Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

yeaaa didn't really add up so I checked the invoice and it said .134 lol

 

Went camping this weekend. Weather was great.
Played around with some pictures with some rock lights on.

Ricer Gang 2 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_3332 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

Red Room by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

 

Pulled my bed to do some prep and preventative maintenance before I hopefully get my topper this coming week.

Replaced the fuel pump with this higher flow one just in case I want to do anything with boost down the line.

$131 Aeromotive 11542 Fuel Pump (340 Series Stealth In-Tank, Offset Inlet, Inline w/Outlet)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012HRFKTE?ie=UTF8


Pretty straightforward swap. I followed @Digiratus post on how he did his as a reference.




The insulation on the factory pump wiring is super rubbery from being in the gas for 300k. So when I pulled off the outer heatshrink, it pulled off a bunch of wire insulation with it. I just doubled up on the heatshrink after soldering them together to fix that.





New gasket


Installed:



I also was planning to reinforce the front side of the bed from cracking, but didn't expect to find it as cracked as it is....

Passenger side:


Driver side:



Made some brackets out of 1/8" 3/4" wide strapping. Used 3/16" dia, long rivets for the top part to maintain a low profile as to not get in the way of the topper seal. It's rock solid now and has no movement between the two panels.

 

I like what you did with the bracing. I might copy this. My bed is cracking in the same places.

 

I stole the idea of using the rivets from @Squeaky Penguin

 

Finally got my new topper after many months of waiting. ARE MX with windoors on both sides, carpeted interior, and paint matched.
Stoked on how it looks and can't wait to put it to use and build it out some more.

 

Also installed some trophy truck style side view mirrors.
They're much more low profile and the giant convex mirrors are nice. Can't see as much distance as I could with regular mirrors, but no more blind spot.
The one downside I could see with them is that if I flop the truck onto it's side or slam one side of it into a tree, these won't fold and will fuck up the door.

Did a kinda shitty job painting them since it's hard to get to the underside of some of the tubes and surfaces. For now it work, maybe I'll powdercoat them down the line.

Had to make a gasket to go between the door and the mirror body. Used 1/8" buna rubber.

 

Truck looks killer!

 

Thanks holmes

 

Installed a net to the roof of the topper for storing lighter gear

 

What net is that? I need to do this

 

$27 Premium Quality Adjustable Elastic Cargo Net Universal Stretchable Truck Net with Hooks,Storage Bag for Car, SUV, Truck, Pickup Trucks Black 32x24in

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0756JPBZF?ie=UTF8

$13 Antrader M6 304 Stainless Steel Ring Shape Lifting Eye Threaded Nut 10pcs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C8L6TJX?ie=UTF8

Your crossbar brackets are further apart on your roof iirc, but the same concept should work. Might have to rig something different up.

 

nice mirror pics

 

Finished building out the bed platform with the help of @Dan8906

Stained and sealed it with Ready seal 120. Seemed, like a good product that's oriented for outdoor use but it needed to be put on with pretty light coats I found out. I had to apply it super heavy in order to get in all the nooks and crannies of the plywood I used.
So I had to come back later after it had dried some and spray and wipe it all down the mineral spirits to remove the excess stain still on the surface of the wood. Then again with acetone after that to clean up the slight residue that the mineral spirits left behind. Nice color to it though.

Woodworking is something I don't have much experience with so it was a good learning experience.
Definitely would have gotten a highly grade wood if I were to do it over again. This is just 1/2" and 3/4" sheathing. The sheets I got ended up getting super warped from being all twisted up in the bed when transporting it, but we made it work.

Built it so that I can easily remove the whole thing if I need to and still use the L-track I have installed on my bed for tying my gear down for trips. The side boxes are secured with turnbuckles to the bed. The whole thing is pretty damn lightweight which was a main goal of mine too.
Put some aluminum 3/4x3/4in 1/16in thick angle iron on the sides of the middle sections to hopefully reinforce it and make it stronger for if two people sleep on it.



With the center sections removed:



Also made some insulating & privacy covers for the windoors.

Made of corugated plastic sheet in the middle with the whole outer edger perimeter covered with tape to seal and to serve as an air gap to increase the R-value, then sandwiched on either side with reflectix and then wrapped with a waterproof black otterex canvas material.
I have since put a piece on the backside of it. All held together with high temp glue

They're pretty long covers, so we'll see how they hold up with time

 

Finally got my ADS shocks installed. Still need to really flex them out but they seem to clear the 33in spare just fine.

 

Awesome man. Thanks for posting an update.

What are you running for bump stops?

 

The 4.25" durobumps.

 

Gotcha. Same ones I have.
Been thinking about getting a custom leaf pack as well.
What weight and lift did you spec yours for?
I would likely go with Deaver because Alcan's are like $1600 or something ridiculous now....

 

Went with 300lb over stock capacity and 2.5in of lift. I'm really happy with them but dang. We payed $756 before shipping back in april. Guess we got pretty lucky there.

 

That's probably not too far off what I'll be spec'ing some at prob

Yea I would pay that price in a heartbeat.

The shipping from CO really kills it too

What leaf packs did you have before?