Chicken's Truck

Closer shot of the red lugs

 

Did an oil change and tire rotation on the Trek over the weekend. Had to pull it up next to the tundy, all the Methods.

 

just put in a request for a California personal plate for the truck...

It was available.. so I submitted it. Now to see if it gets approved by dmv

 

Still no update with CA DMV (shocking...lol).

I drove the truck up to our cabin in July. Had some work to do around the place. Drove it down to the lower part of the property to get some stuff removed from a shed. I decided to throw it into 4-lo to make the climb out that much easier, but could not get it into gear. I got into 4-hi just fine. Tried a few different times but no luck.

Thought that i might be the actuator that throws it into gear.. watched a lot of videos on problems with them, and how to potentially free it up.

Was on my long list of projects to do, but not near a priority. A few weeks went by and I took the truck to pick our son up. Pulling back into our neighborhood, I decided to give it another go. BOOM, went right in. Drove 5 or 6 blocks home in 4-hi to get everything moving. Im guessing I was just on a weird angle/incline where the gearing just didnt line up right. So I was able to check one small thing off the list.

 

You shifted into Neutral before pushing 4LO button, right?

Any update on the POS TRD?

 

Yup went N before 4lo.. im chalking it up to the truck being at a strange angle when trying to put it in while at the cabin.

No DMV update either way yet. I did check their site and it says that personal plates you can expect a 6-9 month wait... Typical CA DMV hahah. I placed the order mid July, so just coming up on 6 months this/next week.

 

Holy crap! That's some bureaucracy for you right there. To think you may go all that time and get rejected. If it gets rejected, maybe retry with a zero? P0STRD looks like 'postered' but I guess you could try P0S TRD, may not be so obvious. Assuming CA allows O and 0 like GA does.

RE: 4LO. The one time I had it fail to kick into 4LO from N, I tossed it in reverse and rolled back a few feet, and it engaged. I can't remember if I went back to N after R or not, I was a little panicked thinking about "oh feck, I know this'll be expensive to fix if broke...."

BTW - I normally don't like Methods, but that looks really good with your truck. I'd toss out a suggestion to consider wrapping the chrome bumper to body-match it. And get some Griot's trim restore to black-out the skirts and bumper plastics.

Do methods really use the beveled-edge lug nuts? How weird, I thought those lug nuts were only for steel wheels.

 

Yea its absurd... it took a long while even pre-covid. Just the way CA DMV rolls

Yeah I was not super stoked to try and either fix or replace the 4x4 actuator haha. Thus far seems to be good! That reminds me that I should pop it in 4lo and drive it around the neighborhood in the next couple months too.

Yup all methods ive owns take the beveled lugs!
Thanks, I thought they would look good, and turned out better than i imagined.
I actually want to just bedliner both bumpers and possibly the fenders and door trim down the side. Also thinking about possible getting some new(er) style vinyl and wrapping the whole truck under the door protectors with a black bedliner style vinyl.


Something like this: https://vvividshop.com/products/vvivid-indestructible-wrap-black

An example of it, though doing the whole truck like this guy is overkill IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyA8H45Fzeo

 

I love this idea. It's also a lot smarter than spray-in bedliner directly onto paint. Water can (and does, inevitably) get in between spray-on bedliner and paint. When it does, this is what happens. https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1205#post-2562971

I don't care how well someone preps. If standing water is an issue, or you don't properly treat any edge where the liner meets a corner, water *will* get in. Not a matter of "if", but "when". Same is true with powder coating. The adhesive on vehicle wrap creates a moisture barrier, which should prevent water from getting up under and doing the same.

 

Yea, id much rather just bed liner the plastic fender flares and such that I could take off, prep, and coat. If they turn out like crap, or end up selling the car at some point, you could just replace all those bits. I agree Id rather not line over the paint, partially due to what you mentioned, and again if it looks like crap.... cant easily go back. The vinyl would be simple to remove.

 

Well got a letter in the mail from DMV today.
Thought it was much too early for the reg on the Crosstrek, so figured it was going to be a denial letter for the Tundy plates.

Opened it up, and it ended up being the reg for the Tundy... but... BUT.. BUUUUUT... it has the new plate on there!!
Guess it was approved and I just havnt gotten the letter yet lololol!

 

Called DMV. Plates are in fact approved - approved mid Dec.
They said allow up to 90 days to get them, they will ship them straight to the house

 

Nice build.

 

Tis that time of (every other) year here in California.. took the truck in for biannual smog, passed without issues

Currently sitting at 79,548 miles - meaning I put on fewer than 1,700 miles in the 13 months ive owned it. Most of those miles were from my wifes best friend borrowing the truck while her car was out of commission for a week as well lol.

 

Plates arrived over the weekend

 

Welp, just filled up the gas tank, first time since March of this year lol.
Im about 190 miles shy of 80k for the truck.

Gotta love these California gas prices

 

Puppy got a ride in the truck for the first time.
Think ima need a new battery for the truck since it doesnt get driven very much. Will also hook up a battery tender for the new one to keep it in good shape.
I think im about 70ish miles away from ticking 80,000 miles on the truck.

 

Well, just over two years of ownership and put on just over 2k miles to tick 80k as I pulled up at home from grabbing lunch today.

 

Well, I love the truck, but it is probably just more sentimental since it was my gramps truck (he was the original owner).

Ive owned it for almost 3 years and have put on less than 3,500 miles on it (it's sitting just over 80,000 original miles).

Main thing is, nugget 2.0 has arrived. I could get 1 rear facing car seat in the back, but to get a front facing, id have to push the front passenger seat up so it was basically useless, and still would only be able to fit 1 car seat in the back. Plus the dog wouldnt really fit, in the truck alone lol (year in a half old Great Dane).

Thinking about selling this (assuming somewhere between $10-12k for the local market here in Northern California) and use that money to get something bigger. Either a first gen Sequoia or Lexus GX. Ideally not come "out of pocket" any money with whatever I get next. The Seq/GX are both slightly smaller than the Tundy and have a better shot of fitting in the garage as well. My gramps always had it garaged and the roof has been getting beaten by the sun and started to lighten up.

Ive got a buddy with a first gen Seq and he's going to let me drive it home this weekend to play with fitment. I think Id rather get the GX, as they are even a bit smaller than the Seq, but the broverland tax on them is nuts.

Id keep the wheels/tires and swap those over to the new rig, and keep the vanity plate hehe.

 

Send some pics with condition. A 2002 AC 4x4 with 80k miles in great shape will sell for much more than $12k in your area. Potentially double that.

 

I know during the height of the used car craziness a couple years ago, I could have easily sold it for 18k, but not sure the market is still there?

Bunch of pics and condition in my build thread here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/chickens-truck.81575/
Did all the big maint when I first got it in Jan 2021. Upgraded BT stereo (still have the stock one too).

Only thing not shown is that the bed was backed into in a parking lot (no one left a note ) Its pure cosmetic, and I think some PDR would make it look way better but the paint was damaged too. But id rather have small dent/paint damage than a big dent with paint damage lol.

 

There’s a dealer in PNW that would beg to differ about the current market for these. Clean it up and fix the body issues and they sell them for $22k + all day long. BAT sees $30k sometimes.

 

Hell throw it in the TUNDRAS FOR SALE forum and see what happens... https://www.tundras.com/forums/tundras-for-sale.100/

 

Gotta have a price set. I would start at no less than $20k if I were OP in his area. But, I would fix the dents and get it in Primo shape.

 

I would definitely put it at $20k, as optioned, slightly more miles than mine. The V8 + 4WD is a winner all day long with the best cab type you can get.

We've seen a number of similar in the Sac and Bay area in the $17k-22k range while checking Craigslist. Worst that can happen is OP puts it at $20k and someone asks for 2% less.

 

holly cow!! Great info to know.

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions thus far all!

 

That’s insane considering a base 2002 AC v8 with steel wheels went for around $24-25k originally new.

 

I remember your truck now. Really good-lucking combo with the red and the new wheels. Will sell it easily on this site. Upload a pic of that crash damage and get a quote to fix it and either (1) fix it to get top dollar or (2) know how to negotiate lower offers because you have a number in your head.

 

Thanks!

Just walked outside and snapped a few pics.. not the greatest since its up against the house.. this is how the truck lives 95% of the time now



^^
The rear bumper has a small ding on the lower left, that was from my gramps.




The bed damage: