aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

Today was a crappy weather day so not much progress, but I did finish mounting the rear bumper with all the hardware, and relocated the license plate down ahead of the swing out fabrication. I have some lights coming for it soon amd should be good to go. I think it filled out the otherwise a largely flat and boring rear section of the bumper nicely.

Also put a finishing touch on the front bu per with a mesh grill behind the 2 central cutouts.


Oh, and the first part of the roof rack showed up. Got the crossbars delivered today and spent a bit of time tapping 40+ 1/4-20 holes for the screws. Cant wait to get the rest of it !

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[awhitney1]

What kind of backup lights did you go with?

When you don't have anyone to help, you improvise ! Reverse lights are in and are bright as all, neighbors gonna love it !

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[aemravan]

What kind of backup lights did you go with?

The IknowTheRestOfTheCarIsExpensiveButIamBrokeFromAllTheUpgrades amazon/china knockoff flush mounted pods lol. Nilight I believe is the company and I don't know if they'll last or not, but at $25 bucks I wouldn't be mad if I had to replace them next season.

 

[awhitney1]

Haha, thanks bud! I was thinking they were Rigid Industries pods, but couldn't quite make it out. Nice work and hope they do last!

The IknowTheRestOfTheCarIsExpensiveButIamBrokeFromAllTheUpgrades amazon/china knockoff flush mounted pods lol. Nilight I believe is the company and I don't know if they'll last or not, but at $25 bucks I wouldn't be mad if I had to replace them next season.

 

[aemravan]

License ate relocation and lighting, check!
I actually kinda dig it.

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[Flesh Eater]

Man...that’s a really nice Runner!

Well done!

 

[aemravan]

The metal for the swingouts is slowly trickling in. Hopefully shouldn't take too long to fabricate. Just gotta drill 12 large holes, cut a few tube ls down to size, and weld some things together. Shouldn't take longer a few hours, right ??? Lol, I wish.

Hoping to get started on it tomorrow though. Can't wait to see a tire on the back of this bad boy.

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[aemravan]

Well, not too shabby for under 3 hours of utting and fabricating.. now just need to refill the C25 gas and get welding one of these days after work.

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[aemravan]

Brace for the tire carrier cut and all the metal is now ready to be welded this Friday. Can't wait to see how ita all going to come together.

Also took a bit of time to install the Tacoma hood prop I bought for 30 bucks vs spending a couple hundred on some hood shocks. Maybe down the road, but for now this will do.

Started fabricating fender liners and called it quits, very unexciting and tedious work... maybe I'll get reinstated next time it rains lol.


After a long debate, I decided to go back to a 1in wheel spacer front and rear until I can find a wheel I like with a proper offset down the road. It will offer a bit more protection to the fender and will visually line things up better.

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[aemravan]

well... damn it.... I have done it again.... As of 2 hours ago my Bilstein 5100 3" lift is up for sale (if anyone is interested 500 bucks, 8 months old, 7500k miles)

I have the ICON 2.5 adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs and adjustment valve on the way... decided not to get the full blow stage 7 kit at the moment since I'm not looking for any more lift and my current components allowed me to run it no problem... but... yea... thats where I'm at..

Was originally planning to sell the JBA UCA and get the Icon UCA but figured the JBA works not and its worth more money to just run it until it can't than try and sell it for 200-250 bucks and spend an extra 750 on the Icon UCA. I also opted to keep the stock links in the rear for the moment and upgrade those in the next offseason instead.

By the end of next month it should be one bad rig...but man, I have seriously got to stop now!


but the future plans aren't all that expensive compared to this last year... just need:

-lower links
-upper links
-new UCA
-adjustable panhard bar
-NITRO rear axles
-FJ t-case swap
-custom built driveshafts
-possibly LCA

after that the only way it could go is a ton of extra custom fab to fit 37's on beadlocks lol, but I don't think I will be going that route for a long, long time.

 

[awhitney1]

Damn man, you just keep adding on to it! lol

well... damn it.... I have done it again.... As of 2 hours ago my Bilstein 5100 3" lift is up for sale (if anyone is interested 500 bucks, 8 months old, 7500k miles)

I have the ICON 2.5 adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs and adjustment valve on the way... decided not to get the full blow stage 7 kit at the moment since I'm not looking for any more lift and my current components allowed me to run it no problem... but... yea... thats where I'm at..

Was originally planning to sell the JBA UCA and get the Icon UCA but figured the JBA works not and its worth more money to just run it until it can't than try and sell it for 200-250 bucks and spend an extra 750 on the Icon UCA. I also opted to keep the stock links in the rear for the moment and upgrade those in the next offseason instead.

By the end of next month it should be one bad rig...but man, I have seriously got to stop now!


but the future plans aren't all that expensive compared to this last year... just need:

-lower links
-upper links
-new UCA
-adjustable panhard bar
-NITRO rear axles
-FJ t-case swap
-custom built driveshafts
-possibly LCA

after that the only way it could go is a ton of extra custom fab to fit 37's on beadlocks lol, but I don't think I will be going that route for a long, long time.

 

[aemravan]

Damn man, you just keep adding on to it! lol

You aren't kidding..... I seriously have a problem.... but after this round I'm seriously done. It's bout time for an offroad trip we've had planned for a while and after that I'm hoping to be offroad and camping regularly, so I have 3 weeks to try and get everything done.. fingers crossed this icon stuff ships quick... the shocks direct from them were 10-14 week lead time as of this morning lol

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[venomj]

Nicely done, good job!

 

[aemravan]

Well, the Icon suspension route may end up a pipe dream for the time being... MAYBE..

Got a message early this morning that the rear shock I am ordered that was showing In-Stock is actually out of stock from the 1 vendor I got it from, 14-18 week lead time from manufacturer..

I had them cancel that order and have been calling around this morning trying to find another vendor that has one in stock.. so far , 5 vendors and no luck... waiting to hear back from 2 more. Hopefully I can locate one, and if not, oh well. Ended up sending a message to BilsteinLifts.com where I got my front Icon shocks from to verify if they have those in stock or not since it did show as 1 on hand. If that falls through I have a replacement source for the front, but won't matter unless I can locate the rear.

If I can't, oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be lol. But fingers crossed that I can find one... sounds like just about anything that gets any part/work done across the ocean is having VERY significant delays. I heard the local mountain bike shops around here literally dont have any stock of Giant bikes, only get 1-2 in month, and have something like a 15-20 person waiting list at the moment.... crazy times!

 

[awhitney1]

Wow, thats crazy! With this COVID crap, everything has been DELAYED!

Well, the Icon suspension route may end up a pipe dream for the time being... MAYBE..

Got a message early this morning that the rear shock I am ordered that was showing In-Stock is actually out of stock from the 1 vendor I got it from, 14-18 week lead time from manufacturer..

I had them cancel that order and have been calling around this morning trying to find another vendor that has one in stock.. so far , 5 vendors and no luck... waiting to hear back from 2 more. Hopefully I can locate one, and if not, oh well. Ended up sending a message to BilsteinLifts.com where I got my front Icon shocks from to verify if they have those in stock or not since it did show as 1 on hand. If that falls through I have a replacement source for the front, but won't matter unless I can locate the rear.

If I can't, oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be lol. But fingers crossed that I can find one... sounds like just about anything that gets any part/work done across the ocean is having VERY significant delays. I heard the local mountain bike shops around here literally dont have any stock of Giant bikes, only get 1-2 in month, and have something like a 15-20 person waiting list at the moment.... crazy times!

 

[aemravan]

yup...there go my hopes of getting them quick..

BilsteinLifts.com just responded that someone literally bought it ahead of me so thats why it was showing on hand. Offered a 7% discount on the next batch that they are saying will be 4-5 weeks (which is doubtful) so I think more than likely I will have them cancel the order.

I found a seller on Ebay that does have the fronts I need, but still no luck on the rear shocks.. so now I am trying to decided whether to even bother ordering the fronts or just cancel it altogether... grr... so much for impulse shopping! :frog:

 

[AuSeeker]

Well, the Icon suspension route may end up a pipe dream for the time being... MAYBE..

Got a message early this morning that the rear shock I am ordered that was showing In-Stock is actually out of stock from the 1 vendor I got it from, 14-18 week lead time from manufacturer..

I had them cancel that order and have been calling around this morning trying to find another vendor that has one in stock.. so far , 5 vendors and no luck... waiting to hear back from 2 more. Hopefully I can locate one, and if not, oh well. Ended up sending a message to BilsteinLifts.com where I got my front Icon shocks from to verify if they have those in stock or not since it did show as 1 on hand. If that falls through I have a replacement source for the front, but won't matter unless I can locate the rear.

If I can't, oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be lol. But fingers crossed that I can find one... sounds like just about anything that gets any part/work done across the ocean is having VERY significant delays. I heard the local mountain bike shops around here literally dont have any stock of Giant bikes, only get 1-2 in month, and have something like a 15-20 person waiting list at the moment.... crazy times!

Wow, thats crazy! With this COVID crap, everything has been DELAYED!

It's not so much the Covid virus causing shipping delays recently, almost everything that has to be imported has been delayed well over a week because of the ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal, it stopped all shipping for at least a week until they got it unstuck yesterday, but now there are so many ships backed up waiting to go through on both sides that is going to be several weeks to get them all through.

 

[aemravan]

It's not so much the Covid virus causing shipping delays recently, almost everything that has to be imported has been delayed well over a week because of the ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal, it stopped all shipping for at least a week until they got it unstuck yesterday, but now there are so many ships backed up waiting to go through on both sides that is going to be several weeks to get them all through.

I'm not quite sure what the impact of the Suez Canal debacle will/is causing to be quite honestly. I've see delays globally across just about every platform, from mountain bikes to my work vendors from Europe/China as well as local US Aluminum manufacturers that we buy from starting a good 2 months ago at the least. Obviously this recent shitstorm wont help the situation at all, but from my conversation with just about every vendor that I could talk to yesterday, all the big name shock manufacturers (Fox, King, etc) down to ICON have had very long lead times for a while now. It's making for some frustrated customers since apparently now everyone has a stimulus check to spend and want their parts next week lol (<this is not me... I don't mind waiting )

 

[Garpike42]

love the molle panels, you make those also? what material?

 

[aemravan]

love the molle panels, you make those also? what material?

Thanks ! The molle panels are my own design, yes. I had a local vendor cut and bend then out of aluminum sheet. Waiting on version 2.0 now to go along with my own design roof rack.

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