Its been about 6 weeks with my 2002 SR5 and its proving to be an excellent purchase.
After living my 2011 Mini Cooper S for a year and realizing it limits me more than I'd imagined the urge to get "an activity vehicle" bit. My girlfriend was relieved I meant an SUV, not an actual ATV.
We do a lot of camping/road trips and I've got an 83 Rabbit it'd be nice to be able to tow to/from SCCA events occasionally since it has a habit of exploding. After looking at several new rigs (Tacomas, 4Runner, Colorado/Canyon, and Frontier) it made more sense to buy something cheap to have fun with.
After looking at 6 other Tacomas/4Runners this one finally struck a balance between price, condition, and rust. Its a 2002 SR5 from Maryland with 177k that'd been on CL for quite some time likely because the owner didn't speak English. The truck drove great and had a few obvious recent maintenance items (Hankook Dynapros, fresh oil filter, new drive belts) but clearly needed a few things too such as the timing belt (sticker was from 2008). We settled on $4200 and off I went.
Overall its in decent shape. The lack of rust is what sold me, the body is spotless save for one bumper corner and the underside is solid too. It does need a lot of old truck things though such as LBJs, valve cover gaskets, timing belt/water pump, and various burned out interior bulbs. I'll be tackling this and then-some this summer.
The first task was cleaning the DISGUSTING interior. All the fabrics were in good condition but they were so dirty you could hardly make out the fabric pattern. Pictures don't do it justice the this little Bissell spot cleaner worked wonders.
Before
After
Pulled the seats and went to town on the carpet
The worst part was these rusty areas where ancient Alpine audio gear had sat for years. Amazingly most of this came out.
Free of 15 years worth of farts
The stereo was also shot so along with the interior cleaning it got a Kenwood double din, Clarion mini amp, and new speakers all around.
Next up is to begin installing this collection of parts piling up in my office.
The plan is to tow this turd to/from races
Last but not least, the DD which will likely sit in the garage while the 4Runner takes over DD duties.
After living my 2011 Mini Cooper S for a year and realizing it limits me more than I'd imagined the urge to get "an activity vehicle" bit. My girlfriend was relieved I meant an SUV, not an actual ATV.
We do a lot of camping/road trips and I've got an 83 Rabbit it'd be nice to be able to tow to/from SCCA events occasionally since it has a habit of exploding. After looking at several new rigs (Tacomas, 4Runner, Colorado/Canyon, and Frontier) it made more sense to buy something cheap to have fun with.
After looking at 6 other Tacomas/4Runners this one finally struck a balance between price, condition, and rust. Its a 2002 SR5 from Maryland with 177k that'd been on CL for quite some time likely because the owner didn't speak English. The truck drove great and had a few obvious recent maintenance items (Hankook Dynapros, fresh oil filter, new drive belts) but clearly needed a few things too such as the timing belt (sticker was from 2008). We settled on $4200 and off I went.
Overall its in decent shape. The lack of rust is what sold me, the body is spotless save for one bumper corner and the underside is solid too. It does need a lot of old truck things though such as LBJs, valve cover gaskets, timing belt/water pump, and various burned out interior bulbs. I'll be tackling this and then-some this summer.
The first task was cleaning the DISGUSTING interior. All the fabrics were in good condition but they were so dirty you could hardly make out the fabric pattern. Pictures don't do it justice the this little Bissell spot cleaner worked wonders.
Before
After
Pulled the seats and went to town on the carpet
The worst part was these rusty areas where ancient Alpine audio gear had sat for years. Amazingly most of this came out.
Free of 15 years worth of farts
The stereo was also shot so along with the interior cleaning it got a Kenwood double din, Clarion mini amp, and new speakers all around.
Next up is to begin installing this collection of parts piling up in my office.
The plan is to tow this turd to/from races
Last but not least, the DD which will likely sit in the garage while the 4Runner takes over DD duties.
