2002 TuRD

Got the brakes bled today, turns out the bleeder nipple was a ball of rust on both sides and that's why it wouldn't bleed. Took it for a 30mile shakedown drive today, got it up to 80 and no issues. I do have what seems to be a tire out of balance, but it very well could have been like that pre all this. Tonight I got the rear bumper built. All i have left is to do the rocker sliders. Some poly bumps are going on for my wheeling trip next month I wont have time for the air bumps, and I may have to move the spring mounts anyway.

Pics of the bumper, chopped up reminants of my old one:
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Well this beast is ready to wheel. Outside of a few punch list items, like welding on a non crucial fish plate, and some poly bumps for an upcoming trip, she's good to go! I knocked out the sliders today, goddamn that sucked. Not the rain of fire like people warned me, but it was just a tedious, dirty, nasty job.

I chopped out the rockers and I found this under:
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That side impact beam ATE cut off wheels, like evrey inch I moved the wheel it took off an inch of wheel. Crazy.
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Welding thick steel to sheet metal and rusty body seams with a flux core welder sucks!! My objective was to finish them in one day and mission accomplished. I do have a Barnes cross member bushing kit to mount them to the frame back by the wheel in the future.
 
I went on a shakedown run over the weekend to AOP, truck did great! Beat it down pretty good, I ripped the rear bumper off, but I was kind of expecting that to happen. I never realized how awesome the fuel tank lift would be, I should have done that a long time ago. The sliders worked great, but I found a pretty big flaw in them, there's no where to hook straps to if you get off camber and need to cinched back down by another rig with a winch. The only other issue I had was a random brake part started leaking on the drive home. Feels great taking lines and making obstacles that rigs on tons and 42s were getting denied on, then driving it home. Pics and probably video coming later.
 
Video from the run:

Typical AOP, rains like hell on the first day, then day 2 it's sunny and somehow the trails are dry. Footage of my rear bumper telling my truck to f off is in there as well.

My GMRS radio was intermittently working and it dawned on me that I most likely fried it welding the rockers on as I was like 6" from the ground and power wire and I didn't unplug it. Oops, it's a lesson I probably won't learn lol!! I also have the parts to fix my brake leak and eliminate the rear proportioning valve which is where my leak originated from.
 
Few random pics from AOP:
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I broke my rear bumper on this obstacle, this dude broke a coilover so I shouldn't complain. Nice part is he was able to cruise down to wide-open design and got it rebuilt and was back on the trail the next day
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Almost flopped going down hill.
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Jonesing for the next trip whenever that will be, so if anyone wants to hit the trails, let me know!
 
I mangled the rear driveshaft at Potts mountain of all places the last trip out. I dropped them off at Oliver's to fix that problem. I also have been living around moving some shock mounts and maybe spring mounts around on the front to gain some uptravel and get the truck up and off the air bumps so it rides better on the street and trail.
 
How are you liking those Chevy 63”s in the rear?
 
First year I have not broke anything at Potts in a few years. I wasn't for a lack of trying either.
 
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Got my retubed driveshafts swapped in from Oliver's. Nice and smooth all the way up to 80, can't wait to bang them off some rocks next week! It will be a long week of sweating my ass off in the garage knocking out a ton of little punch list items I have been kicking down the road, why wrench on the truck when it's in the mid 70s during the day and 60s at night like it was a month ago, when you can do it in 90s and humid instead??
 
gslander said:
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Got my retubed driveshafts swapped in from Oliver's. Nice and smooth all the way up to 80, can't wait to bang them off some rocks next week! It will be a long week of sweating my ass off in the garage knocking out a ton of little punch list items I have been kicking down the road, why wrench on the truck when it's in the mid 70s during the day and 60s at night like it was a month ago, when you can do it in 90s and humid instead??
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Where ya headed to?
 
I of course didn't fix my bumper before Kairos, I'll totally do it this week...... Or before GER.....:laughing: I do have a bunch of stuff I need to fix before some upcoming hard wheeling trips into the fall (2 hawk pride and a GER trip). After the fall I'm ripping the front suspension out and fixing a bunch of rookie mistakes I made while building the truck, I will most likely be linking it after comparing the costs of new leafs and moving the axle forward vs coilovers. Also my wife has a bad back, and I'm getting older, so riding on the covered wagon suspension is not the greatest and it will be cool if shes able to hit the trails with me again.

Kairos was fun, no issues which is awesome!
 
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Went wheeling with some noobs at GER this weekend. Ripped off my rear bumper for the 3rd time, took out a sidewall, my rear axle hub started leaking on the way down and I now have a deflated airbump. Awesome weekend of wheeling overall!!
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Good times were had, I really needed that trip!! Thanks for letting me tag along Joe, Justin, Cody, Duane, and I forgot everyone else's names, been meaning to hit the trail with y'all for a while!!
 
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I washed the truck yesterday and did some more post ranch damage assessing. Not too happy about the front shaft as it wasn't cheap. I think I'm just going to embrace the Toyota life and build a square front shaft and not worry about it again.
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Rear bumper carnage, lol
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I did get the new tire mounted.
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So today is the day where I reverse the dumbest mod I ever did to this truck, drunkenly hack holes in the bed because the Internet says 12" shocks don't fit unless you cut holes the bed, well they do and you don't have to lol.
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So if you are expecting to see TIG welded patch panels, all bent up to match the bed you are in the wrong build thread. I hit up Loves baby for my repair parts!!
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They were out of fat trucker girl and Yosemite Sam back off flaps, so that had to do. Cut that shit with the grinder, and 6ish self tappers later, not more scattering straps and garbage out of my bed all over the SE!
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Words cannot express how excited I am to finally patch those holes up!!!!
 
This has been one of the more annoying projects, I have been repairing a leaking rear hub for about 2 weeks now. I decided to upgrade from tiny japanese studs, to big black bolts while I "was in there anyway". Famous last words of any project. Well I smoked 2 drill bits, and broke a tap in the process. Time to do the other side :laughing: . Over under on me snapping these 7/16" bolts after never having broke a hub stud??
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1stgenxxx said:
If you want to pull the hub off you can bring it over and use my mill or drill press
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Ill probably take you up on that for the pax side hub! Amazing I still have intact wrists doing this with a hand drill lol!!
 
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