What have you done to your tacoma today? 5lug edition

I'd start a new thread to get some help on this.

 

Took a picture of her

 

Stuffed some 30s on a stock 2001 base model with stock suspension and a 2” drop out back (previous owner). The clearance is about as tight as you would imagine. Clears the front valence without trimming, and nearly rests on the pinch weld at full lock. Tires stick out of the stock fenders about 3/4”. Considering an OEM type flare to keep things tidy. 3” lift coming shortly - Doetsch springs and UCAs with shackles.

Wheel/tire setup:
American Racing Baja 15x7 -6 offset
Toyo Open Country A/T 30x9.5-r15

Noticing some play in the steering now and I’m right at 100k miles. How would you guys recommend troubleshooting to decide what joints should be replaced? Everything looks original right now.

 

Looks good man.

Some have said 3" lift kits are too much for the front suspension geometry. The 2.5" lift spacers are the max you can go without getting aftermarket upper control arms.

How's the power/drivability feel with the tire upgrade?

 

Yeah, my understanding is that the bracket that connects the LCA to the lower BJ is the weak link on the 1st gens. Some have broken it in the past. There are several theories I’ve heard for the cause, but it’s hard to be sure exactly what causes the failure. I don’t plan to abuse the truck off-road and it’s not my daily, so I’m not too stressed about it.

I’m doing longer springs and UCAs from Doetsch to ensure I can keep the truck aligned. I was all set to get things moving this weekend, but I am going to hold until I receive new BJs and tie rod ends. Probably next weekend.

The power loss is very noticeable. The truck is very sluggish now. I am going to have a local gear shop build a rear end with 4.10s and a Detroit Truetrac here pretty soon. It’s definitely drivable for now, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.

 

Sounds good man. Nice lil project!

 

Hauling firewood

 

Even though it's a 2 wheel drive I run.AT tires for gravel roads and pulling my 13 ft boler trailer

 

Got tired of the black fender... so I primed the whole front clip... redneck style.

 

Tortured it with 1.5 cubic yards of soil/compost

 

Spring cleaning!
I went over the single-stage paint with a clay bar, polishing compound, then carnauba wax.

I also tossed on my Mustang GT500 wheels but they won’t be on there for long. They dramatically changed the driving dynamics of this little truck, making it rather unwieldy and cumbersome.

 

Hank is finally the same color again...

 

looking good

 

Painted the front bumper/installed the grille from toyota accessories guy

 

235/75/15 on stock steelies.

 

I fixed the driver’s side of my bench seat and added Coverking seat covers.

Before I started work:



The underside of the passenger side:



The support wires running up/down and the plastic rods running left/right are all intact. Also, the grayish blueish pad is present.

This is the underside of the driver’s side:



All that support material was missing from the driver’s side. It was like that when I bought it. It's a 2012 with 56,000 miles on it. I don't know how this could happen in so short a period of time. I actually didn’t notice how saggy the driver’s side was until I sat on the passenger side. After that, I couldn’t get it out of my head and I had to fix this.

My fix was to add wood slats to the underside, in order to support the foam which seemed to be in good shape. I had no idea how I would ever fix the broken wires and plastic so this was the best idea I could come up with.



This worked much better than I could’ve imagined. The bench seat feels really supportive now.

Then I added the seat covers:



I think it would’ve been an enormous pain to put the covers on with the bench seat installed, but I doubt I would’ve pulled the whole bench seat out just to do the covers. I’m glad I had this other project to do. (I also used my Dremel to cut slots on the sides of the seat so I could tilt the seat back a couple of clicks. There’s another thread on Tacomaworld about how to do this, so thanks to those guys)



Back in the truck. Ta. Da.

 

I bought mine January 30th 2020. I have added Rain Guards, Bug deflector, Seat covers, upgraded the sun visors pull to the left and they extend fully across the side window. Added Wiper Detent and Cruise Control. Added chrome door handles, Chrome strip on the edge of each door. I still want running boards, hood supports, back window slider.

 

Dang, wish I could see the pics. Sounds like something i need to do to my bench. Drivers side is way more crushed down than the passenger

 

I don't have any pictures of it, but when you've got the bench seat flipped upside down, there is a metal bar that runs left/right across the back of the bench seat. I screwed the wooden slats to that bar with self-tapping screws. There was nothing similar across the front of the bench seat on which to secure the wooden slats, so I just wedged them in there.

I'm wondering why you can't see my photos. I see them just fine, but maybe I didn't post them correctly. I'm new at this.