Bandido's Bad at Taking Pictures '03 DC Build

I’m up to 6 tacos lol

 

But is it 6 tacos you are trying to maintain? or 6 tacos that will merge into 4 tacos?

 

2 will be sold. 4 stay. The rollover taco is getting the roof chopped off and a cage because… fuck it why not. Frame for my 98 is coming, the 95 has a bed again. And my 01 double cab is getting shit done soon hopefully

 

Time to change your handle... you are now full of taco.

LT dreams on the Rollover truck? also... how much interior are you planning to keep? ->about to start the cage on the lemons taquito.

 

Nothing other than the dash and a pair of seats ok for exposure

 

Well I have a sad update for the build.

Near the end of the year, I (and the truck) was involved in an accident that resulted in a 2x rollover down an embankment. Not a lot of details to share... in hindsight it should have been avoidable, but thats how hindsight works I guess.

Damage to the truck is pretty bad, I ended up with a concussion and hospital trip, but no other injuries fortunately.
Damage Pics:



I've had an incredibly busy start to the year, and haven't been able to do much about anything regarding the truck until recently... I haven't been able to check the frame for straightness yet, it still runs and drives, no fluid leaks, the rear definitely looks tweaked to me, but I don't know if its the bumper, the bed, the frame, or all three.

However I'm not going to give up. I nearly had my dream truck, and I'm not going to "grow up" and buy a raptor when an extremely time intensive but cheap option is still available to me. I tentatively have a plan to buy another Cab/truck and swap it onto this Frame with the 2GR swap, sliders and Boxed rear frame.

Spent a few hours actually figuring out how the 2014 Avalon seats I have work, the Heating function and Blower function are actually pretty easy to get working, however the stock controls are not, so "full heat" or "full cool" are what I think I will end up with.


Coincidently, as I started stalking facebook and Copart for cabs, several 1st gen double cabs were up for sale at my local Copart, so I ended up buying one for what I think is a fair deal.



This was a 1 owner truck that never got a new frame, and the current frame has evidence of attempted repair, but its wayyy too far gone. Clearcoat is in super bad shape, but the Cab and Bed are both Less rusty than the wrecked truck, so this may yet work out.



I'm extremely busy for the next month or so, so the only things I might accomplish are pulling the doors and interior of both cabs to prep for swapping (no 2 post I can get the trucks to and tie up for as long as I need to swap cabs) so there won't be any updates for a while. Any free time I do end up with will be spent on getting the Taquito rolling and out of the garage.

If any of the Locals are around, theres gonna be "free" Pizza and Beer at my house for one or two weekends in March!

 

Damn. Glad you made it out OK and ready to keep the dream alive. So many roll overs with these trucks. Kinda scary.

 

Which two you planning to sell?

 

Noooooo!!! In for beer

 

The red 2002 and the blue 2007. Both after getting their new frames and light body work. The 02 is getting a used 2004 frame, the 07 is getting a used 2021 frame

 

Still pretty pissed about the whole thing, but this was the first weekend I had time to work on the trucks.
I built a wooden gantry and got a 1k lbs chainfall.
I got the wrecked cab stripped and off the frame pretty quickly with help from my fiancee.
I definitely should have gone 12 foot high on the posts 10 foot was inches too short, I had to pull the front coilovers to get it out.
I'll probably just put 8' 4x4s under the gantry legs for the next stage.... In a few weeks when I actually have time.
Currenty I'm not planning to take the time to make sure cab and frame are perfect, the new cab has waaaay less rust than the wrecked cab, but the taquito occupying the work bay in my garage needs to be rolling asap.

 

Just noticed your comment. Definitely these trucks can end up tall and narrow very quickly. But, I think no sway bar played a big part in this roll, but equally big, or bigger parts were the throttle pedal and to a lesser degree, the operator. Specifically, I completed a swap with a throttle pedal that occasionally shorted itself out and would stop working until the truck was I/O'd or ecu codes reset. The operator was used to diesel rigs, and not aware of the previously mentioned conditions in my truck...

 

you are going to hate me for asking.... but want to sell me the rocker cuts?..... i need some more rust free rockers.

 

I can do that, I was thinking to keep the dash/firewall section so I can do easy test fits for some engine bay fab I want to do in the future, but w/e

The floor side of the driver rocker is NOT rust free FYI

 

Does it have holes?

 

I'll cut it up anyway and send pictures, its a a bigger pain to get a trailer in my yard than cutting up the body

 

Fun. Yea I can probably figure a time to swing down that way or meet half way, etc.

 

Really cool that you are sticking with the truck. Looks like you know what to do. As a plus, you'll end up with a bunch of spare parts by the end of it. You can sell them to recoup some of your losses or hoard them like I do. Either way, haha. Looking forward to the next chapter of your build. Those avalon seats are gonna be sweeet too, I bet!

 

Dedicated this past weekend to working on the truck..
I got the good cab and bed on the "good frame" swapped over the cab wiring harness as the 01 cab didn't have ABS, it also was a little easier to keep the various mods I had integrated into the harness already.

My dad traveled to KY for the weekend to help, and made sure we got a lot done. He also repaired several fence posts that were broken in the wind storm the previous weekend.
I say "good frame" because now that I had a straight body and bed, it was obvious that the frame IS infact tweaked a little, its twisted a bit... with the front cab mounts as "zero" the rear right corner of the frame is up about 3/4" and the front right rad support mount is down 1/4"
The back end is pretty noticeable and needs to be fixed one way or another, I'm going to get a quote for frame straightening from a couple body shops. Eventually I may be able to fix myself by doing a back half or something, but I'd prefer to straighten the frame out.
Hopefully I can get out of work one day this week to put the front shocks back on and reinstall the cooling systems and bumpers before the weekend.

 

I'm also not sure if the frame was twisted the whole time, or just since the accident... The old bed wasn't square, but did line up with the cab very well...
Managed to stop working at a reasonable time today for once and put the front shocks back on, which required replacing the right front control arm.

Rickety rig is starting to look good again!

Also read up on the RS3200 system that the 03 had, ordered a GBS and will have a fully functional alarm system for this boi.