Three Pack of Tundras

At my son's suggestion, I am going to set up this thread to tell the sometimes sad and sometimes happy tale of three first-gens that are in our lives.

My teenager needed a learn-to-drive car. We have enough sloppy weather here in Wyoming in the cold months, that I insisted on a 4x4 for him. Found a 2000 single cab 4x4 that had had a rough life, and bought it at a pretty decent price.

Here it is the day we got it:

 

As you can see, it is a Long Bed Leroy. We called it Buford for a while. Sure ran good, though. Took the capper off the back.

 

One evening, the boy says he wants to go up to the mountains and do some shooting. Good, clean fun, right.

The shooting turned into some driving which turned into some inattention, and I know I never got told the whole story.

This happened:

 

It was dragged unceremoniously from the water, trailered off the mountain and down to our house. Despite our hopes, it was hydrolocked. Buford had ran his last mile. A waste, because it ran pretty danged good, despite the harsh treatment it had received earlier. Now it is a parts truck.

We found this one on a used car lot not long afterwards:

 

Truck number two is also a 2000, but the larger cab and shorter box. We sorted out a few issues, and the boy is driving this one today. Fingers crossed. He slid off the road a few months ago and took out a barbed wire fence. Scratched it up a bit, but he learned something, I guess. I hope he doesn't hurt himself.

He is paying for this one himself.

 

The boy has a younger brother who is his constant companion. And, as some of you know, @REESE77 is an older brother. So I figure, we have one parts truck, a lot of knowledge of first gens in the family, and two first gens that are doing great. May as well get another one. The younger boy said he wanted an Accord. So we compromised and got him, you guessed it, a first gen Tundra.

Here it is:

 

So, I have a 2014. We have one 2000 parts truck, and another 2000 that runs good, a 2001 that runs good, and a 2004 that we are helping @REESE77 with and we are all learning on.

 

@Tundra2 I found your spirit family

 

Wish I coulda been a fly on the wall during that conversation.

Boy: I want an accord!
Rigger: we ain't getting no damn sissy accord!
Boy: but daaaaad!
Rigger: no! You're gonna drive a Tundra and like it!
Boy: fine.
Rigger: fine.

 

Great story. Looking forward to hearing about #4...

 

@bmf4069 You're cracking me up!

My boys are construction laborers, so they are often on jobsites where the ground conditions demand a 4x4, so an Accord is just not a good choice.

He was pretty accepting of my decision, though.

 

To be thread specific, here is your 3 pack of Tundras

 

Love it!

Do you have an FJ40 also?

 

Wrong tundras but thanks for playing.

 

Great pic @snomoman !!

@rock climber I assume you are asking me about the FJ40 - yes, I have a 1969 FJ40 that is mostly original. She's a work in progress. I call her Hard Ways.

 

We like these JBA OffRoad UCA's.

 

I took that photo at a gas station, all of a sudden 2 other tundras pulled up, I considered it a “Kodak moment”…. Haha
We all also had something in common, gas thirsty big ol V8s

 

Nice! Lemme know if you need a part not already available on your parts truck. What’s the interior of that parts truck like?

I have two boys as well, 7 and 5, I pretend I bought them trucks ahead of time but I’m really not sure I can trust any of my trucks to them. They mostly break stuff.

 

Went out to check oil in the 2001 (Ohwundra). The hood latch release cable is somehow dorked up. It has a hard time releasing the latch. Also, the hood won't close properly; it won't close and latch. I removed the latch and bench tested it. It seems to work fine. Maybe the hood round bar doohickey is too high to properly engage the latch? I removed the metal latch protector so that, push come to shove, I have a way to release the hood by sticking a screwdriver through the grill. I'm still not sure what is wrong. The release cable seems to slide okay. The latch seems to work okay on the bench, but when I lower the hood, it won't latch.

Hmmm.

Edit - turned out the problem was the cable was kinda sticky in the sheath so just needed some lubricant. Got it working!

 

Damn this is sweet

In the future I hope to have my first child's vehicle be an 80s yota pickup, or perhaps a 60s/70s classic in some kind. Something fun for me to use as a project to teach the kiddo how to wrench and drive

You're a good dad

 

Love this post, thanks!

 

Added wheel spacers to the Ohwundra. Need to post a pic of it. Check.

Opened the passenger side timing belt cover on the 2000 to inspect the condition of the timing belt. Belt looks great. Check.

 

I feel like you need a regular and double cab to complete the collection.

 

If you look at Post #4, you will see a double cab in background. That one was for sale at same time as the one I bought. I should have bought them both.

 

The kid got a set of 16x8 FBK's w/ Toyo Open Country tires. Looks great!