The Wild Crow - Flight Preparations

RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPERS?
Nah, these are steel, all steel baby.

I've wanted a matching bumper for the rear of the Wild Crow ever since we installed the front winch bumper. The factory chrome rear just looked out of place and I really disliked the placement of the trailer plug.

We needed (well, need is kinda strong since technically we didn't need a bumper) a good heavy duty rear bumper. We wanted something with a swing out, but we couldn't have a full gate with the trailer, we had to have a half size gate. Why a gate at all? You'll laugh but it's to hang a custom garbage/recycling/dirty laundry container. Over years of camping we've discovered that dirty clothes and/or garbage take write a bit of space and they'll both make the back of your truck smell funky. So we've got this idea to keep all the smelly stuff outside the truck. We'll let you know how that works out.

In the meantime, let's give this LA face a matching Oakland booty

With the bumper safely in the garage after quite the great vacation (we put just over 1100 miles on the trailer this trip) we finished out our work week (2 days for me).

Today, with the winds high we decided to get the install done. Removing the old bumper was fairly easy. Remove the license plate, lights, air lines and trailer plug.




Eight bolts removed from the frame and two more loosened and the old bumper slid right out.

The new bumper slid right in with some slight and carefully loving taps with a mallet and a 2x4.


Replace four bolts, and tighten those that were loosened


And boom!




The gates installed just as easily. They slid right into place and adjusted very easily. This is a very user friendly design.





And now I've switched from singing the Commodores to Mix A Lot

 

Cool trip! Claytor Lake is on our list maybe this comeing spring. Great pics as usual

 

Why that's quite a nice rear end you have there

 

Rear bumper looks great man, is that a dual swing out? If so any pics of it swung out and if you don't mind me asking how much did it set you back? I love Eddy's stuff and now seriously considering them more and more.

Edit: nevermind saw it in beginning build thread layout!

 

Take A Breath, Take Your Time, Spread Your Wings and Rise

Here is the latest truck project. A few years ago we gave the truck a Wild Crow graphic on the hood. Over the few years it was on, the vinyl wrap became brittle and cracked and peeled in places. We decided to paint it on, so I gave it a go and after watching how to videos and reading many articles I screwed up my courage and taped out the pattern, painted the Crow and stripes on in a silver metallic, then clear coated the entire hood. My first ever automotive paint project. Hand in hand with this I cut out openings to add hood vents to alleviate some under hood temperature when we are driving slowly through the woods. It turned out pretty well I think.


It took over a year to go from on the truck to finished, I got busy and this project got put on hold more than once.

Taped out for vents

Cutting!

One layer done!

Aaaaaggghh! I have giant holes in my truck!

All taped out, ready to spray

3 coats of silver metallic, then 3 coats of clear over the entire hood

Vents from under the hood.



Finished! I love it! It makes me smile and that's all that's important isn't it?

 

Out f'ing standing James! Now turn the grill surround black and continue the silver strip over the top of it

 

Nope.....I like the chrome....

 

Well then that's all that matters! Being happy is highly under rated

 

Nice build!

 

I've never seen anyone do hood vents like that on a Tacoma. I really like it!

 

Thanks!

 

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Chad is the front of your truck higher than the rear now or is it just my eyes?

 

It's a little higher

 

Good I thought it was my eyes

 

I'M SO TIRED, AND I JUST CAN'T WAIT AROUND FOR YOU

7 tires. Yes, 7 Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx tires. 255/85/R16. Walmart had a price drop just before Thanksgiving, I was tired of waiting around for a sale so I jumped at the price. $196 each not bad.


Mounted and balanced



One for the spare

And a set for the trailer too!

 

This will come in handy.

 

...... and then we had to hitch up the trailer to make sure the gates would swing open and closed while hitched.






Perfect!

And I added a couple of LED lightstrips to the inside of the cap.

 

Thanks! That's exactly the way I thought I should do that!

 

No problem, I have a similar setup with 7 tires and it took me a bit to find a graphic for the rotation.