geekhouse23's "LIFE'S WAITING TO BEGIN" Overland & Home build and all the Adventures in between!

Welder search update:

Joined a few local offroad/overlanding groups over the last week or so. Reached out to a few groups asking about the cam tab gussets. Heard back from one shop this morning.

"It’s about 5-7 hours of work plus alignment which runs about 100$. Our hourly rate is 120$ an hour."

Put out one last feeler for someone local that does work on the side. I think I am going to hold out for the local guy in IN and see how his July schedule is looking and just go there one day and get it over with. If the cost is even half of what these shops want, I rather help him out. He is a good friend and has been through a lot of shit and I would be HAPPY to support him. I know he wouldn't try to take me for a ride either like these shops want to do. I am sick of it.

Next, rear frame boxing plates.

I finally heard back from Austin at Wolf Fabrication. I told him that I no longer want to keep the stock spare tire mount anymore and I can just take the full plates and the cross brace tubing. He said he can get it all cut this week and hopefully shipped at the end of this week or early next week. Again, to help a local fabricator is a plus. Hopefully this is resolved and ships out. I found these online for a decent price:

https://www.ballisticfabrication.com/products/rear-frame-braces?variant=21326721991

The cross brace tubing isn't included, but if Wolf Fab falls through, I have a back up.

Now, here is what I am thinking with the direction of this build because the build is at a point where it's going to be more of the serious fabrication like welding etc and that's just money wasted and time trying to find and schedule an appointment with someone. With that, comes the need for a bigger space, bigger garage, better tools etc etc. I think I am going to pick up a decent welder and start practicing and learning myself. With the pricing these shops want, I can get a welder, learn another skill and make money on the side.

We want to move soon, next 1-2 years, and I will be looking at mostly the garage and driveway space. I need somewhere I can throw this thing (enclosed space) in case it goes down for a week or so. City living isn't going to cut it anymore. House hunting will consist of bringing the truck and measuring the garage doors at the house. I am going to be that asshole; 100%. Once that is all set and finalized, hopefully by that time I will be decent at welding and can remove the cap, remove the bed and then do the frame boxing and bracing myself in a weekend with the help of my brother and some friends. Perhaps pick up a daily too so I don't have to feel rushed on weekends to throw the truck back together by Monday; especially when third members will be getting swapped. Other builds I follow yield breakage and having to wait weeks for replacements.

Back to focusing on the dual battery setup, few maintenance things like the front Dakars bushings, axle shims, rear King shocks, front ADS coilovers, finally removing the swaybar blah blah blah.

Just have fun, enjoy the summer, and go back to house hunting; which is always such a blast haha

 

Nobody wants to touch those cam gussets partially because it involves peeling the old ones off with an air chisel I'm sure. I'm not risking screwing up somebody else's late model frame and suspension pickup points for a few bucks. If it's my truck and it gets messed up then that's all on me, not so much when it's somebody else's in a critical area. Are you actually wheeling the thing enough to really need cam bolt gussets?

 

I get it. I reached out to a few welders in the anything welders thread and they recommended to prep it myself with an angle grinder and cutoff wheels and then have a mobile welder swing by and burn them in. With how this search is going that's a good option or just buy my own machine and practice and teach myself.

This is one of those piece of mind mods that I would rather do now and not have something happen in the middle of nowhere.

 

I honestly don't get it, Joe. I really don't.

What I am trying to understand is (1) why it costs so much to do and (2) why are most people I am reaching out to not willing torch it?

I am not trying to out anyone down and I truly appreciate @Snowy offering his services to help out a fellow Toyota enthusiast from a previous post. It means the world that someone would just offer to help with something at the drop of a hat like that.

I just truly don't get it.

 

I get it. It's a bunch of work in a shop with a lift and all of the correct tools. Throw in that somebody at home is doing this in a driveway with possibly not all of the ideal tools for the job and it becomes a serious ton of work. Drilling out 24 spot welds would SUCK to do laying on the ground in the middle of the summer. Then throw in any headache if your work is deemed unsatisfactory by the guy you did the work for.

I don't do any fab work for anybody that isn't free or for a case of beer. The second cash changes hands, the expectations of the work changes and feelings can get hurt quickly. If it's more work than I'm willing to do for free or beer, then I just politely decline.

 

Right off the instructions from Wheelers. 3 spot welds per tab

 

I've helped do one set. All but one tab was easy. That one made me swear off any possibility of a second set.

We removed em with an angle grinder.

 

This.

Like he said, he politely declined already and I'm not trying to put pressure on him or anyone to reconsider. Totally respect him and his decline.

Doesn't mean I'm going to try and stop asking about the mod and what it takes so I can be prepared as best as possible.

Nice. So would you say it's pretty simple with basic tools and nothing crazy really outside of an angle grinder and a welder?

Out of curiosity, how hard was that one tab? Take a lot of work?

I've done the frame rivets on the rear of the truck for the shackle flip brackets and that SUCKED. This can't possibly be THAT bad?

 

The one tab was the result of being awkward for a right hander that a left handed person would have had little trouble. I removed em and my buddy (truck owner) welded new ones on. 20 years ago it would have been easy. Being old makes simple shit difficult some times...

 

Gotcha. You've warned me many a time about being old..

That's what I figured. Would a spot weld drill bit help too? I don't see why not?

The job seems simple enough minus me not being a welder and not knowing how to give a vehicle an alignment (shop/machine/tools). Angle grinder and sawzall make quick work of A LOT of things. Best tools in my arsenal, so far, IMHO.

So, I heard back from the guy that did my BHLM a while back. He has a welder/is a welder. He just moved and needs a couple of weeks to get settled and said he would be happy to help me out. I explained to him my "luck" I've been having with shops and he was floored; both at the rate of work and what it actually takes based on the instructions from Wheeler's. Keeping this friend close

 

The alternative to getting old ain't exactly real good either, and it's not like we can make time stand still....just make the most out of the years you have. Time goes by in a hell of a hurry...

 

Need to find a friend or a mobile welder you can pay by the hour- you get all the old stuff off have him drive up and it would take less than an hour for them to do it.

 

Some things came to fruition and now I have a few options to get the TC cam tab gussets installed over the next month to month and a half now. Again, no rush, just something I want done sooner than later.

Spent some time this morning reorganizing the OP here and doing a little clean up. There is more that I can do, but for now, for the 5-10 minutes I spent on it, I am happy. Flows better too.

Have a couple things I wanna do on the truck before the weekend/before next week:

- install the new, replacement rock light (front driver for those curious.)
- Would like to install the axle shims, but that's looking doubtful. Hitting highways speeds this weekend, this is more of a priority. Perhaps I can get this done at the lake for the drive home. We will see..

Ordered a couple of things from Amazon:

- Forgot this guy somehow when I was odering the rest of the dual battery shit:

$14 MICTUNING MIC-DV-077 LED Digital Panel Double Voltmeter, Rocker Switch Style Voltage Monitor Blue for Car Pickup RV Truck Dual Battery Pack

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072QZPKLG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

- New antenna:

$18 AntennaMastsRus - 13" All-Terrain Flexible Rubber Antenna is Compatible with Toyota Tacoma (1995-2015) - Spring Steel Internal Core

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SAB3RWO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Stock antenna is getting pretty beat up and while I do not listed to the radio, the wife still does. It's the little things.

Plan is to go up to the lake house Saturday again for a "Pre-Fourth" fireworks show and then Sunday, all day, the wife is opening up our salon at home for haircuts all day. After she got her new job, she is only offering cuts at home once or twice a month. She's going to be busy. I just collect the money

 

Oh and I found someone that did the cam tab gussets recently and they said it only took about 3 hours:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-long-bed-sport.437064/page-37#post-17917361

Not bad. I completely understand that nothing goes to plan and the instructions advising that the work takes 5-7 or 6-8 hours or whatever is said is for those "unexpected things."

Still, 3 hours is not bad. I just think the shops overestimate the work to squeeze you for every dime.

 

Most shops will over est and then adjust to real time when done.
They don't want to say 3hr and then have to give you a bill for 6hr cause they ran into a problem.

 

Right. I get that.

The thing that annoys me is that the shops would do whatever they could to take as long as they possibly could to charge as much as possible. That's what I hate.

 

Your experiences must be different than mine.

 

I think the only honest shop I had work done at was when I had my hoops done at a friend of a friend's shop. Dropped off at 8am, picked it up at like 3pm and only paid $100.

Obviously the work didn't take that long but he still has a business to run and actual customers to take care of.

Great shop. 12/10 would recommend.

 

Buy a welder.

The end.

 

This.

That's the plan.