Built by a 14 year old (with some help from my dad)

We had a piece of 1x2x1/8" wall tubing to put back in between the frame rails and decided to cap the ends to keep the water out before welding it in:





Then started piecing together the mounting plate. We extended it up to cover up some of the body mounts and added shackle clevises. The clevises will get welded on both sides:

 

Don't put much faith in those oem bumper mounts. They weren't engineered to be pulled on and there are examples here of them failing. If that is going to be your recovery point/set-up then you should look into something like these:
https://backwoodsadventuremods.com/...16-tacoma-front-bumper-frame-support-brackets

 

great info, thanks

 

We started working on the bumper tubes:

 

Which metal bender is that? Pipes only or straight bar also?

 

it is a woodward fab. and the bumper will be all tubing except for the plates that mount to the end of the frame

 

Those chonky Yokohama 295s look so good with the lift. I need to lift my truck.

 

we have 2 more tubes in place, cutting them to fit takes alot of time. we sketch the cuts on, then cut them close on the band saw, then grind them to fit.

 

last 2 tubes are in place, the thin plates will be removed:

 

bumper is off and fully welded:

 

we washed the cab to start getting it ready for raptor liner, it looks much better than it is in the picture:

 

This is my absolute favorite build on TW right now. I can't wait to see this thing out on the trails.

Just throwing it out there, but while you have it stripped down like this, you might think about doubling up that upper radiator support. If you wheel, it will crack. I had planned to weld mine with some round rod in the corner to reinforce it, but after blowing through the sheet metal just trying to patch the cracks and making it worse than it was, I just cut it to fit and bolted the new one on the old one.

PN# 53205-04011

 

great info thanks, we will definitely look into that

 

love watching this build. keep it up!

 

Props for being an involved parent. More solid dads are needed out there. Ask me how I know

 

Just spent the last 45 minutes reading every post in this thread. You and your dad are awesome and the truck is looking amazing; you’re a lucky young man.

 

Thanks for all the great comments. Body Work has officially started. we scuffed up the grill surround and started working on the front fenders:

 

one of our bed sides had a huge dent, we found this bed from a 2015 at a local junk yard for $350, cheaper than buying one bedside. we test fit our tailgate (already sprayed in white raptor) and it fits fine:


We decided to take the bed sides off since they have a few dings to fix and will be much easier to prime and pain off the bed: