Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

Installed a 200 cell count metal core cat. The kind of cat that you more typically see on a muscle car, so it has plenty of flow.
Quieted things down just a tad when heavy on the throttle. And should hopefully cut down on smell a bit too.

 

Ran the Rubicon for the 4th, and now I've got a slew of stuff to fix on the truck as per usual.
Came back with some new body damage too.



LCA bushings were toast after the trip. I could move the LCA by hand on the driver side when I had the wheel off. Not sure why my setup likes to go through bushings at such a high rate. So replaced those when I got back. Despite it being only 3 bolts per side to do, it's a greasy & messy pita with the thick ass lube I use for them.



Had the section of exhaust after the muffler redone. again. Since I kept crushing it on rocks and then it would rattle and contact the shock body due to the routing.
Had the shop do a new routing since I don't have a spare back there anymore to snake around. Tucked up there real nice now with a removable tip that I can replace in the event I somehow bash this one in.




Flushed the clutch master cylinder too since I haven't done that in forever and the fluid was black. I think the small leak in my cap was letting too much moisture in maybe so I replaced that just in case.


I was pretty frustrated to find this one: the floorpan on the cab is starting to sag and collapse. No doubt due to how big of a hole I cut out to make room for the dual cases.
So I started stripping the interior to figure out what do for that. Getting really sick of doing sheet metal cab work on this thing, but I'm also sick of the cab riding on top of the cases.
I need to come up with some sort of plan to reinforce the floor all the way across so it's more load bearing.


I pulled the speaker boxes out of the rear pockets while I was at it. Depending on how motivated I'm feeling, might sound deaden the interior and put a new vinyl floor in it. We'll see.

 

Vinyl floor and dont look back, 100% need a good heat gun and some patience.

 

Making some progress on the floor reinforcement.
Got the stiffener welded in and done. Working on adding in all the sound deadening now

 

Wrestling with this vinyl floor. Might be the most tedious thing I've done on the truck yet.
My OCD wants it to lay flat and conform to the shapes in the floor, but I think I might have to live with it being not perfect...

The mass loaded vinyl I ordered won't be here until Monday so I decided to put it together with the jute I had on hand for a trip this weekend. It's roughly the same thickness I think as the material I ordered so I'll just pull it apart later to swap them.

 

It's tough for sure. I felt the same way, but happy how it's finally landed. Not all crease will fall flat but most do.

 

Thanks for the pics. That's a helpful reference for when I do my final cuts.

 

Are you using a heat gun? You can get a lot of those wrinkles out.

 

Yea I was using a heat gun, but the memory of the material seemed to overcome my efforts. Going to play around with it some more tonight and hopefully get it to a point I can live with.