02 Tacoma doublecab 3-Link on FJ80 axles

I would weld in a crossmember up front as the tacoma frame is made out of stamped sheet metal spaghetti that bends pretty easily. Better to take a few mins and weld some 2x2 square tube in there while you have the space, than after evreythings done and you bend the frame. once the ifs is gone the next crossmember is the trans mount, thats a lot of twistable real estate.

The death of TTORA did suck, now you have dead pirate and here, the land of LED lightbars and satoshi grills.... I miss the wheeling events that the TTORA chapters put on the most, i tackled alot of cool trails with those guys. The for sale forum kicked ass as well and they shit all over that with that stupid ass panda service.

 

Yeah I don't care too much for all the dick measuring that goes on in all the forums, ive been pretty active in the past but I've spent the time reading through threads for so long I don't really hang around much anymore. This is the most time I've dedicated to a thread in a long time. Welding class was a success, had a good time, definitly like welding on c25 alot more than flux core, I have trouble seeing the puddle through the smoke and spatter with flux. I have a big order from lowrange offroad coming early next week. I also found a spot by my house that rents plasma cutters, although I would love to have one I can't justify spending that kind of money right now and at 40$ a day its a deal. A couple years ago my buddy was lucky enough to have an old boss in HVAC that let us use his plasma. It made short work of all the brackets on the rear axle.

 

Sorry for this thread starting to teter on the edge of boring, just have a lot going on this week and waiting for parts still anyway so not much I can do.

 

That plasma cutter will be sweet! i cut off all the brackets off my 80 axle with a sawzall and a 4" grinder, sucked donkey dick.

 

Shit I feel your pain, I didn't even have a sawzall to cut the brackets off the front axle. I used a shitty harbor freight 4" grinder, BFH/chisel and a giant crescent wrench. I would cut as low as I could on the bracket, hammer the chisel in and then bend the brackets off with the crescent wrench. Never doing that again.

 

A plasma cutter is the way to go but only if you buy the right one. Some guys try to save money by buying the smallest plasma cutter, hoping it will cut through the thickest metal like butter lol

Years back I helped a friend cut his IFS off with grinders and what it felt like a million cut off disks. NEVER AGAIN. What a pain.

 

I get that, that's why I'm just going to rent one. Place by me rents miller spectrum thunders which is rated to cut 3/16, which should be more than enough for the IFS cross members. I subscribe to the buy once cry once school of thought, and there's no money in the budget to buy the plasma now. I've been trying not to pull the trigger on a welder the last couple days but I feel like it's coming soon as its necessary for the build.

 

The good news is that if you buy a good welder and good plasma cutter now and take good care of them, then that's probably the last ones you'll ever need to buy [unless of course you start doing fabrication for a living]. So yea, the "buy once cry once" philosophy makes sense!

Now that my SAS is done, my next project is to actually buy a good welder/plasma cutter combo for some future projects I have with the truck, and for maintenance.

BTW, I don't see how you will be able to pull this off without buying a welder. You will use that welder a LOT over...and...over...and over again the course of the project. Ask @slander about it

You can get away with the renting of the plasma cutter - though it would be a nice thing to have long term.

But you gotta have a welder and related hardware man (welding cart, gas tank, good assortment of welding wire, etc.; you can score most of that on craigslist)...especially with a link suspension. From what I've read the 4WD kit is as "plug and play" as you can get. So the overall fabrication time might be less than if you went with a generic 3-link kit as I did. But still, you might end up moving/modifying some things around to achieve the specific results that you want...especially with the steering. Renting a welder will get very old very quickly. Just tacking things a few times until you get them into the right spot before burning them justifies owing a good welder.

 

You have an air compressor that can run a plasma cutter? They typically require a pretty substantial airflow, around 4cfm-ish at 90 psi minimum if I remember correct. More than most cheap compressors. Not to say you couldn't just run off tank pressure, stop, let pressure built back up.

When I shaved my axles, I did it basically the same way as slander. Except I bought a 7 inch grinder from Harbor freight for $55 (which I highly recommend). It's a pain but if you can put up with 3 to 6 hours of misery, it can save you a lot of the hassle of buying a plasma cutter and air compressor if required. One of the things I love about these projects is it gives me a excuse to buy more tools. But sometimes, it just might not be worth it. Having said, I still want a plasma cutter. But at this point I have been able to do absolutely everything with abrasive discs.

Again, a 7 inch grinder makes short work of welds you are trying to flatten.

I am going to ditto others, you really should buy a welder. You probably want to run 220v, and if you dont have a dedicated 220v garage outlet you can run it off a dryer outlet. You can probably build a 50 foot extension cord for 50 or $60 from Home Depot. Some days you may not feel like doing a lot of work and having a welder allows you to start and stop at anytime.

 

I already have a pretty decent sized air compressor(craftsman 33 gallon or something like that) and a 0-2 gauge extension cord so that's not a problem. the problem is our house has 40+ yr old wiring like @Jimmynolife . We have an unused 230 outlet from an old A/C window unit that was 18000btu's, so I dont know if that would work or if I would have to tap directly into the panel.i have a few buddies that are electricians.

 

I started on a hobart, learned on a lincoln and now I went blue and got a miller 211

 

Not much to report, bunch of parts came in on Monday:
front koyo wheel bearings and wheel seals
HD fj80 inner eco seals from marlin
trail gear front frame plates with the IFS box mount
The firewall plate and steering shaft seal

Parts for the front diff:
the oil slinger (going to have to open up the inner diameter of it because its made for a 27 spline pinion but the nitro gear pinion is the upgraded 29 spline)
oil containment washer
Eco pinion seal (its tighter than stock because of the extra splines, I may just use the stockish one that nitro gave me. worried it will create too much drag on the pinion)
solid pinion spacer and shims.
Arb updated bulkhead fitting kit
I basically have everything now to have the front diff built.

welder came on wednesday, Haven't been able to mess around with it yet. Still need to get a hood and a spool of flux core.

oil pan and parts are coming today.

 

THIS^^^^^^^^^ Was the best tool purchase you've made so far. You'll get a ton of work done now.!!! Can't wait to see where you go now.

You should love Brians kit too by the way. He's spent a ton of time making it work.

 

@awsumdc I was actually going to see what your build schedule looked like haha

 

It's a bigger project than what it seems huh?

Don't give up on doing it yourself now man. Go for it!

 

Not a bigger project than I expected. I was under no delusions of what it would take.

bunch of factors contributing to not doing it myself. Least of which is I don't have 50 amp service or an open breaker to support the welder. I need this thing done, and I cant have it sitting outside in the driveway for weeks/months which is where I would have to build it out in the elements. Not having tall enough jack stands to properly cycle the suspension is also a problem. The biggest issue is not have any help either, Moms BF cant help he works 7 days a week and my other buddy moved to Bakersfield.

 

I love when people from socal complain about the weather/buildinf things in rhe elements!!

 

well...didn't you just contradict yourself?

Everything you mentioned is exactly what makes these things a huge project. Doing the actual work (welding the parts together) is just part of it. Everything else around it becomes a logistical nightmare that most people don't take into account before they start their projects.

Things just keep adding up man in terms of time and resources...hence the "hugeness" of the project.

If you do the math, by the time you buy all the crap you need to pull it off at home PLUS all the aggravation, cursing, frustration and annoyance of seeing your rig on jack stands for a potentially long time (because issues keep popping up causing delays); paying a pro to do the work is actually a wise financial decision.

Anybody that disagrees with this is just an awesome talented DIY guy that will never be honest about how much money they actually spent and how many times they wished they had somebody else do the work instead

 

Agreed, circumstances have changed (possibly having to pick up a second job and work more hours at my current one). Has nothing to do with my lack of desire to do it, in fact I want to be involved in the build as much as possible, It's mainly the time it would take for me to do it the "right way"