jscusmcvet
Adventurist
A couple months back I posted about this little 1996 Tacoma I picked up in Richmond, VA from my oldest friend. Literally we used to walk to Kindergarten together... All through school we were buds. All through adult life, as he went to college and then USMC and I went straight in, we have been buds. He and his wife are Joe's God Father and God Mother.
Truck is a 1996 base level Tacoma, 2.7 4 cyl, 5 spd, 4wd. I mean base... roll up windows, no cruise control, no intermittent wipers, no running lights.... I mean base.
I digress. He bought this little truck for his then 15 year old. Only issue is the kid is 6'5" and his knees were in his ears. Sean called to see if I wanted it. One issue, needed a new clutch. Hence how it came home...
The tundra did awesome pulling it. Next day I took it to a local mechanic I use for things I don't want to tackle. Over the next 6 weeks or so he took care of the clutch and the brakes and did a complete fluids change, along with a complete go over of the vehicle. It is awesome to have a guy I can trust.
As soon as I drove it home, I knew his name was Junior. Plans for the truck are... nothing. I am planning to drive it as is as my daily. The Tundra will remain as our camper toting, trip taking, towing and V8 power when needed vehicle. I decided to post this not to chronicle a build, but 1) to tap into the toyota experts here in case there is anything I should know about this vehicle and 2) I have always said I wanted an older simple vehicle. Well, this ain't exactly old, but checks my boxes for the rest of it... simple, light... just a dang truck.
You can see the rust on the hood there. Only rust on the truck. Took some time yesterday and sanded and repainted. Good enough for me. Updatres to this thread will likely be few and far between, cause I am not planning on doing much to it. WE'll see if I can hold to that concept.
Truck is a 1996 base level Tacoma, 2.7 4 cyl, 5 spd, 4wd. I mean base... roll up windows, no cruise control, no intermittent wipers, no running lights.... I mean base.
I digress. He bought this little truck for his then 15 year old. Only issue is the kid is 6'5" and his knees were in his ears. Sean called to see if I wanted it. One issue, needed a new clutch. Hence how it came home...
The tundra did awesome pulling it. Next day I took it to a local mechanic I use for things I don't want to tackle. Over the next 6 weeks or so he took care of the clutch and the brakes and did a complete fluids change, along with a complete go over of the vehicle. It is awesome to have a guy I can trust.
As soon as I drove it home, I knew his name was Junior. Plans for the truck are... nothing. I am planning to drive it as is as my daily. The Tundra will remain as our camper toting, trip taking, towing and V8 power when needed vehicle. I decided to post this not to chronicle a build, but 1) to tap into the toyota experts here in case there is anything I should know about this vehicle and 2) I have always said I wanted an older simple vehicle. Well, this ain't exactly old, but checks my boxes for the rest of it... simple, light... just a dang truck.
You can see the rust on the hood there. Only rust on the truck. Took some time yesterday and sanded and repainted. Good enough for me. Updatres to this thread will likely be few and far between, cause I am not planning on doing much to it. WE'll see if I can hold to that concept.
The reality for us is both the Tundra and Ann's Tacoma are over 200k. While this one is at 180k. I am convinced they can all go 300k plus, so it seemed like a worthy investment. Not sure I would feel that way about that Ford you are talking about.
