Rebuild/upgrade my 95 Taco

Well let me start with some history on the truck, 2013 my dad wanted another Tacoma (he put his through hell as a kid) he started looking around on craigslist in Arizona for a clean truck. Bingo, 1995 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 2.7L 5speed with 180,000 miles. He had a buddy of his check the truck out and put a deposit on it. He flew down and drove the truck all the way home to central Michigan. Now something about this truck he learned on the way home , the first night it dropped down to 45 degrees. He fired her up and started down the road, well when he hit about 50mph the truck starts screaming from the dash and continues for a few miles until it cuts out. Still does it to this day but only when its cold out. So he gets her home and immediately gets her into ziebart to get rustroofed, he had a friend/mechanic install a 3" suspension lift all around with blocks in back and got some 31s to throw under her. So he's got his truck now and she made some treks, back and forth to Arizona on hunting trips 6 times one of those trips being his elk hunt and that was a true test of that truck and she pulled through like a champ not only on the rough ass roads everyone else was driving side by sides on but also hauling a trailer with all of our gear a generator and a chest freezer full of elk meat, to south Dakota for a pronghorn hunt where she broke a leaf spring from ramping cattle guards , and he used it for baiting and hunting bear in the upper peninsula driving 8 hours up there every weekend.
She now sits just shy of 350,000 and shes still chugging along
Now my dad gifted me this truck just last year but I've been driving it for 3 and damnit I can't not hit deer with her. I think I hit 7 deer in a year and a half and fucked the front end up every time. I'm sick of it so I decided to spend the money on this I bought a new grill to replace the busted up chrome grill and side markers to match to give the front end of the truck a different look.
Those I bought on Amazon. Now I personally have very little mechanical knowledge but ive been fortunate to have friends that know enough lol. I eventually will purchase this suspension kit sooner rather than later I'm going to go back up to a 31x10.5 as my dad downsized to a 30x9.5 and go with the cooper discover Stt/pro
I'm having to work on it little by little after work and on the weekends so my progress is slow but I just got a new radiator put in her first of the week by my local shop and had them leave the chrome grill right off. cool thing is my buddy works at the shop so we kept the truck in after hours and got my turn signals moved into my running lights, the new grill fitted and got the lower black part of the front bumper ripped off since it was flopping anyway. I don't have many pictures of the truck before hand but I will post what I can come up with and start posting the progress. Thanks for reading and let's see how this goes
Also wanted to throw in a giant thank you to my mom that I lost last summer, I'd sell the truck yesterday just to have her back but because of her prep through her life it is allowing me to do this build. She spent the last few years always sending me pictures of Tacoma's for sale around her because she knew how bad I wanted one, so this one goes out to you mom I'm gonna make the truck you always wanted me to have.
This was fall of 2017 when I drove to new mexico

This is how she sits minus the chrome grill and such

 

I'm in!

 

I'm also going to do some cosmetic repairs interior, ordered a new faceplate for her

Ft. a picture of my ma that always stays in the truck

 

Slow going but progress, got the new holes drilled in my mounting plate so that my Smittybilt 2.0 fits. Heads up to anyone with this combination, it won't fit without new holes lol. Now its time to start scuffing and priming. I have my emblem and the metal accent pieces under the headlights drying currently.

 

Got my emblem and metal accent pieces painted and installed, first time I've ever rattlecanned something and it looks decent but they are small and it seems hard to mess that up lol

 

Appearantly the piece I order is no longer in production so gorilla tape to hold my hazard button in place it is
I've been wanting to tint this truck for a while now and I finally got around to it. 200$ and the place did me a good job.

 

are you going to check salvage yards nationwide for that cracked piece? maybe its out there somewhere in good or great condition

 

I dont know of any close by but next time I'm out west I might make an effort to try to find one.

 

@GQ7227 were you referring to carbon fiber to protect the hood?

 

Car-part.Com may have the bezel listed. On the positive side of hitting those deer, at least your freezer is full!

 

Not so much lol car hit deer are a mess to clean and usually leave a lot of blood in the meat. trust me I shoot plenty come deer season
I'll check that site out though see what I find. the Toyota dealership said there was about 100 orders since august and nobody has their money or part yet so I said give me 130$ Back lol

 

Have you ordered anything off that site? How does it work? I'd really like to get a new driver seat as well

 

Got this little guy taken care of

 

I haven't ordered directly from it but use it to find salvage yards in Denver and then go pick it up. I imagine youd have to contact the salvage yard and they would ship it.

I've had 2 roadkill deer and a moose that was hit by a bus. Id say 85% of the meat was in perfect shape.

 

I guess it depends where and how you hit them lol and cops can be dicks about it. Not allowed to kill that wounded deer, I've heard of people getting fat tickets for shooting the states deer that just destroyed their vehicle.

 

Cops around here seem to prefer you do it so they don't have to lol. You do need to get a free roadkill permit though.

 

i ordered some OEM alloy wheels from a totaled in Idaho recently, they were beatup with scratches and whatnot, but going to use them as winter wheels
new OEMs are 400 a piece so these were a better option lol

 

hood protector/bug deflector shield like i have on mine
this pic is with aftermarket one because bodyshop not able to find OEM replacement that I had since new at the time.
thanks to 1997tacomav6 was able to locate the original fit just right in CO with Toyota stamp onit ... and it cost nearly the same as the aftermarket one!
if you don't like the look of a hood protector I think there are some sort of film you can apply but those might be permanently adhered ?

 

how would I find a fuel tank skid/lower shield from a yard in Denver area through that site? do i need to also buy the tank to get just the skid
i did a search but WAY too much info to sort through

OP, if you find something large (like a seat) or for me a fuel tank skid, we can possibly utilize the TW express to transport it
those wheels I got were cheap but shipping was not, but it was quite a distance from Idaho

 

If you find an answer to those questions I would love to know. the local salvage yard told me they don't deal with small stuff and neither of the trucks had driver seats anyway lol