LukeCC’s Build & BS

If they let you keep them you could make them work with some 3/16 x 1.5 from Home Depot and use that as needed to cover the gaps - it'll help your welding skills if they need any practice lol. You could use the extra material on whichever part is harder to shape to and put the plates flush wherever it fits easily. Will look a little busier, but if you make some clean style to it, structurally it'll hold as good compared to the 1/8" on the rest of the frame. You could sell the replacements if they send some on top of letting you keep them or the botched ones for a few bucks! Definitely make sure the plates you end up using don't have any gaps. Joining 3/16 to the frame needs a lot of heat directed away from the frame.

 

Yeah exactly. That’s definitely an option if TG falls through and bones me. I’ve been bouncing around different ideas and I figured at the very least I could weld them out board as overlay plates to strengthen the outside but my whole plan was to box the frame so I’d like to make that happen sooner or later.

 

If you have access to a plasma, you could use a drag tip and use the TG plates as a jig over a sheet of steel. The frame plates will come out a half inch or so wider and then you could grind down where needed.

 

That’s actually exactly what me and @erice were talking about doing. To a T

 

Just a suggestion...
Purchase a couple Home Depot or similar cardboard boxes, lay against the frame area you want to box in and trace with Sharpie, transfer now templates to a sheet of 1/8" or 3/16" sheet metal, plasma, clean up parts then stitch weld.
Erice (@sdfstop) and I have a plan for his rig.

 

I told @erice id trace a template of the current shape and add a 1/4” to the perimeter and cut that out. That would make the template more manageable when it domes to burning it on when cut from a fresh piece of material

 

Cutting size is 4x4 roughly, but frame plates are fairly easy to trace on cardstock and angle grind out. That's what I did on a 2nd gen SUA

 

What do you guys think of this...

 

You can’t seriously look at this photo and think that’s a frame issue and not a fitment issue

 

Ya, those aren't going to work hahaha

 

I call trail fail trying to get out of this cheap haha

 

Agreed.
Trail Fail is garbage. Their products were ripped off from Marlin Crawler years ago but didn't do their own R&D.
Add to that, most of their crap is made in China which we all now know and love at this point.
If you want true product, deal with Marlin Crawler (long wait times) and Front Range Off Road.

 

@LukeCC thats terrible they told you to clamp it.
An oxy torch with a steady hand could do it also. I would want to build out a proper template in illustrator first and test that puppy out before we put it on a table @Titus94 But thats a good, easier way to go about it.
Lol, @paranoid56 how big is your table?!

 

i borrow a buddys table for any steel work lol. only do alu in my garage.

 

For me to warp my frame with c clamps to compensate for their undercut product seems counter intuitive to the whole idea of structural reinforcement.

i’m wondering if I should take measurements of other first GEN Tacoma frames (@Titus94 @erice) and take pictures. Compare them to mine and send them pictures and say “are all these frames bent and warped in exactly the same places on all three trucks?”

 

Good! That girl wasn’t expressing the interest that I thought she would. Are you sad to see it go?

 

Nice.

 

Mine looked similar to that. I didn't know they were supposed to go halfway in the frame kind of- I welded mine on the outside and was thinking actual box...

Apparently I am pretty good at welding a hot dog to a hallway somehow.

 

did you buy the trail gear frame box kit like me? Or the overlay plates with holes?