What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Oh nice, ive never been to an RC crawler competition. Looks like fun, ill have to keep an eye on that page and see when one of the events works for me! Thanks for the heads up

 

You don’t have to enter the competitions, and everyone is friendly so don’t be intimidated. The events are fun and addictive the community is great

 

Yea id just have fun watching a competition for the first time and seeing a bunch of sick builds! I bought the TRX4 sport kit and had almost as much fun building it as i do crawling it. I also welded up the bumpers and sliders for it, so much fun!

 

Pressed in my new OEM wheel bearings yesterday. Unfortunately I had to bugger up the old retaining clips to get the old ones out, so now I have new retaining clips on order. Hope they show up soon.

 

Started building some bed stiffeners this weekend. Heres the progress so far!

 

Nah, That one looks good. Unlike fishers hacked up mod that he tried to fix with tubes on his 2wd haha.

 

Damn guy, you’re still hitting him hard

 

I had no idea i was building my truck to impress some cuck who works on elevators.

 

This isn't the Space Shuttle... so here we go. (Post ball joint toe-n-go)
Aligned strings 3" off each rear rim's edge/Strings were dead on 79" appart=parallel front to back wooohoo
Centered the steering wheel. Measure drivers wheel, it's also dead on parallel with string, YES! (Only need to adjust passengers)
Adjust passengers to 1/16 toe out (it was at about 7/16" out). Test drive, wheel has gone from 1/2" off center left to 1/4" off center right.
Give about 1/16" back into the outer tie rod and we have about 1/8" toe out... test drive, perfect , enough.
The ugly I discovered? Well, this truck was repaired (not by me) after a pretty hard drivers front accident.
The ruler doesn't lie. The front end is shifted 5/8" passenger (difference in measurements from one side to the other)
Pictures make it look worse because those were prior to any adjustment, at an off angle, and the Cab is also twisted.
Add in an oil change and some

$15 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205, and a YZZD3. Fuckers Mint!

 

Went outside to lube my steering shaft knuckle after reading some threads. Went well, no noticeable difference in my sometimes stiffer steering effort, likely a failing rack that won’t get replaced unless it fails. Drivers side steering boot that I replaced with aftermarket is trash already. Actually all of the aftermarket front end parts are trash already. Let’s call it 50k miles max on these parts. Boots are all shit and leaking, joints haven’t failed. Yet.

Factory passengers side KOYO boot:


Drivers trash aftermarket boot:



trash aftermarket boots and crap including aftermarket CV:

 

Where's the dislike button?

 

Also, my rear ride height is down to 1” of squat compared to the front now. Leafs are worn out and the addition of the camper is taking its toll. Time for new rear leafs. Probably going General HD springs. Used the opportunity to do something I’ve never done before, some corrosion prevention. Frame has always been spotless, but has gotten a little surface rust at the welds and some of the accessory bits. Sprayed liberally with a penetrating oil / rust prevention spray. Will revisit more permanent treatment options after a good cleaning.

 

That outer tie rod doesn't look good either.

 

It’s all crap now. Will begin amassing OE replacement parts to redo upper and lower BJ, outer TRE, potentially upper and lower control arms and extended sway bar links. All will get replaced during the front wheel bearing swap. Might as well get the rear springs then as well. Then I might as well order my new tires.

 

Went out with @Mr.bee and went strolling through the junk yard this morning. Was expecting asshole dachshund to show but he had other things planned to take care of. We pulled the skid plate mounting bracket off a 3.4 Longbed RC. If anyone needs a front bench seat thats in ok condition LMK, will need to be reupholstered, feame and plastics are good tho.

 

Take advantage of the next sale. It really adds up. I wonder if they will do another one before Black Friday. Maybe July 4th.

 

My gut said to replace the 555 with OEM

 

Is it normal for the bed to have these rivets (or whatever) in addition to the bed bolts? Or am I just blessed?

Can’t just lift the damned thing off. Seems at least this row goes all the way across every few inches with at least a rivet or two down into some part on the frame.

Of course the bed liner hides them but I think the second “row” is the same so I will pry make a fairly long rectangle and just expedite getting the bed out of the way.

@FirstGenVol is going to set fire to my bed while I’m strapped to it.

 

Doesn't sound normal to me. Is it spot-welded in those areas?

 

Something. I don’t know why, how, or who. But they’re a jerk. It’s excessive too, beyond the bed bolts and then even just if they had done two spots. But every few inches is insanity.

 

Donor bed has no sign of this I'm assuming?

 

It's spot-welded. Just need to drill the welds. There's a spot weld bit you can get, specifically made to drill those but any bit will technically work.

I've never seen a bed spot-welded to a crossmember. I thought they were only sport-welded to the bed support. Are you sure that's not just the bed support? Can we see an underside pic? (And sorry, I know you probably know the difference, I'm just surprised by the possibility)

 

None. Todd Packer nailed the only reason someone would've done this.
https://dundergifflin.com/gif/todd-packer-just-to-be-a-bitch.gif

 

Those metal tabs the spotwelds are attached to also shouldn't be there. Right?

 

I think they should be. I think they're reinforcements holding the lower bed support to the bottom of the bed. Note the tubes the bolts pass thru to get down into the frame.

The perpendicular support the bed is spot welded onto should come off the framerail in this spot. But it looks like it may be mechanically rusted into place. I'd put a bottle jack under the perpendicular support and start jacking, let the force of it do the work to lift the bed off the framerail.

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It doesn't make sense. I knew it was rust-welded to the frame but didn't think it would be this hard to remove. Can we just send your truck off a cliff and collect insurance?

 

That's the exact spot we knew would be an issue. He went to the junkyard earlier this week and their staff was unable to lift the bed off. Got nervous and sent him packing. He's been hacking at it ever since.

 

I would try jacking up on this spot...

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