What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

If you could round up some others, maybe you can convince him to do a group run of 1st gen rear diff skids.

 

Lmao! That's been tried before. We were all called "too cheap" to buy stuff for our trucks.

Now he hates us so much he wont even drill a drain hole on the other side of the skid plate for us.

 

I'd consider a purchase, if he did a run.

 

Not holding my breath for Jerry.

Among all the other projects... guess what I'm going to start.

 

It's not even about 1st Gen owners being too cheap. There's just not that many of us, and an even smaller subset that actually uses the trucks for wheeling. Armor, suspension, parts in general, the market for our trucks is drying up. Which is fine by me these days, I make most my own shit anyhow. The market started shrinking hard when rust buy backs started and then fell off more when 2nd gens got exposure as overlanding vehicles. We were too early to hit the hobby influx for overlanding and a little too late to be cheap enough to be beater wheelers like pre tacos. But I like it, it means more of our builds are unique. I've seen so many identical 2nd and 3rd gen builds, but 1st gens arent so homogenous

 

I agree with 100% of what you said.

At the end of the day, I wasn't the one that called us "cheap." That was someone else's word.

 

Starting to click off some projects

Bearings pressed... I'm fabricating a press fixture for the hubs. And still need to press hubs off a 3rd set of spindles in order to get to some brake backing plates.




I've already verified the ring/pinion on the axle I bought is 5.29




Also tested the elocker by hooking it up to the truck... tests good to go

 

can we contact the maker and ask for a group buy?

 

The maker of the one @Phessor is referring to said he was going to stop making them for 4 to 6 weeks... He said that 5 years ago and has never updated his page since (that I can tell)

 

If it does, that seems like an easy fix - get the 2nd gen skid and cut a second hole if your plug is on the passenger side (and optionally patch the other one; but I'd leave it for drainage).

I dunno, I mean, the full 1st gen skid set was a little different. That was completely designing a new product from scratch. This is running a batch of something he already has. And, I don't think Jerry @JLee hates us at all; he's just a business man and knows that running a business means doing things that make money. That's why I suggested reaching out and seeing if he'd do it when he had some down time.

If your biggest issue is not having a hole on the correct side of the skid, and your solution is to fab an entire skid vs drilling the hole yourself (esp since you'll have to drill the hole in your custom skid too), then it seems like your sort of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Of course, maybe the fun of building your own skid, etc. weighs in as well. Cost vs. time thing, blah blah blah. I know how that is, and do a lot of my own stuff because of it too. Just throwing the options out there so you can consider them, and (hopefully) realize that Jerry's not out to get you.

+1 to both of you. This gets back to Jerry treating it as a business.

 

I actually have a buddy that has a 2nd gen Bay Area Metal Fab diff skid sitting on a shelf. He has offered to let me borrow it, and see if it fits.

Decided I don't care if it fits. I have none of his stuff on my truck, and I'd prefer to keep it that way... not that he doesn't feel the same about it, being I have a 1st Gen, I do it to myself, because I'm cheap don'cha'kno.

It's his business, that's completely cool, I get it.

 

On to more exciting things.

Brakes, elocker, driveline etc disconnected. Rear end is drained. Axles are ready to slide out.

3rd member is ready to be pulled and swapped in the morning... I'll be rolling on a 5.29 rear diff tomorrow.




Another reason I love manual hubs. I don't have to do it all at once. Especially because UPS sent me a notification that my clamshell wont arrive till Thursday. The rear will be broken in before the front goes in.

 

Tonneau

 

Out with the old...



Cleaning gaskets sucks



Glad I don't have to do it

Actually... I did mine, I'm just better and faster at it.



In Robert's defence, he's having to do that stupid cork OEM gasket. Mine was just Permatex.

 

new ratio on the gears ?

 

Installed a roof rack today, changed the transmission fluid and put in a cooler. It was a good day!

 

Yes

 

I think the fsm calls for FIPG.

 

I've always used Permatex grey (gear oil compatible)

 

Hey how did you mount that? I've been looking for ways that don't involve drilling into the roof