Nope! As long as I have my 83, she'll be my baby. I had the Tacoma for less than 24 hours before it was covered in mud and blasting through snow! I would never do that to my 83 - To me, time spent is far more valuable than money spent.

 

Have you noticed any difference in your cab since you sealed up your cowl vents? Do you feel any pressure build up compared to having the vents....anything noticeable, what about the pillar vent...was that sealed off as well?

 

No difference after shaving the cowl. Plenty of air still getting to the cowl and into the ventilation system through the openings where the water would drain out of the cowl. Only difference now is that I have no water in my cowl. The pillar vents were left unmodified.

 

I feel bad for my '83 lately - it has either been raining or snowing for the past couple weeks so I haven't drove it much. Plus I have my new Tacoma so I've been spending a little more time with her.

Today I went home for lunch and had a nice delivery from FedEx waiting for me. Since it was damn near impossible to find a TRD Sport Double Cab 4x4 in magnetic gray that wasn't sold before it got to the dealership, I had to settle on my truck without a few options that I wanted. Two of those options were the bed mat and mudguards. The dealership wanted $320 to purchase and install these (yes, the bed mat had an "Installation charge") so I opted to check out eBay. I ended up buying a bed mat and mudguards for $140 shipped from a dealership in Florida - Both brand new OEM parts! Save $180 over what the dealership wanted. I love the composite bed thus far, but the bed mat is a must since the composite material is like a slip-n-slide and anything that you put in the bed has no chance of staying put. I haven't installed the mudguards yet, but I mocked them up to see how they look. They are a little bulky, but the amount of mud that gets kicked up behind the wheel wells is obscene. Especially in the rear where mud actually gets flung up into the rear bumper. They may be bulky, but they will certainly do the job.

My happy sight sitting in the driveway:


Mudguards:


Brand new bed mat still in the original packaging:


The bed mat design fits perfectly (as expected) and is super grippy:


Hopefully I'll get the mudguards installed tonight. I LOVE THIS TRUCK!!

 

Dave , I guess someone has to ask ....
just wondering why your posting this in your first gen build thread ?
just my opinion , but it seems your build thread is getting lost in all the "other stuff" your posting ?



.

 

Yeah, I know... I'm overly excited about my new Toy and don't have anywhere to put it! LOL Yesterday I mentioned to the other staffers and forum host that we need to add a 2016+ Tacoma Build-up section to the forum so I can appropriately rant and rave about my new truck

 

Keep it here...I love the juxtaposition between the old and new. Both are great trucks.

 

I got the old girl out yesterday - sunny and 65 out so I decided to take my oldest son for a spin. I love my new Tacoma so much that I haven't really had the desire to drive my '83 much lately. Plus the weather has been a little prohibitive lately. To tell you all the truth, I have actually been thinking about selling it lately. I still love the truck and obviously I have a crap ton of time and money invested in it, but lately I haven't had the uncontrollable urge to drive it like I used to. Plus I think I miss the time spent and hobby of building it which has been driving me to consider selling it and starting a new project. Maybe I just miss the warm weather, car shows and cruising to the beach so I'll probably wait until the summer hits to decide what to do.

But my driveway sure did look good with both of my girls sitting out there...




In other news, my Pops decided that he wanted me to re-upholster and hardwood the bed of his '55 Chevy. He wanted to do varying widths on the wood flooring because "that's what they do on older trucks." I'm a perfectionist and a little OCD so deviating from the perfectly spaced even width boards was a very difficult concept for me to grasp, but it's his truck... not mine. So I had to mill, plane down and route out some white oak. He insisted on staining the boards himself so the finish didn't turn out like I would have wanted. I would have gone a little more darker and richer brown instead of a honey brown. Plus I would have piled on the lacquer and polished them out to a piano finish. But again, his truck... not mine. The bed strips are polished stainless with stainless hardware. I cut out some 3/16" MDF to do the side panels and fuel tank cover. Then wrapped the panels and wheel wells with 1/"4 foam padding topped with naugahyde fabric. It turned out pretty good (except for the varying width boards...)







The first car show of the season is this weekend so we'll see what the judges think...

 

Excellent job on your dad's truck!

 

I was about to sell my truck this weekend and buy this other one. But the loan didn't work out like i wanted.

 

That new Tacoma is sick!

If you sold the 83, what would you build?

 

Not 100% sure yet. Ideally I'd like to do a FJ45 half cab diesel, but they are hard to come by and are commanding a premium even for the rust buckets. I've also toyed with the idea of doing a 1932-36 Ford pickup hot rod or a 1966-77 Ford Bronco. I want to win some hardware at car shows which is hard to do around here with an import in shows dedicated to domestics - people just don't appreciate the rarity of some of these Japanese trucks.

 

After not driving my '83 for nearly a month, last weekend I fired it up (on the first two second bump with no choke of course!) and pulled it out of the garage to get it shined up for the first car show of the year (Last Sunday).





We met up and rolled deep up to the car show together with a '55 Chevy custom pickup (Pop's), '32 Ford hot rod pickup, '72 Chevy 4x4 pickup, '40 Mercury convertible, '40 Chevy sedan delivery, '56 Chevy 2 door wagon, '69 Camaro, '57 Chevy Bel Air, '57 Chevy pickup and my '83 Toyota. The car show was a small tavern about 30 minutes away so it was a nice little cruise to the show. We definitely turned some heads with the quality classics rolling down the road together.





When we got there they parked my truck up next to some monster domestic 4x4's:




The pictures above were taken when we first got there and I forgot to take more when everybody finally showed up. My truck attracted a lot of looks which really surprised me. A lot of it was the "aw man, I had one of these when I was a teenager" or "I had a friend that had one of these that we romped around everywhere in!" Then obviously being the sole import among about 200 domestics got me some flack from the peanut gallery. Mostly rednecks that just don't have an appreciation for the time and effort put into a restoration regardless of the vehicle. I even almost got into a fight with a guy that wouldn't stop running his month about me, but I was soon to have the last laugh... Out of about 30 4x4 truck entries I took home the hardware for best 4x4 Pickup! We pretty much swept the podium with the guys I rolled with - the quality of these vehicles is incredible! Here's what we all took home:

1st Place 4x4 Truck - '83 Toyota Pickup (ME!)
3rd Place 4x4 Truck - '72 Chevy Pickup

1st Place 2wd Truck - '57 Chevy pickup
2nd Place 2wd Truck - '55 Chevy custom pickup (Pop's)
3rd Place 2wd Truck - '32 Ford hot rod pickup

1st Place Coupe - '69 Camaro
2nd Place Coupe - '57 Chevy Bel Air,
3rd Place Coupe - '40 Mercury convertible

3rd Place Sedan - '40 Chevy sedan delivery

Best of Show - '56 Chevy 2 door wagon

Here's a picture of the Best of Show Wagon from a previous show:


We brought 10 vehicles of the 200+ registered vehicles and took home 10 of the 13 trophies! I'd say that was a good weekend!

Getting a trophy being an import among a sea of domestics was a great feeling, but hearing my Pops telling me "son, you worked hard on this truck and you deserve this" and seeing the smile on my son's face when they handed him that trophy is something I will never forget! I makes all the time and money I spent on this truck well worth it!



Hopefully this is just the beginning of a successful car show season for us!

 

Nice win!!! That is very cool, congrats!

Those big iron 'merican truck guys drive me nuts... I knew those guys way back in high school that thought their big V8 trucks were so much better than the baby Toyotas... right up until you get into the dirt a little bit and they start wallowing, breaking parts, etc. Again, nice win, way to show em!

 

Nice win...good to see a Toyota beat the American made. Is this your first win with this truck?

 

You should give respect to the work done whatever the car is, a beetle, a limousine whatever, I just don't get these people, really. Congrats on the win you do deserve this, nice import man :p

 

NICE ... congrats buddy !!



you can now consider yourself an " award winning builder "


.

 

Wow, what an awesome and comprehensive thread man. How do you like those Corbeau seats? I need to replace mine in my 83 and I was looking at those. Which brackets did you use? The Corbeau brackets?

 

Thanks guys! It was a huge win for me given the atmosphere and hopefully more to come!

They are pretty comfortable and fit well in the truck. I'm 6'1" so it is nice that they sit a little lower for me. I completely fabricated and replaced my floor pan so I ended up fabricating my own seat brackets, but I know somebody that used the Corbeau brackets and they fit perfectly.

 

Right on man. I ordered them I am 5'10 so hopefully with the brackets I ordered they are a perfect fit.