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Wrecked 2000 Tacoma Build. New member, New Truck, New Build

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baja_beetle

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Olympia, Wa
I picked up this 2000 Tacoma for $2000 with plans on swapping its engine into my 93 pickup but I ended up figuring out that I might as well fix this up since it could be a pretty nice truck too. Its a 2000 Tacoma extended cab trd sr5 3.4 V6 5 speed manual Rear electric locker 6 inch fabtech lift with 35's. It didn't come with wheels and tires since the guy wanted another $1000 for his brand new tires and wheels and I wasn't about to pay that much for them for a parts truck so a couple pictures show my 31's from my 93 pickup installed on it so that i could tow it home. He had hit a tree texting while driving.
Front end damage
DSC05843.jpg

Passenger side
DSC05842.jpg

Drivers side damage with the 35's I bought and my tow truck
DSC05868.jpg
 
any cab damage/frame damage? Cut, Chop, rebuild. :awesomework:

Good luck.
 
Hey thanks. The extended cab on the drivers side was pushed in along with the door and the previous owner had tried unsuccessfully to pry it open. The passenger side frame was pushed in with the passenger front tire back a couple inches in the wheel well. Its at a shop right now hopefully up on the rack this second getting the frame straightened. I'm not sure yet if I can buy new extended cab sheet metal or if I'm going to have to find a donor truck to cut it from. I'm planning on throwing a 2001-2004 front grill and all the stuff around it since I need to get a new radiator support and all anyways. Now I just need to start finding some parts.
 
Well after waiting 2 weeks the frame shop finally gets it up on there rack only to tell me that they can't fix it. So there went $85 for nothing there. I towed it to 2 other shops today it looks like I can replace the front of the frame with a straight used frame that I would have to find and they would sleeve it and weld it. Either that or I could do a complete frame swap. I wish the first shop would have just told me that before putting the frame on the rack to measure it out and charge me.

So now I have to decide what to do. I could replace the whole frame if I can find a used one that's not damaged. That just seams like its a ton of work swapping everything over. I could buy a used front section of the frame and have it welded on. With those first two I will run into problems with the dumb fabtech 6 inch bracket lift because of the cut front crossmember and weather or not anything in the lift is bent. I would rather have a long travel anyways but how hard will it be to find parts and convert from a bracket lift to a long travel? Or my original plan was to part it out and keep the engine and ecu for a 3.4 swap into my 93 Toyota Pickup. Hmm any advice?
 
After all that? I'd stick with your first plan and swap the engine and all into a good chassis. Part the rest out and try and recover some of the money you've spent.

Just my thought.
 
Use the motor and such and sell off the rest if you can. That truck is just dead and really not worth the time and money needed to drive again.
 
IMO, definitely go with the original plan... nothing worse than spending a bunch of money on a rig only to end up with a rebuilt title and a vehicle that still isn't really "right". You can still recoup lots of costs of the parts rig by selling off the misc. pieces on craigslist.
 
Do a sas, cut the ifs and rack out of it and put a 1 piece glass nose on it. Oh and thats a sweet repo truck:awesomework:
 
Gosh I have been thinking about it all day and I still don't know what to do. I think it would be easier to part it out but I know that I could still build the truck into what I want for less than its worth with a clean title and all. If im ever ready to part it out I will post up a thread in the classifieds just not sure if I can part it out at my house and im still trying to figure things out since I was wanting to fix it up.
 
how bad is the frame bent, were is it bent?

and is it bent up,down sideways? pictures of the damage?
 
how bad is the frame bent, were is it bent?

and is it bent up,down sideways? pictures of the damage?

Here are some pictures and a little sheet of paper that I got for the $85 to check the frame. It has a few measurements on it. Click on the thumbnails to open the images larger.



 
I think it's just odd, after looking at the struts, that he towed it from the back... This is a 5 Speed, right?

Correct me, I don't know enough about lockers, but if you put the transfer case in the all Neutral position and unlock the rear, wouldn't it have made more sense to tow it from the front?

Anyway, I have no idea of your skill level. It just looks like a lot of work for something that may not work out. I know after I found out the frame was that bad, I'd be looking at it for a parts rig and getting my money plus some out of it.

But, apparently, Traildemon wants to help out here... :D
 
Is that oil or antifreeze on the lift kit? if its oil I would pull the core support out and make sure the block isnt cracked. and is the lift kit straight or did it get bent too? you might find a blown up one for 2500 or so and drop the engine & lift in it. you would probably have 5k into it, and a little bit of time but you would have a clean title in hand. you would probably be able to get a thousand or more just in the leftover parts after the swap.
 
just curious why your mad about them charging 85$ to look at your truck and measure it out. do you work for free? just curious
 
SAS it then wheel it! :bananallama::bananadance:
 
just curious why your mad about them charging 85$ to look at your truck and measure it out. do you work for free? just curious

I'm not mad at getting charged for the work that they did. Just mad that they should have been able to tell that it was too much damage to the frame without measuring it out. The estimator or whatever he was called told me that it would get fixed a week before they got around to just measuring it out and he was all sure it could be fixed all easy and such. I took it to two other shops after this one and they told me right when they saw it that the frame wouldn't be fixable. They didn't have measure anything out. I thought that it could be fixed but I don't work on frames.
 
I think it's just odd, after looking at the struts, that he towed it from the back... This is a 5 Speed, right?

Correct me, I don't know enough about lockers, but if you put the transfer case in the all Neutral position and unlock the rear, wouldn't it have made more sense to tow it from the front?

Anyway, I have no idea of your skill level. It just looks like a lot of work for something that may not work out. I know after I found out the frame was that bad, I'd be looking at it for a parts rig and getting my money plus some out of it.

But, apparently, Traildemon wants to help out here... :D

The typical way for towing any vehicle is with the drive wheels lifted. And with how a sling lift is set up with the j hooks and all the attachment is way easier with an axle and a metal bumper.
I can handle anything mechanical and some of the body work but I was going to leave the paint and the extended cab portion of the body work to a friend at a legit shop.

Is that oil or antifreeze on the lift kit? if its oil I would pull the core support out and make sure the block isnt cracked. and is the lift kit straight or did it get bent too? you might find a blown up one for 2500 or so and drop the engine & lift in it. you would probably have 5k into it, and a little bit of time but you would have a clean title in hand. you would probably be able to get a thousand or more just in the leftover parts after the swap.

Its just antifreeze. I am going to pull the core support anyways and check everything out but im sure the block is good. I don't know if the lift is straight or not or what the best way to check it would be. I would rather have a long travel anyways I'm not the biggest fan of the lift since I have heard that it decreases suspension travel. I just got the clean title all transferred in my name in the mail today. Not sure what im going to do with it now? I am fine with spending 5 or 6 thousand on it or more if I were to go with a long travel like I want. It looks like I could do it for that price still with replacing the frame myself with a good used one but it might cost about the same to find a truck with a bad engine and swap mine over.

SAS it then wheel it! :bananallama::bananadance:

SAS would be fun but for what I like to do a long travel would suit me better. I wish I could have both a SAS and a long travel but both aren't in the budget.
 
Is this build dead now??? If so, then I suggest either deleting it or I will close it until you're ready to actually build something (then you can pm me and I'll re-open it).:corn:
 
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