How I'm ruining my truck this week Ep 001

I finally have some time, space, and tools to do some of my past due mods on the 04'. I have not updated my "build log" in ages and It's finally time to do some truck work, make some bad decisions, and ruin my truck, one. part. at. a. time.

Will update with other "complete" past projects ASAP and I have many in the pipeline, watch the thread for updates I'm trying to make it picture heavy, may move to video at some point but I need to not be a solo mechanic for that to be practical.

THIS IS NOT A GUIDE, it's just what I did, you can do the same thing, I'm not your dad.

Anyway, I took an angle grinder to my taco, I have a plan. This first post is focused on "capping" the rear corners of the truck to the highest possible clearance. (to make room for the custom low-profile rear bumper)

Here's the Line I think looks best


JUST A TIP (and only for a second)
Paint, brackets, and maintenance hold together every machine on this planet. It's important to prioritize rust prevention and minimize vibration. Think about rain, mud, earthquakes and salt the entire time you work on the truck and you will make adjustments for pooling water, trapped mud, road salt exposure, vibrations/chaffing etc. That is critical to a rust free piece of equipment that you rely on off-road.

I digress, Lets create feet and feet of exposed steel with a cutoff wheel and burn paint off



Note the tail light wire routing, tab above conduit is for structure, make a cardboard template for the sheet steel (16Ga) and transfer it for both sides
Be sure to clean paint at least 1/2" or more when welding sheet metal, unless you like holes and water ingress, bad structure and a rotten corner in 2 years due to shit prep...
Clean metal and good fusion are #1 when welding anything on high corrosion/vibration things (if you want them to last or care about how they look.)

DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! Over-built is under-rated.
Welder Set to 120A pulse on @ 2-3 PPS, 50% DS and a healthy flow or argon, Fusion welding, no filler ER70s rods unless needed for gaps.
flap disk it smooth, then scotch bright and acetone painting area, twice.

I used a rattle can of auto 2-in one body filler/primer, I put a healthy coat and will sand it before next coat (x2)


3 zipties support conduit. Next is electrical tape wrap for exposed wires and expanding foam.
Then a good sanding for the bed liner that will cover/hide everything

That will be in another update, these posts need to be reasonable in length.

Give me feedback, Is this interesting or cool? am I trying too hard? Should I not even bother with the posts? I miss making big TW posts.

Cheers.
-Zach

 

I like posts like these, it can really show how much time and effort things actually take vs the builds that is like "here it is on IFS, here is IFS cut out, here it's on a solid axle"

 

I've read the post like 4 times and I don't seee where exactly you're "ruining" this truck. Good work

 

Got any pictures of the bed from further back? I want to see how the whole thing turned out. The small scale looks good.

 

Those welds are beautiful!

Yes, cool . Effort is appreciated. Yes, I look forward to the custom low-profile rear bumper install.

 

Welp I did it, my truck's butt is different, ready for the low-profile steel tube bumper to be fabricated, then custom swing-out, etc.

As you can see, I cut corers (literally), but it came out ok, don't look too close, there are mistakes and errors here and there but it's a trail truck, not a mall crawler.

I did the bed liner 3" higher, painted my tailgate with big obnoxious letters, just in case anyone did not know what truck it is.
My thinking is that it will be covered by swing out, tire, trash-roo, fuel cans, etc. so it will blend into the build a little better and more natural if covered in shit in the end. We'll see.

Also, fixed broken tailgate door handle and broken left latch, tons of mods to them with extra springs/brackets/reinforcement, hollowed out the tailgate with an angle grinder, insulated it with 3 layers of reflective bubbly stuff, framed it out in wood to lower weight and stiffen it up, high quality door seal around edges, then welded on a huge 1/8" plate as a lid making it crazy heavy, welded some latches with clearance cuts that won't slash a hand open, it's stout, heavy, rigid, and feels great to stand on, I have plans to use this to cook on, workbench, sitting area w/foam pad, etc.
Way better than the beat to shit tailgate top I had worked on for 7 years.

Will get better/more pics once I take it out in a few weeks, I have many more large mods planned in the future. thanks for watching the thread.

 

HOW MY BUILD LOGS ALWAYS GO:

 

⬆️

 

Wait so you made it almost like a couch? I like a lot of the stuff you did there, I want to do something similar one day just to store stuff in the tailgate.

 

Not while the lid is open, you sit on it like a normal tailgate when closed, It's mostly just storage for recovery gear and other smaller/lighter tools, rags, junk and such, wanted to have extra storage for crap and the tailgate mod was always interesting, so I made it a work bench too.

 

Make a camper like Rucas. A Camper with pull out storage then cross the country. Or you are so good make brackets for us so we can put aftermarket seats in. I would love some Rugged Ridge seats but we need adapters.. Your the man

 

Nice welding!

 

Thanks bud! anyone can do it, it's just about consistency and the right settings.