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

Looks good! I would presonally prefer all one color, but that does look cool, and its different. Nice work. What color did you use exactly for the black part? Is it a rustoleam flat black, or gloss?

 

It was rustoleam hammered black.

 

x2! The budbuilt skids are 3/16" and are ~60lbs each.

 

No didnt. But i did it myself, took me about 2hrs total. I took my time.
1. Jack up truck,frame on jack stands.
2. Remove Wheels.
3. Unbolt Steering Tie rod nut, lower Lower ball joint nut large one "i think 21mm", unbolt 4 "14mm" Bolts from Ball joint to spindle.
4.Pull up on the spindle and it will be free from L Ball joint and swing it up and to the side and just try to get it out of the way.
5. The lower ball joint should be unbolted and theres nothing in the way. Some people will say use a Pickle Fork but i dont bother. Just get a hammer tap the sides of the ball joint with some force in all directions, keep tapping till it breaks free and out of the arm, "do the same with the tie rod on steering".
6 Install new Ball joint, use cotter pins, pull back spindle put it in place , put back the 14mm bolts ,reconnect the steering arm.
Pretty simple. And easy.

 

awesome thanks man!

 

Start cutting today!

I know.... I think *hope* my eibachs will support the extra weight fairly well though. That 4'x7' plate was almost 300 lbs alone!!! I may end up having to get some 1/4" top plate spacers or something... we'll see.

BTW, yours are my inspiration, man! So thanks. haha

 

Snap a couple pics if you can while in the process curious to see how the "whiskey bends" turn out

Silas or Adam. How do you know how deep to go when making the whiskey bends? I assume your using an angle grinder?

 

If you got an Ultraguage, I'd love to know if it affects you mpg to any degree.

 

I'm hoping to spend a little time tomorrow working on my other skids and will be using the "whiskey bend" method. I'll try to get some pics of the process.

When you can bend the plate you've cut deep enough. I am using a Dewalt 4.5" angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. A grinding wheel will be way too wide. When I did the front skid I would cut to what I thought was deep enough and try to bend it, if I couldn't bend it without a lot of effort I would cut a little more until I could. Truthfully you could cut all the way though in a couple spots and still be fine. You'll be filling it with weld anyway. Just don't cut the entire peice off that you're trying to bend and you'll be just fine.

 

Nice! Did you just put on the stock pulley wheel? I thought the CS144 had a 6 band pulley on it..

HOLY SHIT! lol thats gonna be BEEF..and super heavy. I think the Eibachs will be fine..till you add a front bumper and/or winch. Then you'll need something a bit beefier..Mid travel CO here you come!

Wow really? How much? 1''? for 35s?

Yea man id be very interesting in how you did this.

 

Gotcha!! Makes perfect dollars!

 

My one front skid didnt affect mine at all that i can tell, im more interested in seeing how the belly pan and winch added on will

 

t hose are gonna be wayyyyyy too heavy. i just mounted my bb's and it def sagged.... i have the top plate spacer in too.... the whole bb package weighed like 140 i think

 

Good looking rig!!

 

After seeing that ^^^, I am highly considering doing something similar... hmmm...

 

the bb skids weigh like 40lbs each.

also i bent the shit out of my budbuilts, so 1/4 might be better. not like anybody who wheels their shit cares about gas mileage.

 

Fixed my rear sag problem by putting a 2 1/2 block and switched out my rear shocks to bilsteins. Now I have eibach springs and bilstein adjustable in the front. Also added an aal to the rear.

/Users/Home/Downloads/2012-04-13 17.22.54.jpg

 

Installed my viper remote start with smart start.

 

Lookin good!