The 95-97 Taco Thread

Thanks TacomaBROss

 

i painted my wheel wells and chassis with black undercoating in a rattle can

 

Anyone here know how to save a video from youtube to your computer?

 

You guys shouldve came to the tw glamis meet! It was badass!

 

Download Realplayer. It will allow you to download and convert it to whatever

 

Thanks

 

Plasti-Derped my wheels!


Tie rods!


Devil Horned Skid Plate!


Mudding pics from last week!






And the first picture with my new camera!

 

I almost did that to my wheels instead of the full black. Looks good!

 

i love the look! its just a pain in the ass to remove the masking tape so if you look at them closely they look a little messed up because the Plasti-Derp bridges to the masking ;'(

But when i do my lift i am going to have them powdercoated like that

 

If I am misunderstanding your point, then please, let me know, but it seems like you are saying that shops are trying to rip you off. Yes, it may have cost you only $75. Does that include you getting and maintaining your tool set? How about an alignment afterwards? (I don't know of a single customer who would find it acceptable for a shop to replace their tie rods and NOT align the steering) What about your time? 4.5 hours of YOUR time may not be that big of a deal when planning the work on your own vehicle. The job itself calls for 1.8 hours (yes, some people can do it faster, but the labor time guides are an average listing of labor time to complete the work) This 1.8 hours will set the base for your labor charges. Some shops in larger towns charge as much as $100 or more per hour of labor. This would equate to $180. Parts are another question. Did you purchase lifetime warranty quality parts? I have no idea. Personally I only use Moog steering components as their quality and warranty are second to none. Parts prices also vary based on location. A set of Moog inner tie rods list for $103.06 each. Here at my shop, for a Tacoma of your year, I sell them for $82.98 each. Expensive? not really considering I am much below list price. Now here is the kicker. If your self-installed part fails, you obviously know that you will have to replace it, even if the warranty covers the part. This means another potential 4.5 hours of your time. Here in my shop, if the parts fail, you drop off your truck and go on your way, while I replace them, no charge to you.
Maybe I am just misunderstanding what you have been saying about the cost, but in all honesty, do you really expect a shop to replace your inner and outer tie rods for $75? If so, then you have no idea what it takes to run a shop. We have overhead and employees to pay. I don't know what you do for a living, but think about it. Would you do your job for someone at the same cost it would be for them to do it themselves? I doubt it.

 

I payed 100$ in parts, including all 4 tie rods, and boots for them.

Falcon and Moog tie rods are the exact same thing, just different boxes. They are made in the same factory and stored in the same warehouse, just put in different boxes.

I have over 60,000$ worth the tools in my garage, all Craftsman and Mac.

So then if you figure in a 50$ camber/alignment from Hunter that is only 150$ spent towards replacing ALL of my tie rods, where as goodyear and les schwabs wanted 415$ to do it.

I understand that shops need to make money, i understand the cost of labor is high. I am not saying they are a "rip off" in any way. I am just saying, why would i pay 415$ for someone else to replace the part when i could do it my self for a fraction of the cost?

Also, i know exactly what was done to my truck when i do the work myself. There are always going to be consequences with doing it yourself. Where as when i had goodyear look at it the removed the inner tie rod from the rack and pinion and when i said i needed to do some checking they put it back together. That was fine with me, BUT they decided to only tighten the tie rod about half way back in. If i would have chosen to go drive around i could have easily damaged my truck beyond 415$ worth the damage. It is careless rush like that that makes me want to do my own work.

415$ is not a bad price if you don't know what you're doing but for someone like me who is highly mechanically inclined i would rather do it my self and know exactly whats has been done and how.

I did not have to buy tools for this job, I used a 200$ Snap-on air gun to remove the castle nuts, a 100$ set of snap-on sockets, a 25$ craftsman pipe wrench, a 20$ pocket knife, a 5$ flat head screwdriver, and 2 10$ cresent wrenches. If you were on a budget you could use a 10$ set of sockets, a 8$ set of metric wrenches, a 10$ rachet, and a 5$ pipe wrench.

370$ worth my tools
33$ cheap tools

370+100+50 (Tools)(parts)(alignment)
OR
415(total shop cost)
OR
33+100+50 (Tools)(pasts)(alignment)


520$ (my total cost with tools, parts, alignment)
Or
415$ (shop cost)
Or
183$ (cheap tools, parts, alignment)

People who can do it would obviously choose to buy cheap tools, people like me with the tools will do it themselves, people who cant do it or dont have time will choose a shop.

 

I was disappointed by this, you deserve a quality knife sir.

 

Tucked the wheels. But also grinded my gears

 

HAhahahaha, I live by OLD-TIMER knifes and the occasional smith and wesson. My skinning knifes are where it gets very expensive

 

I was disapointed by this, you deserve bullet proof syncros

 

Haha that's not quite how it happened, I have an automajic trans.
I lifted a tire off the ground and was spinning, I must of been just barely touching the brakes when I was going from drive to reverse and my tire was still spinning.

 

Da faq??

what your point??? i don't get it..he simply took advantage of having the ability and tools to do it himself..

there is NOTHING wrong with that. Look at me..i swap an entire body onto my truck..total cost? under a grand. At a shop? id hate to know. Yes it did take a long time and was not easy. But i had the ability, tools and above all, help from friends.

And yes, if a friend buys parts, ill install them or help at least. There is nothing wrong with taking a nice saturday afternoon hanging with friends working on a car. IDGAF if it take 4x as long. We will learn something and have a good time doing it. Will i get paid?? no. Maybe a little bit..or a future favor, or even a batch of cookies. I don't care. Thats not what its about.

You obviously don't seem to have the knowledge or funding to have your own garage or confidence to turn some bolts. Thats okay too. Thats why there are mechanics out there. But ill have your know, and i have worked in a few shops so i know, that they are just reading instructions too. Out of books..so..really..they are just doing the same thing..just charging you 80-130 bucks an hour for it..

So, in short..shut the hell up. Some of us enjoy wrenching on our own rigs and take pride in the fact that WE built it..not someone for us. And we save money in the long run. That whole post was a waste of yours and everyone else's life.

 

haha! i have done that

well..wasn't me..but in my old ass 86 with a 3 speed auto + overdrive. Had a bunch of friends in the truck and one of them decided to shift for me I told him to knock it off and just put it back in drive, so my cousin leaned over and was like, how many click forward? My buddy said 2..yea..she over shot past D and N and went into R..at 20mph that..was scarey..myself and friend reacted super fast and he knocked it in to nuetral but i also kneed my key off(hard to imagine..but it have a bullet for a "keychain"..so it was easy to do..) which turned off my truck..i though it had died ..then realized it was just off lol started up and drove no problem! yay toyota..

talk about a stupid high school story..

 

Uhhh Monte... He works at a mechanics shop. Im sure he know what hes doing or talking about. Dont jump on his ass to quickly.

And i also understand the costs of a mechanic shop. We use to do auto service at our shop and i had to order and help install on jobs. Running a shop is pretty hard.

 

ahh mustve missed that..


still. No need to jump on peoples ass about DIY shit either. Sometimes it is the best option..

But yea, i would never want to run a shop. Keeping up with financial part of it would suck.