The "Hay Getter" - A sentimental truck gets a much needed restoration

My wife and I bought this 2001 Tundra from her grandparents back in 2009. When we got it, most of the clearcoat was already gone. I was determined that this year was going to be the year I finally stopped procrastinating and gave it the much needed love and attention that it deserved.

We run a non-profit animal rescue and this truck is vital for much of our operation - ranging from site projects, animal transport, and hay transport (for the horses). So I dubbed it, the "hay getter."

I decided to do the entire truck in Raptor bedliner due to ease-of-use and time constraints. I envisioned this restoration taking 2 weeks...it took 5. From July 30 to September 4, I sunk 280 hours (give or take) to this project.

Before pictures:






I started by fabricating a bed dolly and removing the bed from the frame.


It took a week of pure sanding, sanding and more sanding. I then used acid etch primer on all the bare metal and adhesion promoter everywhere else.





The frame was in great shape to begin with, but I was never happy with the material the Toyota dealership used for their recall on the frame rust (there were areas where you could run your finger over the rust inhibitor and it would just flake off). So I spent another week scraping all the inhibitor off and using Chassis Saver paint on the entire frame.




I tended to the battery tray area that had quite a bit of rust


and then got to work on shooting bedliner on the hardware, trim pieces, and front end







I then splurged on a cheap sound system upgrade over stock. I already had an old Eclipse HU in it. Added JL Speakers, and 8" powered sub, and a 2ch amp. I also removed one of the 3 cigarette outlets and added an aux input for mp3 function.



Fabricated a stand for the 3 pieces that make up the front bumper. Prepped and shot those.




Final additions were installing new headlights, new passenger mirror (to replace the broken one), new antenna mast that had been missing for years, and new wheels and tires. And here's the finished product.





I'm happy with the way it turned out. The wife loves it. At 81k miles, this truck still has a ton of life left in it, and I'm glad I was finally in a position to devote the time and effort this truck deserves....Next year, I think I'm going to take on the horse trailer.

 

Nice job, looks great.

 

That's a hell of a transformation. Truck looks great. The white trucks never had clearcoat. Just single stage paint. That's why it looked so bad.

This is a v6 truck right? That instrument cluster points to yes. The non tach clusters always look weird to me but I think always indicate v6. Just wondering if the timing belts been looked at any point.

Yeah toyotas undercoating was junk. Better off to wait for the frame to rot away and get a new one they just didn't tell you that was how that worked. Luckily your truck has low miles so it seems like it was spared from rot.

 

Sub'd Great work!

 

Yup, its the V6 base everything. Her grandfather was an odd duck. he special ordered the truck to have rollup windows lol. I never knew that about the paint. I only washed it a handful of times prior to doing this resto because there'd always be a puddle of white water afterward. Timing belt and water pump were done prior to the resto.

 

Fantastic job! How does that sub under the seat sound? I'm considering going this route.

 

It gets the job done. It's not going to shake your teeth...It doesn't have the deep "throaty" bass like my IDQ12 in a ported enclosure has (in my VW GTI), but it doesn't sound bad either when its properly tuned. Just have to taper expectations for a slim powered sub in general.

I went with the Amazon Rockville 8" powered sub.

 

Nice job! Looks very nice.

 

That’s good to know. I realize that a slim 8 will not deliver on the expectations of 2 12s
I have an AC and still need the back seat. There is a sub mod to mold into the under seat storage, but I like my storage

 

If you were ever interested in retrofitting electric windows and keyless entry into your truck, I did that to mine this past weekend
https://www.tundras.com/threads/electric-window-and-door-lock-conversion.131263/

 

Very impressive OP.

 

Love this! Nice work!

 

Don't give me any ideas! I'm done working on cars for now . After 280+ hours in 4.5 weeks on this truck, 14 hours on the wife's truck, I don't even want to look at a wrench for a while. I actually paid my buddy to handle the timing belt/water pump on my GTI because I just didn't have it in me (or the time), and that is a car I don't let anyone touch except myself lol.