Tampa Bay Area Tacomas BS Thread

As long as nothing is planned at home I'll be there for ya!

 

It's going to be a couple weeks or so. Still got some stuff I want to accomplish while her bed's off. I'm trying to decide which end I want to start on though. I still have to drill and tap the new front crossmember Todd fabbed for me for the skid plate bolts. Once that's done and the skid plate is back on, I can get the front of the truck put back together for some VP.

Conversely, I could start on the back and pull the rear axle again so I can paint it and then take the spring packs apart so I can get a measurement for the new shocks with the axle sitting on the bumps. That'll tell me what length shocks I need. I can say with no bed or anything my old Nitrochargers only have about an inch of travel before they are fully extended with the new mounts. The down side is, Todd used his 12" travel Billies to set up the mounts and he said they were almost fully compressed so I'll be looking at something between 9" (the old Nitrochargers) and 12" of travel. I'm hoping for 11" but it is what it is.

 

Yes, please. Aha.

 

From this...



To this...



I also took apart the leaf packs and measured for the new shocks at full bump. And still went to Lowe's for paint and stopped by the eye glasses store to get my glasses fixed. I'm on today.

 

Nice! Is that a bronze color?

 

Um...no. That would probably look pretty wicked, but I just painted it with semi-gloss black.

 

looks bronze in the pic lol

 

Yer too young to be goin' color blind.

 

It must be the super gloss on it

 

I know, right? I painted the frame plates Todd welded on with gloss black. I went with semi-gloss for the axle 'cause I thought the gloss was just too shiny, but I can't really tell the difference between the two. Maybe it'll flatten out after a few hours or something.

 

First trail ride it will be back to the old look

 

I was thinking metallic. Guess we're both blind

 

Haha, well, considering the old look was "rusty", I hope not. "Dirty" I can deal with; if it had just been mud stained, I wouldn't have bothered with it. The rust spots had to go though.

Took a quick peek at it under the carport light a minute ago. Looks like it might have actually flattened out a bit. Have to wait until daylight to say for sure.

 

Movin' right along. The OGT is back down on all fours. Got the axle back in with the hard brake lines, e-brake, and proportioning valve actuator installed. All that's left is to put the driveshaft back in, hook up the braided brake line, and trim the tail pipe (again)...well, that is, all that's left that I can do immediately anyway. I still need to get the new shocks and get some folks together to set the bed back on her.

I did take this opportunity to relocate my diff breather. The new position is coming up between the cab and bed through a hole I drilled in the fwd lip of the bed. Should be high and dry there and if it ain't then I've got bigger issues than water in the diff. Thinking about adding two or three eye bolts to that lip as well for tie-down points.

Oh, and the paint did flatten out a little overnight. Still pretty glossy, but not mirror-like like it looked in the picture.

 

Okay folks, the OGT is back in rear wheel drive mode and she's got brakes on all four corners. She's ready to be bedded.



I'm gonna need at least four folks on this one. Four of us to lift the bed and set it on the truck and one to feed the diff breather hose up through the hole in the front bed lip once we get it close. It'll take a little longer as well since I might need some help wiggling the thing around to get the holes to line up...jeebus, the innuendo is being laid on thick today ... anyway, would you guys be available for June 4th or 5th, or would the 11th or 12th be better?

 

All those days are usually the same for me. Just depends if I schedule any work for those days. Just let me know what day works best for everyone and I'll do my best to make it work.

 

Thanks, Hugo. I'm getting kinda stoked now. Once the bed is back on and I have the new shocks installed the OGT is going to be as close to 100% than she's been in too damn long.

 

'K the OGT is going to be bedded on a Sunday...either June 5th or 12th, depending on personnel availability. We need one more person, though more are welcome if you just wanna come check out @allenfab's artistry.

1. @Hugopreston (either Sunday)
2. @SpruceTaco (either Sunday)
3. @Black Horse (either Sunday)
4. ?