"The Burrow" Pabstsmeared's Build-A-Baja Workshop

Pabstsmeared presents: A miserable excuse for a build thread .






09/08/20



Who: I'm Matt .

What: The "White Devil" is a 2013 Double Cab Short Bed Tacoma TX Baja in Super White. (Note: I don't actually call my truck that. But a build thread needs a cool name.)

When: Purchased January 11, 2019.

Where: Richmond, Va. Kinda. I live in Tappahannock, Va. an hour east of Fist City. It's a small river town in a county driven by farming. Also, Chris Brown is from there and nobody gives a fuck. I commute to Richmond for work every day, and at least once every weekend.
I lived in Charleston, WV. for 5 years though, and that state will always have my heart.

Why: I had been swooning over Taco's and T4R's for several years before I made the plunge. I was driving a 2004 Tahoe and decided enough was enough with their rust issues and made the leap to something that I loved the looks, reliability, and reputation of. After vast amounts of research on TW, months of shopping, and irritating the guys in my local thread with NOOB questions, I pulled the trigger.




Beginnings: Stopped into an O'Reilly's on the night I drove it home for a little bro posing for the 'Gram, and a phone charger. To whoever bought the Tahoe, you're welcome for the charger. To the dealer, thanks for the SIQ H/T tire upgrade.









I'm going to go ahead and throw this photo up here, and say that I bought this truck in the middle of a 9-month restoration of an 1888 farmhouse, which consumed all of my life. It's safely on the ground now and I live in it, but it continues to consume most of my free time. It's gonna be a slow build y'all. I'm burning both irons in the fire on either end. That's a thing people say, right?





At this point, the build will go off the rails a little bit. I'm going to dump some photos and quick explanations and come back and edit later. I should probably do some work at work.




Saggy ass phase: The 350lb cast iron clawfoot tub in the back doesn't help. But the OEM leafs are definitely shot.







Saggy ass solution: After researching until my eyes bled (OMG airbags, Dakars, medium-duty, HD, Deaver, AAL, this many leafs, that many leafs........) I came across a smoking deal on some All-Pro standards and met up with a local member to grab them. Are they what I want permanently? No. Are there a lot of shitty things to say about All-Pro and their leafs? Yes. Am I stoked? Yes. Have I had any issues as of yet? No. DILLIAGAF? Plus, no more saggy ass!








Some debadging is occurring in this photo. And my wife ran over something big and sharp on the interstate while picking up what appears to be a rug and a coffee maker. Oh. Bummer. Guess I need all new tires.







Oopsie. I bought 33's. Before lifting the front. Naturally.







And now we enter the phase in which I can't stop staring at my truck. For the 'Gram.









Threw on some custom bedsides I had been hoarding since like, 3 days after I bought my truck.







And finally, got the front up. 1/2 top plate spacers. In theory I am now 3" up in the back and 2.75" in the front. Have I measured? Fuck no.






And that brings us to now. 8/14/19 12:42pm.




There's a lot of little mods that have been done. I'll list them eventually. Without the pictures, I didn't take of course. It'll be slow going y'all. I'll abandon this thread for loooooong periods of time. But I'd like to do some cool shit with my truck. And if you want to look at that cool shit months after I do it, look here.



Interior Mods:
Ultragauge
Ballsout Offroad Ram Ball Mount with Ram Mounts X-Grip for Phone
ImMrYo Rear View Mirror Relocate
WeatherTech Floor Liners Front and Back (Black)
Chinese AC Controls

Exterior Mods:
Waterport
Rago Fabrication Cowl Mount Ditch Light Brackets
Rigid D2 Pod Ditch Lights (Flood)
BAMF CB Mount (Drivers Side)
Mud Flap Delete Mod
Dangling Trailer Plug Mod
Stubby Antenna (Amazon)
Debadged
CBOY808 Custom Bedside
MESO Gasshole
TRD Grill Emblem (Amazon)
AVS In-Channel Auto Ventshades
Softopper (Black)
Derp'd Grill & Surround
OEM Roof Rack
Yakima Ski Rack
Quick Fists on Bedrails

Armor:
SOS Concepts Bolt-On Sliders w/ Kickout

Engine Bay:
UniFilter Mod
Group 31 Optima Bluetop
Off-Grid Battery Hold Down

Front Suspension:
Factory TX Baja Bilstein 6100's
Factory TX Baja 650lb Eibach Springs
Toytec 1/2" Top Plate Spacer
Old Man Emu Carrier Bearing Drop

Rear Suspension:
Factory TX BAJA Bilstein 5160's
All-Pro Standard Duty Leaf Packs
Extended Brake Lines

Wheels and Tires:
TRD Faux Beadlocks (Gunmetal)
(5) 285/75/R16 BFG KO2's


Maint Records: empty bitches


Wish List:

On-Board Air
Hi-Lift
Mountain Hatch Tailgate Cutting Board
Grill (Satoshi/Faux Pro?)
U-Bolt Flip
UCA's
Trasharoo
Redline (or that other one) Hood Struts
MattGecko Bed & Underhood Lighting
Comms






Reference Material:

Speedo/ODO Recalibration:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...native-to-the-hypertech.622313/#post-21311210

Brake Fluid Flush/Speed Bleeders:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-4x4-trd-off-road-with-speed-bleeders.368080/

OBA Inspiration:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/incognitos-build.405484/

A link I hope I'll never need:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/frame-coverage-for-2011.590939/page-7

Martin Racks on the DL:
Gmartin284

Plugs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-spark-plug-change-1-gr-fe.30479/

Fog Light Anytime Mod:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...no-splicing-no-bending-100-reversible.309407/

Alignment Cam Bolts: Parts Diamgrams:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-navigate-technical-parts-diagrams.661813/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-hi-lift-and-tool-mounts.260147/#post-6338566


Hopes and Dreams:

Full Skids (Next)

Bumpers

Maxtrac Boards (For the beach, not clout. Everything else is for clout.)

OBA

Hi-Lift

Roof Rack (Martin/Prinsu)

Retrofits

Dorkel (Or cowl re-route)

Awning





To-Do List:



Diff Breather Relocate

Rebuild LCA's

60k Service

Remove Skid and repair/paint

Clean Up Shocks (Scotch Brite, WD-40, Fluid Film?)

Fabricate Quick Fist Mount for Axe/Shovel

Check Bumps

Install BORA 1.25" Spacers

CMC and Clearancing through full articulation

Paint Body Pinch Weld

BHLM

Chop Exhaust

 

In an effort to make this first page as ridiculously loooooooooong as possible, let's make this the
TRIP REPORT section.... Which will be infrequently updated, because I never go anywhere, and the content will be garbage because I don't take a lot of pictures, or spend a lot of time on my phone when I'm doing things. Take only memories, leave only diarrhea against that tree because you drank wayyyy too many beers, kind of thing.

9/21 - 9/28 in the year of our Cthulu 2019.

Outer Banks, NC.



I've been going to the Outer Banks my entire life. For real, next time I'm at my parent's house I'll try to find the picture of me as a 2-month-old rolling around in a pack and play set up on the beach.

I'm in love with the place and feel a connection every time I'm there. I'm also a jaded grumpy asshole who spends a lot of time complaining about how things used to be, and how it used to be better, and how we should've kept it a secret. But whatever I still love it.

In an effort to relive the way it used to be, each year I've gone later and later in the calendar year, and further and further south, just to avoid the crowd of assholes. Shy of adding an extra ferry trip and staying on Ocracoke, which I see happening in the near future. Planned to fish there a few days this year but Hurricane Dorian still has non-resident travel to the island shut down.

This is not a trip report, this is a love letter to a string of barrier islands, WTF am I doing?

My wife and I stayed in Frisco this year. Convenient to the Hatteras Beaches, the Point, and obviously the Frisco ramps. We got a house right on the sound because we took our kayaks this year for the first time, and it was incredible.

This is where I would put a picture of the house if I had taken one.



So here's a photo of the yak on the sound instead. I guess I'll reveal my embarrassing fish count here too. 1. I caught one speckled trout, all week. Well, from the yak anyway. It looked like this:


It's hard to make 350lbs look sexy on a tiny boat, suckmuh. Also, shout out to my wife for taking this photo with her potato phone.

I didn't fair any better on the surf. Fishing, everyday, for at least 8 hours, and here's the one puppy drum I pulled out:


Sheer fucking joy about finally landing a fish. Also, mad props to this stupid instagram ad hat. Do I look like a toolbag? YES. Will I get top of my ear cancer!? Probably, at work. But my wife yells at me less on the beach if I wear it.

So yeah, that's the fish story. 50+ hours of fishing and there's what I have to show for it. I lost another Speck on a boat flip, and had a monster drum/ray/shark break me off in the surf. But that's it.

Truck stuff of interest: I'm pretty happy with the way the truck is set up for surf fishing. I'm also super impressed with how it handled on the beach. Super light, and floats right on top of the sand. Reminiscent of my days driving my CJ-7 on the beach instead of the Tahoes I had for a while.

Oh yeah, I pulled a super duty all the way back down the back road at the Hatteras ramp. I will never do that again. Fuck you if you're stuck and you didn't air down. Fuck you if you ask for help getting out, but don't get down in the sand and help me shovel your rear axle out of the sand. Fuck you if you say "my 4 wheel drive isn't engaging" but sand flys out from under your front tires and you gun it and continue to high center yourself. And finally, fuck you if you're an old white man from Ohio. FIFO.

Now that that's cleared up, here are some photos I took, the last day because I realized I hadn't taken any pictures.

 

Don't know why I want these, but mines.

 

I guess I could go back and just delete any comments and get them back? Mines

 

Psssssh. No one is going to comment on this.

 

House Photo Dump. Will either be sorted and labeled at some point. Or moved to a "House Build Thread"

In the meantime, the photos should be pretty self-explanatory as to what I had going on.

Please, ask any questions you'd like. I've poured so much of myself into this house, I love talking about it.

I tried to keep these in chronological order. I failed.

 

In AF for "Backup Lair Fun Times"!

If Randy has the Lair, I declare this the Burrow!

Edit: FIRST! muwahahahahahaha!

 

The "under-lair".

 

That reminds me too much of a place that we can't talk about and no longer exists on TW.

 

I know this is a truck build, but holy fack. That house tho..

 

Haha.. I know right? If there was any question that I was a crazy person, I put that debate to rest. I need to make a house build thread.

 

Badass intro

Subbed

 

SHIT I wanted to be first!

 

For real, I would read the shit outta that. Family has an old camp with a totally fubar'd foundation under it.. Kinda cool interior though. Always wondered if it would be feasible to jack the whole thing up and pour an entirely new basement. Or just demo it and start over haha

 

Just say "first" and you are. That's how it works on the internet.

 

Cool thread, nice twuk!

 

So this house was built on top of 9 strategically placed, sorta flat rocks. We picked it up, dug and poured footings, laid a foundation and sat it right back down. I've got the nicest crawl space I've ever been in. I think what you're talking about is totally feasible. If you want a contact, holler. These guys work all up and down the east coast.

 

FIRST!

suck it @LocoLocal

 

HA! Just noticed the edit. "The Burrow" it shall be! Has a nice "Should I be in here? Maybe not. Sounds a little sketchy. But there might be some type of cute woodland creatures around?" vibe to it.