TCMach's Build Thread

[shouldbeasy]

Dude... your triple pod is soooo much cleaner than mine. Ugh. I am a hack with a dremel.

Nice work!

 

[TCMach]

Dude... your triple pod is soooo much cleaner than mine. Ugh. I am a hack with a dremel.

Nice work!

Thanks man! It sure is a pain to fit in there. Between getting to close to the black dash insert and the metal clip that holds the dash together on the other side it's a squeeze for sure. The beauty of the triple pod is that it has a flange. So the hole doesn't have to be all nice and square, which mine sure isn't. It's just square enough to not show and hold the triple in place!

 

[shouldbeasy]

Oh my goodness yes. Such a PITA to get it in there and secure. I'll have to post up some pictures of mine now that I can move the Tundra out of my garage and get working on the black monster.

Keep up the good work and I'm interested to see what comes next!

 

[Fishwerks]

Rock lights look good man!

 

[TCMach]

[MENTION=78892]FR4R[/MENTION] thanks for the rock lights compliment. Guess I never saw it haha.

Recently I ordered an LED light bar of a TW group buy. And it finally got a hold of it and mounted it up!

Specs:
Illumination Supply 20" Single Row Combo Beam
10w XM-L2 LEDs
~10.5K lumens

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/102663750@N03/11156862066/" title="IMG_4337 by TCMach21, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3772/11156862066_4a6b83d8c4_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="IMG_4337"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/102663750@N03/11156825355/" title="IMG_4338 by TCMach21, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5527/11156825355_be7705566f_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="IMG_4338"></a>

Pictures turned out junky and by the time I finished wiring it was dark. So more to come and with that I'll grab some output shots. Suffice to say that my headlights are worthless in comparison

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Dang, dude. You and I have very similar taste in mods.

I've been thinking about making that switch for a long time. It's on my long list of "maybes".

That looks sharp though, and beyond the lighting performance benefits and decreased amperage draw, it adds symmetry to the front end and makes it flow better than two big circular lights. I'm looking forward to an output shot. BTW, is there any way you could make a comparison between the light bar and your old Hellas?

 

[TCMach]

Dang, dude. You and I have very similar taste in mods.

I've been thinking about making that switch for a long time. It's on my long list of "maybes".

That looks sharp though, and beyond the lighting performance benefits and decreased amperage draw, it adds symmetry to the front end and makes it flow better than two big circular lights. I'm looking forward to an output shot. BTW, is there any way you could make a comparison between the light bar and your old Hellas?

Its definitely an upgrade in my book. Just like you said it evens things out and looks much cleaner even though I used to be a big advocate of circular lights. I even wanted to make a roof rack with a bajarack style light cage for more circular lights haha.

But this deal came up (194 with harness and shipping) so I bit the bullet. Gosh its bright. Parked to close to a wall in the dark it hurts to look at. As far as comparison goes I think I have some old output shots when I ran 55w bulbs so hopefully I can do something like that. In your case were running the same headlights so if all else fails that may help you out.

 

[tyr0981]

What a build man! i think i'm going to "borrow" your rock light mounting locations! i was hoping to put LED's under there, due to the amount of power drawn by incandescent..., but your rock lights are perfectly bright eh! curious, after a day in the mud / whatever, can you see the lights still? or did you already think of that?

great looking build! :cheers:

 

[TCMach]

What a build man! i think i'm going to "borrow" your rock light mounting locations! i was hoping to put LED's under there, due to the amount of power drawn by incandescent..., but your rock lights are perfectly bright eh! curious, after a day in the mud / whatever, can you see the lights still? or did you already think of that?

great looking build! :cheers:

Thanks for the compliments! Go ahead and steal them, the only annoying one is the passenger front, the washer bottle makes it difficult. Yea I really wanted to do LED for the same reason, these 6 lights draw almost 30 amps. Something like this 3LR Compact Pod LED Light would draw about 6 amps total with all six. But then again the total I spent on my whole rock lights setup is less than two of those LED pods. If I smash one on a rock I could care less if it breaks. I havent had them in mud per say but after a day driving around in snow/slush I can still see them well at night. The fronts dont really get dirty due to the positioning, and the rears tilt back so they also dont get much action. The side lights are the only ones that really get hit and they seem to stay clean somehow. It could help that one of my slider legs is in a pretty good spot in relation to the tire.

 

[TCMach]

Been a couple updates. I've installed a set of LR UCAs. They went on pretty easily once I realized there was a snap ring holding the old UCA in.....:doh:. I started out with a ball joint puller but there was no way that was working. I couldnt get any of the cups to work with it. So swapped to a three jaw and while they're fiddly it worked just fine. At the current alignment my UCAs are set to position C for anyone who is curious.

Couldn't fit the big ratchet so I used a cheater bar
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Alignment Specs before UCAs
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After alignment. Top was eyeballed by me at D setting. Bottom done by [MENTION=94888]EatonKyleH[/MENTION] and his fancy equipment. Set at C.
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Sexy...
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While I was down there I checked out my front brake lines. They weren't awesome and I have been needing to re-bleed my whole system for a while now. Hence these. Good service as always [MENTION=87036]YotaDan[/MENTION]
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[cdrewferd]

I just went through your build and everything looks great. Some of the mods you do are simple, yet look really good. I may be copying your idea about the sub enclosure for my own build.

 

[TCMach]

I just went through your build and everything looks great. Some of the mods you do are simple, yet look really good. I may be copying your idea about the sub enclosure for my own build.

Thanks man. I like to think all the little simple stuff makes the truck what it is. Nothing is wrong with a lifted 3rd gen, but the little stuff makes it mine. Plus, no point in getting fancy when ya dont need to!

The sub enclosure really wasn't to bad. Only issue was building that extra chunk to fit the sub magnet. In the end its all just woodworking, patience and skill will get you there. speaking of simple stuff I still need to carpet my boxes...... oh well. Lemme know if you have any questions. I actually did a real basic sketch of my box dimensions. Not sure if I posted it but I know I have it on my computer somewhere

 

[TCMach]

Well this was my weekend.
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Oil change w/filter, fuel filter, cleaned IAC, TB, and MAF, new tcase and front diff fluid, tightened up the throttle cable/tranny kickdown cable, also replaced the brake booster check valve as my brake pedal becomes concrete in subzero temps. Didnt quite get to the new brake lines but thats all thats left in the maintenance category.

little oil in the manifold, looks like it was coming from the PCV so I'll swap that out too.
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TB before
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TB after, I hadnt finished at this point but apparently I took no pictures
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Didnt take any pictures of the IAC but it was all black with carbon and 20 pounds of cue tips later it looks brand new. After all this the throttle feels much better, got a little more power, and the idle is now rock solid at 600. We will see if I get an MPG bump out of it.

 

[Fishwerks]

Needs 35s...

 

[WRWhit93]

:clap2:
Badass rig!

 

[snivilous]

Been a couple updates. I've installed a set of LR UCAs. They went on pretty easily once I realized there was a snap ring holding the old UCA in.....:doh:.

Where is the snap ring? Is it part of the upper ball joint or the actual frame mounting bolt?

 

[NateMob]

Where is the snap ring? Is it part of the upper ball joint or the actual frame mounting bolt?

He means on the Upper ball joint, there's a snap ring under the ball joint holding it into the spindle. I made the same stupid mistake, mine was hidden under dirt and grime.

 

[nor_cal51501]

Thanks! and Im really happy I got the hyrbrid. The plate was just too chunky for me. Also I think the tube on the back ties in well with the tube on the ARB and EVENTUALLY the rock sliders. If i can somehow get to a welder within the next million years :dammit: anyways, detailed pictures!

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First off I want to say really great build. Ive only gotten this far and I'm really liking your style. Secondly, Ive ALWAYS hated tube bumpers, more specifically the CBI Hybrid in the rear…Until now. Your detailed pictures of it installed on your rig has me on a total 180. I think I may have just fallen in love and decided thats the bumper for me. I want mine with your exact setup in the rear. That being said, keep up the great work. Looking forward to reading through the rest of your mods and build thread. Great looking runner Tyler.
P.S. WAYYY better than a Mach 1, and more reliable too. :dance:

 

[TCMach]

Needs 35s...

:flipoff:

:clap2:
Badass rig!

Thanks!

Where is the snap ring? Is it part of the upper ball joint or the actual frame mounting bolt?

He means on the Upper ball joint, there's a snap ring under the ball joint holding it into the spindle. I made the same stupid mistake, mine was hidden under dirt and grime.

Yep. Except mine wasn't under much grime. Just neglected to even look and see if there was a snap ring....and had cranked down so hard with the puller that i had to cut one of them off :bash:

First off I want to say really great build. Ive only gotten this far and I'm really liking your style. Secondly, Ive ALWAYS hated tube bumpers, more specifically the CBI Hybrid in the rear…Until now. Your detailed pictures of it installed on your rig has me on a total 180. I think I may have just fallen in love and decided thats the bumper for me. I want mine with your exact setup in the rear. That being said, keep up the great work. Looking forward to reading through the rest of your mods and build thread. Great looking runner Tyler.
P.S. WAYYY better than a Mach 1, and more reliable too. :dance:

Thanks! Its a great bumper for sure. I chose it because of the somewhat hated prominence of tube in the ARB front, add to that sliders that are all tube. It seemed wrong not have tube in the rear. Plus I just liked it from the start haha. I do have a little mod for my CBI coming up here soon hopefully.

The Mach was wonderful for what it was. I took meticulous care of it and as such I never had a reliability issue with any Ford pieces actually. However the Tremec 3650 is a garbage transmission. I bought it with 65k and had to replace it immediately as 5th gear was going out and reverse was impossible to find. I sold it maybe 15k later and the new owner is already having 5th gear issues. If I still owned it, I would have swapped in a cobra 6 speed. Muuuch better. I do miss having 350+ horse and cruising at 100 on the highway, but then again I'm no longer in high school haha.

 

[Fishwerks]

Free trial of Lightroom5 got the best of me. Didn't edit much, but it looks a little better.

Original:

DSC01855 by FR4R, on Flickr

Edited:

DSC01855-1 by FR4R, on Flickr

Moab trip needs to get here sooner.