blueberry.taco build and adventures

I suppose I can post up pictures from that one trip i took when it was bone stock.

I've been taking pictures at the Mackinac bridge pretty much every single time i cross it, regardless of if it's a rental car or otherwise...
my photo collection from this same spot is pretty vast now. But never with a blue truck before! unless you count a bedliner-baby-blue Disco from a couple summers ago.



and our nice little campspot right off the lake


gotta show off these sweet LED headlamps during sunrise!


found some colors



this truck is so long you have to be waaay far away to fit it into a portrait mode photo


caught some little trout right at camp (I'm just starting to get into fishing as a side hobby)


as dirty as she's ever been so far!


being totally stock with the rear jump seats, wasn't an ideal seat for my dog but made it work. he had no complaints. I'll eventually work on a platform/cubby/drawer setup to replace the useless jump seats

 

Good work champ!

 

Damn, hit the ground running on this one! Nice job OP

 

Progress slows down a lot during the work week.
here's something to show...

new chevy leaf pack with the overload removed (with airsprings I wont need them) and 4 deg shims clamped in and painted.

 

over the weekend i did a bunch of painting to finish up the frame, axle, and suspension bits, and started a soft assembly.
everything still bolts together which is always a good sign.

little details:
- modified the wheel speed sensor harness hanger bracket direction/orientation and a couple bends so i think i can get away without having to extend those.
- cleaned up the shape of the upper air spring perch to minimize excess material
- added a clip point for the parking brake cables to both the front leaf clamp and the mount bracket, similar to how the stock toyota ones were.
- you can just barely make out the extra fuse block and ground stud bracket i welded to the frame in front of the front bed mount bracket, and started running the 2/0 wire from the engine bay to it.
I'll be using the MEGA fuse block here as a terminal junction for the house wiring in the bed (in the future) and to the rear winch setup (also future). There will be a 500A MEGA fuse from the battery to this fat wire. I ended up pulling the stock exhaust out and running this above the stock heat shielding

 

sub'd -- looks great. I have the daystars and may flip the ubolts and will reference this when the time comes.

 

got the MEGA fuse block mounted up and used my new hydraulic crimper to get a nice crimp on the terminal. So much easier and better than the hammer method I've had to use in the past.


had to pull the exhaust to route the 2/0 wire over the heat shields and to the engine bay.
I'll be making a new crossover pipe while I have it out to gain the ground clearance lost by the factory pipe.... once the new stainless bends arrive. (I'm too used to prime shipping, multi-week waits feel ridiculous)

 

Hahaha I was just talking about this with my wife last night!
Sweet build btw, I'll be taking a few notes for my rig eventually.

 

Sick. I hope to see your rig when this covid crap is over. I have a lot of family in the Detroit area.

 

just finished up an exhaust reroute. did it a little differently than what I've seen but I'm super happy with all the clearances, all mandrel bent 304SS, I made it so it's a "bolt-in" to the manifold and factory Y pipe.
I made sure to keep the pipe far away from both the u joints and the "extendy" portion of the front driveshaft boot, while also making sure it wont get in the way of draining the trans.

 

The lower air spring perches became a lot more complex than I wanted them to but they’re done now. Who knew u bolt flips would be annoying on the top side

also gained some fuel tank protection.
ended up drilling and welding in studs to the stock tank straps and the skid needed some clearancing to the new leaf spring hangers but otherwise a good fitment.

 

little bracket to mount a MEGA fuse block as close to the battery as I could, took some time to make sure it is parallel to the battery to keep it clean looking, even though the inner fender panel isn't parallel to the battery. 2 rivnuts (usually I avoid rivnuts because they tend to spin at the worst times) but because the backside of these are fairly easy to access (pull the headlight out) I figured a field repair if I ever need to wouldn't be too difficult and went with it.

 

since the stock tailpipe crashed into the new leaf springs I got rid of the 90 turn to the RH side, and converted it into a turn down.
Eventually I'll make a new tailpipe that tucks higher but until I build a high clearance rear bumper I don't think it matters from a performance standpoint, this will be plenty good enough as a temporary setup.

you can see in the LH rail the red boot over my power terminal where I ended my 2/0 wire from the engine bay. This is where I'll connect my rear winch to (when I build the rear bumper)

 

Yep, I'm in for this

 

2/0 ground wire run from battery to the LH shock tower (stock ground point, just took off the paint, used the stock bolt, repainted)


and with as much frame and body cutting/drilling/welding/etc I do you'd think stickers would be easy, but no. putting stickers on straight and centered is by far the most difficult task.
I'm not sure anyone can ever tell but I'm a little upset at the rear locker sticker being slightly off center

 

This is excellent

 

Amazing so far, can't wait to see more!

 

For how much stuff I’ve added under the hood I think I was able to hide most of the ugly hoses and wires.
Little unhappy about the 2/0 crossing over the battery but it is the shortest path to the fuse block
You can see that I upgraded from the stock -4 fitting and line size the ARB manifold comes with to -6 and added a check valve.
Pretty happy that all the compressor/locker wiring and hoses are basically invisible crossing the firewall to the powertray

 

What compressor mount did you use/make? Is your ABS module underneath the compressor?

 

I splurged for the Slee offroad one. with the ABS unit there, space is pretty tight and I justified the initially seemingly high cost of the Slee bracket because it would have taken me hours and possibly several tries to get a nice fitting (and looking) bracket that fits in that cozy little spot. and you know, time is money!