MowTaco's Mini Build

hmm i think they did change when they changed the body syle. unless the wheel wells are bigger on yours haha

 

Looking at it you wouldn't think the shackle would clear at all but it does... nothing has broken yet...

 

i should try it lol

 

so you had to put wheel spacers in the back because the spindle in the front pushes the wheels out so much? thats the only bad thing about fabtech but they have really good products.

 

hey man can you post a pic of the pass side with the beefed shackles?

 

I was wondering if you your tires rub when you go over bumps? I'm going to install the same spindles and also I'm going to get the same rim and tire size as you have on your taco...I just want to be sure...thanks man.

 

Matt your truck has really come a long way. I like seeing mods from the beginning to now. Reminds me of a few I started out with too, like the stock air cleaner mods, etc. I love seeing pics of different 5 luggers fixed up. Starting out like simple stock ones we all see every day, and then becoming cool looking like you'd see in the desert or out on trails. Awesome!

 

do you think 2 of your kragen 7" lights would fit behind your grille with your flush mount billet?

I'm thinking of getting a grillcraft and trying to fit two behind it...

 

Sorry to threadjack, but i think they will fit with a flush mount grill but why spend so much on a grillcraft, just get some HomerTaco mesh and flush mount it yourself

 

I dont know how the laws are where you are, but i have two coats of niteshades on my headlights and havent been hassled yet about them. I have 6 coats on my tail lights and when i had my signals i had 6 on them... and so far havent been pulled over for it! But really nice build so far man! I want a billet grill

 

did you ever find a locker? i want to get one but i dont want to go 6 lug rear end or pay $1,000 for a ARB set up. nice build

 

So it's been awhile since the last update... First of all, ^no I don't have a locker yet but plan on an Aussie locker at some point.

I decided to plastiderp my bumpers back in August of 2011 (this was before it was the thing to do and I got flamed for it a lot, fuck y'all I'm a pioneer )

chrome:



masked:



Done!



Rear before:



Rear after:



Some outside shots





I'm laughing looking back now, as this was when my dad was driving that gold Impala you see in the driveway. It was a loaner after I blew up his Suburban :O, he ended up trading it in while it was in the dealer's shop on a new one as that was the second Vortec 5.3 we had blown up in that particular vehicle. Some kind of flaw in that one, both were within warranty so no harm no foul

It looks like that's when I had a CB antenna too, I put the antenna on first and never got a CB then I lost the antenna somewhere on I90 in South Dakota so I kinda abandoned that idea.

Next, I got one of the lightbars Snobord was making (I don't think he's around anymore). I took the bottom valence off the bumper thinking I was gonna make a cheap prerunner bumper with a skid plate coming off the bottom of the metal part of the bumper. Never got the skid plate made either and it's still sitting like it is shown in the pictures. I think I'll get a full tube bumper at some point so I'm abandoning the skid plate idea. I ended up giving the valence to a friend that hit a deer with his Taco



My friend's sweet two tone '86 is sitting beside me in the picture, man I loved that thing. I would've bought it when he sold it but it was pretty rusty underneath and I didn't have the funds.

Next came 4 7" Kragen HIDs from a group buy to fill up my lightbar. They are awesome, super bright. I wired them to come on with my brights.





That pretty well takes me through my Freshman year of college. Not a whole lot of time for working on the truck but I had lots of fun running fire trails with it in the Black Hills. After that I had a pretty sweet summer internship at home and had some money to throw around, so I focused it on some new toys besides the taco.

Very stupidly bought this POS:



It's currently sitting in pieces in my bedroom in my apartment being parted out. I got ripped off by a punk kid on craig's list. Rode it 10 minutes, broke it, fixed it, broke it again running in the driveway (didn't even make it to the lake that time) and then I said fuck it I'm done and am now parting it out.

Also bought this:



It's been way nicer to me and I love it, it's only a 250 but I had never ridden any motorcycle before buying it so I figured I'd start small. Again, the Black Hills have been an awesome place to live with it, me and a few friends that have bikes have a blast riding through all the twisty mountain roads.

Next mod was the "deathmobile mod". Our homecoming parade theme was movies so my fraternity decided to do Animal House. Nobody was stepping up to do the float so I pretty much built this myself (although it really wasn't much "building"), only had help on the last night painting stuff.





I thought it was awesome. We all dressed up as characters from the movie (mostly in Togas) and I got a hard hat and a sharpie mustache to look like D-Day. There was a contest to judge the floats and none of the judges had even heard of Animal House, fucking nerd engineering school kids. We even had the grill running throughout the parade and were handing out burgers (the F-250 hooked to the back of the truck has a gas grill under the hood) and still no prizes. Oh well, we had fun. Even got some media attention:

http://www.blackhillsfox.com/2012/10/13/Students-celebrate-M-Day-with-parade-and-tailgate-party

I love the scene where the kid is walking behind the grill, he's super fat and I was going just fast enough to make him huff and puff through the whole parade route. You know, to make him healthy and stuff Our stadium is a drive in so there's 3 tiers of parking where you see us in the video. It's awesome cause we can tailgate throughout the whole game and watch from pretty much the sidelines.

Anyway, winter 2012 was upon us and that meant snowboard season. It's always interesting in the 5 lug and I keep my tow strap handy for stuff like this:



Couldn't even get my driver door open in that one I was in so deep, slid off a driveway trying to back out.

Most of the instances were harmless, until that one fateful day in January (Or February, not quite sure). We went up to the ski hill on a Saturday in a snowstorm and for whatever reason I was driving. I made it up just fine and was impressed with the little taco yet again. Coming down was a different story, it had iced up and the road was a skating rink. I was coming down a long straight downhill with too much speed. I couldn't get it slowed down, tried the brakes and downshifting and both tried to just spin me around. Finally as I was coming up on a guard rail I let off everything and hoped the front tires would catch and drag me out of it. No such luck, I smashed into it going probably 20-30 mph. Glanced off and finally came to a stop. After making sure everyone was ok I jumped out expecting the worst. Surprisingly, no body damage. Since the tires stick out so far the passenger side tire took the entire impact:



I got it home after that, but it was the sketchiest ride of my life coming down Spearfish Canyon in a snowstorm with the squirreliest vehicle I've ever driven. It was pulling me all over the place. Got it into a shop to survey the damage the next week and found this:



It bent the LCA and tore the frame as shown. I found a new LCA from this guy:



And brought it to a shop to get it fixed. They welded some washers to the crossmember to get it straight again and aligned it for me. The taco was back. I noticed some rubbing still that wasn't there before the wreck, but I figured it was the inner fender that got deformed from how bad it rubbed on the trip home.

I got the truck home for the summer (May 2013) and noticed on the 700 mile journey my front pass. tire was totally bald. We got it into another shop (our trusted family mechanic) to check the alignment. Turns out the lower ball joint was broken in the crash, even though I told the first shop to check it and they found it to be ok. This is why I do my own work typically, but this repair required welding and an alignment so I hired it out. So the second shop replaced it and aligned it. I ended up with a new set of tires too. I thought "oh, the alignment was my problem all along so the rubbing should be gone now" NOPE! Still rubbed. So I got down and crawled around under the truck for the first time since the repair (I don't know why I didn't do it sooner, mostly cause I park in a lot that was either snow or mud all winter) and here's what I found:



That looks sketchy to me. That nut was also only hanging on by about 2 threads. I tightened it and have been checking it weekly ever since. I took some measurements too, the passenger side tire is a full inch closer to the mudflap than the driver side, explaining the rubbing. I don't go back to school until January, so I'm rolling with it till then when I can get back to the original shop and raise hell. It's aligned straight now, so I don't see how driving it will harm it until then. My frame is looking pretty rough rust wise, so I'm thinking it'll be ready to replace in a couple years. I have till 2019 being an 04. So that will permanently fix the issue if nothing else. I'm thinking come new frame time I'll also be going LT since I think I could get them to install part of the front with the reframe. I'm also researching turboing it now, as I'm kind of sick of the 2.4's lack of capability for highway speeds. Plus a turbo'd 2rz prerunner would be purdy damn awesome and I know if I don't do it soon I'll end up with a wife and a family or some shit to take all my money so I need to act soon while my priorities are straight

Whew, that's about 2.5 years in one post. I'm all caught up now. Time to go back to work.

 

Got damn. One crazy ride man!

 

I know this thread hasn't been touched on in a while but with the lift and tire combo how off was your speedo?

 

I usually figure it's about 5-6% off. 75 indicated is 80 on a GPS

 

That's not too bad. You and your truck have inspired me to do something similar, if you could would you change anything about your set up?

 

I think bigger tires would've looked better, but definitely would've been pushing it on stock gearing. Also, looking back, she looked so much nicer with the stock bumper on there before I chopped it in half and put the lightbar on.

 

Well all good things must come to an end. I always said the only way I'm getting rid of her is if insurance took her from me... and I managed to make that happen





I rear ended someone at an intersection and my lightbar really did a number on the front end. I still wonder what would've happened without it. So she's been replaced with this:



It's an 03 GMC. It's no taco, but having a V8 and 4x4 should be a welcome change.