What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

The 98-00 front end is no doubt my least favorite but as for the 95-97 and the 01-04 its a bit of a toss up for me. I'd take either one over what i have right now tho. Although I like the grill I made.

 

My 98 slammed taco was undergoing a 01-04 conversion when I sold it.

Also the cup holders in older gens.. WTF was Toyota thinking.

The chrome all over was ugly!





This after I relifted it 3 inches all around before the sell. and the day I brought home the 02 black one.

 

Simply put... a 98-00 to 95-97 swap you need:

Grille
Grille Surround
Headlight assemblies
Headlight fillers
Bumper
Core support

Corner lights and fenders should be fine.

There is no official write up, but I have 4 or 5 threads bookmarked to help me with mine. Give me a sec and I'll post them up in this post.

Read from post #6 on: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/182630-front-end-grill-switch.html

 

^ The God of Swap

However he went from an 01-04 to a 95-97.... much more involved than a 98-00 to a 95-97

 

All in all should take no more than 2 hours to complete as well. Really easy!

Simple hand tools and some basic common sense.

 

It took me at least a month after i bought the truck before i realized there was even a second cup holder. And even now that i know theres two... I still hate 'em

 

when i went buckets from a 01 i also got the center console with shifter area with the better cup holders.

I have the same in my 02 now just in grey not doo doo brown like my 98 was.

 

I have heard that many people swap in bucket seats with a center console. Is this a difficult project or do the new seats bolt in the same holes as the stock seats? I've thought about doing the swap but idk where I would find the seats to swap in.

 

I had a bench since it was a single cab.

6 of 8 mount points were there but the rear center holes were not tapped... So I tapped them and added a grade 8 bolt with threadlock nuts.

That took like 45 mins total.

 

Thanks! That doesn't sound too bad at all. Now I just need to find new bucket seats and a center console. In Alaska...

 

I painted my shift boot plastic too, gloss. It looks like shit, Gloss black paint on plastic = UGLY. I'm gonna re do mine this summer in satin. Looks pretty ok otherwise!

 

Nice edit Bobert, homework can always wait

I replaced rotors and pads today with Duralast Ceramics and Duralast Rotors. Bedded them in, seems quite nice.

Minor Q. When i pulled the old stuff out, the pads had two shims, one was rubber coated and 'slotted' but the pad was just the pad material it went: Pad/Rubber coated shim/Flat metal shim/caliper pistons

When i bought the Duralast Golds, they came with a flat metal 'shim' attached to the back of the pad and nothing else. I opted to just leave the 'original' shims out and just install as such: Pad/Included metal shim/Caliper piston.

The brakes were quiet during the bedding process and of course stopped as expected but the thing that makes me question my install is that the 'included/attached' shim on the new pads only contacts ~80% of the piston face... Dare i drop the 'rubber coated slotted shim' and just squeeze in the 'flat metal shim' behind the new, included shim that covers 100% of the piston face?

 

After something like 6 years of hunting I finally upgraded to that center console/cup holder assembly.

The 98-00 cup holders are the most retarded feat in engineering history.

 

Pretty sure it's a direct bolt up for a bench (or 60/40 split) to buckets.

 

Yeah, should have gone flat IMO.

I just repainted the transfer case knob in flat black and it's a perfect look.

I might keep the armrest gloss for ease of cleaning etc, but I'm definitely going to go back and redo it all in flat black.

 

Installed Light Racing UCAs, only got one side done before it was too late tonight. Should have the other side done tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the info. I have no doubt I can figure out how to get them bolted in there but I have a feeling its gonna be a pain in the butt to find some buckets and a console up here in AK.

 

I'll send you my console that's for sale

But for real, I checked ebay and nearly shat myself when I saw this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-Taco...fits=Model:Tacoma&hash=item2567ff26a4&vxp=mtr

That's an insane price. And that's the console you want, far better than the one I have for sale, plus it's "free expedited shipping to the United States." Last I checked, AK is in the United States.

 

That would make sense, wouldn't it? NOPE. I have been screwed so many times on websites that claim free shipping within the US only to find out that excludes AK. To their credit though, it has been getting easier/cheaper to get stuff shipped up here.

And I did not look into that console to see if it included AK, just venting a bit haha.