Igor: Double Cab 4x4. Frankenstein's Helper

So I guess its time to start this thread. Meet Igor:

SCS Wheels-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Front diff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This is my Daily driver Tacoma but will slowly be modified to do my long distance more Overland/Expo trips. Frankenstein, while he has served me well on these trips, is just becoming too much of a true rig/race truck to drive long long distances on the highway. I'm hoping to take the knowledge and experience i have learned in building Frank to really make Igor and capable yet comfortable truck.

RearLift-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

MODS:

• Suspension
  • Extended Travel King 2.5 Coilovers-No preload
  • 8 leaf Alcan leafs with Fox Factory series piggy back resi shocks
  • OME Grease able Shackles Stock Height
  • Wheelers super bumps front with custom shims
  • Wheelers rear super bump kit

• Wheels/Tires
  • 1st Setup:
    • Stock 16'' Alloy rims on 265/75r16 Hancooks
  • 2nd Setup:
    • 2nd genTRD Sport alloys with 255/80r17s
    • Allpro 1.5" spacers up front
  • 3rd Setup:
    • Limited Edition SCS Cooper Finish Ray10s 17x8.5 4.30'' BS
    • 255/80r17 Cooper ST Maxxs

• Armor
  • FrankenFab Sliders

• Drive Train
  • Tundra Front Brakes
  • SS brake lines
  • Manual Rear BPV
  • ABS delete
  • TC Poly steering rack bushings
  • Tack Weld Mod

• Interior
  • Steelie Ball Phone Mount
  • Custom mounted RAM ball phone mount on A pillar
  • Panavise dash mount
  • Mob Armor X mount
  • Shock Industries sound deadener

• Exterior
  • 40w LED Pods on CBI Ditch Light Brackets
  • Custom pinstripes

• Comms
  • Icom 5100
  • Rasberry PI with DVAP + Cell phone for portable Digital Repeater
  • Uinden 520xlpro CBI radio, BAMF tail gate mount modified for a nimo mount
  • Motorola GM300 hacked to 149.390 and TNC for APRS
  • Samsung Tab4 running Backcountry Navigator

• Recovery
  • Basic tool kits
  • Viar 50p Portable air Compressor
  • Delta Tool Box

• Other
  • Stock Bed Extender
  • 12v Plug in Bed behind Tail Light
  • CVT Summit Series Mt. Shasta extended on Relentless fab bed bars
• Trip Reports
  • Big horns Nov 2016
  • 2016 The M.U.D. Trip Report
  • 2017 March ImpromptU-Ah!
  • 2017 September The DeTour
  • 2018 May East Rosebud
  • 2018 June Bearthooth Highway
  • 2018 June Big Horns
  • 2018 Goose Lake

More to come.

 

My First mod was the Steelie Car mount. Works great. I love it! It uses a large steel ball bearing sort of and a magnet you attach to your phone. It works great with my phone but larger phones it doesn't work well on.

Igor.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This is all it is!

Igor-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This is where i mounted the ball

Igor-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Phone sticks right on! Yes..my screen is broken..well..was. I have since repaired it.

Igor-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Very easy to see when driving

Igor-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

Spent memorial day weekend with my good buddy Marc working on trucks. Mostly his. But he did show me how to rebuild a coilover, was pretty easy actually. And now i have Kings in my DD

I bought these Kings used from a friend, he bought them used. They where leaking and he ended up buying some new ADS coilovers instead of rebuilding these. So i bought them and all the parts!

Igor.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Perfect start to a simple build of the other truck.

First order of business was to get the coils off. Went and rented a coil compressor and alas..did not fit.

Igor-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I really need to build a coil compressor for the press..

anyways, Marc had his own way of doing it. Which works quite well using ratchet straps.

Igor-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After looping three in, just start sucking doing the coil.

Igor-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

And done!

Igor-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Getting the straps off the coil takes some team work though..

Igor-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Dissemble time

Igor-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

But first we reset the preload on the King 600lb coils to almost nothing.

before

Igor-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

after

Igor-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Did 1 thread on the passenger side and 3 on the driver side to start.

Now time to take them apart. Start with the tiny set screw. Don't strip it or you will have a sad sad day...also..gross seal!

Igor-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then the blue cap unscrews revealing the innards. And for me, a slight problem.

Igor-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This is the snap rig that holds in the outer seal head....it is not supposed to be like this. No wonder it was leaking

Igor-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

It did cause some damage...

Igor-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Nothing catastrophic though.

We cleaned up the burrs and all was well.

1 of the shafts was a bit pitted so we had new shafts to go in. However, due to a slight mix up...somewhere a long the line, we didn't get the right shafts...the new ones are a bit...long haha

Igor-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

So we ended up not replacing the shafts.

Note also in the photo above how things are laid out. As you dissemble things, lay them out in order. So you don't forget what goes where. Then just replace the seals you have with the new ones, oil them before install. And resemble the shock. Pretty easy.

Setting the IPT in the body is important though. We calculated it out using the shaft and how deep the IPT sat bottomed out and raised it up about and inch i think it was with nitro.

After some more cleaning we were done!

Igor-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

so purty..

then put the coils back on!

Igor-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After that, was a simple install. I am in dire need of some UCAs now though as these are extended travel. Luckily i don't go offroad with it so im not supper concerned about over extending the the uppers for now. But UCAs are in the works.

I ended up having to remove the sway bar just to get them in ha..i was so sad

Before

Igor-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

wore out stock crap..

Igor-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Old vs New

Igor-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I'll take the blue one please!

Igor-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


For free...haha

Igor-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

plenty of droop now..won't ever use it for quite a while though.

Igor-32.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Done!

Igor-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-34.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Igor-35.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

considering i was at like..negative amount of lift and gained about 2'' overall. Its perfect. Rides SOOOOOO much better then before its not even funny.

Can't wait to get the rear setup dialed up.

I also did some welding on Marcs rig put in a limit strap and spindle gusset. Im sure he will have the full details in his build for you to read, but i just wanna share weld porn

BigCheeseWelding-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
BigCheeseWelding-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
BigCheeseWelding-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
BigCheeseWelding-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Was a fun weekend!!

 

subd

 

Could use a roof rack eh?

 

It then took me a while to do the rear. Mike had given me his old 8 Leaf Alcans that Wheelers used to sell as part of a deal for the rear bumper i build him. I say used too, because while you can still get Wheelers 8 leafs they are not made by Alcan anymore. Mostly because i really wanted to do the TC rear relocation kit with 10'' shocks. But i ran out of time and kinda money so i settled for some used Foxes that will work just fine for at least a year.

My rear leafs did NOT want to come out..had to cut them off. Must be an 01-04 thing because I had to do this to Bens leafs too but didn't to Franks original leafs...

6'' Cut off wheel worked the best i found

RearLift-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

On to the upgrade!

RearLift-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I started by pulling the poly bushings out of the leafs. Nothing was seriously wrong with them. But i figured, what the hell. Might as well put new ones in.

RearLift-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Here is a tidbit that i think some people don't really know about. You are supposed to use Lithium based grease on Poly bushings. Other grease's can break down the poly and make the deteriorate quickly.

RearLift-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I used the Daystar front main eye bolts that are grease able with poly bushings

RearLift-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Each bolt has a zert on it already. I found out later these are the press in kind.

RearLift-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Its good to try and clean these up as best as possible then apply as small amount of grease on the inside and to the bushings before pressing in by hand. A little grease will go a long ways and make this an easy install.

RearLift-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Do the same to get the sleeve's in

RearLift-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

For the rear i bought the wheelers Grease able shackle kit. Which really is just the OME kit with different bushings to fit OEM rear eyelets instead of the OME leafs.

RearLift.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

And would you look at that. See I wasn't lying

RearLift-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I really like how the OME grease able bolts have screw in zerts. You will see why later..

RearLift-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Lil grease on the bushings to install again..

RearLift-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Seriously this is all it takes and it helps a ton. Shock bushings too!

RearLift-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Clean and grease the eyelet on the frame too...man..Missouri is being harsh to my once rust free frame

RearLift-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Put the bushings in first, then slide the bolt in. Apply a small amount of grease to everything as done before.

RearLift-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I put the zert on the outside for easy of access to grease.

RearLift-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Do the same on the rear eyelet of the leafs

RearLift-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Leaf spring issues...

RearLift-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Nothing a sawzall can't fix!

RearLift-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Bolt up the shackles! The torque spec is 116ft lbs for the front bolt. 67ftlbs for the shackles

RearLift-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I got new U bolts to boot. The WHeelers 7.75'' ones. Probably could have gotten the shorter ones, but these where fine.

RearLift-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Then i got the grease gun and grease everything up. The gun pulled a zert out of one of the Daystar front bolts though...not cool. But i'll get a new one.

RearLift-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I scored some fox shocks off of here from @SlipperyTaco and even though the mail lost them for a bit he called the post office and they showed up a few days later! Thanks man These things are practically new. I ended up installing them while camping actually..ha!

RearLift-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-32.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-34.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Looking to get some UCAs next and still want to do the TC relocation out back with ADS shocks.

 

OH! and i forgot! How the stance is now! I like it.

RearLift.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
RearLift-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

Finally seeing igor

 

What do you mean finally?? I have posted him before..sorta.

 

Looks like someone had a good holiday weekend!

 

Idk if i have seen those or not then. Looking good either way.

 

I almost want to stop the build on my silver ext cab and buy a green double cab. Every time I see a green Taco I don't want to look at mine for awhile.

 

I could have sworn Igor was Lunar Mist or Old Man Tan

 

Gotta be so nice now!

 

Well..Memorial day was fun haha. Labor day weekend, no way. I worked all weekend. Sucked.

Well most of these are new. Save the Kings install, that was in Franks build. But yea, he isn't bad. Few dings and such but very smooth and comfy. Compared to Frank especially..lol

Im the opposite I loved my Silver. Green is cool too though. Has a bad ass look too it when done right.

Nope. Green Green!

Its not bad! Bit stiff in the back..need some weight back there to settle the springs a bit. Rear bumper may need to be built or something idk. Still..MAJOR improvement over 160k wore out stock stuff haha

 

I guess since this is the thread for it, this is some before photos

IMG_9168.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
IMG_9180.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

Nicely done, Frank's younger brother looks good.

 

I forsee a Frank jumpin in your future, Monte.

 

Thanks! Will be a fun simple build hopefully.

 

I did jump him....about 1 second of flight time. Was an accident ..haha got the wheels off the ground a lot on the last trip. Few photos of it floating around.