El Taco Diablo... Mall Crawlin, now with LT for tall curbs

... And a plan has been set in motion to get skids taken care of. Hope to hear something soon on time frame

 

Great weekend!

Made camp. Weather was a bit ominous.

Saw some of the signs we were looking for on our first (short) evening hunt.

Clouds looked a bit harsh.

Had a great dinner the first night. (notice the white stuff on the ground)

Had freezing rain then snow.

Everything looked a bit different the next morning.

Found the Mountain's butthole.

And the Nightmare Before Christmas tree.

And a snow flower

Tent was amazing... even with snow and freezing rain, I was toasty as hell.

And we took a nice ride this morning after we broke camp, before we came home


And the prep for the next trip begins.

 

This weekend's cold snap got Jen to green light the purchase of an Annex (should arrive by tomorrow)

 

Also ordered a couple things for the on board air project.


Picked up the fittings and air hose from Home Depot.

 

Gettin excited... skids are finished and making their way in this direction.

 

Amazon Delivery



Warehouse deal for $135... couldn't pass it up.

 

Well... weekend didn't reslly go like I planned it to. I was trying to make it up the hill for a day hunt yesterday. Ended up just not making it out. Things didn't go well in the morning when I was trying to get going. Some of my equipment just didn't want to be located (@4:00 in the morning) (ended up finding it later). Decided to just call it and get some rest, and work on some stuff this weekend instead.

 

Ended up seam sealing the Annex on Saturday. Which involved opening the tent up... which was a good thing, because one of the things I couldn't find earlier that morning was my hiking socks... knee high compression socks... they are a game changer. The socks were in the damn tent at the bottom of my sleeping bag.


This seam sealer is pretty damn good. The reviews on the Smittybuilt annex say it's not as water tight as their tents, so I ordered some of this sealer. Really easy to use. Seems to go on really thick. And it seems to cure to a thick silicone type bead. This bottle did all the seams I thought were necessary to seal on the annex.

 

The rest of my Saturday involved a stupid amount of loads of laundry to get all the hunting gear, we've been using, de-scented. And to get our cold weather gear de-scented as well... along with cleaning and re-packing all of our camp gear.

 

Today, @foxrcing07 and I made some progress on the Donahoe Racing coilovers. Everything is cleaned up inside. Bodies are honed out. Replaced the upper/lower wear bands, the o rings and the upper and lower wipes. Valve bodies are cleaned out and all the shims are re-stacked, bolt is torqued.

I have the upper uni-balls soaking in rust remover/preventer.

Thanks for the help Morgan

 

And... A piece of armor arrived.

Still waiting on the IFS skid, and then the rig is going to get a bit of rock resistance installed on the underside.

 

So... I have found myself with a bit of extra posting time on my hands do to the day's events... I figure I'll update this thread a bit.

 

Starter contacts went out on me last week. Had a camping/hunting trip to leave for on Friday. So, I picked up a starter at Napa for 205 after tax and core. Unfortunately, if I could have waited till Monday Amazon has the for 95 with no core.

Oh, well. You win some you lose some.

Replacement went pretty well. Didn't even have to remove the wheel or either of the skids... took about 2 hours.

 

Went camping/hunting... didn't see shit. But had a good time with the wife. We went nearly 48 hours without seeing another human... considering we are in California... that's normally a good thing lol


Wife cooked up some good food.


Then we came home


Still didn't see any bear or deer

 

Made some pretty good progress on bringing these coil overs back to life. Seals, wipes, wear bands, orings and one of the shafts have been replaced. Piston depths have been set. Oil has been refilled.

Just looking at charging them and mounting the springs and they should be good.

Can't thank @foxrcing07 and @CalTacoma09 enough.

 

Also seam sealed our ground tent. It made a great living room this past weekend. With it getting colder, and looking like we are going to be bear hunting in to the winter, I figured a bit of maintenance was in order.



Our "dog trot" camping set up seemed to be a good arrangement.

 

Also making a bit of progess on getting on-board air going. Have pretty much everything needed. Just need to put it in now.


Hope to have time tomorrow or Friday to work on it...

... And recieved some goodies from the Amazon guy. (only took a fricken month to get them... well seems like)

Thanks for the suggestion @MattJakobs

Should make the air down part pretty simple.

 

So, my next BIG move on the truck is going to be long travel... I have made up my mind. Figure I'll start, here, by putting out some thoughts. Will need to start a spread sheet for a parts list. Not really positive of everything thst will be needed. May start a thread over in the long travel section to start kicking around ideas. If anyone watching this thread has any ideas or suggestions (or has a line on something I'll need)... I'm all ears.

This is a project that's going to take a little while. Figuring I can take it slow and steady to avoid arguements and divorce proceedings (kidding)((kind of)) (((lol)))

Front
Front long travel kit (open to suggestions)
Long travel shocks
CV axles

Rear
FJ80 rear axle - locked, full float, disc
12 inch resi shocks
outboard shock kit
Chevy 63 kit with flip
Chevy 63 leafs

 

Awesome build!!!! and also great views on those trips. I like how you fab up some of your own stuff.
I overlooked the post with the hood luvers. those are great. I have been considering something since the desert heat builds the enjen bay temps fast.
I bookmarked several spots, really good information. I wil be watching for that "FJ80 rear axle - locked, full float, disc" looks promising.
This is the first I have heard about the "Chevy 63 kit with flip Chevy 63 leafs".
Very impressive.
Awesome setup!

 

Thanks man... Ya, I try to keep the budget under control with DIY etc... and then also, there's just times that the only way it will work is if I do it myself (RTT rack with side boxes etc)

The LT front and 63s/FJ axle is probably going to something like it doesn't seem like it will ever happen until boom it's done. But I'll keep updating.