UnderFire's Tacoma Build 2.0 "Double Trouble"

So, this isn't my first Tacoma, hence the title. It all started with a beater 97 single cab that i bought from the original owner and brought back from the grave, only to be promptly put back, thanks to my brother and a tree.

Fast forward six months browsing through Facebook marketplace looking for parts for another project we're working on when the listing popped up. Worst picture, description and title ever. Just said 2002 Tacoma TRD - 3500$. In the picture you could only see the front clip and top of the roof poking out from behind another truck.

But, you could just barely see the opening for the back doors. I saw the listing 3 minutes after it came up. I was still the 4th person to message them... Fast forward another few days and im waking up a bit groggy eyed and I get a message back, they give me a phone number, first 5 people to respond got the message. I called immediately and luckily had cash in hand. Rushed off an hour away with no plan of how to even get it home. I beat the other 4 people. The seller said at that point, over 500 messages were sent on it.

So that's how I won the Toyota lottery, and ended up with a truck I never knew I wanted. Here's the rundown.

2002 Tacoma Double Cab in Millennium Silver
3.4, Auto of Course. 4x4, with an Elocker.
TRD and Limited packages.
Every option except the leather and sunroof.
251k on the clock, runs absolutely flawlessly. Bought it from the second owner, they'd had it since 70k.
Completely bone stock apart from the bed. Cover and Nerf bars.
Amazing condition inside and out given the age.
Full dealership maintenance history to boot. Tons of new OEM parts in the last 2 years.

 

Being the Toyota nut I am, I feel in love with the truck, therefore I wasted no time getting on with the modifications. Witihin 2 weeks I'd already found a set of retrofits locally for a steal (170$), robbed the roof rack off my other car, got a fresh eBay lightbar onto the slag factory mounts from the old taco, and picked up a rhino rack platform to top it off.



Wasn't done yet though, within the following 2 weeks I installed a K&N FIPK I had laying around that I'd traded a stock intake for years ago. Also somehow managed to find a set of Tundra 5100's on eBay for 80$ and already had them assembled with some 2nd gen TRD coils and extra parts laying around. And to finish off the first month of ownership had picked up 2 sets of 315/70R17 Duratracs to make a good set out of for under 300$.

This was around the time I decided that "Ultimate budget-ish build" was what I was going for.

 

Full disclaimer, things get a bit spotty over the next couple months. I wasn't taking pictures just dinking around. But long story short, I never got a single picture with the duratracs on, and also had a set of really worn out MTRs that were never seen either.

I did however pick up this Wilco hitchgate for 200 bucks, planning on making a rear bumper out of it. *Keep scrolling for finished pics*



The Taco got a much needed radio upgrade, removed the original double din to put in a top of the line pioneer single din, along with a Paranoid Fab switch bracket with some eBay switches that I'd bought for a now scrapped project.



Between all I'd done to that point, I was content for a few months. Pumped the brakes and started making decision as to what the next step was. For now, she was looking real good. Kind of a head turner for as little time and money as I'd put in at this point.

Wheel and tire setup ended up settling (for now) on some Raceline Rock crushers with 315/70R17 STT Pros that I paid 550$ for with 3/4 tread.

 

Alright, so I've had the taco for roughly 4 months at this point. I decide I'm all in. My hit list for mods is decided.

- Mid travel
- 5 Speed swap
- Manual Hubs
- Winch bumper
- Regear

Those are the big ones I want to tick off. So I'm browsing every day, looking for the hot buys, this is still a "budget-ish" build after all. I'm not the 4wheelparts credit card type of dude when it comes to this.

I found the shocks surprisingly quickly. Fox 2.5 fronts were actually found here on TW for 600 I think it was.

The rears are a more complex story. I was browsing Craigslist and a local guy who used to build double cabs with 6 foot beds apparantly had listed a slough of parts. They were all at good prices. I had some money in my pocket so I went up to take a look and play "let's make a deal".

I got there and ended up going home with a kinda beat up elocker axle in need of gears, a 3.4 and 5 speed dropout, supposedly running with 200k, cut harness and no ECU sadly, and a pair of Fox 2.0 resevoirs in need of some love, for 1000$ I don't think I did too bad honestly.

But I got the shocks ready for rebuilding and sent em off.



I was getting antsy to do some modding again and at the same time getting tired of seeing the Sparco Fighters from another scrapped project sitting around collecting dust in the shop, so what do you do? Well you put them in your daily driver truck of course!

Believe it or not Sparco actually makes brackets for these trucks, so I went ahead and ordered em up, this was the most expensive mod yet by far. Totalling 1000$ on the nose for everything all together, still cheap if you know how much these seats cost usually.



Can't have bucket seats and a stock steering wheel, that won't do. Got lucky and found a legit Nardi Classic (albeit a bit small for the Taco) and NRG 2.0 quick release on Craigslist the day I started looking for 80$, had an nrg hub laying around that I'd got just in case since I found it for 25$. Add in another 25$ for the CNCd horn delete and it's a cool 130$ altogether. Couldn't do that again if I wanted to.

 

We're getting close to present day, I promise! My thumbs are starting to bleed I think.

Another right place at the right time. This sucker popped up on Facebook and I saw it within minutes and convinced the guy that I was the one he was gonna sell it to.

1200$ got me the following:

-Blacktop Supercharger in excellent shape
-Stock, 2.2 and 2.0 pulleys
-7th injector
-TB Spacer (for W/M injection)
-Everything to install including gaskets and fresh oil.

Score!



Finally got to work on getting my swingout carrier installed.

Ended up being super simple. I basically just hacked out the top of the stock hitch reciever, set the Wilco hitchgate on top and welded it on, braced up the outer edges of the now bumper to the stock hitch crossmember, dropped a license plate light on and it was done. Doesn't fit too bad honestly.

 

Got my shocks back from accutune off-road all freshly rebuilt and ready to go. Wasted no time in assembling the front coilovers with some 600lb eibach springs I got from a local 2nd gen owner. The 700lb springs weren't gonna cut it for my marshmallow ass lol.



And thats where we're at for now. More updates coming very soon.

 

Got the tire installed, looks awesome now, unfortunately blocks my entire rearview with how tall it is, but going any lower would kill departure angle and make the hitch useless.



I've also started on assembling my front bumper. It's a NWTI open top kit, it was originally for my 3rd gen 4runner, but I decided to slap it on the taco instead. Minor modifications to the mounts we're needed, it's coming out great though. I might do a few little tweaks here and there.

I love the CBI hybrid front bumper, but 1500$+ just isn't gonna happen when I can achieve something that does the same thing for around 500$.

 

The bumper's starting to look more like a bumper at this point. Need to do all the finish work now. Found out today that the mile marker winch I've had sitting around forever actually doesn't fit in there, motor sticks out too far, guess I need to buy a new winch.

 

Looking good! No need to tub the firewall with 315s?

 

NICE!! ​

 

It rubs a bit on the firewall, the fender and flare have been trimmed as lightly as possible (still quite a bit), the inner fenders chopped off, and a really minor pinch weld trim. Leaving the lift height around 2" allowed a decent amount of caster to be pulled out of the stock geometry.

I'm waiting on the front suspension rebuild and UCAs to finish trimming as I'm maxxing out caster. A couple more parts need to come in still. If I really wanted to I think 37s would be possible if the wheel offset was perfect.

 

I ask because I rub pretty hard with 285s (33s) when wheeling. I've trimmed the plastic and pounded the seam flat. Most of the time I am turning when it rubs. I am running 4" backset wheels.

 

Maxxing out the caster is vital, with 4" backspace and 285's your tire diamater and scrub radius is a whole lot smaller than mine is with 315's and around 3.75" backspace, so you should be able to get it to clear with the trimming you've already done.

The key to maximizing firewall clearance with stock geometry is to not max out the lift height, it may seem counter intuitive, but by leaving the front around 2" of lift you're able to push an extra degree of caster out, my buddy aligned it for me and literally hung all his weight off the cam bolt to push it out while I set it.

I wish I'd have taken pics, at first before alignment the tires were nearly hitting the flare when stationary, we were able to push the tires forward in the wheel well about 2.5-3" with alignment alone. Once I get the UCA's installed I should be able to get more hopefully, at which point I'll finish cutting and clearancing what's needed. The side effect of adding caster to this degree is really strong return to center tendencies. Some people may not like it, the wheel will fight you constantly going around corners at highway speeds so it makes it somewhat less driver friendly.

The tire naturally gets closer to the firewall as it goes through the suspension cycle, so there's only so much you can do.

I don't wheel hard in this truck, but it does rub decently on the firewall when I hit a driveway hard, I have a tolerance for some rubbing for now but with any luck I'll be able to stuff these 35s without extreme tubbing.

 

Really like those rims thumbs up.