Baka's 1998 Build

Thats good. Yea my boggers hate sand. If I even think about spinning, I sink to the frame lol. Oh thats right, I forgot that you were locked up front, I imagine that did help alot.

 

Great looking truck!

If you don't mind me asking how much for painting the whole truck?

 

Not at all. I paid the guy $800 to prep and shoot it. That included smoothing out some areas where the clear coat was peeling off and straightening out the dents in the tops of the bedrails. I provided the paint which cost me about $200 after they nailed me with a hefty hazmat fee for shipping. So I have about a grand in the OD green. I wasn't paying attention to how much the black bedrail caps, toolbox, and sliders cost, but I did go through quite a few cans of the Rustoleum Truck Bed Coating before they were done.

 

Exactly. As soon as I lost momentum on those sand hills, the Swampers started going straight to China...instantly.

And yeah, the locker definitely helped. The red & black 1st Gen in some of the pics and a Jeep XJ that was running with us had to scratch and claw their way up that hill I was going up in the b/w pic. I had a little wheel spin at the beginning until my rear tires properly got on the hill (likely because I was dragging that stupid receiver hitch that hangs down excessively far ) but once they were, it just hooked up and drove straight to the top like I was on a flat paved road.

 

Cool thanks. I have hood/roof that needs paint. Just trying to get a feel for costs.

 

Haha, well, keep in mind, I'm in Florida where the COL is dirt cheap (except gas, which sucks). I would imagine things like that cost more on other states. Still, if you just wanted your hood and roof painted instead of the whole truck, it probably wouldn't be too bad. depends on how bad/faded the rest of the paint is I suppose.

 

Good to know. Rest is perfect.

 

A couple weeks ago, I took my lock-outs apart and painted the selector dials and bodies. Yesterday, after doing some rear break service, I managed to destroy one of my center caps putting the wheel back on, so I opted to paint the ends of the axles and leave the center caps off. The green doesn't quite match the body color but since it's surrounded by the black wheels, it doesn't really look out of place.

Here's the results...



Fronts...



Rears...

 

Did my Rear diff breather mod today...

 

I just saw this. Did you have a particular reason for running it all the way to the taillight? I just zip tied mine to the fuel inlet tube. I didn't even run it to the inside of the fuel door.

 

As you might have noticed, I can get in pretty deep. I figured behind the tail light would be the highest spot I could put it short of running the hose between the bed and cab and clamping the breather to the back of the tool box (which I still might do). I was also kind of hoping that if the water did get to the top of the tail light like it appeared to in one of the Richloam trip vids, the trapped air would keep it from submerging the breather. Plus, it just seemed easier than running it to the fuel door with the fuel tank and filler all in the way.

 

Oh ok. That makes sense. I don't ever plan on going into anything deeper than the bottom of my door, so I wasn't worried about getting it too high. Also, don't forget to do the trans. and t-case breather if you plan on getting into real deep water. I haven't done mine but eventually will, just for the hell of it.

 

Rgr. I was thinking those were already pretty high, extending up behind the bellhousing, but I'll take a look and maybe lengthen them when I drop the tranny to replace the clutch.

My rule is if the water gets up to the tops of my front tires, I back out. Clearly, the rear appears to go deeper somehow, possibly because it tilts down when the truck is climbing up on the far side, or maybe it was just taking a deeper track do to the flowing water and lack of weight causing it to crab sideways. Dunno, but it looked a hell of a lot deeper in the vid than it did when I was driving through it watching the left front tire.

 

Oh ok. I gotcha. You might be alright then. I think they both come out right on top of each. I know for a fact that when you take the shift boots off, you can see one of them through the hole in the cab. That's the only reason I haven't extended mine yet, because I don't ever plan on getting that deep. But you never know, which is why I'll do it sooner or later, just hopefully it isn't after I've drained water out of one or the other lol.

 

Haha, No doubt! At least since the T-case HAS a breather, we can be fairly confident that it isn't a pressurized unit like the NP231 (?) I had in my YJ. Found that out the hard way when I ripped a driveshaft in half about an hour away from home and just decided to remove the remaining parts of the shaft and limp home on the front end. In the process, I blew all the fluid out of the T-case through the tail shaft hole and stretched the chain. Had never seen a pressurized t-case until that one. It was about a $1000 dollar lesson.

 

New clutch ordered!

 

glad to see someone else puting it there. mine is just thrown in there and i have never had water in my diff. I should mount it to the very top like yours

 

Yup, the other option was the front side of the tool box. Might still do that someday.

 

Some video of the Odd Green Taco & friends taken by Rick (Blackhorse) at Hardrock ORV park in Ocala...(featuring the Odd Green Taco's first trail damage!)

On the ramp...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHz6Y1h9Vc

Big steep slippery hill climb...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3xwQJaNfaQ

Trail damage at 6:11 VVV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wPjyXwRb1Q

Playing in the mud...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVqMzZWMoE

Rock Crawling, FL style ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_nostoPGCs