nancy's AKA fabtaco's bagged tacoma

here it is folks. got plenty of pics, so this will definately be a lengthy thread.

here's the truck, the day i brought it home.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00091.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00088.jpg

here's when sh1t started going wrong...less than a month later

broken shock mount...you can see the "quality" fabrication...

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00115.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00113.jpg

top bag bracket on the front torn

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00114.jpg

crappy bridge and wishbone (3 link), and by crappy, i'm talking poor welding/not welded completely, especially the bridge, and the material was crap. the tubing on the bridge was thin as hell.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00122.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00125.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00128.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00128.jpg

quality rear shock mounts

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/DSC00126.jpg

what happens when your fabricator zip ties your valves to the frame

http://www.customtacos.com/ubbthreads/files/492199-04-09-05_1033.jpg

hit a wooden cutting board, halloween of 06, and the deconstruction of the truck finally began.

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/31/l_edef8b15c26f780a99e89d5a01163126.jpg

kinda hard to see, but it was also a good time to relocate the battery, and move the fusebox forward.

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/26/l_4327d46fe68aabe7d7d1e686ca867a38.jpg

the old rear end...which actually went into dropitmore's truck after i cut the crap off, and cleaned it up.

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/24/l_cbee5d30da71b89407f5603d604a368f.jpg

pretaco rear...had to clean it up a bit
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0706071834.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0706071738.jpg

installing the cando kit...

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1221071634.jpg

mind you, this all didn't happen in a day

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0331081504.jpg

got rid of the fleetside bed for a stepside.

prepping the bed, installing new tank, compressors, water traps, and battery box.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0803081533-1.jpg

bed mounted

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0809081257.jpg

wheels installed, and getting all the misc stuff back on

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1127081032a.jpg

wheels are too close to the bag

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0804081538.jpg

so i had to get some 1" spacers

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0330091509.jpg

no more rubbing on the bag

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0323091749.jpg

"new" lower profile tires

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0323091733.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0323091734.jpg

i'm redoing the exhaust...i sectioned two inches off the manifold, allowing the manifold to sit higher, and not hang lower than the frame. here's pics of the test fitting of the manifold.

here's a side by side comparison of the stock manifold, and the sectioned manifold

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0601091613a.jpg

with the "new" manifold on, and the rest of the exhaust in it's stock position, you can see how much of a difference sectioning the manifold makes

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0601091609.jpg

finally got around to start the exhaust.

got the manifold on and installed new studs from LCE

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1108091746.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1108091747.jpg

while i had the exhaust off, i noticed a gap on the muffler.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1108091805.jpg

check out the cross section when i cut the crappy welded part off

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1108091813.jpg

more progress pics.

here's the "new" muffler and tailpipe. using a stock tacoma muffler i had laying around for over 5 years now. the welds look like crap due to several reasons, but they are as strong as they are ugly, and i wont have to worry about leaks.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1123091747.jpg

new mounts for the muffler hangers, reused the old hangers, and welded them to some square tubing, then welded to the frame.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1123091746.jpg

kinda hard to see, but here's a pic of the frame, from the differential to the front. notice that the exhaust does not hang beneath the frame at any time.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1123091748.jpg

still not quite done yet, so stay tuned...

one problem that came up that i thought i could get around was the tranny crossmember hitting the exhaust. i could've just left it alone, but i didn't want to risk messing anything up, since it was a real tough fit, with the cat and tubing flanges being millimeters away from the x-member.

solution: notch the x-member.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1125091112.jpg

and boxing it in

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1126091408.jpg

now when i fabricated this notch i had the right idea in mind. unfortunately, the execution was WAY far off. i had lots of problems, again lol. had i done a few things differently, this may have turned out better. so laugh it up, post it on DR's crappy fab if you have to. i know it's crap, but for the time being, it gets the job done, and hopefully i get a chance to re-do it in the future. but for now it does the job quite nice, and was exactly what was needed for the exhaust.

so without further ado, i present to you, crap.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1130091209.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1130091210.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1130091244.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/1130091245.jpg

so today i began to finishing something i started a while back: cutting apart the connector air intake and welding it up.

now, the part i removed is indicated on this diagram, #8, which is circled. the part i removed is in black, leaving only the tube.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/airbox.jpg

now, i tried to weld this up a while back, but only managed to blow a hole through the tube, as the material was too thin to weld up with a bead. i cut the bad crap off, and started fresh.

i tried to weld it again, but even with the heat all the way down, i blew another hole in it, so i resorted to tack welding, which worked out great. now all is left is to grind the tacks down, tack any remaining holes, grind, paint, and install.

so far, here's what i got done
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0203001631.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0203001630.jpg

finally got around to working on the truck. nothing major has happened (knock on wood), so i did some trimming that needed to be done

so i notched the cab crossmember.

here's a piece that's cut out that shows how bad it was rubbing. note, that it used to be flat there.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0906001439.jpg

and the notch

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0906001438-1.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0906001438b.jpg

it's a huge improvement on the road. i can ride lower in the back than normal, and doesn't rub that much anymore. this should hold me over until i can get a true notch welded in there.

no pics, but i did finish cutting out the sheetmetal from inside the wheel well of the bed. i can smell rubber when i drag the rear, so i may have to tub the rear. stay tuned.

picked up a gaylord tonneau last month

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0328011744b.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0328011744a.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0328011744.jpg

ditching the pretaco rear

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0430012248.jpg

So, the new rear didn't pan out. Turns out, S-Runner rears have a bigger housing, making it difficult to use the cando differential bracket. since i didn't want to go to the trouble of hacking the cando kit up for a rear end i didn't really want to use, i decided to put it all back together and sell the SR rear.

Until today.

I picked up a 94 pretaco rear, so that's going in it's place. Already got the truck back in the garage, and the rear end out, now it's time to fix some things on the new rear, and slap it back together.

Sorry, no pics right now, pretty much looks like the last picture i posted, except with the rear end off of the truck.

Getting the new rear end prepped. It had some aftermarket shock tabs welded on from the previous owner, so those had to go. The 3rd member had a leak, locker, and too tall gearing, so i swapped in a spare 3rd i had laying around.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0613011721.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0614011738.jpg

Putting things back together

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0615011141.jpg

Almost finished...

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0616011757.jpg

And back on all fours.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/Mobile%20Uploads/0616011841.jpg

so this chapter of my life has come to an end. these are the final pics that i have taken before i sold her.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/0056eb87.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/b7109abb.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/f6522a89.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/preggonancy/6637dba8.jpg

Awesome build! Nicely done! :waytogo: Sorry to see it go :(