The little first gen that could (move a little faster on its build).

good looking build! real similar to what i've done with my truck. one quick question on beefing up the frame endcaps for a winch: do you think it'd be sufficient to fully weld the stock endcaps? or would you recommend cutting it out completely like you did? mine is still in fine shape but i'm thinking it makes sense to do it when i add a winch, whenever that ends up happening.

 

Thanks! I need to work on updating this thread...

I’d recommend just beefing them up with heavier plate. The end caps were bulged and the nut that was welded to the inside was trying to pull through. That metal just isn’t substantial enough to deal with heavy pulls.

 

Accomplished a bit of work on the Tacoma before going back to work. Was a little difficult with my foot still healing up, but I got my twin compressor installed and ran my hose up to the bumper, put a fitting thereswitch went hereand she works like a champ! It’s not too noisy in that cubby either. I think there is ample space for it to breath to fill up a set of 35” tires. I need to find a piece of stainless braided to run for a couple of feet before going into airline. Filling up my 33’s from 10-35 lbs got that hose too hot and blew it off the barbed fitting after my last tire was aired up. The compressor hummed my girlfriend to sleep until that hose blew!

While I was really laid up and not able to do anything, I decided to build a bussman box for my electrical accessories with the help of this page. Turned out well! Still needs to have power supplied to it and I need to wire the harness for the switches, but I want to figure out where my buss bars are going to go first and get my switch panel situation finalized first.

Once I was up and walking again, I decided to tear the pickup apart... throw out bearing was making noise, so I replaced it and the pilot bearing (I’m getting way too fast at pulling and stabbing that trans...) Also wanted to pull the trans and tcase, because I suspected the output seal on the trans was leaking. There was a lot of oil between the trans and tcase. New seal in, new bearings in.

Ran a vent line from the trans and tcase up to the firewall. Took the pressed vents out, tapped them with a 1/4” npt and ran them to the firewall. This same vent is also going to serve as my front and rear diff vents. Notice how I ran the tubing over the top of the filter and then into it. I did this to help keep water from traveling down the line. I replaced the tcase 90 with a “T” so I could run the line from the rear diff to there instead of running an individual line all the way to the front. I think it’s going to work well!

Didn’t take enough pics, but while that was all out, I also decided to do my first regear... I got the rear dialed in. 5.29 ratio

the front needs some more adjustment, but I ran out of possible shim combinations about 2 days before I had to get on a plane to go back to work, so it’s going to wait until I get back on the 19th of July. Got the rest of the vehicle together though and filled All the gear boxes with Lucas 85/140 and took it for a spin. The trans actually shifted fine with the 85/140 in it. We’ll see if that holds true this winter. My trans oil didn’t seem very happy for having only been in there for 10,000 miles

 

how's the heat buildup with that compressor? i like the idea and I wouldn't be too worried about the noise but i'd imagine that there might be a lot of heat buildup in the cubby. thoughts?

 

That was a big concern of mine too and I thought about it a lot. I got a lot of flak from people on TW about the idea and a lot of people said don’t do it/that won’t work. My conclusion was that, it will get more warm than it would if it were in an open area, sure. But, it’s not starting at 150 (or higher if you’re going slow on a super hot day) degrees like it would be under the hood. Realistically, it’s starting closer to the temp of the cab, and most likely somewhere between the temp of the cab and the outside temp. It gets warm enough going from 5-35 psi on my 33’s that you don’t want to touch it. The internal temperature switch hasn’t cut it off yet and it won’t instantly burn you by accidentally touching it, but it gets warm. I made sure to leave about 2” on the back and the side so it could breath and let the fan circulate the air. For running an air locker and filling a set of tires, which for mine takes about 10 minutes, it’s fine. If you wanted to do more continuous duty with it like fill up all of your buddies tires, it probably isn’t going to work in that scenario.

I think it will work for a decent size air tank, but I’m not sure. My theory with the air tank is that the compressor is going to run the same volume of air that it lost out of the tank when you fill the tires, but it will be working at a higher pressure (more pressure, more heat) for a longer period because it has to bring the entire volume of the system up to 150psi before it shuts off. Where with my low volume system, it just has to replace the air in the hose up to 150psi. Now that I’m committed to battery tools, I don’t really feel the need to have an air tank bigger than maybe a gallon (I’d like to be able to use a blow gun with it), so I guess I’ll probably never know.

Also, I couldn’t find a suitable area to put it elsewhere! Didn’t want it in the bed for multiple reasons, and couldn’t find a great home for it under the hood. Didn’t fit under a seat, and I definitely didn’t want it under the vehicle, so that’s where it was out of the way.

 

I’ve been wanting to do this, I have 1/4” plate I could use, how thick did you go?

 

I used 1/4” plate. It turned out really well!

 

Yeah the welds look real good on yours! Do you have a background in welding?

Now, I just have to do it and not be lazy. Haha

 

No, I don’t weld that well (yet) and I don’t have a 220 hookup, so I’ve been procrastinating on buying a welder. One of my buddies is a welder for the local mill and has an Esab 205, so I had him help me. He does really nice work.

 

Nice, I bought a Hobart 210 MVP a few months ago so I’m still working on being less of a grinder and more of a welder lol

 

I think my buddy and I are going to go in on a mig machine and set it up in his shop.

 

Nice! I love having mine. It has come in handy on tons of little projects already. Shouldn’t bought one years ago. Just never really had a place to work.

 

A lot happened on this rotation home from work.

gears and a locker 5.29 Got my cb, and my single din alpine installed had to tear the dash apart because of these little fuckers sound matted the interiorand attempted to install this... fucked it up and ripped it out. That was $300 down the toilet.
And then....

 

Sooooooooooo, a thing happened that lots of you guys in the “What have you done, 1st gen” know about.
Sept 24, 2020
I was hit on the passenger side behind the rear tire, spun 90 degrees and ended up on the driver side. wish now that I would have got a pic while it was on its side, but I wasn’t concerned with that at the time. My craftsman 200 and something piece set is in that last picture to the right of the gas cans. When I picked that up, the box fell apart and all of the sockets, wrenches, Allen’s, everything fell. Some of it came out in the wreck. I got all but 2 sockets back after they burned that ditch a month later.

The guy who hit me was a classmate of mine. I was about ready to murder him until he opened the door and I figured out who it was.... I probably should have murdered him.

More damage pics

This thing has been my baby for 9 years now. Hell, I actually lived out of it while I was finishing flight school for 3 months. With only 170,000 on the clock, I wasn’t about to give her up. I haggled with insurance for a few days and we finally settled on $11,400 and I keep the vehicle.

found a temporary door so I could keep the weather out while I was gone at work for 4 weeks
The guy who hit me gave me the bed off of the pickup he hit me with. It was a 95.5 that he had SAS’d, supercharged, and flat bed on.

 

Guess I skipped a few days, but whatever

Came back to a bunch of snow in November...


Disassembly

it was soooo hard to start sanding

and letting my dumbass friend take a grinder to it.

bought a pin welder puller kit from Harbor freight. The dents right on the door seam were the most difficult to do

the rockers were both in pretty bad shape. I should have bought rock sliders years ago

new door and fender

decided that I’d better drill as many of my holes as possible before paint. 20” rigid in driving beam.

Because of the light bar? I’m going to run a remote winch controller in front of my on board air fitting

ebay snorkel!

I kind of figured this was going to be a problem when I ordered the bushwhacker flares, but no worries!


A few hours with a heat gun and a dreamer, and we have a custom fender flare!

decided to work on my bussman box when I was tired of the body work. Just need to build the harness between the switches and the box now.

That’s it for today’s post!

 

Paint! Well... Raptor

 

Purple bed!car-part.com tailgate
Lots of sanding... the tailgate had rubber bed liner on it, so I took a heat gun and scraped it off. Took hours and approximately a case of beer.
The bed had rotted through from having the plastic bed liner on it and having a low point from what looked like someone backing into a pole. Cut a little bit out of my old bed and attempted to patch it. Turned out like shit, and I kept blowing throw with the welder, but whatever
Got the windshield installed!
And it’s time to raptor! I edged in all of the body with factory paint so it looks right when you open the hood, fuel door, door, etc...
Decided that I wanted to do the inside of the doors with black
And the bed rail. That top tape line took me forever!
It looks a different shade and it really scared me, but it’s since cured to roughly the same color.
Got the glass back in and the cab is all sealed up!

 

Trying to decide where to put the l track. There will be a lot more of it by the time I’m done. So happy with how that turned out! And really happy with the bumper too!

 

Wow, going all in. Gotta love a red 1st gen! Serious drag about getting hit luckily it all seems to be fixable, time, patience and a check book are the main ingredients.

Everything is looking good, like the direction of the build. Shift work is sweet as it gives you a good block of time to get stuff done.

Nice sized garage- what dimensions? I’m hoping to break ground on a 24’x 32’ barn with 1 10’ wide door with an apt upstairs in the next year or so, probably more like so due to the recent interruption of work and income.

Good luck on the resurrection, you are on the right track.

 

I love having a rotation! Just have to remember that you only have so much time off, so you have to stay motivated throughout your entire time off or you get nothing done.

Unsure of the dimensions on the building. It’s one of my friend’s place. He kind of helped talk me into fixing it since he knows how much I love itand offered his shop.

Ill actually be moving it this week (just got home) to my new place so the work can continue. I moved 2.5 hours away from this shop, so progress has come to almost a complete stand still.