96 Taco build thread

[Sempertoy]

Well, this build thread is long overdue. I figured if I just posted the first picture now it will make me finish it and bring it up to date. I will try not to bore anyone, and I will post lots of pictures because that is what we all like. The thread may take a minute to complete, seeing as I bought this truck in Oct of 2008, there have been a few years of pictures and mods.





Here in stock form. Good looking truck I wonder if the truck knew what it would become?

Here is what she is today. Ill take you through the steps that made that happen

[tanglefoot]

Nice! That first Tacoma front clip is my favorite look.

[Sempertoy]

The first thing that came in the mail was the allprooffroad.com bumper. They were running a deal at the time so I got the diff and t case skids for free? I think thats how that worked out........

Well here is the bumper



And here is the install in progress


you might notice the snow on the ground. That's just how hardcore I am.

And this is what it looked like on. Note: the electrical tape holding on the turn signals was a temporary fix. I only ran it like that for about 6 months one day I was in home depot and randomly saw hose clamps. Problem solved!!

Also, in my infinite wisdom and supremecy, you can see I mounted the lights UNDER the bumper... Don't worry. I moved them before one got broken

Next My lift arrived in the mail


the rear isn't anything to write home about. Just AAL and blocks.. yeah I know... total P.O.G (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...2153642AAvk0XC) for my brothers in arms.


After the coilovers and before the blocks.. So sad to look back on..

And this is when the lift was done. Time to enjoy all my "hard" work


I had the snorkel holes cut out at jackit suspensions in Utah, I went home and bolted it on.

This is a shot to highlight some of the most important mods I have done for the money
In this picture you can clearly see seven (7) stickers and one (1) American flag stick on and (1) Texas longhorns stick on. The stickers brought roughly 10-12 hp each, and the two stick on's 15 each. Add that up and we have an extra 100 hp to the wheels!!

This next picture clearly demonstrates a big booboo that I made.. Don't ask me why I did it... It was a learning experience. Right? If you can't tell, I'm talking about the hack job done on the fenders.


After a trip to Moab, my truck was parked for about a year. I joined the Marine Corps in January went to the Easter jeep safari in April and shipped out to bootcamp in May.
Here is a picture of me after graduation posing with my two favorites. (This is now my wife)

This was around August of '09. The truck sat in this spot for roughly one year until my mom came to visit us in San Diego and drove my truck out for me. Nice lady eh?
Nothing was done to the truck when I got it out here, and to be honest I thought really hard about selling it. I was doing work ups to get ready for deployment which meant driving roughly 110 miles per day for work. I am so happy I didn't sell it now.

When I got home from Afghanistan I sold my mountain bike and got some new shoes for 'ol reliable



Put the doors back on and attempted to Fix aforementioned booboo.





I have also done 4 halogen rocklights this summer. I don't have any pictures. I am pretty new to the forum world, so it's just luck that I have pictures of most of my work. I promise to photodocument everything that I do from now on.
My wife bought me a CB for my birthday. It can be seen here. I got really bored with the dash So I ran to the store and bought the first color of paint I thought would look good with tan.


and then I took the dash apart


Took care of the three stooges that have been plauging me since I bought the truck

Painted it and put it all back together



And that's how the truck sits today! Stay tuned for a lockright install

[Sempertoy]

And this is the latest impulse buy.
I am looking to buy the optional GPS unit as well as a back up camera.

[Sempertoy]

In order to keep the peace around the house I have been looking for some free things to do with the Taco.

So I decided that first I would post some pictures that are not on the pavement.. It seems everything that I have posted is my truck in the driveway. So for your enjoyment



I wish I could say this was in some awesome remote location. It's not. It's on base lol..



Just because.

Hope you enjoy. More free ideas are coming!

[Sempertoy]

So I took one look at this and decided It could use a good clean. I own a vacuum, therefore free.99



So first thing i did was take out the passenger side seat so I could still drive to work the next day.



Viola! dos seatos.



Some entertainment while working. Rob and Big of course

[Sempertoy]

Took this crap out. Cleaned up the rats nest of wires.



Lucky I didn't burn down eh?



Cleaned the inside



Then cleaned the outside!!



Look at all the fun you can have for free

[sk8rjess]

looks sick! except... that overspray on the last pic. that would have made me pretty upset :\

[CYi5]

Running 35's now? Lookin' good .

[austintaco]

I like it. The Longhorn decal stands out as the best "bang for you buck" mod

What size tired did you have on there, and what did you move up to?