Frankenstein Build: Stock -> 37's on IFS -> SAS

FrankenTRD
Another IT guy with a[n] ̶h̶o̶b̶b̶y̶ addiction


As he currently sits​

My truck is a 99 4x4 v6 5spd TRD Tacoma. The day I brought him home my girlfriend dubbed him Frank (for some reason) and the name stuck.

I am currently living my best life as an IT guy. As a break from computers I really enjoy rebuilding motorcycles, tools, engines, etc., and of course working on my truck. So lets get into my build!

shameless plug to my Instagram where you can find more pics https://www.instagram.com/frakentrd/

I also have my own website selling truck parts and things I've designed myself. Another shameless plug to my website: https://kpoffroad.com/

 

Leaf Spring Install​

Thought it would be nice to show more detail on my leaf spring install so here it is:

There are many guides on how to do this on tw. However I couldn't find much info on the particular parts I wanted to use.

Springs:
My truck had old worn out (and probably original) leaf springs with a 3.5" block and a bolt on "add a leaf". I liked the lift I had and wanted to keep it that height. I settled on OME leaf springs due to their great reviews and good price.

Old:


Shackles:
The springs are nice but would only give me a 2"-2.5" lift, not high enough. I decided to get the lift I was looking for I should purchase new shackles. I wasn't sure what size I needed but I figured the 2.5" Daytona lift was too high and the OEM was too small. OME shackles were too expensive and only have a 1/4" lift. I decided an adjustable one was what I needed. I ended up with some cheap Amazon RTZ Off-road adjustable shackles for $50. So far I have been presently surprised with these.
EDIT: Bought the OME ones eventually



Bushings:
Pretty easy I just purchased the Wheelers bushings for OEM shackles. I figured since the shackles I purchased were made for the OEM bushings a new OEM style set would work perfectly. The only problem I have is that the top bushings don't have a metal sleeve for the nut to tighten against so the bushing gets more squished then I like. I looked for something that would work in the hardware department at multiple stores but I couldn't find anything readily available. One day I may look for a proper sleeve for now it is fine. Worst case the bushings wear out a tad faster.

Hardware:
The shackles came with all the hardware required for the rear, but the front I had to cut when I took apart so I needed new bolts. I ended up with a grade 8 9/16 bolt from Ace Hardware that worked perfectly. I also needed new U-bolts. The ones I had were longer to accommodate the block lift. I thought I could cut them but I realized they were not threaded high enough to use with my new springs. I attempted to re-thread them but found that after the original threads ended the diameter of the rod decreased. So I had about 1/4 of the thread width I was comfortable with.





Results:
The springs have been pretty good so far! The ride is waayy smoother then the old ones and off road performance is so much better. The springs lifted my truck an insane amount at first but after driving on them and off roading them they have settled down a bit to exactly where I want them. If one day I want more lift I simply have to move the bolt down on my shackles. Overall I am very pleased with my purchases and would recommend them to anyone looking to do this as cheaply as possible.

Day after install:


Flex is pretty good too:

 

Coil Over Rebuild/Front Suspension Prep​

A few weeks ago I purchased some Fox/Fabtech FTS2100 coil overs. Granted these are not the best coils in the world they beat the 230k mile OEM could with a block lift by a long shot. I also found them for a good price.


About $60 in parts, a few hours in the garage, and a nice shop recharging them for free I now have some virtually brand new coil overs ready to be installed!

You can check out the full details of the rebuild HERE.


I also purchased some used Total Chaos UCA's. I'm still awaiting their arrival so hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to install my new front suspension. Stay tuned! I'm pretty excited.

 

Front Suspension Install​

I finally had a free weekend to work on my truck! I decided it was time to install the front suspension I had lying in my garage for a month. The installation is very straight forward and covered heavily in the forums so I won't go into much detail about that. However I will go into the economics of buying used components:

I purchased my Fox coil overs for $200 and rebuilt them about a month ago for another $120 (including all missing hardware and nitrogen refilling). A member here was selling some Total Chaos UCA's for $550. I spent another $50 on all new hardware that needed to be replaced, like bent lower shock mount bolts. Finally I spent $110 on a wheel alignment. So in total I spent about $1030 for this part of my build. Compare that to $1860 buying everything new that seems like a great deal! Here is a full cost breakdown:


Here are some pics of the installed parts:






Springs are 600lbs and preload is set 2.75" from the bottom of the threads. They ride unbelievable better then this junk:

but they aren't buttery smooth, especially after setting the preload.

Id say doing this lifted the front about 2" and allows it to droop down 3" more then it could before. My rear measures 40.75" from ground to fender and front measures 40.25". I'd say that's pretty level, especially after putting all my gear in the bed.

How it sits now:


Some "off road" testing before work:






I'll have to actually take it out on some trails but from this 1 rock by work I could tell it is a whole lot better then before. It did not compress as much as I would have hoped but after adding a bumper, having me in it, and letting the springs settle in I am sure it will compress more. They are 100% better then the old ones. Overall I am extremely happy with my suspension.

 

Haven't posted in this thread for a while due to work/life, but I am finally getting around to purchasing "fun" mods! Just picked up some rock sliders and a front bumper:



I got some bed liner so I will paint them this weekend. All I need now is a welder...

 

Alright here is a quick update on the bumper/sliders. First off, DO NOT TRY TO USE UNDERCOAT. While I was at Home Depot to pick up the bed liner I noticed that undercoat was 1/2 the price and in a bigger can. I asked the old guy at the paint booth (who has helped me with paint issues before) what the difference was and he said the bed liner is crap and the undercoat is really what you want. So I walked out with 5 cans of undercoat. What a nightmare. First, it has been 3 weeks and it still isn't dry. Second, It collects dust like a vacuum, so all my paint has dust particles stuck in it. And third, it started to expand into this terrible texture. I moved it into the sun to hopefully dry faster and it seems to be helping. I'm hoping I can mount the bumper in a week or so. It looks alright from 10' away, but when you get close you can see all the nasty flaws in the paint. If I had more time I would scrape this paint off and re-do it using bed liner. Before I painted it I made sure to clean every part of the bumper with alcohol to make sure I removed the assembly oil. I cleaned it until I could wipe the surfaces with a new paper towel and not notice any black. My only thought was that this is in California where it has been pretty hot and humid, though not out of spec for application according to the can, so maybe that played a role, but who knows?

Here are some pics:

Don't get this crap


The weird bubbling/texture/dust (luckily it is on the inside/underside, so it is almost unnoticeable)


Some areas came out really nice, I just can't figure out what I did differently


Looks alright from a distance, but you can still see the flaws.

Hopefully this will help someone from making the same mistake I did.

 

Alright I finally had a few free weekends to fix my bumper. The undercoat still hadn't completely dried, it got wet from some morning mist and left some terrible white streaks, and was overall a failure. I decided the best way to fix it was to sand blast it and start over.

I have a good ol harbor freight 10gal sand blaster and an 80gal air compressor to run it. I am by no means a professional so I always make a huge mess of sand and dust. I have a nice covered side yard where I set up a tarp, some lights, and a huge fan to blow the dust away.



The gear I wear makes it look like I am headed to a nuclear fallout zone. I wear a full face dust mask, safety goggles, full face helmet, mechanics jumpsuit, long thick socks, and some ratty Vans. It is super hot and after dust covers everything it is impossible to see, but I feel protected and haven't had a problems with breathing or sand in my eyes.





When I run out of sand I filter it. I have been working on a good system for doing this and so far the best I've found is a large bin, and a 4" ABS pipe with some metal screen hose clamped to the end. This works great and I can filter 10gal of sand in about 15 minutes.



It took about 15gals of sand and about an hour of blasting to get the bumper done. I think it came out perfect! I use a mixture of 30 and 70 grit sand which leaves the perfect texture for painting. After I finished blasting I cleaned up the blasting booth, dusted everything really good, and hung the bumper from my rafters so I could begin painting. I cleaned the bumper with soap and water to get rid of the sand. Make sure to dry it quickly with fiber-free drying rags to ensure it doesn't rust!



I started painting with 3 good coats of self etching primer. This was to ensure I had a strong base when hitting it against rocks and whatnot. It went on super clean with a nice even finish.







I decided to go with my gut and use Rustoleum bedliner like I had originally planned. I let the primer dry overnight and hit it with about 2.5 coats of the bedliner the next day. It came out perfect with a super nice texture and a nice even finish. The best part is 24 hours later it was already dry!! I am going to let it cure for a few days but I think this has already come out better then the undercoat.











I'm hoping to have it on the truck by next weekend!

 

I finally got to install my bumper! Overall it went on alright, I had quite a few alignment problems but it's installed and solid now!

Taking off the old bumper was fairly straight forward. I had to cut one bolt that was holding the factory transportation hooks due to rust.



Since my truck is a 99 it requires cutting the frame and welding the bumper mounts back on. My dad stopped by and asked if I needed any help so I let him play with the grinder and finish cutting the frame for me.



This is my 1st weld ever! I don't think it came out too bad and I am open to suggestions/pointers. I wasn't sure I penetrated the entire plate but when I was grinding it It seemed like it penetrated good. I gave them a few good hits with the sludge hammer after I finished my weld and they didn't budge, so I think it should hold.



Aligning the bumper was a huge PITA. My radiator was a full inch longer then it should have been and it was mounted wrong. This meant it stopped the bumper from lining up properly. I had to insert a spacer in between the radiator and lower radiator mounting bolt. This pushed it back just enough to squeeze the bumper on. I also had to widen the front bumper holes because the plates I welded on were just a little too wide.



Once I got the bumper on I aligned it with the truck and torqued everything to spec. I took the original turn signals off the OEM bumper and drilled a few holes in them so I could zip tie them to the bumper. I filled the holes with clear silicon to ensure water doesn't leak in. I also had some Harbor Freight lights I mounted but didn't have time to wire up.





Overall I think it came out super nice. I need to figure out a new skid plate option because the OEM one doesn't mount up any more. I may also purchase some LED strip turn signals to take the place of the OEM ones. I am afraid I might smash the OEM ones on a rock and shatter them.

 

Finally got some new tires this last week! I got 33x12.50r15 Cooper Evolution MT's. I decided to purchase the cooper evolution's because I found a set of 2 new Evolution MT's and 2 used General Grabber AT's for $220. I figured I could use one of the Generals as a spare and purchase 2 Evolution's online. They came out much cheaper than the STT Pro's I wanted at $135 per tire. So far they seem to be a pretty good tire. Road noise isn't bad and my MPG hasn't gone down too much. I haven't had time to try them in the dirt but I will update as soon as I do. Here are some pictures, I think it made the truck look perfect with the lift I have:











Now I just need a rear bumper...

 

Looks good man! I miss living in CA and having the best craigslist finds.

 

Thank you! The only reason there are good Craigslist finds here is because there are too many people haha. But I guess I can't complain seeing as 1/2 my build is from Craigslist.

 

It's been a while but I thought I would finally get around to updating my build thread. I'll start with the rock sliders. I finally got around to welding, painting, and mounting them!

I had to weld a plate and gusset to the slider so they would work on my Tacoma. They aren't the prettiest welds and I don't have gas for the welder so the splatter is pretty bad but I am happy with the result and the penetration was good:





I painted them the same way I did the bumper, with a few coats of self etching primer and a few coats of Rustoleum bed liner. The results were perfect:





And finally I welded the, to the frame of my truck. Again not the prettiest but they will do!:







Now I just need to go find some rocks to smash!

 

I purchased some new coil-overs too! I found a set of Sway-a-way 2.5" RaceRunner 6" stroke coilovers for $100. For another $50 and one free saturday I was able to rebuild them, new springs and all! The hardest part was finding a spring compressor that would work for me. I managed to find one on Amazon that fit but as you can see I was pushing it to the limits:







I put them on the truck this Saturday. They came with an upper shock adapter that I thought would fit on my Tacoma, but as it turned out was for a Tundra. No matter, I cut them down so they fit in the shock mount and re drilled the holes so they aligned with the Tacoma.







The ride is WAY better then the cheapo Fabtech/Fox 2.0 coilovers I previously had. As great as they are I am still running into a few issues.

1st off their is a new noise. It almost sounds like a zip tie rubbing on the tire, or a squeaky piece of rubber, and it seems to be directly related to wheel speed. I cannot for the life of me identify where this noise is coming from and it's driving me nuts!

2nd, the remote resi fitting is almost too big to fit under my UCA. The coilover needs to sit in jusstt the right spot so the UCA doesn't smash the fitting off. As you can see the UCA rubs against it. I really need to figure this one out so I don't damage the coilover.



3rd, my axle shaft just barely touches the coilover when turning. Not a big issue, but I don't like it. When I installed the coilover I needed to insert 3 washers in the bottom bracket so it fit snugly. I'm thinking if I move all 3 washers towards the rear of the vehicle it will push the coilover over just enough to avoid any rubbing.



Overall I cannot complain. The ride is very good (if I am not jumping it) and I'm learning new things. I'm also doing things that aren't necessarily common on these vehicles (I couldn't find anyone running these coilovers in the forums). I am hoping someone will stumble across my build thread and find my information useful or interesting and go try these things themselves. I can't wait to see where this truck goes and I am enjoying every step of the process on the way!

 

I ran into the same thing as you when I was mounting up my allpro bumper.

My truck had the radiator with the extra lower section for an auto transmission which I don't have. It was too tall and hit the bumper just like you're describing.
I ended up getting a manual transmission radiator without the lower section off of rockauto for like $80 or so. It fits much better now and I don't worry about the two of them contacting anymore.

I had to bore out some of the holes on the bumper like you did in order to get things to line up. I'm sure some of that was due to my welding on the front end caps as well as the accident I was in not too long before that.

As far as the alignment of the lower mount on your coilovers, you need some misalignment spacers to get the proper mounting location. Washers work I guess, but i'd say that some misalignments would be the correct way to do it. Maybe some Fox or king ones would work assuming the bearing ID is the same. Reach out to down south motorsports and they might be able to help you out with that.

These things -->

 

Oh interesting, I didn't know the manual and auto Taco's had different radiators. I'll have to look in to that. With my spacer it seems to be working fine but it's kind of a bandaid fix.

Yep I had to do the same boring on the holes. I have no idea if my truck was ever in an accident but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I'm sure my welding wasn't the best either, haha.

Huh, interesting, I didn't know they made misalignment spacers. I'll mess around with the washers to make sure everything is going to work and I will definitely contact down south to see what they recommend. It seems the ID is pretty standard with any coilover that fits on our trucks, at least in my experience.

Thanks for the info and nice truck!

 

With how I abuse my truck offroad, the last thing I wanted to deal with was my radiator coming loose from the core support. Until I got the new rad, I just had the two upper bolts holding it up top and the bottom portion was pushed back from the core support by the bumper. Spacing it back also puts it a good bit closer to the fan which could get interesting if something were to break or come free.

Yea if those frame end inserts they gave you didn't have so much tolerance to them, i'm sure it would be easier.
But I guess it's better to do it that way so that they can account for slight variations in manufacturing from Toyota when our trucks were assembled.

I would agree that the ID should be the same. Although i'm sure DSM or another company knows better than I do. I very well could be wrong.

Your truck is looking good!

Glad to help and thanks!

Edit: forgot to mention that you should cycle your suspension and make sure your tires don't hit the resi where it's mounted. I use the forklift at my work to check clearances and things, but you could do the same by finding a loading dock ramp or something to flex the front out on to check things.

I thought about mounting mine in the same place, but remember some other folks smashing their resi's when having them mounted there.

 

Yep I totally agree, especially in the California deserts. I still have all 4 bolts on my radiator but I have a plastic spacer pushing the bottom of the radiator out. Not elegant but you would have to look pretty close to notice.

I bet they found that particular metal in bulk so they could make the mounts cheaper. It's close to the right size but I agree, too much tolerance. Maybe we just have loose frames though...

When I had the UCAs disconnected I was moving them up and down to see where they would go. It will definitely smash into the resi if I bottom out the suspension but I think my tires will hit the fender before anything else. My biggest problem is that the resi hose fittings are too large. The resi needs to sit in it's exact position or the UCAs will smash the fittings off. If I could find a better way to route the hose then I would move the resi to a more safe location. I had them on the frame towards the back of the vehicle but then my wheels hit them when turning. With 33" tires there isn't much free space in the fender area.

Thank you! I can see we have similar tastes.

 

Love the use of excel. I do the same thing. To be even more nerdy, you can track overall averages, max, and min for each item you're tracking. I also do days between fillups and price per day just cause it still fits in one screen.

 

I just updated my chart in my 1st post. Excel is awesome! I have been tracking: Average MPG, Average Price/Gal, Total Miles Driven, Total Fillups, Total Gas Cost, Max MPG, Min MPG, Max PPG, and Min PP

I also added a column in my parts list to determine whether a purchase is a considered a(n) Repair, Upgrade, Maintenance, or Other. My friends were telling me how much my truck sucked because of how much time/money I spend "fixing" it. I had to prove to them that the majority of my money is spent on maintenance (which all cars need) and upgrades.

 

ok, i will NOT get that crap!
thanks for the heads up