2006 DC Tundra. DD meets ongoing tinkering.

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
2006 DC Tundra. DD evolving into adventure machine.

Updated Version Coming Soon

Current Picture -

truck_side.jpg
 
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wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Truck when I first got it. Picked it up from a guy who needed a white truck to work in oil and gas from Red Deer. Found it on Tundra Solutions actually. Small world.

Took it home, debadged and gave it a wash.

Truck.jpg


One of the first things I did was;

8 years later and the GF backing into a pole once... my rear bumper was looking pretty sad.

badbumper1.png


Was looking on Kijiji for truck stuff for 00-06 Tundras, came across a guy selling a rear bumper. Awesome, I had looked around but was going to be about 400-500 from RockAuto with shipping.
He wanted $200. Few texts later. $160. Pictures showed the inside and the outside wrapped in news paper. Inside was factory primed black, but when I inspected it, turns out it was bare metal. Oh well, $120 later and its mine.

bumper1.jpg


Paint. I thought about Line-X/Rhino Line, but when I got quotes and was looking at 250-500 for the bumper being done I quickly said no. Youd think that a OEM, bare metal bumber OFF the vehicle that requires no masking or anything would cost so much..... oh well. Paint Shops wanted the same, around $300. Hell no. Went to my tool store. Was looking at HVLP by DeVibliss, then realized that my compressor could not do the 15 CFM at 90PSI I needed. $1500 for a new compressor and HVLP setup was not in the budget.
Off to the Auto Body Supply Store. $80 later and I have this. One can of cleaner, two cans of rust proofing black paint one can of pre-mixed Toyota OEM 202 Black paint and I am off.

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Time to set up the "paint booth" :)

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and lets hit it with a bit of primer. two cans gave me about 5 or 6 light coats. Just the outside face, the inside is factory painted already.

bitofprimer.jpg


30 minutes between coats.... lets start ripping off the old bumper. Time to pop some trim.... best method I found, Snap On pry bar set just working back and forth.

trim1.jpg


I have nothing else but the bumper, so all the supports, bolts, trim ect will be reused. They are all in decent condition.
Time to grab some sockets.

sockets.jpg


Not bad, only broke one. CNC ScrewLoose on everything did wonders. :) Milwaukee Fuel M18 3/8 on setting 2, 100 ft lbs did the job perfectly.

broke_ONE.jpg


Its a outside bolt, on the bottom, I don't really care enough to drill it out.
Remember how I said the M18 Fuel 3/8 did the job perfectly, I lied. (FWIW I use the 2.0 RedLithium Batteries on the 3/8 and 4.0 on the 1/2. Not sure if that would of helped. Anyways....)
I had to take out two of the four trailer hitch support bolts, 19MM torqued around 100 ft ls + whatever extra the rust has added. 3/8 would not break it on setting 3 at 200 ft LBS, out comes its big brother. First real time I've had to test it. I just sold my Snap On MG 725 off in favour of going all cordless. Two or three impacts and she was off. Happy for my decision still. Maybe that one day I cant get something off I'll wish I had my MG725.... then again, thats what a torch and a 4 ft 3/4 breaker bar are for :)

almost_PERFECT.jpg


Off like a prom dress.

shes_OFF.jpg


Tool taken out for the job so far.

tools_OUT.jpg


Bent a bracket taking. Nothing some Knipex and Brockhaus Heuer cant fix. Team Germany to the rescue.

bracket.jpg


More base coats of primer..... no pic, use your imagination.

Nothing else to do.... clean trailer hitch bolts? Sure, why not.

bolts.jpg


What else.... what else.... give sun faded trim some new life! A quick wash...

trim2.jpg


and then Back to Black!

trim3.jpg



and another coat of primer...
Nothing else to do, took the truck out the drive way, gave the back a quick was and then sprayed down the underbody with a 1/4 QuickConnect Pivot Adapter that I got for my pressure washer. Made by BE, does 45 degress. Pretty sweet. Thats enough for one day, dinner time....

dinner.jpg


and since writing this out, I've done two coats of color, should have enough paint for two more then let it dry over night and then install in the AM if its dry enough. More pictures to follow. Hoped you enjoyed reading this.

UPDATE TO THIS - didn't last for ****, I ended up masking it off on the truck and plasti dipping the outside. Looks better now and easy for touch ups. Lesson learned.
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
The Carnage for the Camburg UCA
carnage.jpg
Did this last night. Few tips.

One, metric fasteners, not standard as said before.

Two, you don't have to take your coil over out or sway bar, BUT if you want to get the LCA to max droop to make it easier to use the BJ press, then sure. Removing the tie rod end, coilover and swaybar would give you great angles. Just be carefull to watch the rubber brake line as that will be the only thing holding the spindle from falling over. Don't want to brake that. That aleviate that you can remove the U bracket clamps that hold the lines in place, gives a bit more slack and takes stress off the rubber hose and bent lines.

Three, the spring clip My new UCAs came with two nice beefy snap rings. I actually bought replacement springclips incase I broke them during the uninstall, but I had no need. I put the snap rings in.

Four, drivers side bolt is a bit tough. Getting the UCA bolt out is a bit tough with the three brake lines running to the rear of the truck there. 10mm bolt that you can get with a deep and a 1/4 flex rachet, takes it off, gives you a bit of space to slide the bolt out and helps getting it back in.

Five, when using the BJ press to get the old out, depending on your angle and what you have taken out, if you don't have a spare set of hands it could be tricky. I just took some bailing wire, wrapped it around the shock body (bottom bolt still in) and then wrapped it to the C side of the clamp. That way the spindle and BJ press would stay where I wanted and I could use my 22mm wrench to move the press. When I got it down tight enugh, I switched to my 3 ft Snap On 1/2 ratchet.

pressing in.jpg
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
More to come, including roof rust repair, CRC frame rust campaign, tonneau cover, EMT Conduit tent awning, fire extinguisher install, rear dif grind/paint and a few others.
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Live -

I am heading out this weekend to go camping with the girlfriend and the two dogs. I was never a fan of car camping growing up and always preferred to either canoe in or hike in.
I have done lots of "camping" with work but this time I won't be carrying a rifle or a machine gun wherever I go and instead of a big green vehicle I'll have my black Tundra.

Packing for this has been interesting. Lots of stuff I want to bring, need to bring or think I should bring.
I know the vehicle side of the house is pretty robust;
1/4 and 1/2 drive socket sets. Pliers, zip ties, bailing wire, electrical repair kit, tire patch kit, work gloves, glasses, air compressor, 30ft recovery rope, tree saver, various shackles, hitch mounted shackle as a recovery point, jumpers cables, bottle jack and wood ect ect and the list goes on.


I don't have a tent large enough for myself , the GF and the two dogs, (65 lbs and 20 lbs) I obviously am smitten by RickAShays and SeanPistols RTT' setups, but with dogs that makes life a bit complicated. While I own a MSR solo tent, I didn't feel like spending $600 on a MSR 4 person 4 season tent which would make me happy. I decided to make a improvised bed awning and sleep on a old memory foam matteres cover that just happened to fit perfectly in the bed of the truck. $30 and for 30ft of 1/2 EMT, 4x90's and 1 coupling I built my self a decent awning cover. Tape on the ends to help prevent scratching the paint, 1/4x1in bolts with wing nuts to attach the center to the uprights.

20150716_175516.jpg

Throw my 8x10 Integral Designs Sil Tarp 2 Over (ideally not the best for the job. The screw covers for the access panels on the 90 degree joints are very intent on ripping or cutting the tarp. I electrical taped every sharp edge so when I go to tighten the tarp I have nothing to worry about. I'd be better served with a normal tarp, but since I dont own one that is not covered with paint or other stuff, and this project was intended to save $ and use what I have, it will do for now. Plus its a $130 tarp and it sheds water like nobody's business.

20150717_141816-1.jpg

Add some tarp adjusters, some para cord and some carabiners to clip onto random frame attachment points and you can end up with this -
20150717_141826.jpg
20150717_141646.jpg

Not perfect, but I've slept in/on/under far worse. This will give me a good idea if I'd like to keep this theme of sleeping in the bed or going to a RTT or a ground tent. One huge disadvantage I see so far is that I have to take everything I have stored in the bed out in order to sleep in, and realistically, my Lab will probably sleep in the back seat and me and the GF and the small dog in the bed as with me being 6'4, its not exactly super roomy.

Packing-
Loaded up what I want so far, I'll touch on a few things.

20150717_150838.jpg
Blue Bag - comfy folding chair for the GF. I get the tripod stool :)
White Roll - memory foam sleeping matt, super gucci. My 1/2 thick thermarest pad was not good enough I guess.
Green Box - The Crap Box. Baseball gloves for me and her, TriPod stool, Bug Net, MSR Dragon Fly stove /w pots and fuel. French Press with coffee and mug. Rope x 50 ft with carabeaners. FirstAid kits for Human and Animals (dog specific?) Mountain House freeze dried meals. Another Sil Tarp. Probably some other stuff I forgetting.
Green Duffel Bag - Sleeping Gear. Awning tarp, hardware for the makeshift awning, 1 x comforter, 1 x fleece blanket, 1 x pillow for me (hers in the cab) I thought about sleeping bags vs blankets, and decided to go for blankets. I expect 10C, with a low around 0C if it gets bad.
Cooler - All freeze dried for this trip. So its full of beer. Eventually, since both my dogs eat raw food, I'd like to get a ARB or some other brand 12V cooler, install a plug in the bed and have at er, but for the $$$ and other things I want to do, buying them dehydrated food for this trip works for me.
Fuel - bringing 20L x 2 of gas and 1 x horse cock. I don't like my mounting system at all. I need to drill some mounting points into the bed to help secure them better. I don't want to attach something to mount them in just yet, don't want to give up the bed space. Do I need this much fuel, probably not seeing as how from where we are staying the farthest gas station should be around 100KM, but ya never know what you'll need.
Water - 10L x 2. 20L should be plenty, I dont see needing more.
Tent Awning - Broken down on the floow, does not take up that much space.
Backpack - Few hikes planned, good for bringing snack and water and rain gear.

Still to add - clothes and some other dog stuff.

Biggest thing is I need more storage/orginaztion. Chainsaw, full sized shovel, MaxTracks for when I get them, the list goes on.

I'll see how this setup works and report back after the trip. Should be interesting. Weather looks like ****.
 
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wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Few pictures, I'll do a full writeup later. Great time, wish I had more than one day to explore the area. My head is full of things I need to do to the truck, and the girlfriend is onboard, so trip was a success.

IMG_20150719_094615.jpg

IMG_20150719_112311.jpg

IMG_20150719_115342.jpg
22.jpg
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IMG_20150719_115309.jpg
 
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wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Did some maintenance over the weekend -
Rear T-Case Output seal was leaking. $30 at Toyota and I had my self a new nut, companion flange seal and oil seal.

How To -

Install was pretty straight forward, only issue being that when I put the oil seal in I went in a bit to deep (supposed to sit flat on the flange, I was about a mm deep) for my liking and since there was no way I was going to pull it without damaging it, I ponied up another $15 to get a new one from Toyota. Second issue I noticed is that this seal had probably already been done once, as there were some seal pull nicks on the flange. I took a small file and sanded down the burs which probably caused the seal to leak in the first place and all was good. The companion flange oil seal was in great shape and looked fine, but since I spent $6 on it I changed it out.

Leaky transfer-case housing -
tranny3.jpg


The Culprit -
tranny44.jpg


Replacement In. Put some Hi-Temp RTV Silicone just to help. -
tranny66.jpg


Put the new nut on, staked it and re-installed the drive shaft and center carrier bolts. Did a fresh flush of Castrol 75-90 as winter is coming so she will be getting a good workout.

Here is a good parts diagram that the parts guy gave me, could not find anything nearly as good in my PDF manual/Haynes.
tcase_diag.jpg


Now just gotta clean the tools used and put em away....
tools1.jpg


Also took a look inside the dash as to where I plan to mount the switch for the upcomming LED bar. Gonna go with a OTRATTW Contura V.
125LB-01.jpg
Lower green independent for dash lights and upper green when turned on. Still decidiing if I want to go amber tho for the upper....
 
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toyotech

Expedition Leader
Nice. Good to see more 1st gen. Looks you you are of to a good start.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Keep up the good work! Tundras suck for switch mounting... haha
Thanks! My plan is to remodel out the back area of the mount and then trim the oval into a rectangle and get the switch to fit. Should be easy enough. Plus I think I can steal the dimmer switch's power to help with my dual led switch wiring.

switch_2.jpg


Eventually, I plan on installing a air compressor switch and a front locker switch here, with a air pressure gauge in the recessed part. Should look pretty slick.

switch1.jpg
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
With prepping the truck for a trip and winter comming, I went through my recovery gear/tools in the back and thought I'd take some pictures

Recovery Gear
all_tools.jpg


Sockets/Tools -
sockets.jpg


Tool Bag -
toolbag2.jpg



Tucked away behind the rear seats -
tucked_away.jpg
 

wrenchMonkey_

Adventurer
Got some work done on the light bar mounts. The light bar is a 22' Uni-Bond LW92100, putting out 8,800 lumens (40x5W LED's) I'd have preferred a single row around 30ish inches but the price was right (free) , so I can't complain.

2.5x3.5 1/4 thick angle steel. cut it down into 1.5 in wide pieces. slightly overbuilt....oh well. with the slots for the mounting bolts I should be able to re-use down the road on a later applications.
bare.jpg


Vertical mill was down for the count, so I did it the old school way. My plan was for a tight channel fit, using M8 bolts (diam 8MM / 0.3149 inches) and a (P drill bit 0.3230 inches) but after failing to account for filing and other stuff, I've got a bit of slop. Points for a later day.

Drilled some holes -
holes.jpg


Some file work -
filed.jpg


Sitting how I want, I am happy. You can see the OEM mount. Way to high for what I want. The the bar will be sitting at the same clearance as it is now on the butcher block top. About a mm or so. Just enough so I can angle it and get it pointed where I want it. I need to keep it as low as possible because I am putting a 2 inch tall light bar in a 1.5 inch opening.

clerance.jpg



I need to take the bumper off the truck tomorrow and look into if I am going to be able to drill and tap a M10 bolt to mount it, or if I'll have to weld some tabs or on what. Not to sure on how thick the front bumper section of metal is, sounds pretty thing. May be enough to get 1 or 2 threads on a M10x1.50.
 

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