Barlowrs 06 Taco Expo Build Thread

wow...this truck is amazing...easily my favorite build. Great job!

 

Not sure how I missed this build for so long but great job putting everything together man! Really loving how you kept your interior clean and uncluttered, I'm a huge fan of everything being clean and squared away inside the cab.

 

this is a sickkkkk build!

 

Well I am revising my whole interior (lots more to come in next few weeks), however, one thing that has always bugged me was the stupid hangers for the CB and HAM handset, I always thought they were hideous, so I decided to change it up. A friend of mine (4RunAmok on Expeditionportal.com) had a great idea of using magnets to hold the comm handsets, so I got to be the guninie pig, and sure enough they work amazing! (I beat the crap out of her on the trail and they hold on tight).



It’s a very simple mod, Just get some rare earth magnets (common these days) and mount them wherever you want your handsets. I mounted mine behind the lower center panel.







Then just change out the back clip on the handset to a magnet of the opposite pole, and viola, completely hidden magnetic mounts:

 

Well for an upcoming mod, I finally decided I needed to black out my hood, so rather than spending a lot of money on vinyl or expensive paint, I decided to give plastidip a try. I previously used it on my emblems. So first off I took the hood off and masked off where I wanted to black out. I also removed the hood scoop and painted it separately. Then I started with 2 cans of platidip. One thing to note, as all online tutorial say, you need to do heavy coats around the tape so that the paint is still wet when you remove the tape, otherwise it will peel..mine came off perfectly and left very crisp, clean lines.









The plastidip works perfectly!!

 

You were probably wondering why I blacked out my hood..well here is the reason. This is an Alien 50” LED Bar (bright as HE!!).





Because I am getting the flippac, which opens up over the hood,I had to be careful to not mount it too high, so I decided to fab up some custom brackets that will put the bar out over my windshield and practically flush with my roof line.



First up was templates:





Then I got some material. I want them light but strong. Originally I was going to use steel since I have to do somre pretty large bends to go from my rain gutter to the outside of the 50” bar, but I decided to give 7075 T6 a try first, if it breaks during the bends, then I will go to steel (T6 isnot really meant to bend at all).

Well, as you can see, the aluminum bent just fine (it was REALLY close to snapping haha). I then welded the feet to it so that they would fit in the rain gutter. Then I drilled all the holes. I also machined around the holes to make room for a socket to tighten them down (remove material from weld) as well as add clearance to the bottom to allow for the head of the rivnut.







Since the access cabs do not have holes for the factory roofrack I had to drill and install rivnuts in my roof. Its pretty straitforward as long as you have a rivnut tool. Just drill, add a LOT of silicone since it’s your ROOF) and install rivnut. I chose M6 to make them standard with other bolts on my truck (Good call Mark).







Then a bit of black rustolium and viola:

 

Well since I am revampoing my interior and adding a bunch more lights (LED Bar and many more) I decided to revise how my wiring is done for these. Also, if anyone has ever been driving down a dark road with their auxiliary lights on, and a car come around a bend at you, I’m sure you have noticed how much of a PITA it is to switch 5 million switches off to get all your lights off to not blind them (or maybe I’m the only one, but I hate it), so I decided to wire up my main auxiliary lights (Lightforces on bumper and LED bar on roof) to be able to either independently switch with an internal cab switch OR trigger on and off with my high beams. To do this I derived the following circuit:





The reason for so many relays is so that my high beam harness does not get overloaded and also so that I can use standard 40a relays available everywhere. I could have reduced it by one relay but it would require at least a 60A relay, and that is a pain to get if you need one in a pinch in the middle of nowhere.

So onto the mount…like my aux fuse block mount I got some stainless, and bent and drilled it as follows:



Then some rustolium and you have:





Using rivnuts again, I made a spot above the steering rack to mount the bracket; this also keeps it close to the aux fuse block (power supplies)









Then I started working on the harness for the relays (based on the circuit above)





And here it is all mounted. And the circuit above works great, everything can be set to “Auto” to go on and off with High Beams, or they can be set to “Off” to stay off, or “On” to stay on (it’s a 3 position switch for each light)

 

And now for the best mod to date.



DISCLAMER: If you do not know what a Flippac is, I advise you not to read any further, as it may result in you wanting one and spending a LOT of money to get one. Otherwise, continue (but I warned you).



OK, for those that do not know what a flippac is, it is basically a camper shell that opens up over your cab/hood to form a tent. The result is a Full/Queen sized mattress over your hood and a cull 7” or so of standing room in the bed of your truck. This basically makes your truck a mobile apartment.

I got my Flippac from adventure trailers (http://www.adventuretrailers.com/flippac.html). They are FULLY customizable, with LOTS of options. For now I got no side windows, so it is very secure and just fiberglass on the sides. I may later add a windoor on the passenger’s side to give me easy access to the fridge mounted in the bed.



Once I start building the flippac out, I will start a new thread like this one for it, so watch out for that.



Anyway, here are a few shots of the interior mattress form this weekend.

Mattress:





Standing in the bed looking up to mattress:





Here are a few of the tent collapsed (this is how you normally drive around, pretty low pro, and you still have an normal truck bedf or storage/load carrying, just with a camper on the top.













Here are some deployed with the “$hit is hitting the fan rain fly” installed:







A few at night of JUST the tent, no fly:

 

Damn curse you TW

 

Gonna have to steal the magnet idea for my comm. Good stuff!

 

Looking good like always buddy!!!!!

 

I like the magnet idea. Where did you get them from?

 

Cant remember, some random webiste haha. just do a search for rare earth magnets. You can also get them McMaster Carr, or any place like that.

 

Is that your truck on the sPOD site ?

 

yes, he asked if he could use it a long time ago

 

Very cool , I thought that was your rig

 

So now I really want to put a light bar on my roof to go with my 30 in on my bumper way more now after looking thru your build... Thanks!!!! That 50 fits pretty good right their, you got any night shots?

 

Absolutely love your truck.