Arivalsend
Adventurer
Hey everyone I have been a lurker on this site for about two months now and I am putting an end to that. I am writing from my home town on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I have been into travel/ cycling / and overland exploration for as long as I can remember and so this site has really become one of my favorites.
I have found it to be a great resource for my own project. But more than that I have really enjoyed the community of outdoors/overland enthusiasts. And I am chagrined that this is one of my first postings to that community. In any case here it is.
For the past three years I have been planning an overland trip down in Central and South America in order to see some more of a world I had read about and also prior I have backpacked into and had only stayed in briefly. The trip was to be a celebration of my post college freedom and of graduation. A brief interlude away from my daily rutine, and before being trapped into gradwork and more student loans/body parts sold....yada..yada. And so after graduation in May I went about making this happen. I left for Colorado to work and began scheming about a vehicle build that would give me the mobility and freedom in my travels into foreign lands.
I sold a perfectly good 1999 3RD Gen 4Runner this summer in order to find and purchase a Toyota Tacoma. My reasons for this build and not a build on the 4Runner were several. The first was the Runner was using auto and I have always enjoyed a 5spd for offroad travel/exploration. Another was that as I would be using the vehicle for basing out of over long periods, I wanted something without the rear seats and carpeting and all the fluffier aspects of a 4Runner. And dont get me wrong I have seen some really bomber 4Runner builds but my stock 99 was a far reach from those.
After much searching and deliberating on my budget (which incidentally is not much as I work as a guide in Colorado in the summer and as a student/sue chef/jiffy lube mech/bookstore attendent...LOL......the list goes on and on in the school year) I decided to purchase a 99 Salvage Toyota Tacoma V6 5spd. Now you are probobly wondering why I would ever do such a silly thing and now looking back I am wondering much the same. At the time I had looked high and low for a TRD package in a ex cab V6 Tacoma and had no luck. I was also working with limited funds and decided to take on the work myself. So the truck I found had "light front end damage" along with a slew of other issues. Here are some pics for you guys to get a kick out of. Yeah the color is one that not every guy could pull off:26_7_2: .
The truck had to be shipped up to me and I just ended up paying out the kazoo. So in the end, my original instinct to shop only those trucks that I can go over in coveralls and toothbrush in hand. The truck arrived on a flatbed and it would not start up to roll it off the truck. I popped the hood and the battery was missing. So after rolling it off with a come-along and a little creative labor it was sitting in my yard. Not running with an empty gas tank and a steering wheel that was on upside down. Upon further investigation the passenger side CV was bent in and the UCA LCA were both ruined, ball joints bent up, passenger side rotor and caliper damage, 4 sheered lug nuts. The two frame rails in the truck where severely bent and it drove down the road at a right angle. Suspension was completly shot two rear struts rusted through and fronts totally worn out, stock leafs were ok but which I have since replaced. The vehicles hydraulic steering rack was unbolted and looked to have been tampered with. 1 rim/tire missing and spare on instead. On the positive the truck was not stolen...... I paid with shipping $7000. The engine/tranny seem to be functioning and have checked out with further diagnosis. T-Case and front diffs low on oil but otherwise working. And so it began.
Now as I told you guys I had sold the 4Runner to fund this POS so I had to just sit there and really think about my choices in the whole thing (of course this led to the conclusion that all rational thought had somehow vacated the day I bid on a salvage ebay vehicle). This was the start of the project three months ago.
I am off to work so to be continued
I have found it to be a great resource for my own project. But more than that I have really enjoyed the community of outdoors/overland enthusiasts. And I am chagrined that this is one of my first postings to that community. In any case here it is.
For the past three years I have been planning an overland trip down in Central and South America in order to see some more of a world I had read about and also prior I have backpacked into and had only stayed in briefly. The trip was to be a celebration of my post college freedom and of graduation. A brief interlude away from my daily rutine, and before being trapped into gradwork and more student loans/body parts sold....yada..yada. And so after graduation in May I went about making this happen. I left for Colorado to work and began scheming about a vehicle build that would give me the mobility and freedom in my travels into foreign lands.
I sold a perfectly good 1999 3RD Gen 4Runner this summer in order to find and purchase a Toyota Tacoma. My reasons for this build and not a build on the 4Runner were several. The first was the Runner was using auto and I have always enjoyed a 5spd for offroad travel/exploration. Another was that as I would be using the vehicle for basing out of over long periods, I wanted something without the rear seats and carpeting and all the fluffier aspects of a 4Runner. And dont get me wrong I have seen some really bomber 4Runner builds but my stock 99 was a far reach from those.
After much searching and deliberating on my budget (which incidentally is not much as I work as a guide in Colorado in the summer and as a student/sue chef/jiffy lube mech/bookstore attendent...LOL......the list goes on and on in the school year) I decided to purchase a 99 Salvage Toyota Tacoma V6 5spd. Now you are probobly wondering why I would ever do such a silly thing and now looking back I am wondering much the same. At the time I had looked high and low for a TRD package in a ex cab V6 Tacoma and had no luck. I was also working with limited funds and decided to take on the work myself. So the truck I found had "light front end damage" along with a slew of other issues. Here are some pics for you guys to get a kick out of. Yeah the color is one that not every guy could pull off:26_7_2: .
The truck had to be shipped up to me and I just ended up paying out the kazoo. So in the end, my original instinct to shop only those trucks that I can go over in coveralls and toothbrush in hand. The truck arrived on a flatbed and it would not start up to roll it off the truck. I popped the hood and the battery was missing. So after rolling it off with a come-along and a little creative labor it was sitting in my yard. Not running with an empty gas tank and a steering wheel that was on upside down. Upon further investigation the passenger side CV was bent in and the UCA LCA were both ruined, ball joints bent up, passenger side rotor and caliper damage, 4 sheered lug nuts. The two frame rails in the truck where severely bent and it drove down the road at a right angle. Suspension was completly shot two rear struts rusted through and fronts totally worn out, stock leafs were ok but which I have since replaced. The vehicles hydraulic steering rack was unbolted and looked to have been tampered with. 1 rim/tire missing and spare on instead. On the positive the truck was not stolen...... I paid with shipping $7000. The engine/tranny seem to be functioning and have checked out with further diagnosis. T-Case and front diffs low on oil but otherwise working. And so it began.
Now as I told you guys I had sold the 4Runner to fund this POS so I had to just sit there and really think about my choices in the whole thing (of course this led to the conclusion that all rational thought had somehow vacated the day I bid on a salvage ebay vehicle). This was the start of the project three months ago.
I am off to work so to be continued
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I have been setting aside a couple hours every night to its construction. The first stage was to assess the damage and missing parts of the truck. Well that is of course after I called the seller and told him I was going to drive it out after I put it together and give him a good kick for his inane and misleading write up. 
