Barlowrs 06 Taco Expo Build Thread

This is inspirational !

 

Bump for the best build thread I've ever seen! I know you work a lot, & have a girl friend, so how in the hell do you find the time to do all this stuff you've done! Dude, you have more mods on that truck than my 4x4 I've owned for 19 years! haha. Keep up the AWESOME work Robert.

 

Well after crossing the water crossing on the Mojave Road MULTIPLE times during a recovery operation, and seeing how DUSTY my air filter was after 3 days out in the Mojave, I figured it was high time to install my snorkel.

Now as most probably know, there is no snorkel made for the 05 Tacoma, however, it has been discovered that it is possible to modify a snorkel for a 2.8L Helix Diesel.

Parts List:
Part# ARB SS135HFD
3”-3” Rubber Flexible Coupler
6” Length of 3” exhaust pipe (muffler shop scrap yard)

First step was to get it in place. Unfortunately, since it is not made for an 05+ Tacoma, the template can be used for nothing more than getting the holes lined up with respect to each other, so to actually decided where the snorkel goes, it is just a lot of mocking it up, lining up the antenna spot, as well as the A-pillar mount, and hoping you got it. Once you think you got it, its time to cross the point of no return, and drill a BIG @$$ hole in the side fo your truck.




Now, once the holes are all drilled, it is time to mock it up and drill the A-pillar holes in place.

There are a few gaps, as the body lines are not the same as the helix, but they are not noticeable unless you REALLY get up close and look at it.




Believe it or not, this was the easy parts….its now time to plumb it.




Now there are many different methods to doing this. I chose to reuse my stock intake tubing bu cutting it off behind the big bulge. This allows me to use the stock flexible tubing.

After a LOT of muscling the rubber elbow that came with the snorkel to get it to come out at a somewhat useable angle, I was able to connect the 6 in piece of muffler tubing and connect the two.




Also note, there are two holes in the filter box that need to be sealed to make it watertight. Sorry I did not get more pics to help along, I was in a hurry to install it and didn’t get many.

Anyway, here is the final product:

 

Very nice! Certainly one of my favorite trucks on here.

 

man i love your truck its bad ass you got pretty much everything i want on there whats next in line for that bad boy?

 

Have you had any rub with those tires? There's a guy on Expo portal that I think has the km1's and just barely rubs the uca at full lock in reverse. I'm curious because in order to back my boat in the tight spot I need to do this and wonder if uca's are 100 % necessary to run this tire.

 

Thanks. I have lightforces in the mail for up front, and my rear bumper should be here soon, hopefully end of the month (CBI). That bad boy will have tire swingout, hi-lift mount, 2 jerry can holder (cans are in the main now as well).

Will also have a little cosmetic fun I just completed today that I will post tomorrow.

 

No, I had some rubbing on my flaps, but I trimmed those. I do have a TINY bit of rubbing at FULL lock and FULL stuff on the body mount, though I am going to trim that soon.

The UCA NEVER rub, the benifit of the 255 is that they are skinny, so they stay far away from the UCAs.

 

cant wait to see it, i would just like to throw this out there i take donations if you want to give me your parts for my truck

 

HAHA I will take donations so that I can add MORE parts to my truck..I still need Air lockers front and rear, so feel free to donate.

 

you and me both man i still need to chatch up with you so you got a big lead on me

 

Well, I could tell my truck was having some self esteem issues, as here she is this big truck driving around sharing the same Toyota logo as your grandmas corolla, so I figured I would try to make her feel better about herself..after all, she is a TOYOTA TRUCK!
Step one was to get the parts laser cut, MetalMiller over on Tacoma world let me use his great laser cutting services to cut out all three pieces along with a backing plate. He did a great job!
After some time in my machine shop, I had the edge of the outer oval blended, as well as guide holes drilled through backplate to hold the front pieces on. (Yes I did mess up once so you can see my incorrect hole…I did some math wrong on the mill..haha).
My original plan was to just press fit some pins and epoxy the pieces to the back plate, though considering how much I beat my truck up, and the fact that these are solid steel (heavy) parts, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold. I decided to tap each hole and use some 8-32 set screws with locktite to hold them in place.
After a quick trip to the chrome shop for the front peices and a few coats of flat black rustoleum on the back plate, here are the parts laid out.


And here it is installed on the grill:

And on the truck:


I can tell she feels a lot better now, after all she is a TOYOTA TRUCK and proud of it.

 

You have no idea how much I love your truck.

 

One of the best builds ive ever seen...When my truck grows up I want it just like yours...LOL

 

Thanks for the info. Now I'm 95% sure I want to go with that tire and size.

 

This is my favorite build by far.

 

Unreal build

 

Well, as much as I like my Allpro front bumper, perhaps the only complaint I have about it is the front light hoop. I did not like how it far forward it is angled, more like a stinger than a hoop. And I also do not like how the light mounts hang lights very high and very far forward:


….so, I decided fix it.
First thing was to cut the original base plates off. I could have made new ones, but it was easy enough to just cut them, then use a mill to machine the left over “welds” off. One I got the plates cut off, I re-cut the angle at the bottom of the tube so it would mount in a more vertical position, as apposed to sticking out forward.
I had already bought a set of Lightforce 170, and the original hangers hung them too high up and off the bumper, whereas if I mounted them directly to the bumper, they sat too low:

so I decided to add my own light bar to mount them where I wanted.
I took a piece of 1.25” (Chromoly was the only scrap I had around, so now my light bar is the strongest pipe on my truck) and bent it out so that the lights would clear my front grille. Then figured out a good height by mocking the lights up.
After that I threw on some Light tabs for the lights:


Gave her a quick shot of rustoleum:

And voila, here is the new light hoop that no longer sticks out to far:

And the lights sit centered, right where I want them:


(Write-up on the lights to come shortly..I have to finish the wiring diagram)