The Frankenstein Build: 1996 Tacoma Long Travel/Expo/Trail Rig

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
Bout time you posted this here!

Man, that is an awesome shop.....

Yea, i always wanted too, but was like. Man, im so far in it would take forever haha But figured it was time!

It is indeed. You will see MANY more photos of it. I use it often. Im spoiled to get to. Its great!
 

lumpskie

Independent Thinker
Me too :eek: was soooo nice too. Paint was in good shape. Unique too. Loved that color. Someday Id like to go back to it.

You should just paint your current body that color... once your done cutting on it that is... if you ever get done cutting on it... :)
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
So i started building my Bed rack at this point too. I basically got the main design from Allpro on their Baja build (now the red SAS truck). But they wouldn't sell me one or build it for me so i built my own!

Id really like to thank my dad tho for helping me learn and put this together as it was my first fab project

i decided i wanted a bed rack and RTT about last august after seeing how nice RTTs were. Then i caught a glimpse of Allpros Baja build and their bed/roof rack set up. I loved it. so i thought id just buy it untill i was told they didn't sell the roof top part.

so then i started doing searching on here, TW and Expo. Saw many many great racks but nothing like the roof rack from Allpro. So i said screw it, downloaded sketchup(great little program btw) and make up my own design!

i came up with this initially.

BedRackv1.jpg

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after i was pretty happy with the design i set about making it happen. took a while to find the time and space to do it. But having access to an amazing shop was handy as hell!


Lower frame..

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Front supports

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other supports..

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cross bars..

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main beams!

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and here it is so far off the truck for final welding!

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Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
And here are some of my welds..not bad for my first time :welder:

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Started the roof part after buttoning up most of the base part

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I wasn't sure if id like the roof part yet and figured if i didn't id just cut it off. Well my first go, it was bad..too tall!

as you can see..

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sooooo off came the rack i and i cut off 3'' from the main supports.

this looked much better.


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Decided to put the lights on just to get a feel for how it would look. They are just resting on the front bar.

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From there. I took the rack off again( all by myself! its actually pretty light..kinda hard to balance..) put on the rest of the caps. Did more final welds and then built my light tabs from a spare piece of 1.5'' angle iron i had left.

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Starting to look okay!
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
The kept working on the roof section

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here are my self made tabs. Took some left over 1.5'' Angle and trimmed .5'' off one side then chopped off 1.25'' sections. so then i had 4 1.5x1'' angle so that the 1'' side lined up perfect with the front bar

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then i got to thinking. In my orginal plans i had supports coming from the back of the roof rack to the main rack to help it with supports..i still wanted to do that..so i mocked it up. Ignore the tire, it was just there to help me hold stuff, its way to tall to ever live up there.

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Didn't love that though..so eventually from some advice from my Dad and Jon came up with this

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i liked it so i welded it all in and put in back in the truck to see if i could add gussets under the roof rack which i can and will do as well. took it for a spin with it in as well and the roof is still very stiff. Seems to only shake side to side which i think once the light hoop is on and the floor rails it'll be super stiff. Im liking it!

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I liked that a lot as i could make a secondary storage space which you'll see later for Jerry cans and water...or whatever!
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
Kept working on the roof part..the whole roof section took like three times as long as the rest of it haha

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put in my last piece of 1.5'' angle in the main rack for the Jerry cans or whatever i want. Ill put some steel mesh in there too.

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then i made some gussets!

taced in..


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welded :cool:

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and cleaned up

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then i took some scrap pieces of metal and shoved them under the light hoop to get it level and the right height i wanted. So it'll be this high when its done :D

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Fabbed up the hoop supports. Store was out of 1" angle so I didn't get my last floor support. Or mesh. Pretty much done tho.

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One of the places ill store jerry cans if needed.

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Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
All done!

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And then i went off to Moab..where i killed it ha

but then at least i had a chance to improve it a bit which i did later. Don't worry. You'll see that too.
 

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Super excited to watch the build of this thing. I love seeing photos of Frankenstein, and I can't wait to get out on the trails with it this summer.
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
Super excited to watch the build of this thing. I love seeing photos of Frankenstein, and I can't wait to get out on the trails with it this summer.

Haha thanks man! Just moved back home. Computer be up tomorrow and I'll keep posting.

July will be goose probably!
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
:wavey:


Got my computer back up and running after moving back home. I'll start the Moab post soon! its a long one so its taking a while to compile all the old photos from my friends :p should be good though!
 

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