Not much Tacoma left.. 4500 koh build

Awesome looking subframe. Came together well.
Are you going to do any additional gusseting or bracing for the frame tie-in tubes that the motor is mounted to?

 

Possibly. There’s not a ton of room around the motor mounts. One of the tubes off the engine cage lands onto the rectangle tube inline with the motor mount so maybe I’ll add a gusset between the two but need to get a set of headers that first. I’m all ears for ideas though

 

Atlas showed up with the adapter. Adapter bottom needs trimmed to clear the subframe so I’ll throw it in the mill and take some off.

 

Little bit of time today. Got the shock mounts done. Not really a fan of how I did them because of how complicated the mounts turned out to be but they’re done. I then started welding out the front and pulled the axle to fully weld it. Not the best welder when it comes to tube but maybe by the end I’ll be decent.

 

Sorry but let’s agree to disagree!!

And I have Ocean front property in AZ I like to sell!

 

Started welding out the axle. Taking my time. Got the ram mount welded and braced and capped. Most the shock mounts and the outside of the upper link are welded. I’ll bridge the gap to the upper link and ram mount and probably add a slope to the other end to finish it off.

 

PURE BEEF

 

More axle welding. It’s back under the car to get the panhard hard tacd since I erased my marks by accident.

Redid the front tube as it was pretty close to the ram bolts and clamps and worried about it getting smashed. And made it flow into the housing which looks way better. Besides the panhard and bump pads, front axle is done

 

Bump pads are in. Panhard is welded. Few more plates for support and front axle will be done. Getting close to turning it around and starting on the rear. Driver side is a piece of the axle housing so 3.5x.25 and then has a piece of 2x.25 in the middle welded to the cap.

 

Another day of working on this housing…

Started welding out the subframe as well and made the slug for the upper link. Originally it was just a sleeve and then a nut on the end but the bolt was so long, the trans had to come out to pull the upper link. So I made another sleeve and tapped it for a 5/8-18 fine thread bolt. I’ll make a bolt on capture nut plate for the bolt head as well and some red loctite and it shouldn’t go anywhere.

 

Again‼️ Insane detail along with insane welding skills‼️

I’m guessing you are going to have this rig / your fabrication powder coated? If so I think before you go off to King of the Hammers you should enter it in SEMA. Hell SEMA is in your hometown. Sir you have some insane skills!!! Please let others besides us lucky few on Tacoma World view this incredible work. Sorry but I can’t get over the detail it’s just incredible‼️

 

Probably not powder coated. To expensive and hard to maintain. Probably just a good ole spray of rustoleum unless I can get a company to help out with paint.

I’d put it in sema if I had a company who wanted it there. But I don’t have the social media following it seems to acquire any real sponsors. Radflo and rugged radios came on to help me with a discount code which I’m grateful for but that’s it so far. Skinny pedal has helped me out as well on discounts.
I’ve submitted a lot of sponsor applications and maybe it’s cause the build isn’t very far along but my instagram also only has 1600 ish followers and that’s the number one question every company asks.

 

This was a lot of welding. Same thing. Not the greatest welder when it comes to tube. But getting better already I feel. Front half of the subframe is welded out and to the frame and bump stop cans are in. I think I’m at the point to put the front axle back in and turn it around.

 

Sir,
With ALL due respect I see you have never painted something with A LOT of tubes or painting angles! My father back in the day built a few sand rails. We had a painting setup that you hold the spray gun in your hand and the paint can was attached to your hip. They were connected by two hoses sometimes we would tape the hoses to your arm to keep them from accidentally touching when you had your arm in between tubes.

Powder coating is nothing but plastic ground to the fineness of talcum powder. It’s applied with static electricity and far cheaper than rattle can or liquid paint! Then heated to 400 degrees to melt / adhere it to the surface. As for taking care of it, there’s absolutely no maintenance needed it’s one of the toughest coatings on the market. It was originally developed by the military to protect metal & aluminum. It’s just later that people started experimenting with it and making outrageous colors and designs. The “Hammerd” textures were discovered by mistake, adding two different colors from different materials / manufacturers together. It was put in an oven with one color and came out with two different colors.

I know it’s not cheap to get as much stuff as you will have when you’re finished but trust me it’s FAR superior to paint and cheaper. You will need a company with a large enough oven but you don’t need some fancy color just something to keep all the surfaces from rusting! Hell I will pitch in some cash for your project to help you out.

Anyway it’s really none of my Damn Business but I just thought I would HIGHLY SUGGEST powder coating.
I also understand some Trophy-trucks will just oil the chassis to be able to check for cracks and due repairs.
I don’t know if this is still true but I’ve heard of this before.

 

That’s the other big reason you stated at the end. Powder coat hides cracks which is a big concern. More than likely whatever is easier to spray can will get sprayed and the rest will get brushed. Ideally I’d leave it bare but I don’t want to deal with sanding tubes. Seymour has a nice paint along with alloy armor that lays nice and I’ve had good luck with on other builds it’s just pretty expensive at 20 ish bucks a can.


And then there’s the logistical nightmare of getting the bare chassis loaded onto a trailer, finding a local powder coater which can fit it (I live 50 ish miles from the edge of Vegas) and then dropping and picking it up. Just not worth it to me. And nobody now a days can meet a timeline so I try and do everything myself

 

10-4 I don’t disagree with you it’s just that I love the stuff and had nothing but good luck with it.
I’m a former MTB racer that works on his own bikes. During COVID I was making money flipping bicycles because they shut down Heath Clubs. I had a friend that was a manager for a powder coating company. He would powder coat the frames for beer. On a Monday I would drop off a bike frame. Friday I go to Costco pick up a case of beer and ice and be at his shop about 3 to fill there ice chest with beer so on Friday. Many of the employees would play Corn Hole and have a few beers after work. I asked him one time is this cool with the owner. He said yeah as long as I put a few in his office mini fridge, plus helps with employee morale.

My apologies! Again wasn’t trying to start anything was just saying.

 

Well got the front axle back in and wheel studs finally showed up. Having all sorts of issues with the brake kit and calipers not fitting so just carried on and went to turn it around it. Got the front tires on and went to put the back saw horse on some carts as they looked the perfect width. When jacking up the saw horse, it broke the tacs and clamps and car crashed to the ground. Only a more broken windshield cab bounced a little bending down sheet metal.

So a few hours of undoing all the front axle again and getting the rear on the cart I got it turned around and put the front at full bump and leveled the frame to start figuring out the back. Got the wheelbase right around 117-118 which I think is where it’ll stay. I got a few tubes in after these pictures but forgot to snap one.

 

Spent an entire day last week working on the rear and made something I didn’t like. Finally got something I do like though. Onto getting the link mounts in.

old. Rear frame was to narrow for a 40” spare and the design was just dumb not coming off the top tube coming out of the cab.

 

New

 

Jacked the car up to ride height to plug the numbers into the calculator. Got the rear frame side upper link mounts done. Was a ton of welding.