HackD's ongoing 5-lug armored-slug build.

Those seat covers are killer! Unfortunate about the flat. I too had the same discovery of the dismal bottle jack and got an 8 ton bottle on sale at harbor frieght.

 

I've got a Princess Auto (CDN version of a Harbor Freight) very local to me, that i'll be paying a visit to for both a floor jack, and a better portable jack, very soon. If i were stranded anywhere else other than my own driveway, i would likely have been stuck at cursing at the uselessness of it all, roadside. Very fortunate that it decided to 'pop' in my own driveway, overnight.

It looks like i will be replacing tires again soon, anyway. On close inspection, two of my tires appear to have minimal wear remaining - predictably, they were the drive-wheels

They are at almost 42,000km's worth of use.. and i did buy them (Goodyear Wrangler ST's) second hand, with a season or two's use on them already.

 

A few months ago, I found a good deal on an aluminum and steel floor jack, but that sucker is still quite heavy. I used to keep it in the front of the truck bed, but took it out recently and put it in my garage. I think I'm gonna put it back on the truck. I would prefer to use a floor jack whenever I needed to change a tire.

 

Very lucky it was in the driveway atleast hah
Will you go with larger tires if you were in the market?

 

About as good as it can get, for a total flat situation. Conversely, I could have been stranded at work .. and that would have been a complete gong-show..

Fortunately for this time around, i've got a bit of time before i need to commit - but keeping options open. I'm actually running out of "mods" to do, in terms of details/personalization - so a wrecker sourced 3rd Member / Differential isn't out of the question in the path to an up-size. I wouldn't consider going larger than present, for overall driveability, without that final drive upgrade.

Maximum I would consider is a 30.5" class tire, like a 245/75R16. 3:73 would be perfect gearing for that, and i've found a place that should in theory have plenty of those (1st gen 2wd's, T100's, a few others) in good nick. Just needs me to get on the phone and make the call.

 

T-Rex grille, along with Amazon.ca sourced aftermarket 2005-2010 grille surround. The grille surround was dropped off today - didn't last an hour before the preliminary hack-saw work began. This isn't going to be all that hard or involved a project, at all.

One of the several finishing touches for the exterior of my little truck. I will either have my set of matte black 6" KC's hiding behind it, or delete them entirely.

 

Oh boy thats gonna look slick. Cant wait to see it installed

 

Any decision on if you'll put the lights behind the grille? I'd love to see how it looks if you decide to do it.

 

Yes - they are likely moving in behind the grille. A BAMF "Light bar bracket" ( http://bayareametalfab.3dcartstores...he-Grille-Light-Bar-bracket-05-to-16_p_9.html ) was actually purchased as of last night, in order to facilitate mounting the 6" KC's behind the grille.

I expect to get this well on the way to done, within the next few weeks. Things should be in line, by the time that it's warm enough for play-time with wrenches in the driveway.

Edit: someone else has installed KC's in behind the grille (appears to be same KC's as mine), although they are closer together than i will be going for, and they are behind a mesh grille, rather than a billet grille.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...your-grille-get-in-here.479715/#post-14601372

 

As of last night.

 

Ah I gotcha, good choice! Can't go wrong with BAMF either.

It's funny how different it is...I'm trying to get all of my wrenching done now before it is way too hot out to work. Working under a truck in 100 deg F + weather is just no fun!

 

It was better weather than expected on Sunday afternoon, and it was an easy job to do, so the grille was fixed into place temporarily to get it off my computer room floor. When i get the BAMF light-bracket delivered, I'll re-arrange things to final form.

I think that it'll look cleaner, with those 6"s behind the grille, instead of in front - being a 'street truck' and all.

.

 

Two 'vanity' mods this afternoon - an addition to my ARB fender wings decal set .. the overplayed Zombie theme count. I also got the latest cheap mod of the month going around, the China environmental controls knobs thrown on.

Currently working on rack 'improvements' .. i'll purposefully leave that vague, for now.

 

Working on mocking up position of 40" Morimoto light bar in new Prinsu air dam section. Yep, going light-bar. It's going to be a bit of time before fully functional - I want to go over it to make sure it's well sealed, and the brackets need to be custom bent up and bridge the existing Prinsu racking cross-bars .. this thing is heavy. After all that, it's going to require wiring in - and that will take a while.

I can either join the Kool Kids club now, or i just totally ruined it. Not sure that i care either way. I'm having fun with the changes to the truck, anyway!

 

Better. Cleans the wing decals up in terms of clutter... plus I have no plans on collecting elderly pedestrians, bicycles or motorcyclists.



Also taken off the KC's until I get the bracket to mount them inside of the grille.

 

Another thing off of "The List", and off of my computer room floor. BAMF light-bar bracket came in, in the past week. Did the final install of the grille assembly, and installed the KC lights back in place - I've left the KC light covers off, obviously - quite useless with the grille now in front of them.

I am quite pleased with the T-Rex replacement grille, and the light combination. Cleans the front end up significantly, in not having a set of driving lights just bolted on the bumper, "out there", and potentially getting damaged.

 

looks good man nice to come back and aee the progress here ill be doing a build page soon once I get the time to put some more mods in.

 

Took a week to do properly, but I got the light bar brackets properly precision bent up, crudely machined-out for slotted holes, etc. These tie into the Prinsu rack cross-rails. This is as tight as it would go, given dimensional limitations and clearances. Not bad for a first go at it.

I will need to wire in the light bar at some point later. I need to make a light bar cover first, and then get cracking on the Hilux Outback overhead console for switch gear and wiring space.

This'll pretty much wrap up the cosmetic changes to the front end. I don't think it needs or wants for anything else, as an up-armored commuting road-runner.

 

looks good my dude.

 

I reached the 100k km milestone, today.