Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

Installed some cheap Amazon RBG rock lights. Been wanting to do this for a while so that I can see better around me at night wheeling and have more scene lighting.
Plus the RBG is pretty fun.
Routing all the wires was annoying to do.





I also replaced the other two ditch lights & winch power switches with incandescent switch bodies instead of the LED ones I had in there. They were stupid bright with the blue lenses and pretty fatiguing on the eyes at night. Now they all look the same and are much dimmer and easier to look at with the dash lights on.



They came in pretty clutch this last weekend in Tahoe. Pulled a couple people out that had slid off into a ditch off Donner pass.

 

Straightened out my trans skid with the press at work and added some more reinforcements to it. It was still bending with the 2 pieces I had added previously. So I added 3 more as shown below.

 

On my most recent oil change, I got another Blackstone analysis done. Trying to get a good wear profile established for my motor.
This was the most miles I had done between oil changes so far: ~7500.

Pleased to see the positive results come back.
Gonna shoot for 9500 miles next change and do another analysis.

Pretty good for a 20+ year old motor. Modern synthetic oil lives up to their claims so far.

 

Dude install this on my truck please and thank you.

 

Haha just doing the wiring is so tedious. So many zip ties.

If I were to do it again, I would have gone with a RGBW kit instead of RGB so you can have a pure white color.

 

New driver seat. This thing is the titties. So much better in so many ways than the old oem "bucket" seats I got off CL a while back. Gonna be really nice on the trail.
Forgot to grab a pic of the bottom side of the seat, but the suspension craftsmanship is on point.

Took a bit of fucking around with the brackets & sliders to get everything where I wanted it and sliding correctly. Mastercraft's documentation is non-existent for any application other than a straight up seat swap in a jeep.

Had to ditch the center console because it won't fit between the seats with where the seatbelt receptacle is mounted. Not to mention when I get a second seat, I don't think it'll fit there period. This will help motivate me to find a solution for better sealing up my floor and creating a custom center console.

 

Fancy fancy. Custom aluminum center console sounds rad.

 

That's kind of what I had mind. Just wish I could weld aluminum. That's really what's holding me back with going that route. Sheet metal fab is not easy.
I'm thinking it'll likely just be out of mild steel sheet metal, welded up and then paint it or powdercoat it when I'm happy with it.

It's about time I try to get the interior of this thing in better shape

 

You could always build a steel skeleton and skin it with aluminum and make the panels removable. Keeps the majority of it lightweight while still rigid.

 

That looks super nice!

Check out this 5 part series on making carbon fiber parts. The video features a very center console like part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAinuf5I_dw

 

Yea I have a few ideas in my head of different ways I could do it, that was one of them. Similar to what Brian Reynolds did.
I just need to get some material and execute

Also not super worried about weight, biggest concern of mine atm is to better seal the floor and dampen noises from that area.

 

Carbon fiber would be so bitchin! I'll give that a watch.
I don't have much experience with composite work like that. More familiar with metal fab

 

There's definitely a finesse to it. The guy in the video makes it look easy.

Hell, all I did was make a pair of 27"x46"x2" panels out of foam and plywood and wrapped the whole thing in 6oz fiberglass and marine epoxy and they took me around 50 hours of hands on work...and they're flat. ...and they're still not done.

If I made them again I get it would take me half that.

 

Welcome to the club then. He already knows once I get around to ordering PRP seats I'm buying winter shifters and build a center console like his. But it's not like I've copied a few things from him already...

 

I made some carbon fiber skate board trucks in my composite materials class in college, it’s not hard really. Although the math behind it is a bitch get into like 40 by 40 matrices

 

Yea i'm on the third video now, and there's so many steps to making that plug & prepping it. I think i'll stick with metal for this project lol.

Yea I mean how can you not with a build like that haha

 

Yea it would be cool to do forsure, but it'll be so much cheaper with just metal considering I don't have any of the stuff to work with composites or any of that stuff.

 

Yeah I remember it not being super cheap.

 

Yeah, doesn't help that his pirate build thread is full of *inspirational* photos.

 

Very *expensive* inspirational photos lol

not to mention it makes a mess. One of my buddies does a lot of that kind of stuff for his work with prototyping and stuff and making molds, and his work space is always thrashed from all the chemicals & components you use for that kinda shit