Welcome to what has now become the The Tiki Cruiser build.
This is going to initially be a retro active build thread to catch up to where the truck is now, fast forwarding through the boring parts. This is the truck in her original glory:
These are actually the photos from the listing online from about December 2018. Not bad looking for 480,000 miles at the time and only the second owner. And for the whooping price of $2,250 I decided to go crawl under it and check it out. I swore to my wife I was just going to go look at it and wouldn't make it any rash decisions without her...lol I drove it home. The guy selling was not a car guy but he basically took to Toyota whenever he had an issue and let them do whatever they told him it needed. Not the world greatest maintenance records but good enough and very little rust aside a bubble spot on the rear hatch and some surface rust on a cross member.
As my wife began raging into the phone about why I bought this the check engine light came on...luckily it was just an O2 sensor. But thus began a solid 9 months of wrenching just about every other weekend on it.
In the first 6 months I did a pretty mix of things both maintenance-wise and getting it trail ready. I get a steep discount on certain aftermarkets parts so I've been than willing to them a shot on any non-engine destroying related parts while anything with bearings and engine related I've stuck to OEM. In the first 6 months I did a pretty mix of things both maintenance-wise and getting it trail ready:
- o2 sensors
- Timken wheel bearings, new hub flanges, and OEM reboot
- drain and fill F, C, and R diff with mobil1
- grease the drivetrain
- Moog/Beck Arnley stabilizer links
- Moog/Beck Arnley UCA and LCA and ball joints
- Rancho Adjustable shocks
- replace all the vacuum hoses
- clean the MAF and Throttle body (it honestly wasnt that dirty)
- also did outer TRE's hoping it save the wobbly steering, it made it better but ultimately had to replace the steering rack and power steering hoses
- Reman Steering Rack
- 285/75/R16 BFG K02 All Terrains and lazy plastidip of the rims
- ARB front bumper
- Smittybuilt x02 10K# winch w/ wireless remote (awesome btw and unstuck me 3x!)
- Cheap Chinese aluminum roof rack
Later on by end of the first year of ownership I had:
- fan clutch w/ 30,000 cst cillicone oil
- SS brake lines
- Wagner thermoquiet brake pads
- new fan shroud
- new CSF radiator
- new OE idler puller, tensioner pulley, alternator belts
- Aisin timing belt, timing tensioner, water pump
- OME medium springs
- rear stabilizer links
- new Fuel Pump
Later on:
- Overland Pros 2500mm 270 degree awning with walls
- homemade pvc shower tank
- quick fists shovel and axe mounts
Basically everything but spark plugs, coils, starter, and alternator...so theyre probably next. Starter is less than 150K old and same with plugs. So might just carry a spare alternator from now on.
in addition I guess I've done some oddball PM things:
- Sea Foam induction clean
- BG EPR before oil changes
- BG MOA with oil changes
- couple rounds of BG44K in the gas tank after the above
- for the last three oil changes I've sent a sample of the old oil off to Blackstone labs for testing and on the last one I sent some transmission fluid off to be tested. So far everything has come back with glowing reports. One of the tests was done at 10,000 miles on the oil and it still looked great.
Since getting the truck I've put 35K miles on it. Done all the work myself thanks to this site, would have never been able to afford to maintain this otherwise. Has been towed twice to my shame, once for the fuel pump (we were back on the road in an hour), and once I had beat axle with low splines and lock washer with no tooth and the axle slipped on the highway, used my AAA deluxe to tow it to my friends driveway where we put the new CV I had in my garage on and welded a tooth onto the lockwasher and got back on the road 6 hours later. All part of the fun!
Having a truck with 500K miles has been fun and painful, in one sense you don't care what happens to it, in another sense you're never surprised when something breaks and every noise makes you paranoid. I just try to be responsible, I got AAA deluxe, always radio, emergency staples, and some tools.
Been all over the Virginia/West-Virginia mountains, Asheville, done about 3 trips to Florida and back, camping on the beach in SC and the OBX, all with our three kids 4 and under.
This is going to initially be a retro active build thread to catch up to where the truck is now, fast forwarding through the boring parts. This is the truck in her original glory:
These are actually the photos from the listing online from about December 2018. Not bad looking for 480,000 miles at the time and only the second owner. And for the whooping price of $2,250 I decided to go crawl under it and check it out. I swore to my wife I was just going to go look at it and wouldn't make it any rash decisions without her...lol I drove it home. The guy selling was not a car guy but he basically took to Toyota whenever he had an issue and let them do whatever they told him it needed. Not the world greatest maintenance records but good enough and very little rust aside a bubble spot on the rear hatch and some surface rust on a cross member.
As my wife began raging into the phone about why I bought this the check engine light came on...luckily it was just an O2 sensor. But thus began a solid 9 months of wrenching just about every other weekend on it.
In the first 6 months I did a pretty mix of things both maintenance-wise and getting it trail ready. I get a steep discount on certain aftermarkets parts so I've been than willing to them a shot on any non-engine destroying related parts while anything with bearings and engine related I've stuck to OEM. In the first 6 months I did a pretty mix of things both maintenance-wise and getting it trail ready:
- o2 sensors
- Timken wheel bearings, new hub flanges, and OEM reboot
- drain and fill F, C, and R diff with mobil1
- grease the drivetrain
- Moog/Beck Arnley stabilizer links
- Moog/Beck Arnley UCA and LCA and ball joints
- Rancho Adjustable shocks
- replace all the vacuum hoses
- clean the MAF and Throttle body (it honestly wasnt that dirty)
- also did outer TRE's hoping it save the wobbly steering, it made it better but ultimately had to replace the steering rack and power steering hoses
- Reman Steering Rack
- 285/75/R16 BFG K02 All Terrains and lazy plastidip of the rims
- ARB front bumper
- Smittybuilt x02 10K# winch w/ wireless remote (awesome btw and unstuck me 3x!)
- Cheap Chinese aluminum roof rack
Later on by end of the first year of ownership I had:
- fan clutch w/ 30,000 cst cillicone oil
- SS brake lines
- Wagner thermoquiet brake pads
- new fan shroud
- new CSF radiator
- new OE idler puller, tensioner pulley, alternator belts
- Aisin timing belt, timing tensioner, water pump
- OME medium springs
- rear stabilizer links
- new Fuel Pump
Later on:
- Overland Pros 2500mm 270 degree awning with walls
- homemade pvc shower tank
- quick fists shovel and axe mounts
Basically everything but spark plugs, coils, starter, and alternator...so theyre probably next. Starter is less than 150K old and same with plugs. So might just carry a spare alternator from now on.
in addition I guess I've done some oddball PM things:
- Sea Foam induction clean
- BG EPR before oil changes
- BG MOA with oil changes
- couple rounds of BG44K in the gas tank after the above
- for the last three oil changes I've sent a sample of the old oil off to Blackstone labs for testing and on the last one I sent some transmission fluid off to be tested. So far everything has come back with glowing reports. One of the tests was done at 10,000 miles on the oil and it still looked great.
Since getting the truck I've put 35K miles on it. Done all the work myself thanks to this site, would have never been able to afford to maintain this otherwise. Has been towed twice to my shame, once for the fuel pump (we were back on the road in an hour), and once I had beat axle with low splines and lock washer with no tooth and the axle slipped on the highway, used my AAA deluxe to tow it to my friends driveway where we put the new CV I had in my garage on and welded a tooth onto the lockwasher and got back on the road 6 hours later. All part of the fun!
Having a truck with 500K miles has been fun and painful, in one sense you don't care what happens to it, in another sense you're never surprised when something breaks and every noise makes you paranoid. I just try to be responsible, I got AAA deluxe, always radio, emergency staples, and some tools.
Been all over the Virginia/West-Virginia mountains, Asheville, done about 3 trips to Florida and back, camping on the beach in SC and the OBX, all with our three kids 4 and under.
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