Yet Another Build Thread

First post here on TacomaWorld and this is going to be a long one, but hopefully I can give everyone enough info so that they can actually help me with everything that I'm inevitably going to need help with.

Me:
I'm a broke 18 year old who loves driving, trucks, and travelling, a Tacoma was a logical choice for my second vehicle. I drove my parents 2nd gen Dodge 2500 until we sold it because I couldn't park in one space and it got 11 mpg. After selling the dodge (with the help of my parents) I bought a 1st gen Tacoma off craigslist in March of 2018 and it's pretty much the same now as it was then due to the fact that I was in Norway for the last 10 months on a foreign exchange for my senior year of high school. Now that I'm back in the States it's time to get this truck ready for a combination of overlanding (I almost don't want to use that term) and offroading and figure out how to fix everything that breaks in the process.

A little info about the truck:

2000 Tacoma extra cab 4x4 TRD offroad in green with the 3.4 v6. Just turned 190k last weekend (July '19) and I am the 4th owner. According to the previous owner, it's been a California truck all its life (so the clearcoat is peeling but luckily minimal rust), the owner I bought it from built the rear bumper and did a lot of the mods that it has. Speaking of which, in no particular order...

Goodyear Wrangler AT's (265/75R16) (less than 5k miles) and Eagle Alloys wheels
Custom rear bumper with Jerry can holder and spare tire holder
Boxed frame in the rear (for the weight of the bumper
Bilstein 5100s and eibach springs up front
The rear springs don't look stock but I dont know what was done, hopefully someone here can help me figure out
Sway bar was taken out (thoughts? Should it stay out or should it be put back?)
In the interior the truck has a cobra cb (going to replace with a uhf) a grenade shifter knob (lol) a new stereo (want new speakers) and comfy '95.5 4runner seats.
The carpet has also been replaced with vynl flooring and weathertech floormats.
The hood has been wrapped in a lighter green to reduce glare and cover up the peeling clear coat.

there are a bunch of other little mods and "features" (issues) that I will write in as I think of them.

Things I've done: (TLDR in bold lol)
Truck ran great until last June when it started running really rough once the engine got warm. Shop thought it was the coil packs but ended up being injectors which were sent in and refurbished. The next time I took the truck on a slow forest service road the engine temps rose drastically as soon as I started going slow and the radiator proceeded to completely blow up. My guess is that the temperature sensor for the electric fan was not working correctly (maybe from when the shop did the injectors) and the fan did not turn on when I started going slow. Anyway, I replaced the radiator before I left for Norway and left it for my parents to use for trash dump runs all winter. They put 400 miles on it and replaced the electric fan with a stock one to remedy the overheating problem. While I was in Norway, I bought @cbechtold 's bed rack from his 5ft bed tacoma and will modify it to fit the 6ft bed.

Since I've been back I haven't done any mods but I took the front bumper off to start to design a custom one and I realized that the frame is bent at the front where I can see that there was a small collision on the drivers side corner (truck has a clean title so I'm guessing it was fixed by whoever crashed it diy style). I'm taking the truck to the local collision repair shop at the end of the week to see what they can do about it so I can build the bumper correctly. In addition, the truck will shift into 4wd but it doesn't actually engage and the light on the dash doesn't come on, I've been told vacuum seals in the transfer case might be toast but 3rd party confirmation would be great before I take it in to get fixed.

Now that I've talked about what needs fixing immediately, I should talk about what's down the road for the truck.

Future mods:
Armor:
Front bumper w/ winch (either custom made or bought, not sure)
Sliders/steps are a ways down the road, but would be nice to have
Skid plates all around, front diff, transfer case, a better one for the fuel tank, and rear diff pumpkin
I would love to have those brush bars like on the australian trucks (and some newer tacomas) but I still wanna be weight conscious and not completely bog the truck down.

Engine:
Need/want a little more power, especially top end for when on the highway.
Need to clean up the engine bay, maybe a good electric fan, would love an aluminum radiator.
Need to replace tranny radiator because its bent due to the collision mentioned above.

Interior:
New audio system
Some grips and the steering wheel are paracord wrapped but I want to finish the job
Need some seat covers
I want to build a custom center console as well as a custom storage solution in the back of the cab. Probably wood or composite wrapped in carpet. Not sure yet.

Other gear:
On board air with small tank and compressor for air tools
I plan on wrapping the bed rack with canvas or something and putting a RTT on top of it and a bedslide (homemade) inside for stove, fridge, and storage
electric setup, battery, solar, bms. My dad works at a solar energy retailer so I have the hookup
plenty of other little unnecessary pieces of gear for offroading/camping
A Go Fast Camper is pretty much the ultimate goal for camping but that will take a hot minute.

My friend recently repainted his old ford in a beautiful blue and he has extra primer/paint so i might steal that and repaint the truck in the near future.

First on the list is washing it off after last weekend's trip to Northern Montana to meet GFC and taking it in this Friday to get a quote on the frame bend.

That's all I can think to talk about for now, give me thoughts, criticism, as questions and I'll keep everyone posted here on things that happen with the truck.

Also, a couple pics:

Day after I bought the truck


my dad picked up the bed rack for me


you can see the frame bend as well as the black spray-painted panel on the drivers side


Most recent trip to Northern Montana

 

Yoinking this spot for later

 

Welcome fellow 98-00 1st genner. Have any more pictures of that rear bumper?

 

Nice truck.

 

The truck is still dirty from this weekend, but its going to the wash tonight and then I'll get some pictures for you

 

Alright, the truck is clean now so here's some low light pics of the rear bumper. I don't have any jerry cans though, anyone know where to get some inexpensive ones?

 

Ok, RTT time... I am ready to find a tent to put on the bed rack. I've been looking around and the most logical option is the Smittybilt overlander tent because of its decent quality and low cost. Can anyone think of some other lower cost options (preferably around $1000) that are good quality for the money? And if anyone is selling a used tent I would be glad to take a look at it!

 

Looks like those are stock springs with lift shackles in the back. When it comes time to upgrade or you realize you'll wanna carry more weight in the back you should think about a true leaf pack with stock length shackles... you get to keep the lift and increase your carrying capacity.

I would look at your front 4WD actuator to see if it's working properly, there's quite a few different culprits that could be giving you this issue, so always start with the easiest first. I'm assuming you have a manual shift for your T-case? does the 4wd light come on, blink or do nothing at all?

 

Thanks for the info! I've been talking to alcan about a custom pack and I also have been looking at a Firestone airbag with Daystar cradle setup for when I'm towing or have more weight than usual. As for the t-case yes it's a manual shift. When I shift it into 4wd the light comes on but I look a couple minutes later and it's off again. I'll try and notice how quickly it turns off next time I drive. I'll start with looking at the actuator.

 

I love Dodge trucks. Was your parents Dodge a Cummins? Your Tacoma looks great!

 

No, sadly it was the magnum gasser... Hence the 12 mpg haha. I would have begged them to keep it if it were a Cummins!

And thanks, it doesn't look great yet but it's getting there!

 

Alright so having a bit of a problem. I'm sitting in the home Depot parking lot and I have absolutely no power. Battery is at 12.7 volts and fuses and ground wires look fine. When I jump start it to my dad's 4runner I get all power but it still won't crank. Anyone have any idea what the issue is?

 

Update, switched out the batteries with the 2 cars and drove both of them home, I ha e no idea why the particular battery worked in the 4runner but not in the taco. We are thinking it might be an alternator problem that isn't charging the battery enough but it's going into the shop tomorrow for them to take a look. Electrical is not my specialty haha

 

So it's been a long time... I have done some things to the taco and now i'm realizing it's probably not the right rig for me... sadly. TacomaWorld won't let me post an ad for the truck here until I have 50 posts but if you're interested or are like me and like looking at things you can't buy here's a link to my Expedition Portal ad. https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...000-toyota-tacoma-ex-cab-trd-off-road.210111/