Snowy's 3-Linked 98 Xtra Cab

Making progress slowly but surely

 

Got the cage tie in buttoned up on the driver’s side and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Much slimmer and better looking than before

 

I redid the bed side mounting to give it more of the natural curve that it would have had originally

 

I don’t envy you.

 

So is your cage no longer tied into the frame? Arent you worried about the entire cage ripping out the sheet metal rockers if you end up on your lid?

 

Not overly to be honest, the body mounts are 3 and 4 layers of steel that I peeled apart and tried to weld as much as possible to, the front is plated too. I may tie the back part back into the frame but I'm still on the fence.

 

Plenty of XJ’s have cages.. I wouldn’t drive one but I wouldn’t be worried about it as long as it’s tied into the body properly.

There are other Tacomas with cages welded to the body...

 

One side done and painted! Super excited to roll it out of the garage and see the whole thing in sunlight. Still need to finish stuff in the bed like supporting and capping the rear uprights and welding in bars for the spare to ride on...then I get to do it all again on the passenger side. I think I’ll end up a total of 5 inches narrower and 3 inches taller in the rockers/sliders now

 

Looks good man. I like the look and with my sliders creeping up this may be my next thing

 

Much better looking!!

 

Passenger side is done now, goes way quicker the second time around. Added bed bars for the spare to ride on and give me some storage underneath. All that’s left to button up is hanging the bedside, some more paint and trimming the front fender now...but it’s beer thirty now so that’ll wait for tomorrow

 

Finally out of the garage for the last time on this project! I got pretty much the exact side profile I was looking for. Much cleaner than before

 

Loaded and ready to check out on a 4 day weekend at Hot Springs. Can’t wait to not hear the word, “Coronavirus” for an entire weekend if I can help it.

 

Who's all going?

 

@Justinogo and a couple of his friends from down south

 

You're more than welcome to come down if you're free this weekend

 

Hmm, if I didn't have to replace my steering rack... I really need to get on that.

 

Quarantine is mod season

 

Man I would love to but I have to save money as I picked one of THE WORST times in history to start a biz and my wifes probably getting laid off October 1st so we need to save $$$. I dont need a trip to hot springs being dredged up in a future argument LOL!!

 

Hot Springs was awesome. Loved how everything was sand based instead of sloppy mud. Definitely enough crawling to keep me busy for a week and we never waited on traffic on the trail. It was refreshing to be surrounded by crawlers and bouncers instead of all SXS's too. Everything was well marked so it made it much easier to navigate for the first time being there than some of the other parks I've been to. The new sliders made a big difference on a couple of climbs that I would not have made before because I would belly out too hard on the old sliders.