'She's Gonna Kill Me' - Build and Existential/Financial Crisis Thread

Oh and I bought a shop press..

 

Ordered a Wavian Jerry Can and 4 Front Runner Wolf Packs from @PureTacoma.

 

Ordered UHMW rods to fab my own .5" body lift, to coincide with when I install my new energy suspension body mount bushings. Also on deck, I have a set of BAMF shackle hangers to install, and on the way: new to me lightly used Dakar HD springs. Ordered new energy suspension bushings for leafs and shackles.

Also in my possession is a set of Archive Garage Shock relocation brackets, but no 12 or 14" shocks yet to install with them.

 

Received my aluminum extrusions from T-Nutz to start my bed platform over my Cargoglide. Have it roughly where I need it to be, just need to mount it so its secure. I cheated and ordered most pieces pre-cut and only had to make a few adjustments.

My goal is to be able to fit these green buckets under the platform and my fridge and cooler, and still have room on top for Plano bins and Wolf Packs from Front Runner. The nice thing about the Front Runner boxes is they can fit through the side windoors of the Leer.

 

Havent updated in a while been travelling for work, and just busy with crap, but I do have a few exciting things to talk about..

Got new treads.. Goodyear MTRs again, but this time I went with a 275/80R17, so its an inch skinnier, but a little taller than my 305/70s. This may be my favorite size ever.. at least so far. The tires ride great on the highway, and honestly I dont notice that missing inch of ground patch. I feel like my mpgs improved .75 mpg, but I only checked it on 1 tank so its a small sample.

Installed some Rigid Ignite reverse lights in the rear bumper so now I can see when backing up.. These things are badass.. low enough draw to wire directly to reverse output, but really powerful.

Went to KY to one of my Agate spots in Danial Boone National Forrest that I have only been into with the FJ. It s a hell of a crawl in and out, and every year its different as the canyon can flood. Rarely do I see anything but SXSs there as it is not easy going and if you bust something, AAA isnt coming to get you. Its the kind of place you better hope Joe's towing has a Chinook on hand for. Anyway the taco did great.. my only F-up was when we got to camp I was in 4Lo and locked, and it was all nice and toasty from the crawl down in. In trying to get camp set up before dark I forgot to put everything in Neutral.. It got to low 20s that night and the next am something was jammed up, TC or one of the diffs.. I was kinda hungover so I didnt understand what was happening and then whatever it was broke loose. I was sweating that the rest of the weekend, but it never came back to haunt me. My other screw up(minor) was I didnt take shit for pictures.. I had waders on all day sat driving through the canyon, getting in and out to hunt the creek all day. My phone was in my pants pocket, and I didnt have the energy to strip my waders down low enough to dig it out, so that kinda sucked. That and my buddy is horrible at taking pictures so between the two of us I think I took one pic of nothing when we first got to our camp area. The shelf deal I made worked fantastic, but I have a few mods to do as I realized some of the design isnt as pratical in use. I will make a separate post for that later. There was a historic flood for that area so found some fantastic agates, very excited to get those cleaned up.. Scratched the ever-living piss out of the truck as there were trees down everywhere and I was sick of getting in and out to clear trail so I just sent it most of the weekend...

Put a new transmission in the Flooded FJ, and thats a little squirrely right now. I think I may have f'd up installing the torque converter, but I am hoping it just have my starter a little off. IDK, been trying not to stress about it until I can take a better look. Should be able to this weekend.

Aand, painted(again), and then mounted my big HiLift on the back bumper. I am sick of it being in the way in the bed, so this was a long time coming. I rarely need it, but sure as shit the time I dont bring it will be the time I need it so now its out of the way, but still with me. I had to cut it down a little since 60" was a bit too wide for across the back, so now its a 56".

A couple pics, more to come..

 

Thanks @Newlife for these molle panels. They are working great. Have my Binocs on one side and a pouch for reference books I use on trips on the other. Still room to add a few things I will be using. Will be able to put that 43x right by my leg if I need to.. These are 5th Gen T4R panels, but I only needed to trim a little at the top corner to make them work. Now I need to come up with a system for my Delorme type atlas's using my Meso Molle cieling panel.

 

So my rear cargo system was a success, for the most part. It is incredibly sturdy, and everything fit just the way I wanted. For the gear I travel with I had great clearances, and it really made the whole cargo area easier to use. I never dreaded trying to find something or dig something out. I still have a ways to go, as I will be making my own cargo net panels out of paracord so I don't necessarily have to strap everything down, though I certainly will depending on the conditions. This was where I found some opportunities. The strap eyes I installed for securing my loads look great, and were sturdy, but also a little of a nuisance, as they stick up, which means items on the shelf want to catch on them as I pull them out. The plus side is they are easy to hook with one hand as they are already up, whereas a strap loop with flops around you will need one hand to hold it up, and the other hand to hook with. So idk. I have both style loops. I already swapped out the ones on the rear as my cooler lid hit them when Iopened it if I chose not to pull the drawer out. I plan to have a fridge and a cooler in operation, with he cooler for drinks, and the fridge for food stuff that I dont want soggy. Up on the shelf I am using Frontrunner Wolf Packs, as they are the perfect size to fit through the side windoors. My kitchen will be off the drivers side of the truck, so I will be able to set up below the windoor and pull the two wolf packs on that side which(at least 1) will be food/kitchen related without having to go through the back. This is really nice. The wolf packs on the passenger side I bought the extended height lids, so if I use these lids they will have to come out the back, so I will have to play around and see which way works better. I also have room at the front of the shelf towards the cab for a decent sized water tank. I am debating between a built in water system and a Lifesaver Jerry.

My other question is should I carpet the wood platforms? I have the trunk liner material to do so, and the spray adhesive. I just don't know if I want everything to slide easy, or not. The carpet I used on a platform in my FJ and it has held up great, I just dont know about here for this application.

Here is the whole system:



The plywood on the in-sides next to the drawer is probably temporary until I get some re-enforcement at the front area. I don't think it will hold up long term. But for now it keeps anything from rattling off the sides of the drawer. Myabe when I score some 6mm alumapanel I will use that instead.

On the side runners on top, instead of wingnuts I used lifting eyes so I can use them as tie down points if needed. They work just as well as wingnuts but dual purpose.




I mounted the shelf at the front to the bed rail using some 3" aluminum angle I had from an old project. It worked great.



The lateral re-enforcement was done using some steel angle I had and mounted it to the side bed rails.




Here are the two options currently for the strap anchors:

Original:


Possible replacements:


And here is what the shelf looks like with the wolfpacks. The tall wolfpack lid aallmost fits through the windoor, I have half a mind to grind some edges and see if I can make that happen... we will see..

 

Welded a piece of angle to my swingout so I can lock it proper. It also serves as a second secure point if the latch fails. I have had the latch break once, and I had a spare, this lock will now be able to keep the swingout closed in case the latch fails again. It also is a lock that will have to be cut off to be removed, prior to adding the angle tab, you could disassemble the latch with a crescent wrench and open the swingout even with a lock in it. The swingout is the only thing I have to prevent opening the rear glass door, as both the locks are broken right now. I realize someone could break the glass to gain entry, or use an angle grinder to cut the lock, but those things make noise, and I feel at least moderately more protected now. I want the f-ers to have to work for it..

 

This is kinda crazy..

[1195] “Maximum Security” Locksmith Challenge: ERA Professional Padlock - YouTube

 

So I ended up carpeting the platform.. Too bad I didnt have enough gray to do it all, but had some leftover black..

 

Love the Titans tag. I’m a die hard titans fan!

 

Finally a man of culture around here..

 

This off-season has been kinda wild. The roster really got churned.. I am interested to see how the draft goes. I think with the salary cap going down this year completely turned this season on its head for everyone.

 

I’m concerned that they promoted the guy calling the defense plays last season to defensive coordinator. Last season we had an outstanding offense but our defense was a joke. The worst third down defense in the league, they could never make a stop and get off the field. They would play such a soft zone coverage on every play, shit they gave Green Bay 10 yards of separation off the line of scrimmage almost every time! Now the play caller has been promoted!?

I’m concerned lol.

 

I hear that. Seems like the way they cut players on D, Vrabel and JRob kinda pinned it on the players lack of execution to some point? Hopefully Jim Schwartz coming in will give us a boost. If we suck this year and the Falcons do really well Vrabel is going to have to do some soul searching lol..

 

Yeah we did cut a lot of the defense lose. Hopefully it was just all bad execution...and yeah I was sad to lose Arthur smith. I think we have done good enough in the free agency and hopefully we will do good in the draft.

 

Mounted a @Mobtown Offroad Tailgate panel.. I have the rivnuts, but for now using the factory plasticerts and screws. Its all in good shape and very solid. Save the knees!

 

My King Smoothie rears came in today. 2.5 x 12 with adjusters.. This things are massive. Was not expecting the reservoir to be this big. Very excited..

 

Built a two tire inflator.

 

Should of made it a 4 but who’s counting