Why

I previously had a 2017 Toyota Tacoma DCSB TRD OR and sold it when baby #2 came along. Having 2 car seats and 1 being rear facing wasn’t going to work. I ended up trading it in for a 2020 Tundra crew cab max with TSS package and while I loved the v8 and the room, it was a boat and I missed the Tacoma… I began researching what I wanted next and landed on 1st gen Tacoma… I spent the next year looking for an under 100K v6 DCSB between an 01 and 04 that had solid frame, that was well taken care of, and wasn’t heavily modified.. that task is easier said than done as much of you know..

In February of 2022 I found two different ones that I was interested in buying. One was on BAT and the other was thru TW. I elected to go with TW.. so I flew from OK to FL and picked her up and drove her all the way home.

2002 Toyota Tacoma DCSB TRD with rear locker 4x4.. she had 97K mileage.

what’s the point of this thread, it’s 99% more than maintenance log for me than anything.. so I can access it anywhere vs the book I’m keeping it in so I can add pictures. I plan on driving her till the wheels fall off

 

I’m the 3rd owner. The 2nd owner purchased this truck in January of 2019 with 79,000 miles and he began most of the preservation work at this time. He purchased this truck from a Toyota Dealership in Pennsylvania where it spent its life prior to him buying it. He was told the original owner was an elderly gentleman that had it since new and didn’t drive it often. The frame was inspected by Toyota in approximately 2010 and passed the inspection, Toyota then sprayed their coating on it to preserve it. After he bought it, the coating looked bad but the dealership put it on the rack and stood behind the frame being solid. He then found a media blasting genius that was able to successfully remove the coating, fully inspect the frame and apply a 2 stage epoxy paint to protect the frame.

 

2019 at 83k miles:
New water pump and timing belt service (OEM)

New tensioner, pulley, thermostat etc (OEM)

New belts (OEM)

New radiator

New fan clutch (OEM)

Transmission drain and fill

New fuel filter (OEM)

New Old Man Emu 881 coils, Old Man Emu shocks and progressive AAL in rear

New JBA Upper Control Arms

New Lower Control Arms and Ball Joints (OEM)

Full frame cleaning and painting (bed off)

New muffler

Tundra brake upgrade (OEM pads and rotors, aftermarket calipers)

I added a Kenwood double din stereo with Bluetooth and hands free calling and all new Kenwood speakers (2019)

 

The day I brought her home!

 

That is great the frame is in good shape and protected. With a solid frame you are all set to drive it forever. Very nice find!

 

After getting her home, I knew she had some work still to be done.. specifically the frame.. even with the work done previous to her, I wanted to ensure I was never going to have to do with a a rusty frame.. I still check the frame every chance I get but Im confident enough to declare the frame rust free… I wrote this a couple months ago in a different thread, “I slowly went through the entire frame of the truck; removing some surface rust and scale, and ensuring it’s still solid and I’m glad to report that I haven’t found a single weak spot and some nights my wife has to come into the garage and ask me to be more quiet because I feel like I’m the drummer for foo fighters banging on the frame with my hammer.. with that said, this has been probably on the of the more difficult projects I’ve tackled and have the bloody knuckles to prove it. The hardest issue I run into is removing the awful rubberized coating Toyota sprayed when they did the frame inspection and the rust from all the tight spaces… I’ve probably bought every single type and size of wire brush available and I’m a perfectionist so I tend to be very hard on myself. After the coating or the rust has been removed (not completely on the rust ) I clean the entire area with laq thinner, allow it to completely dry, than I’ve been doing a coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. Allow to dry, sand, than going over it again with another coat of Eastwood rust Encapsulator. I than wait 72 hours and than come back over the top with Eastwood Chassis Black. Wait another 72 hours than finish with RP-342 Cosmoline. Inside the frame, I’ve been using Eastwood Internal frame Coating (green) and borrow my neighbors Milwaukee inspection Camera to ensure complete coverage. I’m happy with the results thus far and Oklahoma doesn’t really salt their roads and weget snow only a couple of times a year (if that) so I’m hoping this will be the last time I’ll ever have to do this again.”

 

The next job I tackled was replacing the valve cover gasket in 04/2022

additionally I replaced all the hardware with stainless but want aware cast and stainless don’t play well together due to galvanization, so I had to go back 2 weeks later and apply antiseize to all the stainless hardware.

 

In May of 2022 I noticed the AF was green… the previous owner replaced the radiator and I’m sure they went with what they had on hand, with the truck just over 100K, I elected to perform a full coolant flush and go back to the OEM long life Toyota red. Followed Timmy toolman YouTube video.

 

A week later I went ahead and picked up a scan gauge, Hayden transmission cooler and picked spiked engineering scan guage mount.

 

After 2 weeks of monitoring the trans temps and coolant temps, my coolant temp was running over 204 F.. went ahead and pulled the thermostat and of course jiggle valve was at 12 o’clock.. replaced thermostat and put it at the 6 o’clock position and now sitting 190

 

1st week of June 2022 I went on fluid changing rampage. At 103K Wrote this in what have done to your 1st gen Tacoma, “I’ve been on a fluid changing rampage.. changed , motor oil, front diff, rear diff, transfer case and transmission fluid all over to full synthetic. Only got power steering and brake fluid to go and everything will be good to go for awhile.”

Rotated the tires and I went with Mobil extended performance 5W30 (20K mileage) and the Mobil filter, I used my companies oil Lubsoil Syn 75W90 for all the diffs and transfer case and used Mobil Synthetic ATF in the transmission case.

Also greased entire driveline and JBA UCA using mobil XHP 222 M with moly

 

After a couple weeks of driving I began to notice some seepage coming thru my rear brake drums, and it smelled of rotten eggs.. no doubt it was the diff! Most likely due upgrading oil to synthetic. Synthetic oil and more specifically PAO have much greater cleaning capabilities, why you always hear people complain that after running a “conventional” oil for a long time and than switch to synthetic, everything starts leaking.. yes 100% PAO synthetic will literally began to remove all the dirt and grime (what you want oil to do) and if your seal is holding it’s seal due to the caked on dirt and grime, it’s going to start to leak.

I really really wanted to do perform the work but did not have the press to be able to remove and press in the rear axel bearing, so I bit the bullet and went with toyota dealership because they have master level tech that’s been there for about 20 years (about to retire) very sad but had him replace everything with all OEM on both passenger and driver side from basically the rear axel and out (bearings, seals, brake lines, and entire rear drum brakes).. I ended up having to wait almost 2 weeks for parts to come in.. brake lines were a real problem to locate and find someone willing to ship.

 

Jumping around now just trying to get every detail down but went ahead and got both front driver side window, passenger side window and sun strip on windshield tinted.. went with autobahn ceramic i3 and happy with results… before hand it was like magnifying glass.. this was done 2nd week in June.

 

Hahahaha

 

Last week, went through and resurfaced rims. Started off with 330 grit sand paper and worked up to 2000 grit, most hand, but did use orbital sander lightly... Applied a light coating of stripper and started to sand again.. once clear coat was removed, used blue magic and buffed in. Once completely dry, did a 3x clear coat on rims.

 

Looks GREAT!

Good to see that there is one that will be preserved in near original condition-ish!

 

Had the original JBA semi sealed upper ball joints and went ahead and made the move to the sealed JBA ball joint. Losing too much grease with the Semi

 

Finished!

 

@zippsub9