satin black and then respray the fender flares, bumpers, roof rack and rims to match. Pictures would help. I only one that I took 5 years ago when I borrowed it and one of the rear. I’ll post more pics after I pick it up.

 

Use the monstaliner on the shell. Some folks have done the whole vehicle. It's not just a 'bed liner' and it's a better product than the Home Depot grade products. Comes in colors as well, but certainly would be good for all your black components.

Look deeper on their site and you'll see lots of examples of vehicles done with it.

 

Oh nice! I’ll look into it now. Thank you again.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/finished-monstaliner-install-on-entire-02-tacoma.373110/

an old sample. There are similar threads around.

 

It’s looks great. I took a look at their Gallery and was pretty impressed with the variety of and quality of colors.

 

I just spoke my friend and he did not upgrade the brakes. I’ve read quite a bit on the Tundra swap and it seems like a good idea, considering the added weight to the truck with the various modifications. I’ll start shopping for and researching kits with the larger 231mm calipers. I’m going to drive it a bit around town and go on a quick weekend camping trip with a little terrain before pulling the trigger and go from there.