Bachworks
New member
Always wanted to make a build thread so hears my go at it. Going to be a couple years worth of photos and what not to catch you guys up to where it’s at now but This is my 96 ext cab Tacoma 3.4 5 speed 4wd 
Got the truck at the end of 2019 for 1500$ with 402k miles and a bad fuel pump. Bought it from my step father who owned the truck since my freshman year of high school. Spent many hours rallying this thing around on gravel roads and dirt trails growing up here in the pnw.
I originally had been collecting parts to long travel my 2000 4Runner but decided against it due to the Tacoma being an easier to build platform for what I wanted to do with it. All I had was an mcm fab 3.5 over LT kit for it at time (bare kit no shocks,axles or bumps) that I purchased soly because it was all I could afford and was the cheapest on the market that I could find.
Wasn’t another 2 years before I even got the truck running, I had no choice but to fix it and drive it after sheering the motor mounts off the frame of my 4Runner jumping it at the dunes .
This was a big wake up call for me that I really needed somthing that was dedicated for this type of driving and not my daily driver lol. I slowly began to source all the parts I needed to get the kit mounted and truck sitting in the new front suspension.
If I could have done this over again I would have just bought shocks from mcm but I thought I was smart and could save a dollar by running a universal 8” coilover (almost half the price) of “long travel spec” coilover most company’s sell with their kits. Come to find out there is a reason for that. Somthing to do with a custom short body that allows for the full amount of suspension travel that the kit is capable of (13”) I’m not entirely sure what all is different I just know I am limited because of that. Along with the custom shock body the coilovers from ads that mcm sells have top hats aswell, my coilovers did not so I sorced those from camburg along with the brake lines because Tacoma and 4Runner are different. This was a headache that I really would have rather not dealt with but I ended up making it work.
I wanted to get the truck sitting on the long travel even tho I don’t have anything for the rear yet expect a solo Motorsport outboard shock mount kit that I’m still not sure if I will even use.
Started by stripping the front of the frame for paint (I used black steel-it) expensive stuff but it lays down nice.
Came out pretty good I thought. After this all I needed to finish up the prep work was weld my spindle gussets from total chaos before I could mount coilovers and the spindles back on.
After I got the rest of that stuff done I minted the shocks and spindles back on the truck and got it sitting in its own weight.
And that about sums up the longest long travel install I think anyone has ever done lmao took way to long to get to this point but having the truck on wheels with the kit installed gave me the motivation I needed to finish it. At this point I still needed axles and those of you that know oem tundra cvs are not cheep so once again I thought I could save some money by running the orileys or any auto parts store replacements for the time being. They bind up pretty quick and are definitely limiting the down travel so I’ll have to be careful till I can get the correct cv axles. I also sorced a bottle of nitrogen and a fill kit so I could charge the shocks. After that I took it for its first drive in almost 2 years.
That gets us pretty up to speed on where I am at today with the truck it still needs bumps straps and a new steering rack at the moment as well as the rear suspension addressed (it’s still completely bone stock) some other small stuff aswell I have to send the coilover back to have resi fittings changed and clocked but I’m slowly getting there.
Got the truck at the end of 2019 for 1500$ with 402k miles and a bad fuel pump. Bought it from my step father who owned the truck since my freshman year of high school. Spent many hours rallying this thing around on gravel roads and dirt trails growing up here in the pnw.
I originally had been collecting parts to long travel my 2000 4Runner but decided against it due to the Tacoma being an easier to build platform for what I wanted to do with it. All I had was an mcm fab 3.5 over LT kit for it at time (bare kit no shocks,axles or bumps) that I purchased soly because it was all I could afford and was the cheapest on the market that I could find.
Wasn’t another 2 years before I even got the truck running, I had no choice but to fix it and drive it after sheering the motor mounts off the frame of my 4Runner jumping it at the dunes .
This was a big wake up call for me that I really needed somthing that was dedicated for this type of driving and not my daily driver lol. I slowly began to source all the parts I needed to get the kit mounted and truck sitting in the new front suspension.
If I could have done this over again I would have just bought shocks from mcm but I thought I was smart and could save a dollar by running a universal 8” coilover (almost half the price) of “long travel spec” coilover most company’s sell with their kits. Come to find out there is a reason for that. Somthing to do with a custom short body that allows for the full amount of suspension travel that the kit is capable of (13”) I’m not entirely sure what all is different I just know I am limited because of that. Along with the custom shock body the coilovers from ads that mcm sells have top hats aswell, my coilovers did not so I sorced those from camburg along with the brake lines because Tacoma and 4Runner are different. This was a headache that I really would have rather not dealt with but I ended up making it work.
I wanted to get the truck sitting on the long travel even tho I don’t have anything for the rear yet expect a solo Motorsport outboard shock mount kit that I’m still not sure if I will even use.
Started by stripping the front of the frame for paint (I used black steel-it) expensive stuff but it lays down nice.
Came out pretty good I thought. After this all I needed to finish up the prep work was weld my spindle gussets from total chaos before I could mount coilovers and the spindles back on.
After I got the rest of that stuff done I minted the shocks and spindles back on the truck and got it sitting in its own weight.
And that about sums up the longest long travel install I think anyone has ever done lmao took way to long to get to this point but having the truck on wheels with the kit installed gave me the motivation I needed to finish it. At this point I still needed axles and those of you that know oem tundra cvs are not cheep so once again I thought I could save some money by running the orileys or any auto parts store replacements for the time being. They bind up pretty quick and are definitely limiting the down travel so I’ll have to be careful till I can get the correct cv axles. I also sorced a bottle of nitrogen and a fill kit so I could charge the shocks. After that I took it for its first drive in almost 2 years.
That gets us pretty up to speed on where I am at today with the truck it still needs bumps straps and a new steering rack at the moment as well as the rear suspension addressed (it’s still completely bone stock) some other small stuff aswell I have to send the coilover back to have resi fittings changed and clocked but I’m slowly getting there.
