the Adventures of Penelope the Death Machine or How I Learned to Love the Apocalypse Build

Me and Casey knocked out the 14WA brake.upgrade this morning and just dropped Penelope off at 4LoFab for some surgery. I'll see her again in a few weeks...

 

No good wheeling in Minnesota? Or you worried about the road salt eating a first gen for breakfast? Haha

 

At 4LoFab picking her up today. She's just about ready.

New: King 12" travel shocks with reservoirs, 4LoFab custom shock relocation, Archive Garage Hammer Hangers, 4Crawler 1" body lift.

 

New cap, who dis?




My weekend took me on a Texas hill country world tour. Started with catching a ride from Houston and pick the truck up from 4LoFab in New Braunfels. Then stayed the night in Boerne and dropped off my old blue cap. Drove through beautiful Bee Cave on my way to Lago Vista to get the truck tuned. Then to Killen to buy the white A.R.E. cap. Made a stop at my uncle's farm in Davilla and headed back home.

 

Man, it's truly crazy how much this truck has transformed in the last six months.

Solo LCAs
Total Chaos uniball LBJs
Energy poly steering rack bushings
Deaver AALs
Kenda Klever RT 35x10.5R17 tires
MST Time Attack 17x9 -10 wheels
14WA brakes
4Crawler 1 inch body lift
Archive Garage hammer hangers
King rear shocks
4LoFab custom rear shock relocation
A.R.E. color matched hard topper

I'm sure I'm missing some small stuff, but y'all get the idea. I can't believe she's basically "done".
I do still need to button up some small stuff, like take down the front Kings preload two turns.

 

She’s looking good man!! Time for a full on clean up day and frame treatment before she spends her life playing in the rocks and mud. Not a lot of FGTs on 35’s, you showed em how easy it is!!

 

How did I miss this....
There's good wheeling, just not as much. It's more about climate. I'm getting sick of winters, even the weak ones we've been having.
And yes, a few winters up here without a good rust prevention plan would not end well.
Truck is looking sweet.

 

We're not out of the woods just yet. I still need to test articulation for tire rubs in front, when I take out the coilovers to lower the preload. But tentatively, it passed the flex test. I'm just not sure it was maxed out.
I'm probably still going to need to relocate my washer fluid reservoir.
I suppose I should clean her up nice and paint her undercarriage.

 

Vacuumed and wiped down the inside of the bed and the topper. Added insulation to the tailgate. Bolted down the rear sides of the topper, to keep the gap between the rear window minimal. Previously when off-roading, my old topper would splay out from the vibrations, even with 8 clamps. Weather stripped the front of the cap. Put down silicone any where I could see daylight with non moving parts. I think I'm going to silicon some pennies over the 4 small holes in the bed sides, then bed line over em.


I need to find a mate to this plug so I can easily wire my third brake light and dome light. Both are LED. This natural white ARE is so much better than the old blue Jason.

I'm picking up a DC bed rug for $100 this weekend.

 

Ol' girl getting fancy. Taking Penelope from a rusty, dirty camper, to an insulated, water tight glamper. I can't wait to go on the first trip of the wheeling season in October.

 

Restarting the sticker collection

Got a decent bit of rain this morning. I noticed it was a little wet inside the rear passenger side. I'm going to have to find the leak. I think I'll try laying a bead of silicone along the metal frame of the back glass.

 

Hey man! How are the solo LCAs? Those are next on my list

 

No complaints. I just wish I had tapped em for some grease zerks. That's on the list to do, once the squeaking drives me crazy haha. Same goes for the SPC UCAs

 

Insulated the bed sides, floor and tailgate with reflectix.


Got some retro wheel cap stickers.



I got the proper fitting wire harness for my ARE topper and got the brake and dome lights wired this week.
Shout out to @shifty` for the soldering iron!
Got everything soldered, heat shrunk, loomed, and zip tied along the frame. Now that I have a soldering iron and a heat gun, wiring isn't as intimidating as it used to be, back when I was twisting and taping wires. Now I'm going to have to go back and redo my amber led pods, someday. But first I need to finally wire my ditch lights and compass mirror. That'll be next week on my days off, along with he driver side tie rod bellow.
https://youtu.be/WwJJmkj4tZQ?si=DpOlQBf_EQKXO1lh
https://youtu.be/AsQRWXt9h6I?si=5MZppGMjgWbIrzHW



How I used to camp in my truck bed with the Softopper.



Then the Jason hard top.



Vs my glamping setup now, with the color matched and carpeted ARE hard top and reflectix insulated Bedrug.

 

I need more details on this

 

Enjoy.

 

Dope AF

 

Now we just need a 3D printer and someone good with electronic design.
Even if we could just get the AC trucks made, and source the wheels and stuff ourselves.

 

One thing I've never seen on a Tundra is the solid axle swap.
While I wont say its common in the Tacomas they're out there.

 

There was a sweet one on TS back in the day. Also had a bobbed bed. True trail rig.

 

Check out my buddy Alex's build thread
https://www.tundras.com/threads/the-cream-pie-a-2005-4wd-ls-5-speed-sas-conversion.50841/

 

Where'd you find the Tundra Model?
Used to build a lot of models as a kid and while I'm approaching Geezer Hood I wouldnt mind building a Tundra Model.
Trying to make a replica of my Truck sounds pretty cool!!!

 

Online……

 

Like on this very web page......