Tacoma Great Adventure How to Make a pick up into a sleeper bed
Daughter is gone to sell Christmas trees in New York City.There is a point when a parent no longer is in control. That sentence may not make sense to you during a pandemic. It's making me sad.She's a photographer with a variety of frailties that make this a point of worry.I said, "I believe this to be an awful plan and that you won't make the money you believe to be easy windfall."
She wrote a plan to sell the Jeep which had less than sixty thousand miles but the bed is too short for camping and had become expensive to maintain the six inch lifted suspension. She didn't want a giant truck. She didn't want a four door truck. She wanted a smaller pickup which would be easier to park but also could accomodate a sleeping bed and room for camera equipment. This came to older Japanese, Toyota Tacoma being the winner on the yellow pad list.
I attempted to sell the Jeep while she was in Cambodia. I took photographs and listed it on Craigs List, Facebook and a car waste of time site. I paid $23,500 for it and had added about $9000 of improvements- back gate, lifted, custom windows, wench, all kinds of off road tools as we live on a ranch off grid. I started with $17,000. which after three weeks, no bites. It must be price. I lowered to $16,000 and got a number of offers for $11,000 which sounds easy in a sentence but since I live fourteen miles from town and half of that is a dirt road, it's not so simple to meet people to test drive. This game played for a month. A lady who could not climb up in her high heels and was afraid to drive the Jeep had been my closest to selling.
Work demands and life got in my way, so I stopped paying the five dollars for the thirty day add, and resigned to making for sale signs for the vehicle. The signs did nothing, again because my location is remote. Meanwhile daughter was trying to get home from South East Asia. The President announced the border was closed to China, this was never true. Daughter flew back from China to Hawaii in June 2020. She believed Hawaii was safer than California, in fact Taiwan or Cambodia handled the virus better than here in the US. When she finally came back to California she was ready to sell the Jeep to move back east. We under- estimated the time to sell and buy.
My brother in law gave us some tips and tricks to selling a car online. He took more photographs of details. He told us to also list and daily make some change to the listing to get it up to the top of the que. He had us scrub and polish every inch of the happy red off road beauty with 59118 miles. I started thinking she should keep the Jeep as I had taken excellent perfect care of her, yes Veep is her name. Daughter was still laser vision on a truck to camp in and now the boyfriend back east had her dreaming of making big dough in New York City at Christmas.
After 11 people test drove our buyer came to us.
"The lucky disciple." I said to my daughter on the phone.
He once owned same model same candy red color Jeep. He arrived on time on a Saturday with his High School buddy who adventured with him. I knew that Veep had her new family. (Veep is the name of the Jeep).
"Now with cash in hand we can shop for the Tacoma."
I focused on trucks that kept mileage down, daughter hunted for trucks that already had a camper set up. Both these conditions are limiting, and given how much cash we had on hand...
We shopped everywhere. We drove to Oakland to see a truck she fell in love with only to see that it had lots of wear and tear and rust underneath which was not as described.
We saw an advertisement for a truck with 69201 miles and the price was good. We called him and the guy sent daughter strange texts, as if he was drunk dialing. When we went to the park near his house, daughter got an anxiety attack. I spoke with him on the phone and realized his lingo was the same as another truck I saw on Craig's list. I kept quiet. He gave us his address and parked in front of his house was five Tacomas all which were Craig's list ads with low miles, older car, different name of advertiser. After examining the truck it was clear this man was dialing back the odometers by a hundred forty thousand miles and is a con man. He yelled and screamed at me to deflect his con. I left but did put a notice to the DMV, wonder if they do anything?
Finally when all seemed too late, too lost as weeks had passed and it seemed driving to New York in time was not possible: the right one came along. My brother in law also gave good advice about: EXAMINE the PERSON you are buying from. You want someone who is honest.
So we got the Tacoma and took it to my favorite vehicle repair guy: Caars in San Juan. Unfortunately the car needed almost ten thousand dollars in repairs to make it safe. Also J W Transmission wanted another three grand in tranny work. Because of the pandemic getting parts for an older car is a real nightmare. I learned how to shop on line for a HUB - there was only one in America for the car, sigh.
Meanwhile I watched Youtube videos on how to make the camper bed into a sleeping camper in a hurry. I settled on cutting 3/4 inch plywood into two pieces each sixty nine inches long (I have a Subaru and the pieces had to fit inside the rear to get up to the ranch to assemble without the pick up while it was being repaired in town.) My advice: measure four times, twice in daylight. That's the best I got. I had Home Depot cut the 2 X 4 pieces in store to save time.
I purchased: 3 rolls of reflectix insulation (one 48 inch one and the two others 24), and 4 rolls of velcro. I had two wool blankets, staple gun and spray adhesive to cover the plywood to avoid splinters and add warmth. Two old queen size sheets to absorb the moisture that will drip down condensation inside.
The mattress was tricky. No normal mattress will fit inside the 69 inch length. We went to Ikea but the parking lot was crazy full and I got scared about all the covid people crowded inside, so nope didn't go into the mob. First I found a upholstery store in Santa Ana. I called them but they failed to mention they had a big fire and couldn't sell their foam (after we drove up there). Daughter has a little cry right here after the fire store sends us to the smelly upholstery store.
"I can't sleep on something that has rat feces Mom."
"Okay no problem..."
I never get discouraged, there were a couple foam places in Los Angeles and we call this wonderful place that cut the four inch foam in the exact size and it was sixty dollars (not the $150 the first guy wanted).
After becoming an insulation expert I learned about R- values a long time ago when I took the contractor license test. I decide to fold the foil bubble wrap reflectix and make a collar inside around each piece that fits inside the recesses of the camper top. By using wood glue I increase the depth of reflectix to two inches with a one inch air cushion inside thus increasing the ability to keep the camper warm in snow.
formula just to make you cozy
before pictures note the inside is all curved and your 2 x 4 pieces will need some hacking and chipping to fit inside
here you can see the ceiling panels 
some pictures of Veep before I scrubbed every inch of her at my sister's house I'm posting the pictures because I myself still have fond memories of my first cars and wish we kept them all
