My Big Can of Worms Build

I guess they couldn't get all of their headers carb certified otherwise I would have bought theirs for the v6.

That's some impressive stress testing. What clued you into the exhaust falling off, did it give you that signature rattle I see on a few slammed civics from time to time?

 

It was even better than the rattle. The whole exhaust was bouncing off the remnants of my trans crossmember mounts. We ended up cutting my tires chains up to make ghetto exhaust hangers. That reminds me I need to finish cutting those mounts off the frame

 

Nothing like hitting your head on the sharp corner of a partially amputated cross member...

 

This weekend was about as bad as it gets for painting conditions in Socal. Rain and cool temperatures. I was impatient when I got home Friday from work; I couldn't wait to get started, so not everything came out as nicely as possible. That said, there's plenty of paint on these parts.

First up, there were some pinholes in the welds that probably didn't go all the way through, but just to be safe and keep water out no matter what, I filled them with superglue and quick-cured it with baking soda.





I wiped everything down with a rag, but it had lint, so I got a bunch in places I had to sand down later

I started to get some fish-eyeing and I called it a night:



Saturday rained all day. Sunday turned out to be a lot better. I got all the major parts done - they'll need a little touch up, but the logos came out good for a rough draft.



I have a plan for the "diamonds" - they'll be the "S" logo with a twist to them

 

Count me among the jealous, also wow I like that your making decals for it too

 

In other news I tabulated my credit card debt this weekend from the music program I used to buy all the equipment for - there's probably a good amount of interest I could save if I didn't put money into my truck... it's not the most fun balancing act, but wherever I cut costs like painting these parts rather than powder coating them, I can. I might be living in a hole somewhere once my student loans come up to pay after my master's degree is finished later this semester, so maybe I should have put YOLO instead of Solo on the arms lol

I'm going to buy a welder and a pipe bender and build my own bed cage / sua set up as well - I'll save $1-3k if I don't mess it up too bad lol.

The decals are because the Solo guys have hooked me up innumerably. Hopefully this thing will run and other people may be clued into their shop besides my neighbors...

 

I try to stay on the plus side of credit after finishing with student loans and such but at the same time I know the chance of me making what I do now with as little overhead as I currently have is slim to none once I move. So I am saving but kinda living out some of my truck dreams before they get too hard to afford again On the bright side I head for moab on Thursday to see what needs further improvement. Hoping it rides as nice as it does on asphalt right now. Kings still aren't here yet though :/

I'm pumped to see your SUA and cage setup. I really love welding, so much fun, what welder you going with?

 

My neighbor who's a metal furnace engineer is hyped on tig - I know tig isn't everyone's first choice for working on our trucks. For where I'm at in my neighbor's car port, I figured the small size of a tig welder, the ability to make 80 amps on a 110 circuit which is all I can get right now, and the low noise / fireworks style welding is more what I'm looking for. He convinced me to get a tig machine and he said he'll buy one for his company to test it out and then sell it to me half price:

Ansen Portable IGBT Inverter Welder 115V/230V Dual Voltage TIG&Stick DC Welding Machine (160AMP) (DC 160)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076D9H1P...olid=344QVQDFMEJ4J&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I'll get some accessories to make it a more effective machine, too.

Been hitting weldingtipsandtricks.com's tig videos and this guy's videos hard this weekend.



The design is super basic, but clean:




I'll have to adapt it to my full size bed of course and it's always easier said than done, but I like how there's only two bends in the whole thing. I have plans with rivnuts and shower pan liner to keep water out of the holes for the shocks, too.

Where are you trying to go in Moab? Jelly of that for sure!

 

Well TIG will be a challenge on a truck. TIG is awesome for the tube joining work if you can do it inside but welding on the truck itself, I think you'll have a very hard time getting a clean weld, it is a very finnicky process and you'll be working on stuff in tight spaces. TIG is hard to maintain arc stability and power in any sort of wind or weather. That said I still would never pass up a chance to learn to TIG from someone who good at it or turn down a half price TIG machine. But both MIG and even stick would be more ideal for working on truck stuff though, and you'll be able to do either at a level proficient enough for structural tube work faster than TIG too. I hear you on the 110V woes though, I have used huge Miller 220V machines and laid great beads on things as thick as 3/8 in a single pass, but the thickest thing found on the truck frame is right around 11gauge or .120 wall, so a 110V machine can totally handle that and 3/16 and even 1/4 with a proper prep groove or double pass root. My little Lincoln 140 unit works on a 110V 20A outlet and kicks ass up to and including 1/4 which is way more than necessary for working on the majority of the truck and can be operated in pretty much any conditions.

We're going to explore slightly west of Moab around Hanksville and head into the maze as well. May check out dome plateau and onion creek and we're still deciding if we want to do some of the other more iconic things too haha. I have a feeling I'll be bottoming out a fair bit with my cheapo place holder shocks being as long as they are haha. :/

 

Thanks for the info on the concerns for tig. Since the cage is bolt in, I'll be able to weld what I can get on the truck and finish it off of the truck. I'll most likely be in that car port where there isn't much wind for this project. I'll keep my options open until it's time to pull the trigger. Mig could be the way to go. Either way I'll be saving money big time. There's a Lincoln mig welder at Home Depot for $500 or so. We'll see - I like that tig welder stuff though too. Some day I'll hopefully have both! I'll be looking on CL and offer up for used stuff - I'll try to see what a pro welder a block over has to say.

Look forward to less breakage and more wordage from your trip report this time

 

The Lincoln 140 at HD is the one I was referencing, it is one of the better welders in my arsenal haha. Little thing just goes, although you do have to buy a gas bottle. The regulator and gun it comes with are both great though. I will be taking classes on TIG so I can get certs for it once I'm back in WA, it is a super cool process but damn is there ever a learning curve and so many different styles of TIG.

I'm looking forward to having a fun trip, I'm not the wordy one in the group. Ben, Monte, Dan, hell even Mike are far more wordy than myself. But I'll let you know if I break anything haha

 

It's a long ways out including some custom diy fiberglass bedsides, but I've been thinking about paint schemes for the bean. I wanted brown since the land here is, well, brown and sometimes I get too busy to wash my truck after a trip for a week or two at work and don't want to look like the Pigpen of the group.

I'll be using diy tintable bedliner so a two tone paint job won't be much extra work... lol

I want to keep the cab area lighter in color to keep it cool. I also like the contrast between dark brown and tan.

Here's some inspiration:

 

DT got the CARB EO badge mailed to me. Started looking into fab tools and techniques...

 

Another piece of the puzzle... big thanks to @Anthony250 for the great deal on the oem 4.56 third! There's stamping on the ring gear, but the ol' double check checked out too: 41/9 = 4.56 BTW his truck is awesome.




https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anthonys-99-tacoma.175933/

 

Took two step forwards, one step back today - I got the painting done on the arms and spindles - just have to clear coat them and they'll be ready to get the uniballs pressed in to them.


(I just have to touch up the blue on that one a little bit at the end of the S)



I was going for the whole dual country thing:



In other news I put a good 5-6 hours into taking the step back lol.

The combination of the solid motor mounts and the y pipe on the headers made the trans pretty impossible to line up - not impossible, but unfriendly. I'm hitting the y pipe, trans tunnel, and the diff pinion. I might just use the bell housing off of the other transmission and see if it will even fit in their on its own and if it doesn't, I'll probably get some oem mounts and not drive 11/10. I'm sure they'll be fine until I can pull the scratch together to get some bozen solid motor mounts.

Here's the scenes from the adventure. It was fun getting the trans onto the jack by myself under the truck as well...



About as close as I came:



I learned why it's important to always find a dropped bolt - this one from the upper timing cover fell down in the timing area... could have sat there for 20 years w/o a problem, but then again it could have wrecked house as well...



Wiring harness was taken back off so I could mess with the engine trying to get it to line up with the trans again:



Nice photo.

 

Learned a bit about motor mounts today. Between 98 and 2000 they changed the design from a cast engine bracket that mounts to the motor mount to a forged piece. The forged piece is a lot shorter than the cast piece. Interesting. I was running one of each (cast on the passenger side) and that might be why it was impossible to get my engine to line up with the transmission.



I'm wondering now if I used two forged brackets (I also discovered the one that I thought was good is actually tweaked (from the accident it was in when I bought the motor) so I'll either need two good oem brackets and see if that works with the bombproof motor mounts or just go all in with the @Bonzen brackets / mount. That might be tough considering I just spent some money:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/for-sale-3-4l-5vz-fe-trd-supercharger-feeler.540558/

But for a deal like that I had to. Maybe I'll wait and see. It might be a better idea to take it slow and install it while the engine is like this lol.

 

What's new with you man?

 

Lots of school, lots of work. Same old stuff, except my savings are building so I can eventually afford some fun offroad stuff

 

That's the way to be! What are you working towards in school?