92Shawman's 1992 3VZ-E SR5 Pickup

Is "local welding shop" an actual business name or is it just a generic term, like "hardware store"? I can't find anything with that name in particular online, but there are some places that sell welding stuff.
We actually don't have any OSHs here in San Diego, either, which is interesting.

I had to go up to LA today for my visa and on my way back stopped by a junkyard and pulled a rear view mirror, a steering wheel trim piece, the washer fluid canister cap, and a parking brake switch off an old 4runner, all for $10! Score! The rear view mirror will definitely fit, but the color is different, unfortunately. The other pieces I'm hoping will fit and work but no big loss if they don't.

 

Gotcha, thanks! Just when I thought I knew something about what I was doing...the acronyms always get me.

 

LWS == generic name.

Look under "welding" on the Google Praxair is a pretty big one that's probably around you.

 

Haha, yeah I googled "local welding supply" and Praxair did come up. Also Grainger, Ace interestingly enough, and Fastenal (not sure about that one, but the map pin was in the same place as the new Lowes...). A bunch of other places farther away, but still in north county SD.

I ended up just using the cutting disc that came with my angle grinder and it lasted the whole time, so that's cool! I cut out the back part of the bed beneath the tailgate and then needed to cut out some parts of the bedsides to accommodate the supports that go out to the wrap-arounds, so I cut those notches but then it got dark. Need to cut a little more on those sides but then the next thing is drilling new mounting holes in the bumper brackets, so it's pretty close!

 

All set up! Had to take it off to paint the spacer pieces that take up the gap between the bumper mounts and the frame, so once those are dry tomorrow it'll be good to go!





I could've tucked it closer to the bed but it looked like it had its tail between its legs when I did that. So I made the gap between the bumper and the bed under the tailgate match the gap between the wrap-around wings and the bedsides

 

What? That looks awesome!!

 

Thanks, guys!
Yeah I'm really happy with how it looks. Turns out there are some minute differences between the two (my truck and 1st gens), even though the rear ends look pretty similar. The bedsides go out a little farther on first gens and curve in more at the bottom on my truck. The frames are 1/2" different width-wise so I bought some 3/16" plate to fill the gap on either side, with a little left over to allow the bumper to squish on a little. And the mounting holes are different, too, so I had to drill new holes on the frame and bumper. The holes that I drilled in the frame seem like they might be a little too close to the end of the frame (3/8") so I might decide to weld the spacer plates on eventually to strengthen it. But for now it's good enough! I just really wanted it on to make sure it worked

 

Picked up/received some goodies today. I bought a bunch of air fittings for setting up some quick-disconnect spots for airing up tires with the new compressor. Hopefully I'll get that all put together tomorrow.
Then I received these little doodads in the mail:


Bolt LEDs for the license plate and a pair of LED festoon dome lamp bulbs. That lamp hasn't worked since before I started driving this truck...probably hasn't for the past 10 years. Now with the bright LED in there it's AMAZING!! I tried to take cell phone pics of the difference between map lights and the dome light but my phone camera really sucks and it wouldn't capture any light, so I'll try to get those on a real camera tomorrow night.
I need to pull the dome light assembly down and clean the electronics, though...it's all corroded in there so the light flickers a little sometimes when turning it on.

 

Haha, shut uuuuuup. I got a pair of the bulbs so I have an extra. We can do a trade with that (if it fits, of course) and some beer for your welding. I'd really appreciate that, thanks!

 

Well today I set up all the fittings and hose for airing up the tires.

I have it set up where it goes from the compressor out to a big block of various fittings that I'll somehow mount inside the rear driver's-side fender right above the slider. The tube is only about 3 feet long for that, and it goes into a shut-off valve that isolates all the other fittings and the rest of the tubing so I don't have to worry about making them super leak proof.
The valve is attached to a T fitting that has one branch that crosses the truck to the same spot on the passenger side where I have a quick disconnect. The other branch just goes straight into a quick disconnect fitting.
I had about 15 feet of extra tubing so I made a tire filling extension thingy that plugs into each quick disconnect and goes to just a schrader valve attachment to go on the tires. I don't have a gauge on it because I use just a hand-held gauge for airing down so I figured I'd just use that for airing up, too.

The compressor works pretty well for airing up, but it does get really freaking hot, so I think I need to put new tubing and sealant at the compressor end that is rated for higher temps. The tubing might be okay but the sealant I used is only rated for 125F, and it definitely got hotter than that.

Other than that it aired up all 4 tires from about 17 to 36 psi in 10 minutes, including walking around and moving the hose around time, so that's pretty good in my book.

 

Bumper is looking good man!

 

Thanks! It's allllmost done...

The flip-down license plate bracket came today so I drilled and tapped holes to mount it, got it mounted with the plate and the bolt lights threaded through.
Then I tested the bolt lights before crimping them all together and only one of them works.

 

More progress on the air lines today.

I went back down to Marshall's hardware and found a fitting that goes into the second solenoid space on the compressor. Turns out it's 1/8" BRITISH standard pipe thread, so I had to shell out $10 for an adapter from british to national pipe threads. I don't know if that's that bad of a price, but when all of the other fittings there are in the range of $1-3 I was surprised.

I found a website that said to put 4-5 wraps of teflon tape on air fittings instead of the 1 3/4 that my dad said works best. 1 3/4 worked well on the solenoid and the pressure switch, but for some reason it just wasn't working on these other fittings. So I tried 4-5 wraps and a lot of the leaks were at least greatly reduced, especially the ones outside the truck, so that's awesome!
At the compressor end I have the male british to female npt adapter, a male 1/8" NPT to female 1/4" NPT adapter, and then the male 1/4" NPT threads on the end of the tubing. For the tubing and the male 1/8" NPT threads I'm using a high temperature sealant and for the 1/8 british that actually goes into the compressor I'm thinking I'll just use teflon tape because I can see needing to take that tube out more likely than needing to take the fittings apart. Besides, I can get that fitting pretty leak-proof with just teflon tape, it's the 1/4" NPT ones that are giving me grief.

So now I'm just waiting for the sealant to cure for 72 hours before I disturb them by screwing them into the compressor.
And I'm waiting for the bolt lights to come so I can finally finish the bumper.
Lots of waiting...

 

Almost ready to go!

 

The lights came early!

Finally took some real pictures instead of cell phone ones.
DSCN9886_edit_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9887_edit_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9888_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

The outer edge of the wrap-around wing lines up pretty nicely with the farthest out point on the sliders, which is nice.
DSCN9889_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Trimmed out a big chunk of this area on the bed to fit the cross bar. I also had to trim some of the bedsides where the side support comes in. Not much, though.
DSCN9891_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Drilled and tapped two new holes for the bracket, and the old holes were conveniently open for the wires from the license plate lights.
DSCN9892_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

The plate lines up pretty nicely
DSCN9893_edit_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

It clears the tailgate in the normal position, but if I have something in the hitch I'm betting that the lights will hit the tailgate if I drop the tailgate, too. Good thing I will likely never tow anything!
DSCN9894_edit_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

 

And now for some of the OBA setup.
Driver's side:
DSCN9895_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Air comes directly to the shutoff valve, then to a T, then to the two quick disconnects.

The passenger side:
DSCN9896_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

All ziptied temporarily. I'm still trying to figure out the best place and what hardware to use to mount them. I'm open to any suggestions!

Leftover hose for the tire filler:
DSCN9897_small by 92shawman, on Flickr


DSCN9898_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

It will actually reach all four tires from the driver's side if I bring the hose over the hood, so technically I don't really need one on the passenger's side, but it'll be nice if I ever need to air anyone else's tires up over there.

And going into the compressor:
DSCN9899_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

I'm going to keep the plug fitting in the truck in case I have to disconnect the air hose to run the locker. You never know.

 

Had to do the hi-lift test.
Pretty much maxed out the hi-lift, but that tire is off the ground! And the bumper didn't budge

IMG_20150221_151430_094_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

 

Thanks, Ben! Your truck and new subie are lookin' good, too!

 

The bumper looks good Kevin glad it worked out.

 

Thanks, I'm glad, too! And thanks again for holding it for me.