What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Here you go. My dad just clamped plates to the frame the cut off the excess following the frame.

And make sure you take your time do grind off the rust to get some good steel to weld on, other wise it will look like absolute crap as shown below. Some places are hard to get a grinder into. Some of the crap welds have to do with a leak in the gas hose as well....

 

I think that'll be my plan of attack, because this is what I'm dealing with currently. It's just begging to send that leaf spring through the bed. Real shame because the other side is fine.

 

@WheelInTheSky

Look at the pics of the dakars. One has a O looking symbol. that mean it meets factory specs, a plus mean more, negative means less.

A + will give you more lift cause there is a little bit more arch in the pack.

 

Just cut her out a weld in a new plate

 

What gauge metal did you decide to go for? I'm gonna swing by a shop tomorrow for a sheet.

 

It's a mig, and honestly from the front leaf mount forward the frame is mint. It's in better shape than my 3 year old one on my black truck. Basically the whole reason I bought it. Sadly one soft spot right before the mount though. But it seems like a relatively easy spot to fix.

 

1/8"

 

I think I'll go a bit beefier than that, Nothing crazy, but I'd rather go overkill the first time. Just hoping I don't blow any MORE holes in the frame trying to weld it.

 

Cut it out and weld it up, you can't really screw up MIG, especially with a little bit of practice on scrap, just make sure it's set to the right voltage, gas flow, and wire feed speed.

 

Yeah be careful and keep the heat down.This happened more then once.... mostly because I'm new to welding and still learning.

And make sure what your welding too is solid

 

1/8 would be fine, you can go 3/16 but I think that would be way overkill. You'd just be adding weight.

 

Over the last few weeks:

New Valve Cover Gasket
New Spark Plug Tube Gaskets
New PCV Valve and Grommet
New Valve cover Paint job
New EGR gaskets
New LCE Exhaust Header
New Magnaflow catalytic converter
New Denso Oxygen sensors
New LCE full cat back exhaust system (Magnaflow muffler included)
New Headlights, Parking Lights, and Tail Lights

 

These are my before and after. I had 182,000 miles on the stock suspension (including the shocks ). 881s with Dakars, no AAL. V6 with sliders. No skids or other armor. My suspension was super saggy to say the least.

Driver Front: 20 7/8"
Driver Rear: 20 1/4"
Passenger Front: 20 3/4"
Passenger Rear: 20 1/4"

After 1000 miles on the new suspension. Empty bed, with the topper on.

Driver Front: 22 3/4"
Driver Rear: 24"
Passenger Front: 22 7/8"
Passenger Rear: 24"

 

Those numbers look dead on. I went 881s with dakars and AAL, i4 no sliders skids or bumpers yet. I do have a fiberglass cap on the bed.


@gray223 I'm not entirely sure what you mean, I don't think I have those symbols. The driver's side is A, the passenger's side is B. The driver's side pack does have an O of sorts on it, right behind the arrow pointing forwards at the front of the pack, but it's not an O it's really two brackets: []
The passenger's side pack has a line in the the same place: l

 

Yeah so the driver side pack Is normal. The passenger side is a little bit below.

I guess when they make the leafs there do not all come out to be the same. So they put those markings on them to represent how much each they have. Obviously the best you could get it two +'s

I got a pack with [] and one with a +

 

Any chance these markings could be for compensation for driver/gas tank being on the same side to prevent the well known taco lean?

 

started on my rear bumper

 

Thats one interesting way to mount a bumper

 

That's what I was always told. We just put a pack in a second gen on Sunday and did the + on the drivers side and the [] on the passenger side.

 

Well you always but the one that is label best on the drivers side.

Which will be labeled A as well