I bought a Taco'...

[Christ]

After I get the windshield out, I'm going to use the same method between the a-pillars and see if I can just slowly stretch the kinks back out, then finish straightening them out with a dolly and hammer, using heat and ice to relieve stress.

EDIT: I have no idea how to do professional body work... I'm just going by what the Taco is telling me.

[Christ]

So... you guys see those rust spots over the rear wheels?

I'm thinking that's a good place to try out some welding... Maybe I'll weld in some wheel skirts!

[RandomFact314]

You could always cut off the whole top and put a custom convertible type thing on it I'm sure that would not be too hard for you to do if you can weld good, then sell it as a project car for like 1.5k

[McTimson]

I'm pretty sure they pay you 150% of the vehicle's value in 'excellent' condition, regardless of whether or not the vehicle is actually excellent or not. They'll try to give it to you in the form of credit towards a new truck, because they hope that you need a vehicle right then, but you should be able to take it as a check. I don't know if they use the trade-in value, private party value, or retail value, but either way, you could make something off this. The trade in value for that truck is $1725, private party is $2825, and retail is $4025. So, they would give you either $2587, $4237, or $6037.

When the recall was first announced, people were picking up these trucks left and right to take the credit on them. You may have gotten lucky, I would take it to a dealer before doing any major work on it just to see what you can get out of it.

[taco]

a little 2rz......2wd.

u said 96? so it has a dist?

the fram warrenty u have to won it as of march 2007. it was 150% of blue book value on excellent. no matter what shape it was in.. but mine passed also...

all cabs from 95.5-2004 were the same, also the fenders fron 95.5-04 were the saem minus the 95.5-00.5 2wd looked like yours but the 4x4 bolt up fine. most people ditch those fenders for higer more bulbous 4x4 ones.

hell it has no miles on it....good find.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by HypermilingNoob

You could always cut off the whole top and put a custom convertible type thing on it I'm sure that would not be too hard for you to do if you can weld good, then sell it as a project car for like 1.5k

Show me a 'vert that doesn't leak, and I might consider it. I'd do a Targa first.

Originally Posted by taco

a little 2rz......2wd.

u said 96? so it has a dist?

the fram warrenty u have to won it as of march 2007. it was 150% of blue book value on excellent. no matter what shape it was in.. but mine passed also...

all cabs from 95.5-2004 were the same, also the fenders fron 95.5-04 were the saem minus the 95.5-00.5 2wd looked like yours but the 4x4 bolt up fine. most people ditch those fenders for higer more bulbous 4x4 ones.

hell it has no miles on it....good find.

Is it a 2RZ? I dunno Toy's engine codes... it's a 2.4 is all I know. The 2WD thing, yeah, I never got a use for 4 Wheel Drive on the street. That's for farm trucks and snow rigs/off road.

Too bad I can't cash in on that frame warranty... that would be sweet. I'd finance part of my house build and go get a couple more $200 vehicles!

Good to know that everything up to 2k4 will fit... that will help tremendously if I need some body parts, which I may still end up needing.

Do you have a pic of the difference in the fenders?

I know on my old Mazda, the 4wd sheet metal made it possible to tuck rims a little better, but at the expense of another .5 sq.ft of frontal area or so, since the sheet metal was physically wider.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by McTimson

I'm pretty sure they pay you 150% of the vehicle's value in 'excellent' condition, regardless of whether or not the vehicle is actually excellent or not. They'll try to give it to you in the form of credit towards a new truck, because they hope that you need a vehicle right then, but you should be able to take it as a check. I don't know if they use the trade-in value, private party value, or retail value, but either way, you could make something off this. The trade in value for that truck is $1725, private party is $2825, and retail is $4025. So, they would give you either $2587, $4237, or $6037.

When the recall was first announced, people were picking up these trucks left and right to take the credit on them. You may have gotten lucky, I would take it to a dealer before doing any major work on it just to see what you can get out of it.

This here would be great.... $3000 will buy most of what I need to build the house. The other $3000 would pay for a couple more "projects", start to finance my buggy build, and pay gas/insurance for awhile.

Too bad I won't qualify, since I don't take ownership until like Wednesday.

I'll call the dealer anyway to see if there's a workaround for it, but it's not likely.

[taco]

4x4 fenders.
and also the 00.5 front also. in 00.5 2wd got the 4x4 front end and then redisgned in 2001, but the 01 hood will not work with your 96 front.with out a total swap. also with a 4 runner core support a 4 runner front will fit.

nah u took ownership too late for the warrenty. sorry.

[cfg83]

Christ -

Originally Posted by Christ

Show me a 'vert that doesn't leak, and I might consider it. I'd do a Targa first.

...

Why not a chop top to lower your Cd?

CarloSW2

[Christ]

Originally Posted by taco

4x4 fenders.
and also the 00.5 front also. in 00.5 2wd got the 4x4 front end and then redisgned in 2001, but the 01 hood will not work with your 96 front.with out a total swap. also with a 4 runner core support a 4 runner front will fit.

nah u took ownership too late for the warrenty. sorry.

That's alright, I'm going to get some spacers for the rear axle, and flip the balljoints on the front, level it out about 3" lower than it is now, and shorten the bumpstops in the rear, so I can still haul stuff with it, but it's lower.

If I don't need new sheet metal, I doubt I'll worry about fenders.

Now that I've got the head liner torn out (literally), and got a good look at what's going on with the windshield channel, there is only one spot that actually needs to be fixed to seal a windshield in there. Not a bad thing, at all.

I'm going to drill out all the spot welds across the brow line and take the reinforcement out, remove the inner a-pillar reinforcement, twist everything back into shape, and try to smooth it all back out. Shouldn't be too bad, although it won't be perfect. Passable, guaranteed.

Originally Posted by cfg83

Christ -



Why not a chop top to lower your Cd?

CarloSW2

I'm aiming for simplicity, above all. This is just a beater, for the time being, so that I can take Cara off the road and be able to swap, at leisure, the engine and transmission. Once I get Cara running again, and road legal, more can be done with The Taco!, including a possible EV Plugin hybrid.

At that point, I might consider raking the windshield line so that I can keep using the stock windshield, while lowering the angle between the hood line and windshield, which will also lower the upper line of the windshield in relation to the rest of the truck, so then I can cut down the rear windshield area, replace the rear glass with plexi, and I can probably get a good 2 inches lower than the OEM roof line, with no real modification to the truck, other than some cutting and welding!

For an EV hybrid, I thought about using a 2-piece driveshaft, with a dual-shaft electric motor between the two shafts. When there is no current, it will only induce as much drag as the weight and frictional losses from the bearings (negligible), but when I need extra power, or when I want to run EV only, I can throttle the E-Motor up and use it. (I'll use one that at full speed will only take me about 25 MPH, hopefully.)