Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Awesome. Gotta go try that…

 

Yes, at the end

 

and It work's !!!!

 

That's an amazing transformation!

Clear coat repair on anything is a whole other level of repairing.

 

They look amazing!
Something so cool and unique they should be displayed, people will stop and admire.

About how old?

 

No clear coat. Sand from 120 grit to 5000 grit. Ball polish and buff.

 

Good Sunday morning Wrenchmen

Yesterday we went downstate to visit some of Mrs Greens family, 375 more miles, the old van turned 186,000 along the way. This has been a good few weeks, about 3200 miles.

We got home around 10:30, I sat down in the chair & one of the cats jumped up - woke up at 3:45 , he was still out.

 

Hard to say. No build dates… poss. 10 years.

 

The Tacoma is kind of the Swiss Army knife of trucks, it does a lot of things but not especially well...

The car is over 4000 and the trailer another 1500, between the spare parts included in the sale, all the towing & tie down gear and my chunky self it is probably at max GVW.

Going down the highway at 70 in 4th gear is 3400 rpm, the engine is well into the power band there so going across flat states like western NY, Ohio and Indiana is fairly easy driving.

I have an excellent WDH and enough experience positioning the car, adjusting the hitch & truck rear tire pressure that after a few miles and adjustments it drives smooth and stable with no front to back see-saw or (deadly) trailer sway. The RedArc brake controller works so smoothly you aren't aware it is really there, the brakes just work as expected. So far so good.

When your tow weight exceeds your truck weight one has to be on your game 100% of the drive, a wrong move can have the trailer suddenly having much more leverage than the truck can control. A good setup makes for easy driving however it is still stressful, my old F-250 that curbed at 6600 pounds felt steady as a locomotive under the worst conditions, the Tacoma is much more work.


The elephant in the room however is the engine - hauling across those flat states has been a breeze, almost all at 70 mph just buzzing along and pay no mind to the fuel consumption.
This car however was in Va...

Take a look at a PA state map, all the north - south roads aren't straight, they go diagonally across the state from northeast to southwest bacause of the mountains - they aren't straight, flat or all interstate.
This was a fairly miserable drive, climbing some of the hills in third gear even on interstate sections.

There just isn't enough power where you need it for that kind of driving - remember this engine has the off idle torque of a riding lawnmower.

My one "advantage" is that cars are fairly areodynamic -- I can't imagine pulling a travel coach of similar weight with this truck, the drag alone would be like pulling a parachute and a strong cross wind could quickly become very exciting.

TLDR version: I'd rather get 2 cars in Indiana rather than another one that I have to go south across PA.

 

I'm surprised, the style had me thinking 1970's. Very cool!