Built by a 14 year old (with some help from my dad)

Hello Tacomaworld,

Yes, I am 14 years old and I convinced my dad to let me buy a Tacoma to work on that will be my DD once I get my license. I have been saving for a long time for a truck and my dad offered to match anything that I made or saved.

After a long search, we bought this 2008 Access Cab 4WD TRD Off Road.


We got it pretty cheap because the owner had missed the frame recall and it had a few areas that were rotten though. Mileage was not bad at 130,000 and it had a manual transmission, which I wanted. It also included alot of extras that I figured I could sell to bring down the cost even more (wheels and tires, soft topper, BAMF sliders, BAMF Front Bumper).

Build Plan:

Body:
Bushwacker flares
Raptor lined exterior in super white
DIY Front and rear tube bumpers
2012+ hood/grill/headlight conversion
TRD Pro Grill
Cab mount chop
Pinch weld clearance

Front Suspension:
~3" lift, SPC UCA
Welded cam gussets
Spindle Gussets
URD front diff sleeve

Rear Suspension:
SOA with Icon RXT leafs
BAMF shock relocation
DIY rear shackle reinforcement

Interior:
Repair drivers side front seat bolster that is worn through

Brakes:
4Runner caliper/rotor upgrade

Wheels & Tires:
295/70-17 Yokohama M/T Tires
17" Method NV Silver

Exhaust:
DIY Stainless Y-Pipe and CAT back, dumped at rear axle


Mods:
Clutch Accumulator delete
Locker Anytime
ABS Kill Switch

We are building for New England Trails

 

Awesome! That's the same program my dad and I used when I was getting ready to drive.

I bought a wreck with low miles and he bought the same car with no drive train. I removed the good drive train from the wreck and installed it in the un wrecked car.

I still buy and rebuild my daily driver Toyota vehicles to this day.

Congrats on getting your hands dirty and saving loads of money!

 

Congratulations and welcome to Tacoma World. You'll find a ton of information that will help you in this journey. You'll have a great time wrenching and making memories with your dad !

 

Thanks. I am looking forward to turning it into a great truck. We have already sold the wheels and tires, the softopper and the factory front bumper. The frame isn't that bad and we were going to repair it, but then this brand new frame popped up local.

It was a still a roller, with front and rear diffs and suspension when we got it. The story is that this truck just got its frame replaced, then had an interior fire. This guy bought it and parted out everything else, then just wanted this out of his yard, so the price was pretty good. We already sold the rear axle from it and still have almost new leaf springs, front diff, and front suspension to sell.

Here it is with a fresh coat of POR-15:


Only issue is that this is from a double cab. We took very careful measurements of our frame with a plumb bob before buying this and we think the only differences are the rear cab mounts and the front bed mounts. The plan is to cut them off of our frame and move them over. They are discontinued from toyota.

 

Love the story and drive. And bike. Best of luck, I'll be following along! Sub'd.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of this build/adventure.

 

The bed removed:

 

For the cab, we used 2 material handlers that are both rated to lift 1000 lbs. We barely cleared the engine when we rolled the frame out from under it.

 

We made this dolly for the cab to ride on while it is off.

 

This is gonna be good

 

And here is the rolling chassis:

 

Hell yeah kid don't let anyone discourage you. Great work so far!!!

 

Damn... VERY cool!

 

This is awesome!

 

Keep up the great work and keep us posted, please.

 

We made these engine lift plates instead of buying the toyota ones to save money:


The bolt onto each side of the engine for lifting:


We lifted out the engine and transmission together with a home made spreader bar so that we were not putting side load into the lift plates:

 

Here is some of the rust, not too bad, but since the new frame was available, we are replacing this one:

 

Awesome !!! Great project for you and your Dad, the knowledge you’ll get doing this will last you a lifetime, keep up the good work !

 

When I was 14, I was struggling just to change my bike tire. This is very impressive and I can't wait to see the end result.

 

Congratulations on the purchase and welcome to TW. Looking forward to watching your build progress from what looks like a pretty untouched 2nd gen. You've clearly done your research and know where you want to go with the build which is going to save you some headaches and mistakes down the road Super cool father/son project.