El Honcho - 1st Gen Taco build

Haha nope not playing with you. Wish I had a little more time and confidence to attempt what you’re doing. I managed to install my LT but had a shop fab the bed cage and bumper. You should definitely take pride in that work!

 

Thanks bro! Appreciate that. Confidence booster for sure. The crazy thing is. I bought a really nice tube bender about 3 years ago and never bought a die for it because they are so damn expensive. With the bed cage I said F it because necessity is the mother of all creation and I needed an upper shock mount for these 14's LOL. Trust me, SOLO is SIIIIIIIIIIIICK. If I had money and could take it anywhere it would be, KIBBE TECH, SOLO or SMP FAB. I have the Solo 3.5 kit. I love their work on Tacomas and Broncos. They specialize in those two vehicles and it's great they developed these products racing. I would give my left nut for the XLT kit but I just couldn't manage that when I ordered my stuff a couple of years ago. Then again, I'd like 4 link and all the fixings but money doesn't grow on trees so...

Your truck is definitely sick too! I wish I had a DC. I want a 1st gen DC so bad so I can just swap all my shit over. Everything but the rear fiberglass. This dude my girlfriend works with does Tacoma mini trucks and has a DC body sitting somewhere that he wants to sell to me but with no garage or shop I don't know how the hell I could make that swap happen. I would love to do the DC with the full bed like the TT motorsports rig. Hopefully that dude is making a full recovery. His products are sick too. I think he's in Phoenix now too. I don't know him but have seen everything on the gram about his accident.

 

Here's the plus side about attempting to fab your own cage. I have approximately $80 in material in that cage. My time was free. My effort was free. I guess the worst that could have happened was that I wasted $80 but the upside was worth it all. Low risk, high reward. As long as it serves it's purpose and didn't come out looking like a donkey built it. I was going to be happy.

 

Yea, let me get that.

 

Any idea what valving is in your 7100's?

 

money definitely doesn’t grow on trees and a shop takes a lot! Super happy with their work though. Thanks man. I really like the double cabs with the full bed, if I ever link my truck I’ll make that transition. I didn’t know he was in accident, that truck is sick!

 

Yessir! I ordered them brand new. Still has the valving sticker on them at the top. I will also tell you how I came to the conclusion that I would start here with this valving. I found this page ↓

http://www.bugsandbuggies.com/bil_ORvg.asp

Looks older but I got some useful information from it. This page may also help too ↓

http://www.bugsandbuggies.com/bil_ORgd.asp?Manf=#Ratings

Using the first page it appears the 180/75 is what is recommended from Bilstein for our class truck. EXCEPT, they suggest 2 shocks per wheel. So I figured I'd go up to the next compression valving since we only run one shock per wheel. I assumed that would be the middle ground. If you take the compression numbers and add and divide by two to get an average, the median number is 217.5. I bought the shocks through 4WP because they had the best price. $190/shock. The valving must have changed from the outdated page I hyperlinked ↑ because the valving now goes from 180 to 255 to 360. I figured 180 might be too soft and 360 is for a full size weight. This is how I came to the conclusion of the 255/70 valving.

Now obviously nothing is pry going to work out of the box and from what I've noticed the Bilstein 7100's get used more for 4x4 trail rigs there isn't much reading that can be found about valving. Again, I assumed I'd start here and see what happens knowing at some point I will have to open these up and change the valving.

 

Enjoy your trip and please post a lot of pictures so we can all live vicariously (and be jealous)

 

No doubt

 

WELP... SHE'S A RIPPER!!!! Just got the limit straps on this morning and took the bitch out in the dez for a shakedown. The PINION is PERFFEEEEEEEEEEEEECT!!!! Absolutely no vibration when you step on it from a stop or rolling out of the stop. I used to have the worst shutter/vibration when getting on the gas from 0-5mph after like a light turns green. The power goes to the tires now and I noticed a lot more wheel spin. Secondly, shocks are WAYYYYY too stiff LOLOLOL but I will say this, god damn they were taking it!!! I almost felt like my front is way too soft now. The back was just beasting shit. I'm sooooo happy!!! Third takeaway: The tires are rubbing on the shock bodies pretty bad. Definitely need two in spacers compared to the 1.5 I bought. I knew I should have gone straight to the 2". Otherwise, the truck is running great and everything held up so far. Going to do a nut and bolt check tomorrow or Friday before heading DOWN SOUTH for this off road Poker Run.

Anyone following along for this setup. The 255/70 is definitely a little too stiff. I currently have 250psi in the shocks. My GF is bringing me a pressure gauge/ pressure adjuster tool that she got from work so we can monitor pressure and let a little out. Thinking about dropping it to 220psi or lower. Might go increments of 15psi. I'm definitely NOT going to go lower than 200psi. If that still doesn't help then I will definitely need to soften up the compression with a different shim stack. Can't really tell how I like the rebound yet. I think I will start with tuning compression and NOT do two adjustments at once so I can feel the difference without changing more than one variable at a time.

Got a few pics but otherwise hopefully I can get some video this weekend down in good ol MECHICO.

Thanks to everyone that has been following, commenting and just giving me good vibes. I'm really happy with my work and how everything turned out.

 

O yes! One other thing. Anyone have any recommendations on what to do with my fuel neck???!!!!!! I wanted to cut a hole in the bed and pull it through to that driver side corner of the bed where the cage is. I can't figure out how the filler neck comes off of the tank. There's no tube clamp so it looks like you have to remove those 8 or whatever screws on the oval metal top plate that the neck goes into. Can anyone confirm?

Also need to install these poly bumps on the front of the whip. I bought the 2" energy suspensions poly bumps with the 3/8 stud. Do I just drill a hole in the front bulkhead and tap it? Haven't really looked at it yet. Not sure how much else I will get done before Saturday. We leave Sunday morning super early.

 

You can bungee the filler neck in place for now - yeah you have to remove the filler neck from the tank. I plan on cutting it when I replace my fuel pump and using some fuel hose to extend it to where it needs to be.

 

DAMN!!!!!!!!! So we BROKE THE TRUCK in Mexico!!! Smfh... Half way into our 60 mile all dirt round trip the lugs for the left rear wheel spacer loosened up and must have created some play in the spacer which allowed it to wallow out the spacer stud holes into oval shapes which then allowed the spacer to move considerably and then boom after 220 miles to get there and roughly 50 miles of HARD dirt driving the day of the SuperBowl before we went and watched the game the wheel studs completely sheared off the flange, (ALL 6) about 30 miles into the Mexican desert! LOLOLOLLLLLLLL I was going about 45mph through this sand whoopy section and then as soon as they snapped the truck made a wicked like super hard left turn, we started sliding bad. My girlfriend and I honestly think I saved it from being rolled. I immediately go we lost the tire. She goes what? I go, we lost the tire. She goes, the one in the bed? I go babe be just broke the rear tire off.... She goes where is it? I go, rolling up to us right now and I go, look. We both look to our left and the tires lands in this bush about 10 feet to the left of my driver side window. She immediately went into hysteria. I got out praying the wheel spacer just came unbolted... nope. We sheared all 6 studs completely off. Spacer was still completely secure to the wheel. My girlfriend is now raging pissed lol but she ended up taking it well. I told her to calm down, this is why we do this trip and pay the $25 per person because they're going to help us out. She took a walk to go pick up any parts that flew off. The brake drum was about a hundred yards back. We drug that hole drum setup about 100 yards through some medium depth sand so hopefully it didn't mess it up too bad. Some of the COMPAS bringing up the rear that we had just helped a while back stopped to give help. I love Mexico for so many reasons but one of the main reasons I love Mexico is the people. About 8 to 10 nationals that were on the trip with us stopped and provided help. We immediately came up with the idea to put it on a wood ski and drag it out to the highway but then one of the hombres asked me if the studs on the spacer were the same. They are. These guys went to town. Pounded out the studs from the spacer and put 3 into my rear axle flange. We got it jacked up and put the rim and tire back on. We had to remove the shock from the driver side to drive the truck. So all in all, our day ended early. Right before the half way point where we go from trail to beach. Really sucked. My girlfriend was relieved once she knew we would be able to get the truck back into town and more than likely home to Phoenix. I can't thank those guys enough. We checked the right side at a friends house in Mexico before we left yesterday. The right side spacer was about to be loose but hadn't loosened yet.

Long story short. This is all my fault and NOT the spacers. All the Mexicans were blaming the spacers for what happened but I didn't have the balls to tell everyone that it was more than likely my fault. The night before we left I switched from the 1.5" spacer to a 2" spacer I had delivered from Amazon. The spacers were identical. Both black hubcentric same thing. I re-used the black lugs from the 1.5 spacer on the new 2". When I got the lugs what I thought was "tight" there was still a third to half an inch of thread showing on the lug. The new lugs that came with the 2" spacers were a little shorter than the others but the holes the lugs go into on both spacers and everything else looked identical so I just used the lugs I had already used. I actually told myself that it wasn't right when I was doing it. I actually even took one side off to do it "right" with the new lugs because I could tell something wasn't done correct. I somehow and mostly because I had worked on this truck for 21 days in a row and now it is 8pm at night the night before I leave at 430am for Mexico and simply this is what happened. I convinced myself that, "it will be ok". "It's tight". I was over it. Just wanted to be done doing everything. So that's how I buttoned it up. Torqued the wheel lugs, dropped her down and then next morning we left.

Until that point, holly SHIT!!!!!!! This truck rips!!!! OMG!!!! Never touched the PSI in the shocks. The rear started to settle after I put the back bumper back on and now over large shit you can't even feel the back. The front feels way too soft now. So crazy!!!! I'm so stoked!! The 2" wheel spacer definitely helped with the tire rubbing on the shock body. I had cleaned all the rubber off the shock body from the 1.5" spacing before running the 2" spacer and the marks on the shock body with the 2" are minimal at best. I would say you'd have to run the 2" spacer with this set up or get a Tundra axle which is already in the talks now after this debacle everyone is telling me to get rid of the spacers.

Right now I want to drive the truck more with the current valving and nitro charge. I actually think that I got it pretty close with the 255/70 out of the box valving and 250 PSI nitro charge.

We limped home 220 miles from Rocky Point to Phoenix on 3 STUDS/LUGS on the left rear and no shock. 60 miles to the border from the Sea of Cortez, Rocky Point Mexico. Once we crossed into AZ I was a little more relieved but actually the truck rode pretty good and we didn't have any issues. Made it home in the average 4 hours and parked the truck. Right now, I'm hoping I haven't messed up too much shit but I haven't pulled anything apart and pry won't for a week or two. Not sure when I'll get a chance to look over the complete damage. Took out the tail light, cracked the fiberglass pretty good at the bottom by the rear extension brackets I made a while back and it looks like the drum housing is flat on one side.

Again, I think this was avoidable if I would have used the damn correct spacer lugs that it came with. My Mexican national friend in Rocky Point that helps me out with a lot over the years actually had the correct spacer lugs and we put those on the right side before we drove home.

I'm going to see if Amazon will return these for new ones. We'll see. Im going to claim ignorance OBV.

Overall I was EXTREMELY happy with this set up before this happened. The smile on both my girlfriend's face and mine the whole time was priceless. She can't believe what it's capable of now. We both agreed that the next items needed are safety items. We want seats/harness next and then pry a cab cage. Other than that. We are in love! I was only able to get a few videos on the GOPRO before we DNF'd LOLOLOLLLLLL. I will post up. I wanted her to get out and get some shots of the truck running through the whoops but we were in a hurry to get to the bar to watch the game and then we broke the truck right before noon the next morning before she could get any video of the truck from outside the cab.

CHOLLA BAY 4 LIFE​

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I5iiO6D9wY&feature=youtu.be

 

I love what you’ve done with the truck so far! One day I’ll have long travel as well hopefully. Good stuff bro!

 

Awesome build. Sub’d

 

Thanks man!

 

Can a migger get a bumpski?

 

Made some new 9" shackles. The first batch has started ripping around and near the eyes. I made the first batch with 1/8" bar and angle with 1.5" .095 tubed ends. I didn't add any overlays on the eyes because, well, I'm a newb. I figured the design was strong enough not to bend because it was a boxed structure. They definitely didn't bend but the eyes/bolts are starting to rip away from the rest of the shackle. I like trial and error and experimentation so this is actually kind of fun. I decided to use the same design. Stepped the backing plate up to 3/16" flat bar and made some 1/8" weld washers out of 1/8 flat bar for eye hole overlays. Unless my math is fucked, that comes out to 1/4" thick where the eyes are now. I also widened the design and used 2" flat bar instead of 1.5" to give myself more room around the tube ends to mig a bead.
I still used 1/8" angle to box the structure however, I increased the size to 1.25". Overall, this 2nd batch came out awesome! Going to install on the truck tomorrow and the GF and I are headed DOWN SOUTH for a couple of days to kayak and fish/beach. Hopefully we don't break the truck this time.

As a nod to Turboyota on DR I'm going to start documenting how many hours and other details during my fab process for the reader's enjoyment. Hopefully it will keep the thread interesting!

Total Hours: 18
Fucks Yelled: 3
Burns: 2
Cuts: 0
Tools Used: Death wheel, flappy disk, Hobart Mig 75/25 gas
Cutting Disks Perished: 2
Material Cost: 3/16 x 36" flat bar $13, 1/8" x 48" angle $13
Music: AFI (Black Sales in the Sunset)(Sing the Sorrow)(The Art of Drowning), Migos (Culture 2) multiple times, Eminem (Music to be Murdered By), Yandel (The One), DJ Khaled (Major Key)(Father of Asad)(Grateful)
Beers: 5 Tecate Red (MAS SABOR)
Weed: .4 grams
Pills: 8 Tramadol