Baka's 1998 Build

LOL. Yeah, that was mine.
KIMG0789 by lmarshall73, on Flickr

 

Haha, no worries. My memory is crap and I know it so I don't mind if I get corrected.

 

So I got a little artsy with the bumper while I had it off to paint the recovery crossmember...

Before...


After...


I think it looks way better, but I dunno that the cost in time and equipment was really worth it. I blew through pretty much my entire remaining supply of cut-off wheels for my die grinder (7 of them). It's done now though and I'm happy with it...at least until I need a cut-off wheel for something.

 

@allenfab worked like a slave today. Still didn't get it quite done yet. It's looking good though.

 

Looking good Lee nice work @allenfab

 

Thanks John!

 

The OGT got some new bling this week. Brand new upper and lower ball joints, new Centric rotors and pads, got her calipers rebuilt, and got her spindles painted. She's braking much better now and not trying to jerk me to the left when I step on the brakes.

Her new bumper should be completed Sunday. I'm hoping the trip to Lakeland is a lot more comfortable without sloppy AF blown out upper ball joints.



Oh, and I also figured out a pressure bleeding rig that works! It still needs fine tuned because I had to make do with parts I had on hand, but I'll probably post up some pictures of it later on if someone wants to copy it. It's not as nice as some of them because it doesn't add brake fluid while you're bleeding so you have to keep unclamping it to add brake fluid to the reservoir, but it's less complicated and less messy than the setup with the garden sprayer full of brake fluid.

 

As promised, this is the rendition of my pressure brake bleeding system I finally got to actually work...



All parts sourced from Lowes.

Parts list:

(1) Mini pressure regulator
(1) 1/4" NPT (male)--1/4" NPT (female) ball valve (not really nessasary but it's an added layer of convenience.)
(1) 1/4" NPT (male) air chuck nipple
(2) 1/4" NPT (male) to 1/4" hose barb
(1) 3/8" NPT (male) to 1/4" NPT (female) reducer bushing
(1) 1-1/2" PVC pipe plug (not a cap)
(1) 1-1/2" rubber pipe coupling (This should fit over the opening of your brake fluid reservoir, but I had to cut the bottom lip off mine to get the clamp down far enough to clamp to the lip of the opening.)
(1) roll of teflon tape
(1) package of 3/8" OD x 1/4" ID clear vinyl tubing (the sticker says it came in a 20' roll. I used some of it for the rig above and the rest I used to make hoses for the bleeder valve to run to a catch jar.)

I'm not guaranteeing this will work with ABS systems. We tried a previous iteration on @Rattletrap66 's truck and got nothing out of the bleed valves. We tried a similar concept, but a cruder implementation on @Sholden223 's truck and got bupkis. It worked on the OGT without ABS, but I haven't tried it on the T4R yet. I've seen a video of it working on a 3rd Gen T4R with the same ABS setup as mine has so I'm assuming it will work, but I have my doubts.

 

nice work!! patent that bad boy

 

A 4x4 TRD, Off-Road model truck has a hydraulic brake booster powered by an electric motor. It's like having an onboard power brake bleeder. Kenny,Brian and I utilized this when we did my suspension and put in new brake lines in the rear

 

word?!! I did not know that

 

Yeah its a perk of a OR.Im not sure about the sport.

 

Heh, interesting. I didn't know that. We ended up bleeding Frank's brakes the old fashion way. Same with Spencer's, but he had a conventional setup (vacuum booster with a master cylinder) with a separate ABS system on the opposite fender like 1st Gen Tacoma's had it. The T4R has the same setup as Frank's truck does with the electro-hydrualic booster.

 

I had heard that this system requires a trip to the dealer if the electric pump loses prime, but Frank lost every drop when he blew that wheel cylinder and it managed to re-prime itself. Still, self bleeding or not, if you can get it to work, this setup would be handy for flushing your brake fluid, which you should do from time to time when the fluid starts to look dark. They say every two years, but I just usually go by the color. If it looks like beer, you're good. If it looks like honey, you're still okay, but you should start planning to flush it. If it looks like coffee, it's time to flush it, haha.

 

Here's the nearly completed bumper. It's just lacking paint and the hoop might get some gussets if @allenfab isn't sick of me by now, haha.



I can't thank Todd enough for all his hard work!

Now I think I need a 28" light bar to fill up that slot...

 

Finally finished and ready for paint! @allenfab @Hugopreston

Thanks so much, Todd. I love it!

 

Well, some progress is being made on the new bumper. I pulled it off last week and scrubbed all the rust off it with a wire wheel and then put a sealer coat of primer on it. While it was off I went ahead and mounted and wired the resistors I got from SuperBrightLEDs so my turn signals now blink at a normal rate. And I painted the diamond plate panel. Here you can see the resistors and the panel:





Then I decided I didn't want to put it back on until it was finished and ran out of patience when Hugo didn't get back to me fast enough (not his fault, I just got antsy) and went ahead and did a craptastic bondo job to hide the seems on the top of the bumper which required a crap ton of sanding to make look half ass decent...


Seriously, an autobody tech I am not! But anyway, I finally got the final coat of primer on it and I figure tomorrow I'll be able to start spraying the black semigloss top coat. This is a view of the bumper I hope nobody ever gets to see with it on the truck, haha, but it shows all the reinforcing that was done underneath.

 

Here's some followup pics of the other side and my halfass decent bondo sanding, haha...



I promise it'll look a lot crappier with the semigloss black on it to show all the low spots and lumps, lol.

 

And there it is in all it's blackened glory. I'm going to try to force myself to let the paint harden up for a week before I put it back on the truck, but we'll see if my laziness or impatience wins that battle, haha.