The Slowest Build Log Ever! (Ethan's Tacoma)

[ethan_leonardo]

So this thread will be about my 2000 Toyota Tacoma. Everything I do will be posted here. Trust me it's a lot. The truck needs a lot of crap, such as brakes, suspension, tires, as well as countless cosmetic fixes. The main thing is this thread will be moving SLOW, I mean over a year at least slow. Some of my goals is to do all the maintenance myself (except tires). Do the sound system completely myself, and make this the best looking 2000 Tacoma there is. This truck used to be in service at my dad's business. I made him an offer on it when he retired the truck. The truck has 215,000 miles on it, and it still runs strong.

Enough with my boring history lesson, let's get to the pics.

Some things I've done to it in no particular order.

-installed a new Kenwood Radio (factory took a crap)

-cleaned the inside

-polished and compounded the paint

-put air in the tires (lol)

-hollowed out the catalytic converter (I live in Alabama, we don't have to have them inspected, and the truck ran great after doing this)

-changed the oil

-installed new wiper blades

The first piece of the puzzle is the new used radio. I have a new Kenwood in it now, but this radio is much better.

The Alpine CDA-117. My favorite radio

All 3 Preouts do not clip at max volume

The next thing to do is to take the face apart and clean it up. Some gunk didn't allow some of the buttons to move freely.

Gonna try to buff out some of those scratches with some compound.

The picture on the right above is after buffing. Sadly, the picture doesn't do it justice. There is a huge difference before and after.

So in the mean time, I have been spraying clear coat on the blue buttons on the left hand side. Anyone who's seen an old Alpine radio with these

buttons will know what I'm talking about when I say they have a tendency for the print to rub off. These buttons still look good, so I'm trying to preserve them. I plan to spray at least 6 coats on them, then wet sand and polish.

[ethan_leonardo]

Long story short, Walmart clear coat sucks. It ruined the blue buttons, and some of them broke while being sanded and buffed. I am looking into finding an old Alpine faceplate or radio that I can pull the buttons from.

[Smoove]

looks like a good start

[ethan_leonardo]

As promised, the progress is slow. I picked up a CDA-105 intending to swap the blue buttons on the side, but they are different sizes. On the bright side I started using Photobucket, which allowed me much bigger pics.

There is a website that sells the 117 front plastic and buttons, but of course they are out of stock. If I can't fix the buttons, I will probably throw the 105 in for now. It's in good shape too.

I got this for $10 on ebay. It needs a new antenna but that's only $20

This iPod was free. I plan to put music on it and leave it in the glove box. I plan to find a bluetooth adapter for the radio.

I got a guy checking for 2 used tires for the front. The ones on the front have bad wear from not being rotated, and I don't want to put new ones on there. I don't like the look of the tiny 15 inch wheels on the truck. I plan to put 17s or 18s maybe. Toyota made some 17's for their older tundras and sequoias. If I could find a set in a junk yard that would allow me to get new tires and later order some nicer wheels. I think KMC Rockstar II's would look great on it.

Also, I need to get stuff to take the letters off the side of the truck. Then it will look better and I won't have to blurr them out of pics.