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

Did some stuff to my son's 4runner

 

Did some stuff to the wife's truck.

 

Got my youngest son's Subaru clutch replaced. So the car will move, and not be stuck in my garage.

 

So... now, it looks like it's time to get started on the list for my truck

 

We also aquired a new little buddy



Yes, he figured out how to get on the counter

 

You've been keeping real busy since I last saw you! Good shit!

 

USA

 

Ended up having to swap in a new radiator in my son's 3rd Gen T4R today, along with a heater hose. No pictures, but it was pretty boring shit really. Flushed the system as well.

After we finished up, I decided to unbox the chop saw and start in on the bed platform.

Made probably 80% of the cuts to length. I've got qite a bit of notching ect to do (I'm going to vasically Licoln Log everything, so there wont be a bunch of but joints). But the general lengths are good to go.




WAY faster than the ole 4.5 inch angle grinder. So glad I bought this thing!

 

Are you making the new bedrack the same height as the old one, or are you going for something lower profile? I know you said the new one would be lighter.

 

The bed rack will definately be lighter. The rack, now, is all 7 guage. The new one will be 14 guage. Some of the pieces will be bigger dimension (IE the legs will be 3x2 instead of 3x1 that they are now) but everything is going to end up lighter and better configured.

I'm also adding 2 camp lights to driver, 2 camp lights to pass, 2 camp lights to the rear, a cargo light over the bed, and high mount turn signals to the rack. This should basically eliminate the need for a latern.

The rack/tent will also be lowered 4 to 5 inches. That will make it where we (I) will have to bend over to stand in the annex, when we are using it (well, kind of, because I'm installing a 1 inch body lift and I'll gain a half inch with bigger tires)... but the truck will look much more bader-asser. (The height of the tent now really doesn't make any difference in center of gravity). It may also help with gas milage... I'm ditching the basket on the roof and going with a Prinsu rack, so over all the height profile is getting a big change this winter.

 

Making progress on the bedrack. 14 guage is a pain in the dick to weld. Clamped everything down and skipping all over the place, to keep it from turning in to bananas.

 

Get a tig - and be UNSTOPPABLE

 

My machine will do TIG. I'm just completely clueless how to use lol.

 

My buddy is an aerospace welder who helped with relocating the return line on my PS reservoir. Even though they're like 3 layers of different metals (why the welds look so sloppy) he could still weld on the little patch I made and put the nipple where I drilled a new hole.



Being able to do this kind of thing would rule but no time to learn...

 

We were successful at making more progress making a disaster of the garage.

 

Good stuff

 

Curious why you went with the half-lap joints? As a woodworker, I use those all the time, but I've never done that with metal. Seems like it leaves a lot of open half-spaces that have to be capped on the "middle-ends."

I also totally don't understand the shape of your rack, but looking forward to seeing it! (I'm probably just biased by the shape of the racks I build.)

 

Those aren't half laps the are fully lapped joints. It makes it "lincoln logged" for lack of a better term. That way none of the joints are just butt jointed. Nothing had to be capped except some of the outside ends (which would have had to be capped anyway) except the center joint in the back (you can see it in the picture) where I fucked up and notched it wrong.

The shape of the rack will make sense when I put it in place lol

 

This looks like it's been notched to me. No? Or maybe we're just using different terms for the same thing - this is exactly a half-lap in woodworking. And I see what you mean about notching that one joint incorrectly - if you'd just left the outer edge of the other piece, no extra welding.

I've always figured that with the metal gluing, butt joints are just fine, since it all becomes one piece of metal anyway.

Hurry up then already , I'm just sitting here pressing F5 over and over.

 

LMAO... it was cold and I was tired yesterday. So I didn't do anything on it.

If you take the rack in the last picture.

The rack is up side down. The sleds will be on the bed floor. The wild ends (closest in picture) go towards the cab. The wild ends aren't finished, they will be capped with a rail. That small box is where all the electrical for the back half of the truck will go. Power splitter, ground splitter, and fuses.

The arms to the side will be what my side boxes will rest on. Most of the weight will now be on them, instead of the bed rails (been thinking of doing this in case I do fiberglass bed sides)

If any of that makes any sense... lol

It will make the bed more organized, and make it where I can get to most anything without having to unload everything.



As far as the laps, I just don't like butt joining things, If I don't have to.