Project: DBL BLK ◇ by ToyRyd

Thanks Mike! And yeah of course Double Black Diamonds and nudge to Snowboarding

 

Been a minute since I've last updated, been busy now that it's warm out.

Started out with wanting to upgrade the half doors and getting them ready for summer. Always wanted to have some front speakers to match with the rears for better sound and not just depending on the rears.

Found them on Amazon, waterproof, and the right price for a few bucks.





Back when I grabbed the donor doors I grabbed the factory rubber wiring protector too to help keep it looking oem.






Then reading up on the fsm and ordering factory connectors, made the new speaker harness.





Then shifted gears and decided the old factory material board and material inner door panel had run its course. Found a supplier that sells the same matching vinyl brand and color as my vinyl floors. After dealing with cutting and fitting the cubby doors with this, it was pretty easy to cut and shape the pattern for the interior door panels.

Before


After



Now that you can see a trend...figured they need a fresh coat of paint. So I scuffed up, fixing some ugly welds from my old Flux core 110 and order a pint of factory paint from AutomotiveTouchUp paint.

Pint was no where near enough which was a bummer. Currently ordered 2 quarts that are slowly on their way.




So now that I'm still waiting on paint (last order took 3 weeks), steering on the truck has been kinda loose and with a few recent posts about the steering tack weld mod, I pulled the column and started on that. Super easy to remove.






This took out about a 1/16th or so of play. Any little bit helps.
While I was working on the steering column I noticed the u joints on the steering shaft had at least 1/8" of slop from each one. So I also decided to rebuild this while I had it out. Happened to already have some Borgeson joints that originally I thought I had swapped over already. Bought a new slip boot and a new firewall seal too.




Now after a test drive, steering is spot on. No more 1-2" of "floating" side to side play in the steering wheel. Happy with this and recommend the tack weld mod on the steering column.

Next up, after swapping back to a factory Denso rad from a leaky Champion, I noticed the trans didnt run as cool. While the aftermarket trans cooler I had is decent, I decided that I wanted to upgrade to something larger and more robust. Truck after all does weight roughly 1100-1200lbs more than factory curb weight. So again went to my parts bin and grabbed the Trucool Max LPD 4739 I've had waiting around.

Out with the old and in with the new and was able to sink the mount further in the core support.




Test fitting



Some new hoses and fittings.


Final install





Then moving on, I've had this winch cut off switch and struggled trying to find a place to put it. It's "best" to have it close to the battery but I just didn't have the room. Wanted to put it next to the winch clutch handle, but that had too much going on near it too. So decided on the opposite side, anything helps and gives me a reason to replace the power side wire loom. For some reason the Red wiring loom cooked in the sun after a few years, while the black and the ground side was still in good shape.
Hidden out of the way and easy to get to when I need it. Blue sea, so good stuff.





Sealed and protected away from any other hoses or wiring, etc.

That's all for now, tomorrow going to replace all the vacuum hoses with silicone ones. This will be the first step towards R&R the valve covers, plugs/wires/coilpacks, etc. Also got a few goodies from LCEngineering to put on as well.

 

Thank you so much for perfecting your half doors before I dig into that project so I can copy you.

awesome work as always dude

 

So always investigate that squeaking noise, and don't always assume it's just a bushing you've been meaning to replace.

Few weeks ago I hear a squeaking noise coming from the front driver's side. Quick visual and assumption thought it was just the shackle mount bushing that needed some TLC. Carry on....

Two weeks ago I drove it and parked it when I got home. This time noticing the driver side sitting lower than normal. Wth.
So now I really pay attention and stumble onto this.


Doesn't look like much from the picture, however when I jacked the truck up, the extent of the damage is pretty evident.


Wow.

So originally I thought it was rust, however looking at the metal an inside the frame is actually just dried mud.




Here you can see the shackle bracket and shackle.
Woops. Hind sight probably should have welded a support underneath during the SAS. But to be fair, it's held up no issues.





In this picture you can see where the end of the bushing has broken off, and the shackle has shifted wearing away at the bracket. The notch I am assuming stopped the shackle and then the frame took the hit.


So now cut out a square frame section, and rebuild what has torn off first, then plate, then glue it all back together.







Once frame was back together I cut out and made some 3/16" brace plates with some speed holes. Inside and bottom.









And perch finally tacked back in and a test ride, all fits good and square again. Need to finish welding this side, and do similar for the otherside.

Oh and new bushings installed





More to come in the next few days....
@cynicalrider Rausch Takeover prep

 

Dang dude! Yeah I would say it’s good you found that now or you would be having a bad day on the trail

definitely shows how thin the material is on the frame.

It’s funny, someone else said it in another thread, if it wasn’t for takeover every year I don’t think shit would ever get done on the truck

 

Driver side all burned in and passenger side too.

Couple pics I grabbed for mockup.
Just need some paint and to bolt in a new cat as the old one had seen better days with the nuts for the o2 just rusted and destroyed.

 

Got the plates all painted up.
Transmission lines were looking rusty so decided to replace those. And while I had the old front cat out to have room to weld in the frame plates, decided to get a new one and the body was smaller so it cleared the frame shackle bolt.

 

Cut that damn sway bar bracket off!

 

I have plans for it and its beefy enough for what I need. Its the future transmission pan skid bracket.

 

Ahhhh I only recently cut one off and only one side for convenience. I forgot how much rolling around on metal bits sucks in a garage hotter than the devils asshole. The drivers side will come off eventually.

 

Didn't really grab too many pics at Rausch Takeover this weekend, but have a few. Truck did good minus the elocker actuator. Wouldn't engage. Took it apart today, damn thing is corroded all to hell. Bought it in 2019... Going to take it all apart and see if I can sell off as pieces to fund a new one, who knows.

 

jesus how is the new one fucked already? Bad breather?

 

Bad breather maybe, but tearing it apart tonight, the gaskets for the motor and housing are both terrible. Breather tube has small amount of corrosion, both the body of the actuator was definitely the gasket.

 

Yeah, I went this year and a couple years ago when they first started the Koch show.

 

Knocked out a few things that I've been wanting to do. Again mostly maintenance but that's part of the game.

First up, notice the crankshaft pulley internal rubber was starting to crack significantly. Aftermarket and OEM are not worth the price tag, so after searching online and reading about the 5vzfe being internal balanced and not really needing a "dampener" I decided to splurge and get the LCE lightweight crankshaft pulley. Also while I was in there, picked up a new key and front crankshaft oil seal. Not a big noticeable difference other than WOT at 3000-4500rpm pulling which saw some improvement (rpms seemed to pull faster than before).

Comparison is easy to see, weight is a very big difference. Also to note you'll need a slight shorter crankshaft bolt (LCE sells) as the mount is slightly shallower than OEM (maybe by 3-4mm).





Up next was to replace the factory motor mounts. Toyota did a pretty good job with rubber quality and lasted just about 20years so went for another OEM set. With the springs being so soft in the front, lifting from the bellhousing was just lifting the whole front end. So went to harbor freight and picked up an engine support bar. Made the job super easy and was under $100.









Interesting enough it looks like both mounts in the front are bent. But perfectly the same. Only thing I can think of is during the crawlbox install there was a time when the whole unit was just hanging from these mounts and nothing else. Going to continue to watch and see if these change and pickup some DMZ fab weld in mounts.

And then finally another quick helpful tool, always going to Lowes/Home Depot and using their thread finder so decided to pick one up off Amazon in their warehouse clearance.

 

Nice work, as always, Greg!

You have a link for that thread finder? I’d love to have one of those in my shop as well!

 

Thanks Jason, yep Amazon special. Had some good reviews and from the vendor site.

$63 Nut & Bolt Thread Checker (Wall Mounted) White

Nut & Bolt Thread Checker (Wall Mounted) White

 

We know you won't do it

 

Because your vehicle description clearly states "mall crawler" hence why you wouldn't be spending 10+k for the SA

 

Lol. That's the truth. But 10K is still low