Wackyhacky's 2013 TaCOmarado Build

you're going to need to black out those "b" pillars - see my build thread.......ha ha

 

Just a little report on the fridge & battery performance thus far. I cooled the fridge down while plugged into AC, and then switched it over to the fully charged battery and let it go for about 12 hours or more at 34 degrees in both zones. One night this was just in my garage which was around 80 degrees inside because it's been pretty hot out and it only depleted the battery to 91%. Another day I left it on the battery all day, 30 minute drive and then it sat outside in a friends driveway for at least 15 hours before I moved again and the lowest I have gotten the battery is 86%. Pretty happy with the performance thus far. I think the way I travel this will be great and with the addition of solar eventually, it will be perfect.

 

Have you checked out Colorado Fasteners & Metric in Longmont? I haven't been there, but was recommended by @jubei
https://goo.gl/maps/15yHc6P984EAbSdG6

 

Thanks man. I was not even aware of them, so I will definitely check it out. I am probably going to need a whole more till this build is done.

 

So, it's been quiet for me on the build out front the last few months, but as updated on page one, the winds of change are blowing and I am back to obsessing over truck details again. We have switched camper platforms from the Drifter to an Alu-Cab Canopy Camper. It was a frankly a tough decision b/c it changes some of things I planned for our build & some of the work I had completed to this point, but in the end I think we made the right decision for what we are looking for out of the rig as a whole and also it will see us in it a whole lot sooner. Much like the Drifter, I am just throughly impressed with the build quality & design ideas employed by the AC Canopy Camper after seeing it in person and understanding how it mounts, rides, etc. So let's see what I am going to need to now that this is my vision:



PS I don't know why I am obsessed with going with the dark bronze rims on my silver truck. These are my current favorite, but I just want something a little different, though the wife doesn't seem to agree. ha ha! Are they too much?

So, in evaluating where I am today, my power system can certainly be integrated into the new camper design without issue, though I need to decide on a switch setup to run everything in the camper and I may need to do a reroute of the egress into cubby/bed as I have it now. The only other major change up is really that I may or may not now have a use for my fridge slide I built, but more on that later. I also will be removing my Total Chaos bed stiffeners b/c the ACCC's design actually employs a way to strengthen this area when the camper is installed, so those will be coming up for sale in the near future.

In the meantime (separate from this whole change up in campers) I had decided to order some more 80/20 and delete my rear seats. After having them out doing the power install, I left them out for a trip or two this summer and it made me finally decide to do away with them for more easily accessible and organized storage. I may even utilize the fridge slide I built & move it to the rear seat area, but I am still not sure yet about that.

Therefore, I removed the seat backs again and also the driver's side cubby that I had put back in for the summer and then moved the seats all the way back to see what I have to work with. I also removed the seat mounting brackets as well.



For this project, I decided to use some of 80/20 connectors that use tapped holes in the ends of the extrusion to bolt them together which I hadn't done before. I grabbed one of Dewalt's new impact ready bits that drills, taps & countersinks in 1/4-20 and man does that thing work well. I highly recommend one of these, especially for tapping the ends of these extrusions.



I started with some rough dimensions and framed out the main section pretty quickly using the corner connectors. It was important for me to retain the full front/back movement of the front seats even though neither my wife or I need to have the seat all the way back, but it's still giving me a ton of area to work with. I was concerned about strength at first b/c I knew if I did any kind rail in the structure front to back it would eliminate me opening the doors on the stock cubby's in the floor which I am trying to keep for now, but it turns out it is not going to matter b/c it's plenty strong for the weight I am going to putting down on it I think.





Either way, I did want some more East/West structure to keep things nice & square, so I added another cross pc right in front of the battery.



I decided to run the sides all the way back to back of the cab as shown below. I am going to bolt L brackets to this top & bottom for support, but the bulk of any weight will be resting on the legs under the frame work.



I am still able to get the lower rear pillar trim pcs in & out, but since that is where I need to attach to the cab due to the width of the platform, I did some cutting to the plastic to give me some room.



Nothing like melting some plastic w/ a Dremel. It's an out of sight area really anyway, but there goes that resale value.. ha ha. After trimming those up, then I added some more support legs that will get connected to the frame w/ simple L brackets. I did two shorties at the back & one under the front middle that probably wasn't even necessary. This will keep the attachment to the cab wall from having to hold any significant weight and make removing it all pretty easy if I ever have to.



I didn't take any pics, but at this point I laid a 1/2 thick pc plywood across the frame & tested it out by putting my built fridge slide assembly on it. The whole thing was rock solid even before mounting to the rear cab wall. I decided I could definitely move the fridge to this location (size wise) as well if I decide to go that way eventually. At this point I realized I did need more Tnuts to attach the little legs, so I got to work making some L brackets out of some angle I had lying around.



So, while I am waiting on hardware to bolt down the final structure, now I need to determine just how I want this platform area to work exactly. I think 1/2" thick material though should be more than stout enough.

 

I got back to work on my rear seat delete this wkd along w/some other projects. This is the finalized support structure below. Instead of securing it to the back cab wall as I originally planned, I secured it to the floor at the two small legs made which are toward the back of the cab. On one side I was able to use an existing hole (seat mount bolt) and on the passenger side I ended up drilling & using a self tapper. This should allow me to remove two bolts & then lift the whole thing out if needed.



I picked up a 5x5 pc of 1/2 birch plywood to start laying out the lower deck part of the structure. After some thought, I have decided to not go w/ mounting the fridge in the cab. At least that is where my head is now anyway. I still wanted to have access to the storage cubbies in the rear under the deck where the jack is, etc., so I sized everything up & jig sawed two openings that will allow me to do so, though I will have to lose the lids on the cubbies, which I don't especially like since they help hold things from rattling around in there, but I can make it work I think. I just need to decide on what kind of latches I can use to secure the two access covers on the deck. I always struggle with selecting the right thing for this, latches, hinges..etc. So I am open to suggestions if you have any TW!



I have left enough room (I HOPE!) back by the battery that I could possibly install it in a battery box w/ an external vent if I want. I have read both sides of this argument w/ AGM batteries & still not sure if I should go to the trouble of doing this since I have chosen to mount it in the cab like this. At this point, I got myself into another stopping point (need more misc crap!), so I decided to get cracking on installing my front & rear extended brake lines since the suspension install is commencing in two weeks.

I decided to start w/ the rear. Let me just say, as there is no candy coating this. This F'n job SUCKS. With the exception of pads & rotors, it once again just reinforced why I hate anything related to working on brakes. It never goes flawlessly.

So, if you don't know, it's best to extend these two rubber brake hoses pictured below when lifting your truck. As you can see they connect the two hard lines running back along the frame to a bracket that is crammed up against the bottom of the bed and against the inside of the frame rail and right in the middle of huge wire loom run as well. There is zero access from the wheel well either. Therefore, I got rid of the spare to do this job. Thankfully I do have a pit in my garage, which did help because I could stand on step stool in the pit & be standing to do this job instead of lying on my back. That being said, man it was still a pain in the ass.



Here's the contents of the extended brake line kit that was supplied by @HeadStrong Off-Road when I purchased my suspension from them. They are high quality stainless braided lines with a coating over them that are 1"+ over the stock ones I think. They also come w/ new clips that hold the line tight in the bracket.



You need a 10mm (Brake line fittings) & 18 mm wrench (to hold/tighten the new lines) and some other assorted hand tools to get this project done. I even purchase a 10mm flare/line wrench which is supposed to be better for protecting the soft metal brake line fitting when wrenching, but more on that in a minute. Obviously, the hardest part of this is getting the upper brake line fittings loose b/c there is very little space to actually turn a wrench. There is bracket holding that section of wire loom to the frame that can be unbolted and removed, which I suggest b/c it does give you a little leeway to push it out of way when wrenching. In summary, you need get the fittings broke loose & then use a pair of channel locks to grab the top of the clips (essentially just like the new clips supplied with the extended lines) and leverage them off the end of the existing rubber lines. All while you try to keep brake fluid from running over everything I might add. Like I said. This job is the freaking worst. To top it all off, when I was breaking one of the lower fittings loose, I rounded it off even using the line wrench I mentioned above. Did I mention I hate brake line work. So, of course, it was about 6PM on a Saturday evening at this point, so I secured the new extended lines at that top and at the bottom so they weren't dripping & left it sit for the night. Then yesterday I grabbed a new hard line from the auto parts store & worked at bending it into shape to replace the one I mangled running from the brake drum to the lower bracket on the axle which is always fun. It only took about two attempts to get the bends right, so I guess that wasn't too bad. I didn't even investigate if the dealer sells this brake line as an already "pre formed" part or not, but I couldn't find anything online to that end.

So, after all that, you can see the finished product below. New extended lines installed & new "hand fabricated" hard line to the driver's side brake drum installed as well.



So far it's been 24hrs and no leaks, etc. so I guess things are secure & brake pedal feels good after an initial bleed of the system. I do want to check the bleed 1 more time with some assistance, but I guess now I can move on to replacing the fronts, which should be a whole lot freaking easier.

 

Among some other things, I cranked out some more prep on the rear seat deck while I am waiting for a roll of carpet to arrive to cover it with. As I had "planned" to be able to do, I was able to unbolt the two uprights secured to the floor of the cab & quickly remove the framework with no other disassembly/issues. Reinstalling it is a little tricky simply due to getting the Tnuts in the extrusion track to line up where you need to, but it also reinstalled right in the spot it needed to, so that was a win. While I had the frame out again, I installed the brackets on the frame to bolt the deck plate down to, and marked/drilled the hole location for the install of 1/4-20 T-Nuts in the deck plate.





Then I installed the frame back in the truck & made sure everything lined up still, which thankfully it did. I figured threading bolts to secure the deck to the frame will be easier than trying to use screws or something and will allow for ease of removal if needed as well.

Once I had that accomplished, I started to lay out the size/configuration for the back deck lid, which will hinge forward like the seats would normally for access to storage/battery compartment. I am just using some standard black door hinges I picked up at Home Depot and they should work well.



I decided on doing a 60/40 type split for the back deck lid/panel and marked out where I want the hinges based on that and drilled the mounting holes for the hinges on the bottom deck. The driver's side section will be the longer back pc at 30" and the one in front of the battery on the passenger side will be 22" long. The bottom deck plate is going to be covered in black automotive carpet and I still need to decide on some latches for the two access lids.



While I have the dimensions for the rear deck lid now & the hinge positioning, I need to cut these pcs out and start to determine how I want to secure them to the rear of the truck, which will be another latch of some sort, so that is going to take some more design work. At the very least, I plan on carpeting these rear panels as well. I also want to be able to apply some sound deadening insulation to the cab wall side of them as well.

Other than that, I just spent some time going through all my suspension parts and instructions because it's finally time to install it all this coming wkd. I have to say, I am very excited to get this done since most of this stuff has all been sitting in my basement for year waiting to go on the truck.

 

So for the bottom deck panel on the seat delete, I chose to use some black automotive carpet to cover it with, which I got from OnlineFabricStore.net. I am very happy w/ the quality of it so far, but I have to say this is the first time I ever did any upholstery work. I applied it to the deck with 3M Super 90 adhesive that appear to be popular on "You Tube University" for similar projects.

All in all, it went pretty well. You have to coat both surfaces and then let it dry 3-4 minutes before you mate the two, but it was pretty easy to work with all around.





Now to see if it still fits as nicely on the frame in truck, but overall, I am happy with how it came out.

 

wow looks super good, well done

 

Thanks man! Appreciate it.

 

With the carpeting all done (except the lids), I mounted some boards on the underside to act as ledges for the lids to sit on & then the hinges for the rear of the deck & test mounted it on the frame again. Everything bolted right up as planned. I must be getting way better at repeatable, accurate drilling! ha.



I also roughed out the rear deck pcs from the 1/2 birch so I can start marking them for hinge mounting locations. I am still undecided what I want to do about these. I don't necessarily need them to be carpeted as well, but I want them coated in something & sound deadened on the back sides. I am even considering taking them to a local upholstery shop to be covered in something different.

Anyway, one thing for sure. I hope the odor from this carpet adhesive eventually dissipates. I got in the truck this morning to pull it outside & blast all my suspension bolts w/ PB in preparation for tearing it apart on Sat and smell in the cab was STRONG! Didn't expect that to be that bad.

 

Looking good! I'd leave the carpeted plywood sit outside for several days to off-gas.

 

I took a break last evening from the rear delete to focus on this wkd's suspension install. I really wish I was more ambitious about filming it b/c I watched a lot of "piece meal" You Tube videos, so it would be cool to have a 2nd Gen focused one out there on the interwebs that focused on the whole upgrade from start to finish, but I guess the world will just have to settle for my TW Build Thread. That being said, I did write up a full set of front & rear suspension install steps with torque values, etc. that I am more willing to share if you want a copy. I know it isn't rocket science, but I also know it never goes as smoothly as planned, but its one way I can actually save some money on this whole project. I just plan on being sore Monday morning from all the up & down and concrete rolling.. ha ha.

Anyway, started some prep yesterday/last night. I sprayed all the bolt areas down with PB and let them drip outside all day. Then I removed the bolt holding the wire loom next to (under really) the battery under the hood since you need as much space in that area as you can get to thread the UCA bolt out & in. Then I started prepping the UCAs which included installing the grease fittings, making sure they are oriented for ease of greasing once installed.



Then I got some SuperLube that everyone seems to recommend for the poly bushing lubrication & lubed up the bushings and sleeves per the ICON instructions and seated them in the UCAs with a couple taps of a mallet and wiped off the excess.



Hopefully these UCAs work out for me. I know I didn't want the maintenance issues of a Uniball and frankly for the price I couldn't pass these up either, but SPCs are very popular for their adjustability. Only one way to find out!

 

Well, as figured, Saturday came & went by w/ a flash, but when you have good help, the last thing I wanted to do was keep him there for 2 straight days, so I didn't really record much detail on the suspension install unfortunately. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly though. Fought one leaf spring bolt for a little, but I think we started at about 8AM and were pretty much done by 3:30PM w/ the major stuff. Thanks again to @HeadStrong Off-Road for helping get this stuffed planned out over a year ago and offering such great service.

On Friday night I started some of the tear down on the front end & decided the sway bar links were about toast, so I made a last minute run for new ones to throw on when we reassembled everything.



Then Saturday morning we started right away w/ the front end & got the Icon UCAs and @Elka Suspension 2.5 DSC coilovers bolted up which honestly went way smoother than I expected. Threading those stupid UCA bolts in & out is certainly the toughest part b/c of their position, but even that wasn't too horrible.

Passenger Side:



Driver's Side:



Then we tossed the front tires back on, flip flopped things in the garage and went to work on the rear, installing new Deaver Stage 3 Expedition springs, Elka 2.5 DSC rear shocks and a Durobumps Ubolt flip kit & bump stop. All this also went pretty smoothly with the exception of one front leaf spring bolt that gave us some trouble, but otherwise we got it all back together with little fuss.

Driver's side rear set up:



Passenger Side Rear Set up & pic of the new extended length Durobump bump stop w/ flip kit:





As much as hesitated doing this without access to a lift (just for ease on my body more than anything.. ha ha) with some help, is really wasn't bad at all to tackle and I am glad I did it. I was really surprised how quickly we got the bulk of it done as well and no real surprises aside from replacing the sway bar links.

Yesterday I slowly cleaned things up & buttoned up all the fine tuning stuff like some final torques, the resi positions in the front to protect the hoses, etc. and then took it for a quick drive down the closest pc of dirt I could find. So far I am very impressed and it's definitely riding the way I had hope in terms of washboard roads and so forth on the initial spin I took and that's even with those super stiff springs in the back & next to no weight on them. I am just going to leave the initial factory HSC/LSC settings where they are for now until l get a feel for it, not to mention there are quite a few changes coming down the pike yet that could affect those settings.

Shortly after it's first shake down ride:



I also didn't adjust the factory preload settings prior to putting them on and out of the box, the Elka's gained me 2" in the front which I will leave be for now. As you can see below the rear is riding sky high as expected, about 4.5" gained. Once we drop the 460# of camper on it, along with the rest of the build out I am sure that will quickly settle down and then I will make some adjustments to the front as needed for level loading. Tomorrow I have it scheduled for alignment (it's honestly not off all that bad since we didn't have to move the LCAs, but might as well have some pros inspect my work and also drop on the extended front brake lines while they are at. I hate brake work.

CMC, wheels & tires up next & hopefully the camper very soon after that!

 

So, the truck is finally coming together.. Vision = Reality!



Being a gear head in general, I am all about wheels & tires when it comes to function as well as just transforming the way a vehicle looks. And I must have photoshopped about 50 different sets of wheels/tires on the Taco over the last year to that end.. ha ha. In the end my decision was driven by many factors including cost, availability (there are serious issues w/ the availability of popular aftermarket wheels for Toyota like many other things right now), etc. That being said, while it wasn't where I thought I was headed in the beginning, I am pretty much in love with these now that I am seeing them on the truck in real life. I went w/ 17x8.5" RR6-H,-12 offset wheels from Relations Race Wheels ( @RayRRW ) in Matte Gunmetal w/ a black lip that can eventually be used to add rock protection or a hybrid bead lock if I ever feel the need. I wanted to be conscious of weight as best I could in my selection, and these were in a sweet spot (about 28# or so) and still gave me the look I was going for. I was also able to grab a set locally to save on shipping at @runnin4tacos down in Denver which were on sale, so that is always a plus. They also were great to deal with in my limited experience.

Tire wise, once again to save some weight and rolling mass, I went with a "tall skinny" in 34"x10.50"x17" BFG KO2 which I am extremely happy with looks wise as well. I knew I was going with another set of K02s, because they have been terrific tires for my environment and how I use the truck. Frankly, I was scared to try another brand after how much I loved how they performed on my truck when it was stock. The only real rub, is that BFG does not sell a lot of these and it's evident in the price unfortunately. All that being said, I bit the bullet on them and Matt & Doug from ( @Discount Tire ) quoted me a nice discount to help ease the pain, plus there was a BF deal to get some money back using their CC, so overall, I ended up doing alright, so thanks to those guys who manage their business on TW. They are great and ever since I moved to CO, I have been using DT for all our tire needs. I've never had an incident of bad service at either of my local locations.

A couple more "glamour shots"




Just a little bit of poke...I can handle that.



So, the next question that everyone wants to know I am sure. Do they RUB? Yes...even for a tall skinny, I had to do some trimming. The folks at DT had me thinking I may not have any issues at all, but you never can tell w/ Tacos it would seem, so many variables. As I said before, I gained 2" in the front from the initial lift install, and I haven't adjusted that upward yet. Most likely, once I know where the camper has the rear sitting, I will make some slight adjustments upward, but that is for another day. I am sure the front has far from settled in either since I haven't really driven to much. Thankfully, there are no issues w/ the aftermarket UCA or the position of the Resis in terms of tire contact so far though.

With this tire/wheel combo, I was rubbing the little plastic mudflap in the front of the fender, which was easily removed w/ two bolts on both sides.



The rear of the wheel well plastic though was the real issue, especially at full lock either way & had to be dealt w/as soon as I got home.



Therefore, last night I got out the Dremel & started trimming. I had to remove part of the black inner fender liner where it covers the notorious pinch weld and trim off a section of the bottom of the fender flare. Below you can see what I took off.




So, with that taken care of, I can now easily turn from full lock to lock now, back up, navigate tight turns without ripping off off any plastic. That being said, you can probably see (in the crappy pic below), that my hope of not needing a CMC was quickly dashed as when I am at full lock I only have about 1/8" of clearance to the cab mount on either side. Therefore, that is going to need done before I do any wheeling for sure! Since welding isn't in my wheel house I have an appt. with Josh aka @YamaDirtrider at Foothills Offroad Transformations for Saturday to help get that sorted. Looking forward to that as well since he is clearly a long, upstanding member of TW I have heard about many times.



At some point between now & then, I also need get my Leer cap pulled off and my bed rails installed for the camper install happening on the 10th, so it will be another busy week on the truck front, but were almost there.

 

The truck is looking good! If you don't want to hang out at the shop while the CMC is done, you could head to Castlewood Canyon State park. When they were finishing and installing my sliders, I rode my bike down there and went for a hike. Take your microspikes though, there is probably snow and ice. I recommend hiking up the eastern side on top of the rim and looking down into the canyon.

 

truck is looking good with those wheels / tires, congrats.

 

Awesome build. Following along for more.

 

Thanks man! And good looking out on that front. It's supposed to be pretty nice Sat. too, so I was wondering what I should do while they are working on it.

 

Thanks! Never did get to blacking out the B-Pillar...