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

Get your new springs mounted then cycle them as much as you can to see what the compressed/extended lengths actually are. Base you choice of shocks on that.

 

What would be the best method of doing this? Just letting the axle drop by its own weight won't show droop enough, right?
As for matching measurements for the shocks, would I choose a compressed length shorter the up travel of the leafs and an extended measurement longer?

And what do I do until the new shocks will come in? Can I keep the leafs with the old shocks or are they going to be way too short? I know they aren't very good as is (188K miles), but would I blow them and they serve little/no purpose? Is the best route to take the new ones off right after testing and put the old ones back on? Honestly, I'd rather just blow my garbage shocks than have to take leafs on and off when it's cold outside. Taking the ones ones off will be bad enough.

 

Wash and wax.

 

The idea is to flex it as much as possible without any shocks mounted at all. You are trying to determine the limits of the spring travel, measuring the distance between the shock mounts you will be using.

I used a forklift to pick up one rear tire as far as possible while maintaining the other three still on the ground. I did that on both sides. There are other methods available. A ramp for example.

 

Hmm I'll have to think on how to do this then. No access to a forklift outside of work (and those never go outside) so a ramp of some kind it is. Will have to look around.
Should I do this with the new fronts installed, or will having the front lifted not affect the rear's travel much or at all?

 

lunar mist, step side, subtle LEDs, German Sheppard. Perfect picture.

 

Just slapped on some new end links on my sway bar. Going to be swapping my leafs from AP standards to expos. Hoping at that point I won’t need a sway bar

 

Yes. I did it that way. I have a picture somewhere of the front frame sitting on the stock bumpstops on the LCAs to ensure maximum extension and compression on the rear.

Besides, it's almost impossible to move the truck without the front coilovers installed.

 

haha I meant with the new fronts in as opposed to with the old stock parts I have on. But yeah, I will install the fronts prior. Plus that will give me an interesting feel for how King front and nothing rear feels. Should be interesting.

 

itty bitty tars

 

It's really not, last trip I went on I had worn out stock garbage in the rear and icons in the front. The icons did their job admirably but you can only makeup so much. Now after softening the rear an putting decent shocks on my icons feel like butter and the rear feels okay. It's like a gradient, if you change one end the other changes accordingly but to a lesser extent. It only takes a bit of rear help to make the front feel great with the right components, but if something isn't pulling it's weight you'll be underwhelmed.

 

I actually quite like that they work together. I find the relationship more interesting that way, and it helps make buying better parts for both ends seem worth it. Now I'm intrigued to see the difference.

 

Happy Thanksgiving you bunch of goons! May you all eat til you drop!

 

I had my AISIN Manual Hubs powdercoated black/red in preparation for my 4x4/PreRunner swap. Paid a total of $115 for both hubs and the bolts to get sandblasted and coated.

 

Those came out really nice! I would take some sandpaper after masking around the letters and then sand the letters to give them the nice machined aluminum look. Like this...

 

Yeah! I wanted to got for that look. I was going to try my hand at paint, but brushed aluminum looks a lot better. Don't know how easy it would be with Powder Coat though.

 

Should be as easy as making around the general area (not each letter that would be insane) and then turning them upside down and rubbing back and forth on some sandpaper.

 

Think I might do it to the AISIN logo too. That would look awesome.

 

That would be possible if you have an ultra steady hand and a dremel

 

That'll be a little nerveracking since you can't fix powder coat. Oh boy.