Thread: TPF Racing - 04 Tacoma - "The Duece"

Good to see progress on this hooptie!

We'll have to plan another ride come winter. Need to get some ST down to the Colorado!

It will be illegal but... I'll make it happen!!! There's a lot of back canyons that could be navigated and nobody would ever know the trails exist. Honestly, I'd be REALLY surprised if there aren't some already there. Just a matter of finding it. BTW, I tried that hill climb again a few months back. Still didn't make it to the top! Seriously, 5 fricken feet!!!

Originally Posted by sirhk100

It will be illegal but... I'll make it happen!!! There's a lot of back canyons that could be navigated and nobody would ever know the trails exist. Honestly, I'd be REALLY surprised if there aren't some already there. Just a matter of finding it. BTW, I tried that hill climb again a few months back. Still didn't make it to the top! Seriously, 5 fricken feet!!!

Ha, that hill was a bitch. I bet with some moisture it'll be cake. I do want revenge though...

Nice Tacoma man... any updates on the rearend?

Originally Posted by frontrunner54

Nice Tacoma man... any updates on the rearend?

Actually the back end is kind of on the back burner for a while. Getting the front end done up and then cage work, cage and wiring probably, then dropping the 9" in. Still need to plate up the rear end, redo shock mounts outside the frame, etc. But again that stuff is probably going to sit for a while until the front end and cage are done.

A couple weeks ago...



And last night... Yes my welds aren't amazing! Yes it's not done! You get the idea where it's going though.

well.i like ure work because u actully do it.keep it up hommie.

lookin pretty good man, shits gonna be tough

Looks good!

holy shit! truck is probably the sickest ive seen in a good while. keep up the good work guys!

Originally Posted by fleshwound

lookin pretty good man, shits gonna be tough

That's what I'm hoping for. I've been around/involved/ridden with enough limited trucks to know they get the crap kicked out of them on race courses so I'm hoping this thing will be good for the long haul. I could build it lighter and on the edge but I really doubt Jason want's to fly crosscountry to drive fore 15 miles just to have something underbuilt fail... Some lean to the light weight high performance end of the spectrum with their builds, call me old school though, I believe the desert is rough and want to drive a truck that is hopefully built to take the unexpected. Also, Me and Jason have discussed some very long term "possible" plans and depending how things go I'd like to take the time to build now knowing where it "might" go in the future rather then having to redo it all down the road to hold up to a faster setup.

What sucks is I don't like the pictures, it actually looks much nicer in person. I've had 2 people that saw it this weekend in person say the same thing... Basically IMO the pictures make it look like some of it belongs in the crappy fab thread yet in person it actually looks pretty damn good. Oh well though, as long as it holds up and we have fun when it's finished that's what we're shooting for!

Originally Posted by j prich

Actually the back end is kind of on the back burner for a while. Getting the front end done up and then cage work, cage and wiring probably, then dropping the 9" in. Still need to plate up the rear end, redo shock mounts outside the frame, etc. But again that stuff is probably going to sit for a while until the front end and cage are done.

To elaborate a little more on this. The biggest reason I'm not messing with the rear yet is cause I've got the truck backed into my garage and don't really have the room to work on it now. So till the truck is mobile and able to be turned around the rear is on hold. Not too worried, I won't be twiddling my thumbs anytime soon. LOL I've got a LOT of work to do. I actually have a list printed out and stapled to the garage wall and there's a CRAP LOAD to still do on it. LOL




This morning I cut out what little bit remained of the existing cab cage. To be legal I considered basically duplicating the existing C pillar wall again at the b pillar area out of 2" but after thinking about it more and more I decided to just cut out all the 1.75" inside the cab. Hindsight sucks and I really wish I could go back and change 2 tubes in the rear but it's not happening. I think at least this way it won't be quite so obvious what we had to do and it won't be two duplicate structures 16" apart from each other. Where I'm making the change from 1.75" to 2" I don't think is going to be overly obvious either. It's going to be a bit of a pain in the ass and a little more work but I haven't cut any corners yet so why start with the cage. Funny part is cutting the cage corner actually would've just resulted in a massive amount of overkill! LOL

Trying to keep the posts moving and updates flowing...

Was gonna knock out the whole interior last night but got side tracked for a few hours. I'll finish it up tonight...

Next pictures you see should hopefully have a couple tubes involved in them after this weekend hopefully...

A little update to our race plans while Khris is starting the cab cage this weekend...

Our original intent was to debut the truck at the HDRA Parhump race in October. Because that race is no longer an option and there is no way we can make the August night race, we had to re evaluate our game plan. Without Parhump that only left us with the HDRA Laughlin race to end the year. After some discussion we decided we'd prefer to stretch the Duece's legs in a more traditional desert race so our new goal is to give the truck a good shake down at the MORE Holiday 200 in December.

We are very excited about the SNORE Make a Wish event in November and are planning on having the truck ready to participate in that event. That will leave us a full month after to do some final race prep and tuning for the MORE race. While I am a little bummed about Parhump not panning out, we can certainly use the extra time to get the truck ready to go and will still be able to get a race in before the end of the year so I'm happy about that. Towards the end of the year when the 2013 race schedules come out we'll figure out our plan for as close to a full season as we can manage.

Ghey!

Well, things didn't go quite as I'd hoped this weekend and I spent a few hours trying to please my fab ego wasting time when I should've just checked it at the door to get it done and make progress. I fell a little bit short on my personal weekend goals as far as the amount of tube work I wanted to get done but I still made progress.

The rear down bars in the bedcage area already existed so the spread or width where I came into the cab was already dictated which kinda forced some issues. In the end it'll still do it's job should it ever need to.

Before someone says something...

I didn't even notice that a couple of those pictures above had a piece of mockup tubing in them. Whoops, trust me, there's no mild seamed tubing going anywhere in this truck. It's 100% DOM. I had that there cause we picked up some cheap 2" thin wall to screw around with for mockup bends and stuff. In this case I was debating whether to do a multi bend tube to kind of follow the curve above the windshield or just go straight across. I had one of each mocked up and fitted and ended up just going straight after looking at what I'd done on my prerunner and comparing it to what I had mockup wise. Those pictures were actually taken to send to Jason and get his opinion from the east coast before I actually committed to placing the tube. Kind of funny that those are the pics that ended up. You can see in that last picture that it's no longer silver with a seam running in it... LOL

Got the a-pillars tied into the frame rails last night. I'm not sure my plans tonight but doesn't matter, over this weekend I'm planning to make some substantial progress inside the cab.

BTW, these compressed pictures are most likely shown past where bump is actually going to be.

Not the most current as I actually got more done this weekend then this but...





Another existing tube from the rear that I had to work around with fitment not being able to easily move it...

if need be ile cut and reshape the qt fenders.

Khris is the main dash bar welded to the cab? You planning on dropping the cage or anything to get it 360 welded? Kit looks like it bumps for days. Get to work!

Dustin, funny you chimed in I was going to be calling you sometime this weekend with a couple questions.


Brad, yes it is so no it's not dropping. But there's a really good chance it's going to be a convertible by the end of this weekend. If not this weekend next for sure I think... Another reason it's not dropping is I had to tie into existing rear tubes so those kept it from dropping as well. (3rd picture up front here, tubes both above and below the rear window were existing from previous work I did like 2 years ago on the truck)


Latest and greatest but I probably won't get a chance to work on it till Thursday night. Kind of busy the first part of this week.

By the way, I'm all ears for anyone that has a quick easy way to get the scaling off the ends of the tubes without a lathe and a belt of sand paper to run across them. Sure a flapper disc spun on them would work but what a pain.

Also, sure, some lab will show me a difference in weld quality with it removed vs. not but in real life in our applications does anyone really see this as an issue? The couple tubes I have had to weld up before fitting the next tube in I noticed no difference in the way it welded or the final appearance of the weld.

Right angle air grinder with a brillow pad. Do it before you notch it and it's alot easier.

As long as there is no oil, you won't notice a difference Khris. I know plenty of shops don't bother cleaning off the scale when MIG welding.

Originally Posted by esbyota

Right angle air grinder with a brillow pad. Do it before you notch it and it's alot easier.

Thats what I used on my front bumper but also cut up a tube so we could get a straight line lol

Still a crap ton of things to do but really excited to have the cage coming together!

Don't ask why I'm going in the order that I am... LOL I just am... Should have the roof done tomorrow night and maybe even the extra cab area also. If not, Sat for sure. Then just need to get gussets in place and off wit da roof for welding! Good times, lol, no clue what I'm doing when I get to that point as that'll be a first but I definitely have it all planned out in my head, hope it goes as easy as it seems!!! I HATE welding sheet metal though!

What. Are the plans for the door bars? I know those go in very last

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt

Yeah, those will be absolutely 100% dead last in fact we might even do some testing without them or with just some basic tubes. I'm too old to climb in and out between them for the next couple months! LOL

But plans as of right now, gotta discuss with jason some still but for sure a vertical from the a-pillar/roof bend area at the top of the windshield down and probably the dash bar back to the extracab horizontal under the window and a "V" underneath all that so you'll essentially be climbing in thru the window square. It's hands down the safest structure but a pain to get in and out. I might modify it up a little bit to open that entry area for fat people like me but we'll see when I get there. I'll probably break a bottle of champagne over the damn thing once those are in!!!

If only I knew how to weld like the pros!

Interesting comparison of the various stages of this truck...

Uhhhhhh



What the????!!!!



ahhhhh crap!!!

it finally happened haha. looks good

It was just a matter of time! LOL

cage is turning out great man. looks like this truck will be racing before shawn drives his again. lol

LOL, I'm busting my ass trying to have it drivable for the early nov "make a wish" weekend SNORE is doing in Laughlin. Even if it's not 100% interior or whatever hopefully it'll at least be good enough to go bounce around in and the kids won't know any better so that would be a win/win... Then depending how that goes and my work load/completion by then we've talked about trying to hit the MORE race in Dec for a first shake down run. Get some shock work done in there somewhere and it might not be painted and prettied up by then but at least go out and get some true testing on an actual race course. Don't want to go out and completely waste it but go put some good shake down miles on it and get our feet wet with the whole race scene in general. Jason's never done the race thing and it's been a few years for me too so go see how it works again. Then that gives me roughly 2 months to do a turn around prep and button up any issues found on it from those test sessions.

I'm thinking I'll have the roof back on early next week. (I'm not in town this weekend) Then at this point I'm leaning towards getting the 4 tubes thru the firewall and tied in. Then I have to decide if I want to stay with the front end doing shock mounts and all that or jump back into the cab to get seats mounted, steering column/wheel mounted, pedals figured out and the dash in. I'm leaning towards that cause then I can move back to the front end and while I'm up there we can get someone to hopefully come in and start knocking out the wiring without them being rushed with a deadline. I would think I could have the whole cab buttoned up and ready for wiring late August. Then that gives me Sept to do the front end which I'm thinking will be a month with the engine needing to come out at one point. Then that leaves me Oct to do the rear axle swap, rear shock mounts and button up the rear. Shock tuning might or might not be done by the make a wish thing, time will tell...

But in short or long depending on your reading abilities that's my rough goal/plan...

I'm starting to get a little excited knowing that it could be in the dirt in as little as 3 months! Reality is setting in that some of the earlier delays really kinda suck cause I've got some personal projects that I'm kicking to the curb for a bit till this is done that I most likely would be working on right now instead but oh well, not much I can do about that now... I'll be welding up the top side tonight...

BTW, thanks for the compliments, you can tell by the pretty steady update of pics that I'm going pretty non stop on this thing. At least with the cage work I've got something to show for. The 3 weeks of cutting, grinding and plate work up front don't really show like there was much work involved but honestly that front frame crap was more labor intensive then the cage has been so far!


I did this mostly for jason, it's the only video I've done at all during the build process. I figured it would be fun to show the owner on the other coast of the country his truck getting hacked up!!! But hey, why not... I'll post it here too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuIr5...1&feature=plcp

trucks looking good guys did you guys ever get ahold of tony for your wiring .