Wackyhacky's 2013 TaCOmarado Build

Thanks! Appreciate it!

 

ive heard there are vinyl stickers for it. i just made a mess and painted.....

 

We appreciate the kind words @Wackyhacky! It was pleasure serving you.

Thank you for your continued support!

 

Holy shit this truck is CLEAN, time for the fire pics

 

She is clean, but has led a very sheltered life for most of her 92k miles.. but that is soon about to change! And thanks for the Fire Pics! That's pretty sweet to have that on here.

Thanks again Aaron @Red Baron & Josh @YamaDirtrider / Foothills Off Road Transformations ( )

As you can see the team at FORT gave the Tacamper the chop today & it went well indeed. Plenty of clearance for those 34s now & Clean & efficient work as well. Clean cutting, Clean welding to match! Really nice to have these connections in the CO Taco Community.

 

I also got a little more done on Friday w/the rear seat delete. Mounted the back deck panels in a couple different configurations, but they sit well now.




In planning on how to secure these, I believe I am going to self tap this strip in place, which will sit down below the edge and then latch them somehow to that. After that, do I cover in more carpet or do something more involved. More to decide on that once the panels are secure.

 

Heres a few more photos of that latch you had a question about. There not cheep but their very easy to use.

 

Thanks Jim! Yeah, actually I did get a set of those as you recommended for my trap doors on the bottom part. Just been super tied up w/ getting the truck ready for our camper to land this week, so the only work I have done on the delete deck is the rear panels, but I am not sure if these same kind of latches will work with those with what I have envisioned.

 

We are now in the home stretch for camper delivery. Spent today, removing my Leer topper (which is for sale on the CO Trading Post thread if you need one) which didn't take very long.



Ready to be dropped onto the new owner!.... Please buy my topper.



Then it was time to rip off the plastic bed rail covers & see what kind of dirt was piled under there... Yep, just as I thought. So I washed all this area down good w/soap and water and picked off some butyl rope here & there from the cap.




Then I unbolted the tracks on both sides using a 30MM Torx, which is 4 bolts on each side. These, along with the two 10MM bolts at the tail gate end expose the spot where the metal fender meets inside of the composite tub.



Now it's Sealing time again! I feel like all ever get done is attending to sealing this freaking truck bed sometimes. This project called for some waterproof/heavy duty foil tape & some marine grade silicone. Both worked quite well.



First I applied the foil tape over all the holes on the top of the metal bedside. It was hard to photograph. Looks like the paint almost.



Then I ran a bead of silicone along that whole bedside to bed seam, up in the crack, and anywhere else on both ends where there was open gaps to the fender well.

Then another big bead up & down the foil tape to help seal the KB Voodoo low profile bed side covers to top.




They are very simple to install. You use the four torx bolts holding the track (the cover slips in between the bedside seam and the track) and the two 10MM bolts at the rear to help keep them aligned, before you try to secure the track/4 torx bolts. It all fits nice & snug.

Driver's Side:





Once the covers were bolted on tight, there was a bit more silicone to apply at the front & rear (in my opinion).




Passenger's Side:



All in all, they should provide a nice low profile & sturdy surface for the camper to mount to. Then I touched up those ugly spots where the old plastic bed rail covers had rubbed through the paint. One thing to note about switching to these bed rail covers. More exposed area.



So, with that, we are 100%, officially ready to take delivery of our camper on Thursday and couldn't be more pumped. All I have to do is pop off the tailgate & head down the road to Juniper Overland in Arvada.

 

IT IS THURSDAY!

 

The day has finally arrived!!! Well, it's installed, and I have to go pick it up this morning, but here it is courtesy of Juniper Overland's Instagram Feed. More pics to follow, but of course!





"She gotta big ole Butt now!!!

 

Congratulations!)

 

Thanks Jim!

 

congrats, look awesome !!

 

"This guy finally gets his camper almost a month ago and then radio silence....what gives?"

It's what I am sure anyone following my build is wondering.. ha ha.

Well, unfortunately it wasn't the Christmas holidays keeping me distracted or getting out camping. The day I picked up my camper I went to move my tailgate which was leaning against the wall in my garage & bam, I tore my lower bicep tendon on my left arm. Obviously a freak accident, but a detrimental one to just about everything I want or need to be doing. I had to have surgery on Christmas Eve, and now I'm a one arm bandit for at least three more weeks (in a full cast) and then into physical therapy. I guess 2020 felt that since I didn't get the Rona, it needed to kick me in the balls. Anyway, that's where I disappeared to and why am only posting pictures of arm carnage at the moment.

Merry Christmas & Happy NY TW!

 

damn thats not a fun injury for sure (i have several friends that have done it), glad you are moving ahead, recover well !

 

Thanks Man!

 

Ouch! I hope your goes smoothly and we see you out there soon!

 

Thx. yeah, going to be long winter.

 

Finally starting to be able to get back into things on a limited basis at least. 8 weeks after surgery, so finally out of casts/splints for the most part & my mobility is coming back pretty nicely. I'm still not allowed do any real lifting yet, which limits me, but I can at least start working comfortably on some light duty stuff. Since I literally have a pile of stuff to tackle as well, I need to get cracking. That included finally popping the top for the first time since bringing it home and starting to make a list of what I need to get done. She is looking good!



One thing I got accomplished while being busted was coating of these AC awning brackets that I am going to use to mount the ShadowAwn on the RHS of the camper. For those of you considering an AC Canopy Camper, you will most likely be told the only "factory/OEM" option is LHS mounting. For some reason they have decided to standardize on this b/c of the layout of other accessories they make for camper like tables, shower cube etc. While I understand this makes things simpler from a business standpoint, it was the first thing I wanted to change. To me it makes more sense for the awning to be mounted RHS, one for if your pulled off along a road & want some shade for a bit, but more for how the wife & I use the rig. Namely, we usually have our bikes on a Rigd swing out bike rack, which swings right as well, so this will allow us to swing the bikes out of the way & still have them under some shelter if it's raining, etc.

Anyway, the official stance of the AC dealers, including mine here in CO, is that there wasn't a solution, so I ordered a RHS ShadowAwn anyway, planning on making it work even if I had to fabricate my own mounting brackets. At the same time, I dropped a line to Rin at OK4WD/Alu-Cab USA an explained my issue. After some checking he recommended these brackets below as a solution and was more than helpful in terms of getting them in my hands through my local dealer.

They are actually awning brackets meant to be used with their Land Rover Defender roof top conversion product, but he said they should be adapted very easily to the side of the ACCC since the side profile is the same measurement. All I will have to do is drill holes on that side since it doesn't come predrilled from the factory, which isn't a big deal. So, for anyone looking to do the same thing, these are what you need and I will of course post more when I can mount them up.



Somewhat strangely though, the brackets came in bare steel, so I took them to a local shop here in Berthoud (https://www.northerncoloradocustomcoating.com/) to have them powder coated. Since I went with what is a popular color (Raven Black, which is like a matte wrinkle black type) and wasn't in a rush, they did them for $30 b/c they just ran them with a large batch. Turned out great! I would definitely recommend their shop to anyone who lives in the area.



So now I am ready to start drilling holes & getting my awning mounted to the camper as soon as I am allowed to lift stuff like that of course.

The other thing I started to tackle is building out my electrical panel for inside the camper. I had been collecting components and got the rest of what I should need to complete things while I have been sitting on my azz. The ACCC comes with a nice labeled wiring harness that simply needs dropped into where you need it, along with the wires from my existing power system, which will be inside on the passenger side rear wall of the camper. So I got all the crap together & will start laying out where it needs to go on that panel so I can cut some holes.