Carolina_Taco's v2 build

hell yeah man I love your wheel and tire combo too!

 

Thanks dude! I should be hopping on the slider game soon!

 

Nice! What are you looking at?

 

I have a guy here in southern UT that wants to help design some so I’m gonna go that route probably

 

LOOK WHAT SHOWED UP

 

PICKED UP A 10 LB POWER TANK, ALONG WITH A POWER TANK TROOPER SAFTEY SERIES INFLATOR.



ALSO OPENED MY PRO EAGLE SETUP, CANT WAIT TO TRY IT OUT AND MAKE A BASE FOR THE MOUNT SO IT SITS IN THE BED.

 

~LONG TRAVEL INSTALL~

DAY 1

Finally back from deployment, I'm super excited to finally get on the long travel. Took me a while to gather parts and do all the research behind which kit and all that.

First step was to fix the pre-load on the shocks that I picked up used with a new spring plate and new springs that are Eibach 600 pound springs. I also rearranged the fitting orientation to better suit my reservoir mount locations.



Next want to take everything off and strip everything. This was the first time I really got to test out my pre-eagle jack and the extension and I can say I absolutely love it. I feel like I've done this a million times so I didn't take long with the exception of the lower control arm cam sleeves. I had to cut those out with a sawzall.



After a lot of progress and dirt and grease all over me, I got everything off and the new upper control arms and lower control arms in. Everything was a very tight fit and I can appreciate the tolerances on the kit.

First day done.​

 

What kind of jack stands are you using?

 

DAY 2

The next day I cleaned up quite a bit and organized all my tools, my fiancé's dad started to help me with the CV axles. While he worked on the axles I worked on notching the frame for the 934 inner CV.



After trying to cut the shaft with a bandsaw and failing, we resorted to the chopsaw. After that we rotated the cage and got all the balls out, and all we had left was the cage and a tiny piece of the shaft. Next we stuck that in the lathe (not shown) and cut the rest of the shaft out to where we could break the C clip on the press.



Heres the final product which was a pain in the ass but they should never break with a 300m shaft and 934 inner. You can see him much bigger everything is compared to stock.

While he worked on the 1st axle I started to notch the frame where the 934 inner will sit. Please don't judge the shitty marlin frame plates, I absolutely hate the fitment of them and they will be coming off.

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Im not sure they are probably older them me haha

 

DAY 3/4

After cleaning everything up and taking stuff on and off all day cycling and screwing up the coil bucket. I eventually got everything setup. Im no mechanic or fabricator so doing this with no instructions took a good bit a time for me. JD is working on a set of instructions as of the date of this post. but I got everything dialed in and love it.



Where I went back and drilled the coil bucket out to properly mount the coilovers.



Since install I have gone back and done a few little things I will post more on in the future as its an on going process. But so far it has been nothing but good things to say about JD fab and @81Trekker.

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Installed my Meso customs gas hole, I think these things are silly but I got one anyway . But now I need a bigger jack cause I was already struggling with most bottle jacks and definitely not lifting this rig up with the factory jack.

I decided on the pro-eagle over a high lift jack because of safety, and the ease of use. I know you can use high lift jacks in many more ways but I like being able to wheel this thing around and using it in a garage or anywhere really.



I started by making some mounting plates that are sandwiched with the existing bed bolts, and I used a 1" square tube to connect the two pieces and then I added some 3/16" plate to secure the pro eagle mount using some 9/16" hardware with nylock nuts.



It turned out great! and doesn't rattle nearly at all. It doesn't take too much space up and I can still open the cubby door and the power outlet without removing the jack. Its also as close as I can get to the tailgate.



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Now that I have my pro-eagle mount I needed a good mount for my power tank. I could have just bolted it straight to the bed or something but I really like trying to use the existing mounting points.

For this mount I really wanted an agreed mount that hides the power tank, and compliments my pro-eagle jack. I failed big time on that but I will soon go back and redo this mount. But I really wanted to start practicing welding tube and after a couple feet of tube practice welding I can say I think im getting the hang of it, but who am I to say lol.



You can see the red line is where I would have preferred to have it but the tank needs to be at least 30 degrees to function properly. but to fix that I plane on getting a snorkel tube and running the tank more flat to the bed.​

 

First time rally testing out the truck iv fallen in love. it soaks everything up like nothing, even slower rocky stuff is 100x smoother. And I can say I really appreciate the power tank making everything lighting fast getting off the trail. I even hooked up an air nozzle and blew the dust out of my truck.



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First trip with the new long travel and it was a blast! I was able to do more than I could before and easier then before having more articulation in the rocks giving me more traction. Also had some fun in the wash and enjoyed the great weather. We ended up doing Chiva loop in Tanque verde, one of my favorite trails.



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DUDEEEEEEE the LT look tooo sick and I love the mounts you did in the rear, keeps it clean and classy!

 

Thanks man! I actually redid both mounts already cause I didn’t like them lol. I’ll update this thread soon.

 

SAN DIEGO
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After waiting a couple weeks for my fiberglass to be done, I was finally able to go pick it up. It was about a 7hr drive, a little more with stops and what not. I can't lie though san diego is a pretty wild place, nothing like I thought it was gonna be.



I wanted to stop by down south to see about some bumps stops and luckily they had them ready to go, and even cooler I got to meet christian from WINGS WORLD, him and his brother run a YouTube channel on fabrication and general pre-runner building. super cool guy and has some serious knowledge on building trucks. I had been watching his channel for a year or two now so cool to finally meet him.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-EvEsnY9D-koR6pECc-ZlA



Next I went to pick up the fiberglass, not gonna lie almost got stood up by McNeil after driving 7-8hrs just to pick these things up. I was pretty pissed until I finally got ahold of Mark on instagram after waiting about 2hrs, he was super cool about everything. Talked to be about his truck and recommendations for my truck, and after seeing the glass I was no longer pissed off lol.



On our way out we stopped by off-road warehouse. just wanted to look around and see. ended up grabbing some new heims for my coil overs and some steel-it for my jack mounts and other projects.



Also after I got back I looked under the truck and saw my outer cv boot clamp had failed. so ill have to clean that up. FYI cleaning up cv grease sucks. it literally gets everywhere.

 

SD is one of a kind! Nice build btw

 

FIBERGLASS
Getting the fiberglass installed was a pretty easy process, just very tedious. I only had to trim one section near the door on the front fenders and the corners of the bedsides around the top of the bed closest to the cab. Im very happy with how everything turned out though and everything fitment wise is definitely a great initial fit, ill have to fiddle more with everything though before I Line-x the insides of the glass. I did end up notching thing out with a Dremel for things like the rubber bumpers that the hood sits on and the headlight trim I had to make brackets that bolt them on using some kibbe tech fender washers. And for the rear I extended the fuel neck with a 4runner fuel neck and turned down a new gas door holder.
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