Well I figured it was about time to start one of these. First the name home depot truck is what my little boys named the truck a couple of years ago as thats what we would take to home depot to get stuff, and the name stuck. I have had this truck since 1995 and it was my first vehicle. Its a 93' 2wd standard cab, it had 3 options when I got it, ac, rear bumper and a sliding window. Over the years I have done many things to it and many parts have come and gone off of it. It has been stock, lifted, a prerunner, stock and now lowered. Growing up I beat on my truck hard, broken parts, and for the past five years it hasnt moved much (except for when I got divorced and the ex took the family car I had back and me and my boys drove it till I got the 4runner back). But it has been very very reliable for me. So now Im going to start a new chapter with it, it will be my "street rod" where I will show it much needed love, and be driven with more love as a kind of retirement from a hard life, as in its early stages and prerunner life it was airborne whenever I had a chance.

 

These first couple of pictures are from the day I got it and its first trip in the dirt.

 

Nice man glad to see that it has a good owner who cares. So wheres the pics at from all these stages you had it?

 

So the first mod I did was to add a stereo and speakers. I think the first 6 weeks of driving it with no tunes helped me to learn how to drive it better. So right before I graduated I lifted it for the first time with a 3" body lift. It was then I added 30" generals and my wheels that I ran for the past 15 years (15x7 ar-23"s). I ran just the body lift for a couple of years before I actually did suspension work. I also did some engine work to pep it up a bit. I added a cam, k&n, and throttle body from LC engineering. Around 2000 I added sway away torsion bars, fabtech upper arms, and fabtech shackles (shackles were only on 3 months). Over the next few years I changed the bed and fenders for fiberglass, changing the bedsides to tacoma conversions and 3 different front ends.

 

So at this point I got really into the desert scene. I removed the carpet, bench and door panels. I had seat mounts and suspension seats installed by a local fab shop (beard super seats, an amazing seat). I ran aluminum door pannels and had the same shop build a rear tube bumper. In 2005 I became a father and had a house to take care of. So I began returning the truck to more usefull purposes. So I sold the bumper and bought a bed with a bed floor and a tailgate. The seats got sun damaged and I sold the seats and mounts and put a bench and carpet. I sold the door panels and put the stock ones back. I sold my tacoma conversion fiberglass and put my fourth front on.

 

Once I became a father again and reaching my 30's I figured I was done with the desert scene. So sold off the rest of my fiberglass and replaced it with my 4th bed and factory metal. After one last trip to the desert in august I parked it and began pulling the suspension off and sold it all off. origionally the stockness was going to be temporary until I could convert it to a solid axle family off roader. But the idea or possibly rolling it and further damaging it was something I didnt want to risk. So a three weeks ago I began the process of lowering it. I started with a ball joint flip and spacers. I scored a set of 18" is 350 wheels and had them machined to fit.

 

So over the weekend I lowered the rear and I put the torsion bars in. I did a
3" block and removed the middle leaf. I also went to pick-a-part and found the steering column cover. In the rear Im running 245/40/18 and 225/40/18 in the front. I have yet to drive it as i need to get it registered and finnish tightening everything I removed and reinstalled.

 

So thats where we are today plans for it are
-rock a static drop for now (may bag later)
-work on the body to get it nice and straight so I can repaint it factory dark blue,
maybe even have some old school pinstripes thrown on it.
-roll pan to replace the factory dented one.
-drop spindles and shocks (should order those once the tax refund hits)
-shell or tonneau cover.
-and most importantly drive it again

 

Wow Lots of transformations! All of them looked great. Awesome!

 

Yeah, I think you get the award for most looks on one truck.

 

wow man thats crazy, are you going to keep the stuff you put under the hood

 

Yeah im definatly going to keep the engine parts. I have never driven it stock or low with them installed, so im curious just how quick it will be with them. I also forgot I have a header, lc adjustable timing gear and a slighlty oversized head. When it was lifted and not areodynamic it was quick and still got 25mpg. so low and areodynamic who knows.

 

Looks great man. I would use a tonneau cover instead of the camper. But its your choice

 

Yeah im kinda leaning towards a tonneau. Any ideas on what fits to widen my search.

 

Based on the fact the rear of our beds kinda narrow and then taper into the corners its a bit hard to find hard tonneaus from other trucks that fit perfectly. I have a hard tonneau from a 97 Sonoma on mine. It kinda hangs over the front bed sides a bit and doesnt quite make it to the corners but it serves its purpose and looks really good from 10 feet away. If you can weld or know someone who can Id say just make your own cover/ a few lenghts of 1/2 square bar and some weather grade marine vinyl should set you right and will cost a fraction of buying a new or used hard or soft cover. Im selling mine FYI but assuming shipping would be more than I would sell it for going to Cali anyway.

Either way if you can find one off craigslist or other local classifieds you can always go to the persons house and see if it fits before buying. Id say S10, ranger, nissan hardbody/frontier and most other yotas would be the same bed size roughly

 

hahah nice thread i love all the info i think it great that there are other people who want to keep there first rides for all long as they can that what my plans arelove the truck can wait to see out in the streets maybe cruise it to

 

I liked it with the tacoma taillights. How did you get those to fit on a 89-95 bed?

 

i think those are tacoma bedsides

 

Yeah those were tacoma conversion bedsides. They were about 5" wider (the bedrail over the tire was about 6" wide and made a nice shelf for drinks) and had the pu body line before the tire and tacoma after. They went really well with the 01' conversion front end. Basically I could never sell my truck, so changing things up made it seem like I had a new one.

 

And I found a tonneau. The guy I sold some suspension parts to had one on his truck and since he's going the prerunner route there is no need for one. So I should pick it up over the weekend.