2002 TuRD

[Slander]

Careful, or next think you know two years go by and your shit still isn't done. Don't make me finish before you.

I actually live near a shit load of wheeling, so I'm not worried about that. I'm targeting February for a ride or March.

On a serious note getting these frame rails on here somewhat square and level will be the most tedious part for me.

I'm in Raleigh, I'll come and booger weld your shit better than the worst booger welder there is. Just don't cough on me

I can fuck up my own fab work on my own, thanks though!

 

[kschaper75]

Is this done yet?

 

[Slander]

Is this done yet?

Had family in from out of town all week, so I haven't been able to work on it. I did get some tools though:

I will be back in the garage tonight. I need to call SD spring this week and find out where the hell my rear springs are.

 

[Slander]

Finally got some shop time today. I had 2 tool failures right off the bat, my laser level took a shit and a jack failed, so that set me back. I have been chipping away at prepping the frame rails and cutting off old frame repairs, so it's slow going. I did however get a rail heavily tacked on and it's all level!

I'm going to fully burn it in one day after work and work on the other side. Should go much faster once that other rail is on.

 

[rugburn]

needs more triangulation

 

[Slander]

More progress today, I got the pax side frame rail on, and both rails are totally burned in minus the fish plates:

Everything is somehow square and level

Made my new forward fuel tank mount to raise the tank:

I cut the old mangled mount off and welded it to some angle iron.

Should be totally above the frame rails, waiting or get the bed mounted up before I burn in the mount. Waiting on some steel for cross members and my rear springs to show up.

 

[PoBoy84]

More progress today, I got the pax side frame rail on, and both rails are totally burned in minus the fish plates:

Everything is somehow square and level

Made my new forward fuel tank mount to raise the tank:

I cut the old mangled mount off and welded it to some angle iron.

Should be totally above the frame rails, waiting or get the bed mounted up before I burn in the mount. Waiting on some steel for cross members and my rear springs to show up.

I wanna see how pretty you make the fish plates. Lookin good bro.

 

[Slander]

I wanna see how pretty you make the fish plates. Lookin good bro.

They will be like the front, not pretty but strong lol!! Should be a bit nicer as I have the portaband and swag table so no hand cutting them with a grinder like I had to before!

 

[Slander]

Looks like a truck again:

I spent today mounting the bed, this took way longer than I thought, especially working solo with an engine hoist.

Tomorrow I'm going to sling the axle under it and start flexing stuff out. Once the axle is in, it's mount the fuel tank, build the fish plates, make a rear bumper and attach all the brake lines and bs like that.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Off topic:

Did you get your ebrake to work with the 80 rear?

 

[Slander]

Off topic:

Did you get your ebrake to work with the 80 rear?

Yea, I only hook it up to go to the inspection station a mile from my house and back home once a year LOL!! I used the stock Tacoma brake cable and hooked it into the fj80 e brake bell cranks with some bolts. It will stall the truck in 1st gear, but the cable is way too short and I would rip it out of the truck the first time I flexed it out and the brake cable on the 80 axle hangs way too low for my taste.
Here's a pic:

That's the swivel portion from the Tacoma but it's the same as the 80. I cut a random tab off the axle and welded it there.

I also swapped in new shoes and replaced a bell crank that I broke totally off the backing plate and it fell into the drum. Apparently they don't like to be hit by rocks LOL!!

I did a ton of overthinking, bought parts, was ready to start making custom cables, then one night decided to try and see if it would work with the stock Tacoma system and it did. Now I would not daily drive the truck like that, it did what it was supposed to do, get me to an inspection station, passed and then back home for me to remove it.

You can probably get the cable up and out of the way using pulleys and shit, but I don't give a crap that much to try it, and I haven't had an E brake in this truck since like 2007.

 

[Slander]

Spent most of the day in the shop today, the rear suspension just about done.

Made a shock mount/crossmember. That's 2"x.120 hrew.

Hammered it the fawk in there and burned it in along with the shock tabs.

Nice part is I'm going to have roughly the same uptravel pre doing this and not have to deal with shocks sticking into the bed. Next up is the air bumps, and fish plates everything.

 

[Slander]

I wanna see how pretty you make the fish plates. Lookin good bro.

No awards being won here, but FCAW 3/16 to rusty tin foil sucks, as long as it holds..

 

[Slander]

Put the leaf pack together to check pinion angle and shackle angle for a couple hours after work today. The truck didn't break in half so that's good. I'm glad that it appears it will settle down to be level with the front, worst comes to worst I'll add some leafs out of my expo leaf packs down the road. Pinion angle looks good, mounting the air bumps might be a PITA but whatever. I also did a final full bump test and I still have some room to go with the shocks before they bottom out so that's good as well. I'm getting close to the "burn it to the ground" part of the build so seeing it on its 4 legs again was a good motivator. Tomorrow or Sunday I'll be messing around with the fuel tank.

Might be tight, I may have to French it into the frame a bit, I'll have to ponder this. This is at ride height. I just hate having the bump stop land on the u bolt plates for some reason.

I'm shooting for a few March wheeling trips and still need to build my rocker box slider things so times getting kinda tight.

 

[Slander]

Wrenched on this thing all day today, this is like the damn never ending project. The fuel tank mount took forever and it's only half done. I did an assload of welding crossmembers, and wrapping up fish plates.

Pulled the bed back off and welded in the crossmember that will hold up the fuel tank and muffler.

I'm sure I'll regret this, after I welded the charcoal canister in I realized it may hit the fuel tank, fuck. I also stuck the lspv back on.

Suspension is all done, just need to bolt in shocks.

All that's left is:
Installing the fuel tank and skid
Exhaust
Air bumps
Rear bumper
Put the bed back on
Cut rockers out and replace with square tube

 

[rockota]

Would have been easier to do a complete frame.

 

[Slander]

Would have been easier to do a complete frame.

Definitely not. Trust me I ran through each way of doing it a bunch of times, this is going to take less time especially with my home shop setup and working solo.

 

[Slander]

I'm ready to burn this fucking truck down. Went out to the garage today to build the bumper and get the exhaust done and button up all the other little shit and hit the road. So I bolt the tires in and notice the driver side tire was crooked, like 4" closer to the frame in the front of the tire, vs the rear. So I measured from the horse collar to the leaf spring hangar and was off by a lot on side to side WTF. So my wife came out and we measured the wheelbase and I was 2.75" off side to side. This is where I made my first mistake, I should have went horse collar to the spring mount and not used the wheelbase. Anyway I dragged it out for the garage and tossed the bed on it.

Pulled it back in the garage and measured and figured I would move the driver side spring and shackle mount 2.75" forward. Cut that shit off and welded it back on as I luckly had an extra spring hangar. Got done, brought my wife out we measured and now the wheelbase is still off by 2". I measured the horse collar distance and it was right around 1" diff, so I moved the driver's side spring 1" forward on the perch holes and called it done. I called Snowy and, confirmed I wasn't going insane, both agreed that if it driver fine, send it and fix in the future. After that I hacked together the exhaust and a TON of little stuff that sucks up time. My wife wasn't down for brake bleeding so I didn't get to drive it, but once that done it's test drive time. I tried gravity bleeding and they wouldn't.

So now what's left is a rear bumper, the rocker sliders and change one of my tires out with a new 37 that doesn't have the cords showing.

The wheelbase shifting had to be because the tires were slightly turned or something. It just sucks because after so much wheeling and how old the rest of the frame is, I don't trust any of the measurements lol.

 

[FleshEater]

Link it.

 

[Slander]

Link it.

Some day, I just want to wheel it!!

 

[chaplinfj60]

Rear link kit easy. Then tube the bed. And then and then and then it never stops ……. Lol lol

 

[chaplinfj60]

But it fucking blows you off on the measurements. Nothing kills progress like rework. I feel like I go backward and loose motivation for a bit. Good on you forgetting after it 😁😁😁

 

[Slander]

But it fucking blows you off on the measurements. Nothing kills progress like rework. I feel like I go backward and loose motivation for a bit. Good on you forgetting after it 😁😁😁

Yea, sucks! I have a wheeling trip in March I'm shooting for so that's the motivation LOL!!

I would probably link the front first as I made a chunk of mistakes doing that SAS (first one) and it would be easier to just start over. It works great, but there are some issues with it.

 

[PoBoy84]

The harbor freight air bleeders will get you close enough to test drive. It's what I use until a kid shows up to pump for me.

If something ends up not working and you get overwhelmed with having to fix it, let me know and I'll make a road trip to help you bust it out before your next trip. This same thing happened to me once, for no other reason than I had a wrong measurement memorized in my head as the correct one the whole time. It fucking sucks cutting out weld.

 

[Slander]

The harbor freight air bleeders will get you close enough to test drive. It's what I use until a kid shows up to pump for me.

If something ends up not working and you get overwhelmed with having to fix it, let me know and I'll make a road trip to help you bust it out before your next trip. This same thing happened to me once, for no other reason than I had a wrong measurement memorized in my head as the correct one the whole time. It fucking sucks cutting out weld.

Thanks for the offer! Yea it's frustrating. I forgot about those speed bleeders, I need to pick some up and my bleeders and a mess anyway. Still doesn't get my wife out of helping LOL!!!

 

[Slander]

Got the brake bled today, turns out the bleeder nipple was a ball of rust on both sides and that's why it wouldn't bleed. Took it for a 30mile shakedown drive today, got it up to 80 and no issues. I do have what seems to be a tire out of balance, but it very well could have been like that pre all this. Tonight I got the rear bumper built. All i have left is to do the rocker sliders. Some poly bumps are going on for my wheeling trip next month I wont have time for the air bumps, and I may have to move the spring mounts anyway.

Pics of the bumper, chopped up reminants of my old one:

 

[chaplinfj60]

cool beans 80 is good enough

 

[Slander]

cool beans 80 is good enough

Lol yup, the pretty standard test run. Hit some bumps at various speeds, no death wobble, rip it up to 80 for a bit.

 

[chays2464]

I was trying to do air bumps on my taco to and its a huge pain in the ass with the way the frame and spring plate is. I ended up just doing poly bumps to lol

 

[Slander]

I was trying to do air bumps on my taco to and its a huge pain in the ass with the way the frame and spring plate is. I ended up just doing poly bumps to lol

Yea it is!! The front absolutely sucked then I saw the rear

In retrospect I should have accounted for them when getting the rear frame rails bent up.