MadTaco Build

My nephew picked up a practically brand new 2006 Audi A6.
Only problem, the people who had it before took the catalytic converters and the entire front half of the exhaust off for whatever reason, probably to sell.
I have been helping him these last couple of days welding new flanges to some aftermarket new catalytic converters and new 2.5" exhaust to tie into the factory exhaust in the rear. This has been quite the project…

 

I finished the rear deck and added some MOLLE pannels for gear.

 

Latest iteration...

 

I purchased these lower ball joints from camelback Toyota several years ago as trailspares.
It wasn't until today that I opened up the box and discovered that they are not actually Toyota parts, they are triple 5 parts, not happy.
Kind of sad that they did send Toyota bolts for install though …

 

Picked up my new tires today. I won't run them on my truck until I wear down my old ones a little more.

 

how long were the rubber redirect oil lines? I'm trying to gauge if I can preorder them to make thing easier.

 

The actual rubber hydraulic hose is 24" with a 90° fitting on each end clocked together.

 

Camping off grid, the only way to do it...

 

I installed the mounting platform for my new National Luna refrigerator.
I also ran a larger supply wire to the rear plug. Then I mounted another Hella 12v socket in my cab.
It is smaller than my old refrigerator, but I never filled that one up, so this should work fine for me.

 

Fabricated a mount to secure my new refrigerator. I am waiting on the mounting studs. The plan is to place my refrigerator here while on a 10 day outing later in the year.

 

Summer prep has officially started.


I will be rebuilding my front suspension to include new gusseted spindles, lower ball joints, s/s brake lines, new brake master cylinder, swapping in a new set of Bilstein srtuts (sending my Kings off for a rebuild) and gusseting my shock tower.

 

All torn down.

 

Drivers side coil bucket gusseted, I'll tackle the other side tomorrow.

 

All back together again. I need to bleed the brakes, put on the tires and take it for a drive.
I cleaned up the front suspension this last week. I installed new JBA upper ball joints, installed my newly rebuilt and gusseted front knuckles, installed my @goadventuretaco hard lines with brackets and stainless steel brake lines for my Tundra calipers. I replaced the lower ball joints and welded in my @Reh5108 coil bucket gussets and installed a set of new Bilstein struts with OME springs. I had to order new 4wd hub studs to finish it all up.
I'm working on getting my rig to a better place so I feel confident in taking it where I want it to go.

 

Awesome work as always. Really wish I installed @Reh5108's version of gussets before going with the TC style ones. Are you doing tierods too, at least OTRE's? There is something that is always so satisfying to having a complete fresh front end.

 

I thought about replacing them and I probably should. My current tierods felt pretty tight still, whereas my lower ball joints felt loose. I also thought about replacing my inner tierods, decisions decisions.

 

At least the outers are relatively cheap for OEM, but the inners are crazy. Usually I let the inners go until I need a new rack again.

 

In preparation for an upcoming trip I have worked on a couple small items.

Cab mounted refrigerator done.


Now I can leave the bed made for quicker setup.


Picked up a platform for better access to the back. This thing is great, works as a table as well.


Added some L track to the top of the cap. I will secure some uni-strut to the L track and mount my roadshower tank to the uni-track. I will be able to mount my traction board up there as well.

 

As it currently setup.