allenfab's 95 Tacoma build

Any idea what he'd want for that A-frame gantry crane? I honestly hate keeping stick rods because they will go bad before I'd ever get to use them, and I don't really have room for the rod fridge either. Currently going through a garage re-organization to get cleaned up and throw away all of my scrap metal so I can start fresh and get back to doing some side work when work allows it.

 

I'll ask and text you. Too bad about the rod fridge. It's a serious relic of a bygone era. If I was into that sort of thing, I'd want it just to restore it.

I can tell you, you'd probably get the rods if not for free then for next to nothing. if you're worried about them going bad before you use them, then these are the ones you want, lol. One's you didn't pay retail for so you're not out much.

 

Question about your Honda seats...can you still use the 5 point harness with them? I kinda scraped the idea of an enclosed buggy for the moment. When I have a budget that allows for it I may revisit it with BKOR, but for now, I'm thinking about going full on tube chassis truggie with the OGT cab, less the front clip. When I do, I imagine the floor will have to be cut for the driveline tunnel and I'll have to go buckets. I've resisted that until now because the bench seat has the best arm rest I've had since my '89 Ford supa cab with buckets with the inside armrest attached to the seat back and folded up and down. The best though was my grandfather's square body GMC Suburban with fold down arm rests on each side of the front seats. That's about the only good thing I can say about it, is it had awesome seats for long road trips. Otherwise it was noisy with wind leaks around the door seals and the interior kinda sucked. Having a good place to rest your arm while still holding the steering wheel takes a lot of the fatigue out of long trips. Right now I have that with the Taco bench seat and I've looked but failed to find any kind of aftermarket bucket seat with arm rests.

 

Tube chassis truggy? What in the world is happening lol

I can no longer use the 5 point harnesses with the Civic seats. As of now, I just have the lap belts and that's it. You could probably run the shoulder harnesses through the headrest and make them work, but I don't think it would be the "correct" or "acceptable" way of running and mounting the shoulder straps. There is also no provision for the anti-submarine belt so that is gone as well. I plan on going back to factory belts at some point, when I decide to start looking for a set in decent shape.

 

Rgr. I think some of the Subaru or Mitzu seats have holes for the shoulder belts in the WRX or Lan Evos, but I'm not sure. You could just mount the bar up higher so they pull straight back or slightly up a bit from the seat backs. Just a thought. Or with the side job money you could go all in and get a set of these...Only about $870 + shipping with anti-sub slots and direct fit brackets that mount in the factory Tacoma holes (or you might could get a deal from 4WP. I know they carry this brand. Now if the damn things only had a fold down arm rest.



The tube chassis thing I got from a Jeep build. Looked pretty clean. Of course, I'd want mine to have the nose and mostly the tail of a bouncer with all the tubes on glorious display. The down side is, I have too much wheelbase(122"). Even if I could move the rear axle forward some, in order to get the front axle out from under the motor to really get some real up-travel, I'd have to run 42s or 43s with Dana 80s for reliability (probably). That and I'd probably have to run it higher than I'd like to keep from turtling on every rock.

 

I have no idea if they would even fit in the cab of a tacoma, but I had a 99 GMC sierra that had a fold down armrest on the bucket seats. I hated that truck, but loved the interior. There would have to be about a bagillion of them in junk yards I imagine.

 

I doubt they would either. Not without major alterations for sure. They were way too high off the floor. Same with the Ford seats. They didn't call them Captain's Chairs for nothing, haha.

 

Fitting anything other than factory replacement seats in a regular cab sucks. These Civic seats have a weird shape to them so the top of the seat hits the rear of the cab before the seat can get too laid back, which isn't a big issue because it promotes good posture which is something I could use. I looked for STI and Acura RSX seats, along with some Scion seats but they were either way too much money or too ragged out. I am happy though with the way that they turned out, and I can say that I will not be trying to fit another seat in this truck again lol. I didn't even use the shoulder harnesses but once or twice so nothing lost there.

 

Now yer just becoming more like me everyday, a complete skin flint, lol.

 

Lol I mean I guess. I’m just kinda over the truck in general when it comes to putting money into it. It’s pretty much maxed out while still practical at the same time. I’m going to start dumping money into some good welding equipment so I can one day quit my job and work on my own.

 

Something else you said you wouldn't do, but that's cool. I have your first project. BKOR said they weren't interesting in doing a build with a Toyota or a Coyote engine. Jeep and LS snobs, the lot of them, says I!

On a serious note, when you're ready to do that, if you plan to do off-road work, and I have the money, I want to invest in it. Even have a cool name for the company...Dauntless Off Road Fabrications. If you want to build grills and trailers, I'd be interested too. As long as I eventually get my OGT truggy out of it.

 

I have mazda rx8 seats in my cab. I know 2nd gen cabs are probably alittle bigger but they fit nicely and the color scheme matches the Toyota grey and black interior.

 

Ya, but since then my work has gone to corporate ownership and it’s gone completely downhill. Pay is heavily throttled while the higher ups get richer (imagine that).

I’d never go into off-road only fabrication, no money in it here really. Too many gold mines here like Disney and the marine industry that will always need maintenance work without a care about cost.

I’ll build whatever you want as long as I’m paid what I’m asking lol

 

Copy that. That shit is eating me alive. Every time I let my mind wander, I start thinking about designs for the damn thing.

 

BTW, provided you have a shop, instead of just working off a truck, when the time comes, I'd still like to invest if I have the money at that point. I really wish I'd trained to be a machinist instead of an aircraft mechanic. With me doing lathe and milling work and you doing welding and other fab work, we'd be a one stop shop for whatever anybody wanted repaired or made out of metal.

I've seen and experienced what you're talking about before. It usually means the company is about to be gutted and it's assets sold off for some investment group to make a tidy profit. It's not pretty, especially even though it's unstated, people pick up on it, attitudes start to go down hill, and nobody gives a shit anymore. Makes it hard to go to work with that going on.

 

Rx8 seats are awesome, those are the hidden gems of the import world.

You could live off making dog boxes and poling platforms between the rednecks and the anglers.

 

Well, I wouldn't be going to work for myself completely when I said that.... my brother in law owns his own small welding business and him and I talked about going in together. Doing that though would still free me up to do the whole allenfab thing more at the same time though. It's still all talk right now, but hoping it materializes into something soon. COVID has hit his business hard so it's something that needs to be waited out for now, but business will return. That's one reason why I bought that Lincoln inverter machine, so I could do these field jobs with him and have my own equipment.

As for my current job, we are already in that investor stage. The company by no means is going to go away by any means, we are actually still growing at a pretty good rate. The thing for my is the micro-managing that is taking over... when I started, I punched in on an old school time clock, worked, and punched out. Now, I have to punch in on a tablet that takes your picture, then fill out a time sheet verifying that I did in fact punch in. Then, I have to sign a separate sheet saying that I was on time (all three of those actions can be condensed back into one). I then have to sign a JSA saying that I understand the risks involved with the job, and then I have to hand write THE SAME EXACT RISKS in my own writing and sign that. I then have to fill out and sign a daily inspection sheet for my welding machine and sign it (they even go as far as to require you to purge the gas out of the lines when you turn the gas bottle off on the welder, and no one has given me one reason why this is even remotely needed). All in all, I have to fill out and sign a minimum of 7 pages of paperwork, every day, before I can even strike an arc, or plug in an extension cord. Things like that is what drives me insane to the point where I just want to walk out.

 

I've looked into both, but I really like the idea of building fish cleaning stations. Aluminum legs, whatever that cutting board material is for the top, and I could even offer install as well. Online, just the tables run a minimum of $900 by themselves. Stupid easy to make and relatively cheap, and a necessity in my opinion for anyone who has a lake or oceanside house.

 

Mosaic is the same way. I think they make the mid-state guys do stretches every morning too lol.

 

HDPE is the material on the top. Another Idea is duck boats. Just added stringers and dry boxes on jon boats would net a nice profit.