Yet another Toyota added to the family. I picked up this Tacoma last night.

It's a 1998 Base model. Single cab, Short bed. 3RZ, 5 Speed, 4WD, Manual locking hubs, all the good stuff. Couldn't pass it up at 1200$, even though it's a project that most people would pass on in a heartbeat.

Of course, for the price, you don't get a pristine example.





But, that's not a huge issue. However this could be.



But, no big deal, the rest is in the bed



Supposedly it ran when torn apart, there were just some plans that never came to fruition. No big deal. I'll jam it all back together and we'll see what happens.

But that's not all that 1200$ buys you. The interior was 90% apart. Dash is just sitting in there. A new heater core has been installed. But that's another thing that never quite got finished up.



No big deal, when you know how to put it all back together with your eyes closed.

Start out by putting all the heater ducting back in. Then go ahead and clip the dash panel in. Then I started on the driver's side of the dash.



Moved onto the center panels and radio, heater controls, etc...



Then you just gotta bolt the glovebox in. Super easy. took me about an hour overall. The Tacoma, while very similar to the 3rd gen runner in design, really is a couple notches down in quality though interior wise.

Once all the parts were off the seat and floor, time to get to the bottom of the smell in the truck. It sat a while, so it accumulated a smell like any old truck does. Pulled the seat out and got to work on the carpets.

Pretty dirty, but honestly not much in the way of physical damages.



Started by pulling up the passenger's side and getting the underside vacuumed and wiped out with purple power. Floorpan is in great shape.



Then set it back down and doused the carpet in purple power and hit it with a stiff brush and a shop vac. A lot came out, but I still want to hit it with Tuff Stuff to get the deep ones out, and freshen up the scent.

Quite the juxtaposition already.



And then the obligatory christening of any used vehicle purchased. Showroom fresh.



Parts already ordered to put the engine together, new(ish) seats will be found soon!

I'm jealous...

It's a pretty dang nice truck for the price I paid IMO. Needs some stuff, but the only thing that's not a bolt on as far as the body goes is the passenger's bedside. Needs a fender, tailgate, grille and bumpers and it'll be a really straight Taco

Pretty sweet

So, with the death of the runner, the Tacoma became priority #1.

I've been busy busting ass trying to get it going, so I haven't been updating. So this is gonna be a massive one.

I had already got the engine and tranny pulled out, but hadn't done a single thing since.

I started by just basically tearing the head off the engine, as well as the oil pan, to get a good look inside and make sure it was all healthy.



I decided to just go full-bore, replacing everything, might as well make it good. So I took the front cover off.

After it checked out, I moved onto making it look good. Por15 engine enamel, it's really good stuff.

First the primer/rust converted.



Then the topcoat.

I already had a full timing kit that I had bought for the runner but never tore down far enough to actually install it, but I also decided to install the LCE balance shaft delete kit I had also bought for the runner. Simplifies the timing set so much, single roller chain drive, nothing fancy. Also removes a solid 10 lbs of weight from the rotating assembly.



I had the head hot-tanked, checked out and also had the valves adjusted while I was at it. I really want this thing to be flawless. Got that put on, as well as the oil pan and front cover in a day.



The next day was a lot of cleaning and painting on little bits and pieces. I got pretty much everything I could onto the engine before it went into the bay.



I also get to finally use the budget header setup I never put on the runner.

Speaking of the engine bay, it was looking real crusty in the battery area, you know, leaking acid eats the paint right off, to make it look better and before any actual rust started, I went ahead a wire wheeled it off and primed it.



Then the next day I painted it up, the put some anti rust coating on the battery box area. (You can kind of see where I epoxy coated the framerails in the bay before I dropped the engine in too)



Got a little overspray on the dang wiring harness for the lights, but i can fix that up.

While the tranny was out and I was already covered in afterspray, I just went ahead and undercoated the cab floor too.

With some help from my brother we got the engine dropped in, and the next day buttoned up a lot of wiring and fiddly stuff.



Look at that custom concoction of spray paint goodness on that valve cover.



Still need a couple small things, but i just forgot to take a pic of the finished off bay.

I didn't take any pictures of the crappy job of putting the trans back in, that just plain sucks, but I did it. Also lost the picture of the brand new clutch/flywheel goodness.

But with the powertrain sorted we can move on to the less important, but still really important stuff.

First I put on these ridiculous looking wheels and tires that I just had around. Truck has a 2.5" lift spacer up front and stock rear, so these don't really fit, they also stick out way too far.



Then this is pretty good, more stuff I just had around, swapped in some 2nd gen 4Runner bucket seats. I'll be putting some 3rd gen 4runner buckles on them to get rid of the floor mounted setup, and also finding a 99+ 3rd gen center console, should be good.

At this point, including some cosmetic enhancements that have yet to arrive, total investment is 2897$ even. I am counting what I paid for the stuff I had already laying around too. Great so far.

Coming along nice!

I was unsubscribed for some reason... I am again now!


Looks great man

As promised, a nice shot of the "Completed" bay, needs a couple little things but nothing major.



I also went ahead and did the front brakes before I started driving it.



Today was the first day I got to do some actual fun stuff. Most of my parts arrived, including a new grille, headlights, corner lights, door mirrors and a couple tiny parts.

I spent a solid amount of time getting it cleaned up as well as a buff to clean up the topcoat a bit. Came out good. Turned a straight up ugly paintjob into a decent one.





I also slapped some RallyArmor mudflaps I had laying around in an attempt to make it legal-ish.



The interior got a bit of love too, shined it all up, polished the gauge lens, scrubbed a bit and installed the Kenwood headunit that came in my RX7, nice little free come up for the Taco.

looks 1000000000x better!

Agree,,been looking at tackling something similar...