Nighthawks Garage - 08' Taco/ 86' Runner

Got just over a foot of snow in Casper the other night. Schools closed, no unnecessary travel advisory. Work says: Zero F*#ks given, ride snowmobile if necessary.

Bottom pic: Santa arrived early this year.

 

A few pictures from the past weeks:

These two were taken on my way to Laramie from Casper at the exact same time, out of opposite windows


Decided to make a shovel holder, got tired of the shovel bouncing around in the bed.

Ordered some Quickfists. Made the brackets out of some 3/16" steel strap. #10 screws to connect the Quickfists to the strap, with lock washers on the back. Some 1/4" hex bolts to connect the strap to the rail on the inside of the truck bed. Washers between all surfaces and wingnuts on the ends so I can loosen and re position them easily. I had to take the grinder to the washers that go on the inside of the truck bed rail so that they fit properly. The #10 screws had to be cut shorter so that the strap steel could sit parallel with the side of the bed.





Turned out pretty good, very solid and doesn't move around at all. In total its about a $20-$25 dollar project depending on whether or not you already have some spray paint laying around, the quick fists cost $11 per pair. Takes 1-1.5 hours not including paint time.

 

Just wondering if anyone knows what this gunk is from under the oil fill cap and in the funnel. Some sort of yellowish white deposit. Noticed it while doing an oil change today.

 

It's normal. Just from colder weather and shorter trips. Mine does it too.

 

Alright thanks man, had myself a bit worried haha

 

Alright, The sliders are painted. The AP logo is color matched, way more work than it was worth to do this. The color match "pen" wasn't available, so i opted for spray paint. But the sliders were already painted black completely. So, I sprayed the red paint in a small can and applied it over the black rustoleum paint on the lettering with a brush. Keep in mind they have had a week to dry since they have been painted black. Turns out it dosent much matter, still bubbled up like a mother f$#ker. So I ended up stripping all of the paint off of the lettering and starting from fresh with red.

Also another note here: After a brief inspection of the frame that these are supposedly going to "easily" bolt to, that shits out of the question. Now I know I should have known this from the beginning, but these are without a doubt going to be WELDED on, F$#k drilling 14 holes on each side of the frame.





Some other random BS: Friends that were storing their dinning table at my apartment decided to take it back. So I decided screw a dinning table, I don't need one, I'm gonna have a work bench instead.

 

Updates coming soon. Bed bars from Relentless Fabrication are on w/ quick grips and Hi-lift mount. I'm really stoked about how these turned out. Formerly chrome trim in the front is now color matched. Sliders going on soon, just want to find a shop that I trust to do a good job welding them on.

Goals for the summer are new UCA's, and RTT.

 

Heads up to anyone interested:

I'm selling my current wheel tire combo as soon as I get the new ones installed (ETA 9 days from today). There are 4 Wheelers Steelies Type B (4" BS, 16X8) with 285/75/16 E load rated Dura tracks on them. I'll have pictures up soon but there are also just the pictures in my build to reference. Black lug nuts included.

$650 local pickup only, I'll drop them off if its close to Casper or Laramie

 

@WyoTacoma get your a$$ back on TW already

 

Do you still have your set of steelies and duratracs?

 

Nice truck, I'd love to visit Wyoming someday. It's on my bucket list.

 

I do, they aren't off the truck quite yet but will be next week. I really gotta get some pictures up, I'll make a point to get it done in the morning.

 

Thanks man, That's a good looking Pyrite Mica as well!

 

Thanks!

 

Cool, are those hub or lug centric? I think those would work well on my 80 series cruiser.

 

They are lug centric, I'll have some more pictures of their current condition as soon as my email decides to stop queuing everything in the outbox. The backspacing on them is incredible, my new wheels aren't going to look nearly as aggressive with the 4.5" backspacing. I decided to make the switch because this is my DD, and I do about 500 miles a week. A heavy steel wheel is just not practical with my current use. That and they are discontinued so I had trouble finding a fifth one to have a matching spare.

 

The rear tires have less tread, I admit that I haven't rotated them in 10k miles, when winter hits and I dont have access to a garage my progress comes to a halt. Wheels and tires were put on at the same time and both have about 30k miles on them. If anyone wants more pics of anything specific let me know. Also, the truck and wheels/ tires are dirty right now, they clean up well though and I have always used ArmorAll tire foam protectant on the tires.

 

Some updates from the recent past:

Got the Jamburgs on, boy was that long overdue.




Installed this giant sheet of steel.



Installed these steel bars, mounted some steel on them. Its metal as f#%k.




RTT will go on the bars in the future.



Tried to color match my grill shroud or whatever its called, looked great when it was fresh but now its full of rock chips. I didn't sand enough of the chrome paint off so I'll be redoing that.



The ol gal turned 150k. Heres to 150k more ...and a TPMS that I clearly give zero f#%ks about

 

You can find the Craigslist posting for the Duratracks and Wheelers steelies off of my truck here.

 

A little WYO pride for Jubilation in Laramie.





Newest addition to the family. 90' Pickup 5 speed 22RE. Picked it up in Laramie on Saturday morning. Has a transmission issue I will soon dig in to. Transmission makes a mechanical scraping sound in 1,2,and 3, Sound goes away completely in 4th gear. Shifts fine and the motor is strong. Anyone have any knowledge about a tranny problem like this?