Black Magic Build Thread

Went over to [MENTION=30600]00Spork[/MENTION]'s house this weekend and installed my new supercharger. Wish I could tell everyone what an awesome deal I got on it, but as I said it's new so I'd rather not talk about how much I paid. :tape2: But I will say the customer service at TRDparts4U / Toyota of Dallas was awesome. I always buy all my OEM parts from them.

I went ahead and did the valve cover gaskets while we were in there. Turned out the old ones weren't in that bad of shape, but now I know I won't have to worry about them. Also switched out the ignition wires for some NGKs, and put in some Ik22 plugs.

The power increase is of course very noticeable, but I'd say my '96 was slightly better with the smaller pulley. I'll more than likely put a URD 2.2 pulley on there after I let my bank account heal for a while.

Some pics for you guys:













 
So I've always wanted to have an Armorology front bumper. I've actually been on their wait list for over 2 years now. After looking at them for a long time I've decided to go ahead and try to make my own. If you've ever seen one in person you know what kind of craftsmanship goes into them. This being my first fabrication project, I'll be thrilled if mine can come out looking half as good as the work that Armorology produces. But with my very limited fabrication experience I'm still going to do my best to keep as high of craftsmanship as possible. I do have some CAD experience, so I've decided to go ahead and draw everything up before hand. This should reduce errors and help with the accuracy of the final product. My plan is to take the file to a machine shop to have the pieces laser cut. Please feel free to comment or give suggestions as I've already stated I have very little fab experience.


Here are a couple inspirations to this project.








Here is the rough draft that I came up with. This is just the main bumper structure. I'm working on the mounts separately. There are a few details missing like the d-ring mounts, and the holes to bolt the fair lead on, etc. but those are updated in the pics below these.






Also want to thank [MENTION=55891]Bandit Runner[/MENTION] for letting me use his model of the front end of the 4runner. It sure helped a lot with the mounts. I plan to use the 2 threaded holes in the bottom of the frame, as well as one bolt going through the frame in front of the body mount, and another behind the body mount.

I've got all the pieces laid out in 2D and I'm going to send the file to a couple metal shops for quotes on laser cutting. Depending on the pricing I get it may be a little while until I can get going more with this project. I'm still not sure if I want to have a stinger on there or not... What are your guy's thoughts?







 
I'm looking forward to watching this project. No stinger would be sick. Or just do the single hoop in front of the grill.
 
Thanks again for the contact Drew. Worked out great. Couple pics of the plasma in action. He charged me $175 to cut the 4'x4' square. Which I think is a pretty good deal! I had other quotes $400+





I held the pieces up to the frame and it looks like they are going to go together great!



It may seem like there are some pieces missing if you're trying to figure out how it goes together... The main bumper structure is going to be 6"x2" rectangular tube.
 
MStudt said:
You should think about selling your layout for this!
Click to expand...
You know I've definitely had that cross my mind. Honestly I don't think I will. If I had actually designed the bumper myself I don't think I'd have a problem selling it. Since I did just copy it, it doesn't seem right. If Jed from Armorology didn't have an issue with it, I would probably sell it. But I don't have any intention to ask or make any money off of it. And no, I'm not going to give it away either. Lol
 
sn0wrunner said:
You know I've definitely had that cross my mind. Honestly I don't think I will. If I had actually designed the bumper myself I don't think I'd have a problem selling it. Since I did just copy it, it doesn't seem right. If Jed from Armorology didn't have an issue with it, I would probably sell it. But I don't have any intention to ask or make any money off of it. And no, I'm not going to give it away either. Lol
Click to expand...

Completely understandable! What did you design it in?
 
It's called Rhino, or Rhinoceros. I really like this program. I did take a couple classes when I was in school that taught it, but it is pretty intuitive. Much more so than AutoCAD in my opinion.
Rhinoceros
 
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Oh the things I would do to get my hands on an armorology bumper.. I hope to see everything come out the way you have planned.
 
You might even like your design better than the Armorology!

So, what's the deal with the 2 year wait list? That's ridiculous. It's not like we see those bumpers flying off the shelves, even though they should be. Hopefully they aren't on lazy fabber schedules.
 
sn0wrunner said:
It's called Rhino, or Rhinoceros. I really like this program. I did take a couple classes when I was in school that taught it, but it is pretty intuitive. Much more so than AutoCAD in my opinion.
Rhinoceros
Click to expand...

I've messed around with Solid Works, and have a little experience from a while back with CAD (like 15 years back). Is it pretty easy to work with, and teach yourself?
 
JWaldz said:
I hope to see everything come out the way you have planned.
Click to expand...
You and me both!

As for the wait list... From talking with Jed, it sounds like it's pretty much a one man show. He said he has been doing a lot of full vehicle builds lately. He's had people for all over dropping off their rig and he'll fabricate everything from bumpers, to sliders, skid plates, roof rack, everything. Most of the vehicles he's been doing are the FJs and 2nd Gen Tacos. Sounds like he likes to just take on one project at a time and some of them have been taking months to do.
 
MStudt said:
I've messed around with Solid Works, and have a little experience from a while back with CAD (like 15 years back). Is it pretty easy to work with, and teach yourself?
Click to expand...
Yeah it is pretty easy to pick up on. It's like AutoCAD in that you can type in commands, but it also has a tool bar similar to photoshop and illustrator. What I really like is the help menu. Which is odd, because I think most program's help menus are pretty worthless. If you have the help menu open, it updates every time you click on a new tool and it will show you a short little .gif video on how the tool works. I'd say I'm a visual learner, so seeing how the tool works in a 10-15 second clip really helps.
 
sn0wrunner said:
Yeah it is pretty easy to pick up on. It's like AutoCAD in that you can type in commands, but it also has a tool bar similar to photoshop and illustrator. What I really like is the help menu. Which is odd, because I think most program's help menus are pretty worthless. If you have the help menu open, it updates every time you click on a new tool and it will show you a short little .gif video on how the tool works. I'd say I'm a visual learner, so seeing how the tool works in a 10-15 second clip really helps.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a shot. Have a couple things that I need to design anyways.
 
Made a couple stops yesterday. The first was to K&K surplus to pick up my 6x2 tube. They charged me $52 for 6'. Next I stopped off at RTI and they helped me with the first couple cuts of my bumper structure. Thanks again Dylan!






The piece on top is the cap piece that the plasma cutter cut out. It all lines up good!


Got family coming in town next weekend, so it'll be 2 weeks before I get to work a little more on it.
 
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