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

So I was going to buy a flat bed from someone but he ended up selling it for double what he had told me for price. Now I'm on the drawing board and cant decide between square or round tube. Leaning more towards square tube frame and round tube rails.

 

This is the new and improved elite off-road bumper

 

I forgot to take a picture after we got the new grille and side markers in

 

Yup. Pretty good work for a fellow who, if I recall, "didn't know how to weld" when he built the bed rack.

I am definitely inspired. I have a few bumpers and the like I need to build.

 

So buy a cheap MIG and get to learning. It's really not hard. I could teach a monkey to MIG. I'm proof!

 

As a friend of mine is fond of saying-

It's the difference between:
"Helping your Uncle, Jack, off a horse" and "Helping your uncle jack off a horse".

 

One is common courtesy and the other is a job on a farm... Which one is which, I dunno

 

Or make things harder on yourself and start with stick.

 

I got a machine for $60 so I've been learning. Much harder than Mig haha

 

Its nothing pretty, but I can take a picture later tonight. The whole bumper is built around the shackle that bolts to the frame. Its also just open in the back.

 

No joke. That's what I did with a $100 AC225. Still got it, too.

 

Am I the only one thinking this isn't a great job of an alignment?

 

Seems fine to me, takes the crown of the road into acct, appropriate amount of caster to keep steer ahead force minimal, camber is nil. Nothing you can do about the rear really, nothing to adjust, if something is tweaked the steer ahead in the front alignment can counter a bit, but still the total rear toe is acceptable if borderline. Bout as good as I could hope to get from a dealership, those poor bastards don't get paid worth a shit for that job so it's a wonder anything was done at all

 

Yup that's mine as well. Def thought I was going to murdered picking it up in a not friendly section of South Philly but for $60 I couldn't NOT risk it.

 

Why are you buying stolen shit? Lol

 

No numbers, specifically- but when the system color-codes it to make it obvious a given measurement is out of spec, I expect it to be made to be within spec. Especially when you consider it typically only involves insertion of a few shims or tweaking a tie rod. Yes, I realize balljoints play into it as well- but not toe-in. That is about 98% the adjustment of the tie rods.

*Especially* when the printout you give the customer calls this out- saying that measurements in pink are out of spec and will result in shorter tire life, etc.

 

I bought mine 17 years ago from an old hot-rodder coworker of mine. I need to make a welding cart for it- the thing is HEAVY (as you no doubt know). I had a design for a welding table/cart with MIG, the AC225, and bottles all aboard- but then I realized that, while compact, a 400 pound welding cart probably wasn't anything I'd be moving around often. Now I am thinking about something along the lines of a dedicated cart made from a hand truck, and possibly a mini crane to get heavy stuff into the back of my old M101 trailer.

Best thing about it? You can carbon-arc gouge if need be. You could just about weld anything on a battleship with this thing, except the armor and that sort of thing. I even saw a few of them being used in the shipyard here, back before RIF made the CNSY a thing of the past.

 

You looking at the right part?

 

Damnit, no. LOL

I see, now. The part I was keying in on was BEFORE alignment.

I retract the statement. Damn fine work. Wish they were local, I have a hell of a time finding a decent alignment shop around here!

 

I make that mistake all the time when reading my alignment printouts. I wish they'd put the current numbers at the top and the before at the bottom, rather than the other way around