I began this project out of necessity in 2013. My Tacoma was rusting in areas it shouldn’t have been mainly due to salt water intrusion from carrying kayaks on top of the roof. In the first part of this story, I had the rusted areas cut out and new metal placed and primered by my friends at Jack’s Collision in Bonita Springs. About a year later, I returned to Jack’s and we came up with a custom single stage paint color to dress the old girl up in. I asked for the dents to be left, I liked the character. I liked the results, a darker version of the original, and Dave from Jack’s surprised me by painting some of the black parts as well.
The paint job didn’t complete the project, however, and once more the Tacoma took a back seat to other first world problems I was having. A lengthy and mentally draining adventure into the world of real estate effectively kept me from writing, enjoying the outdoors and any other projects I had going on. Eventually things began to normalize and my attention drifted back to the old girl.
Winter was coming, and in Southwest Florida that means outdoor time. I wanted to get the Tacoma ready for the Everglades. I began in earnest to work on the details of the “restoration”. My truck is two wheel drive, but I where I go in the ‘Glades requires clearance, not swamp buggies. The natural clearance of a Pre-Runner is good, and I really don't need much more. I had a choice of installing a small suspension lift or replacing my highway tires with larger all terrain light truck tires. Since I needed new shoes anyway, I chose Hankook Dynapro ATMs and gained an extra inch. The rest of the suspension was in good shape for being 11 years old, so I left it alone…for now.
In years past I would weekend in the Everglades with my little Ford Ranger and throw a tarp over my roof mounted kayak or canoe while camping in the truck bed. Since I plan to carry kayaks and other gear in the bed I was faced with tent camping on the ground which, in the ‘Glades, is not always a good option. After doing some research I decided on a rooftop tent. There are many different options and I decided on a Cascadia Tent over the bed. While designing an over the bed rack that would hold the tent on top while allowing kayaks to be stored under the rack in the bed, I came across a rare Tacoma short bed topper on Craigslist. I scooped it up that weekend and after applying a matching paint job courtesy of Jack’s, installed it. I also added some heavy duty racks to accommodate the rooftop tent.
Next came the front end lighting. Years of abuse had left some side and running lights cracked or broken and the headlights bleached out beyond the point of restoration. I replaced everything up front with OEM parts and the results were dramatic. I added a pair of low mounted off road lights and discovered you get what you pay for. They will be replaced with higher end LED lights along with some lights mounted higher for seeing over the sawgrass.
All in all, the old girl looks pretty good. There is still some work to do with some fine tuning. Adding the tent, lights and blacking out what little shiny chrome remains. I will add satellite radio as there is little reception where I like to visit and my “Everglades kit” which I will detail in later stories. I have plans to spend a lot of time in the Glades this winter fishing, kayaking, camping, hunting and photographing rare birds and wildlife and my Tacoma will always be there in the background.
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