Michigan Tacomas

Nope, we are missing the tire carrier mount. pretty good sized piece. really disappointed. Been waiting 4+ months for. We leave for Moab thursday and victory is 2 hours away. grrr

 

Ah, I definitely understand the frustration

 

make it a second gen and I’ll take it! Lol

Hope the swing out gets figured out and y’all enjoy Moab.

 

Sorry, I just saw this. Must have missed the email notification somehow. You are welcome to use it anytime, no beverage necessary. I'll even offer to help if I am available. Working in the cold sucks, though. If you end up doing this in the cold I would recommend that you warm the front diff with a heater for a couple hours and put the new bushing in a bag in the freezer before you start working. That should minimize the interference fit and help the old bearing come out but more importantly, help the new bushing go in easier. Dry ice is even better. I did mine during cold weather in heated garage and I still had to wail on the bushing install tool pretty good to get it to move, the further in it went the tighter it got. I might have mentioned it already, but get a couple extra axle seals, too. They are easily damaged upon install.

DM me when you're ready to borrow it. Sometimes I miss the TW notifications because I just swipe them all away without looking closely.

 

Will do. I may wait until Summer...already snow up here and its effing cold.

 

Where is "up here"?

Yeah, its warming up here, around 38 right now. Had about 4" on the ground last night.

 

Tip o the Mitt! Cheboygan. 34 and more snow forecasted...Winter has arrived just as I am planning to head to Florida to go see my Dad, knowing all along...itll be here....waiting...

 

FL is great for winter vacas. I lived there for 15 years. That was 14 years too many for me. My inlaws have a place between Petosky and Harbor Springs and I have been more-less all over the NW corner of the state exploring and playing in the woods, but I need to go East and check out that area.

Up for some forest road/trail wheeling around your neck of the woods sometime next spring/summer?

 

Absolutely! I work for the Forest Service, and have some great trails across the bridge on the Hiawatha NF. There are plenty around here in Cheboygan County as well. Let me know next time youre up and we can plan some things.

 

Cool. I am planning to be SW of Grand Marias area doing trail clean-up & maintenance in late April. Depending on situation we may turn that into an extended trip. I'll give you a heads up on that when I hear firm plans from the organizer.

Who else is in for some Northern LP/UP fun this spring?

 

HI > FL. You just have to get there first.

 

Thanks! We did get it figured out. I didn't have a part that I was supposed to order separately. I didn't know that. And they are sending the license plate hinge they forgot AND I should get it tomorrow!

 

When life gives you lemons...



Make Lemonade?



Still a work in progress... really need to get that pole barn built so I have a place to work in the cold!

 

I like the silver.

 

Is that an aluminum bumper?

 

Sure is. Extreme clearance kit from coastal offroad in the aluminum flavor

 

I'm more curious what you are using to weld the aluminum. Can you show the welder please.

 

I have a Miller 215, great machine but it can't do AC TIG. So I was limited to either a spoolgun or a trying MIG setup.

I borrowed a neighbors spoolgun on a Miller 211 to try but I actually ended up liking the results with my traditional MIG 215 for most of the project (not done yet).

The material is 1/4" 5052. I used a 3/64" 5356 filler with 100% argon, DCEP process and fed directly through my Miller 215 gun with .047" contact tips. Generally needed 25-27V (upper limit on this machine) to get good penetration through the oxidation layer, 450-550 ipm. I even used the stock .030/.035" drive roller...only a handful of feed issues if the torch cable was too far bent. I was surprised by how well it worked honestly. The weld quality was decent, I checked penetration on a couple joints, breaking them apart and cutting cross sections until I got the settings dialed in. Really seemed to only be limited by my own lack of experience/skill in aluminum welding. I had done some TIG aluminum welding in the past, but never MIG.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not stacking dimes...but for the purposes of this project, it will certainly work (and because i'm cheap)

The most time-consuming part is prepping the aluminum. Lots of brushing with a stainless wire brush, then clean the joint with acetone...every time. Flap disk is your friend.

A grinder and some paint makes a welder what he aint!

 

You need to bring this project over to the Anything welding thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anything-welding.113957/