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

[Blackdawg]

So Moab! 2012.

I drove 14 hours south with my dear friend Jess to meet with The friends i had made on TW for Operation Tacoma Take Over. The drive was very nice through CO and UT, but i quickly noticed how much the roof lights had drastically changed how the truck drove on the highway.

Everything went without a hitch and i arrived late tuesday night well after dark.

Wednesday morning we awoke in our tent covered in a very fine dust that had blown in through the screen windows...that was interesting..haha After breakfast i prepared myself for the first trail id run in Moab. Seven Mile Rim. Little did i know it would be a game changer for me and the whole trip.

Here is our camp at area BFE



Airing down at the start


IMG_8795 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr


IMG_8807 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8891 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_8905 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8581 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8613 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8624 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8652 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8661 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8670 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_8774 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

All was going splendidly. Then we got to the crack. While not a big as the crack on the Trifecta trail, its still big. Ben went first and damn near lost it.







Then i went. But i was an idiot and held the steering wheel way to tight. When the front tire hit the opposite side it grabbed the steering wheel and spun it so hard and fast it threw my hand into the A pillar and the Oh **** handle. And broke it.

IMG_9053 copy by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr


You can see my reaction in this photo



As soon as it happened i looked at Jess and said. "I just broke my hand". Which wiped the smile right off her face. I proceded to back out of the crack and take the bypass and park. Where I for some reason went into shock and sorta passed out. Which i thought was funny because i wasn't in pain.

When i came back, several of my friends where at the door of my truck and Jess had been helping me as best she could. When i came too i had an ice pack taped to the back of my hand and everyone was trying to figure out how to make a split. Adam said he had a roll of paper towel and i promptly told him to get it. I then grabbed some electrical tape i had in the truck and a pad of paper. I put paper over my arm and tape the paper towel roll to my arm. Worked awesome!

Everyone wanted me to turn around at this point as it was a 12 mile trail and we were only 4 miles in. I said screw that! im here to wheel! and proceeded to wheel the rest of the day....really the rest of the trip with one hand. Not super easy with a manual truck, but Jess couldn't drive manual so that was my only option. Was kinda fun really.

IMG_9108 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9113 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9133 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9135 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9164 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9169 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

After airing up at the end of the trail i finally went to the ER. Which was a waste of time. They did get a kick out of my make shift splint. They then xrayed me and went, "yup spiral fracture of the two middle fingers!"..like i didn't' know that already. they then gave me "real" splint that was itchy and not near as comfortable. And drugs! Some hydros...which i couldn't take as i had to drive.

Went back to camp and enjoyed a lovely time around the campfire with lots of friends.

 

[Blackdawg]

The next day i had REALLY hoped to do Trifecta. But, with the bad hand i figured id take it easy. Mike, who isn't the "hardcore" type anyways said he wanted to go to Top of the World. Jess and i where totally okay with that. So just the two rigs, Mike and his friend Mark and Jess and myself took off to Top of the World. Was a splendid day









The top is amazing. Really fun trail.











Then headed back down






We then had lots more time to kill as it's a pretty short trail so we explored some of the Kokopelli. Totally want to do that full trail someday.







Was a very fun day and perfect wheeling and exploring. Returned once again to camp to a great campfire night.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Haha dude you don't mess around.

 

[Blackdawg]

Haha dude you don't mess around.

Hell no! haha

 

[Blackdawg]

Friday. Day three in Moab, trail of the day was Elephant Hill. Its an amazing trail. Very pretty country as it's ********** dab in the middle of Canyon Lands Nat. Park. You do have to pay to get in but it's totally worth it. The begining is the trickiest part. Tight steep trail up a cliff. Then you drive a bit on top of the bluff. then you have to dive off the back side, which includes driving backwards for part of it as the single switch back is by far too tight to make even a 5 point turn of some sort.

Very fun!












One of the cool parts of this trail is you can hike to the overlook to see the two rivers meet. Very cool.

IMG_9757 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_9763 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
Elephant Hill, Moab by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

Again, sorry for lack of photos. I wasn't taking many and the ones i did are horid. All of these are provided by my dear friends Ben and Mike. And they were as trigger happy as they are now either i think haha

But this was a wonderful trail. I really enjoyed it. It was also the last trail id run before the accident in the day light.

 

[Blackdawg]

The last trail i would run would be Fins 'n Things. At night. A group of guys decided to do a night run and i was all for it. We left camp at about 11:30pm and went off into the dark. It was pretty fun really!




I really enjoyed the trip. Then we headed back at around 12:45. We got back on the road to Area BFE at close to 1am. This road is a dirt road but very very washboardy. i was aired up and in 2wd and still only had one hand to use to drive. The guy in front of me, also named Ben, took off very fast. Mostly to dodge my bright lights, can't say i blame him. The dust he kicked up was very hard to see through with the lf240s on. I was going a bit fast for even me and i decided to slow down a bit by letting off the skinny pedal. But i was too late.

Like a movie, the dust suddenly parted and lo and behold, a right turn was there. I tapped the brakes and then threw it into the corner. The washboard road bit back and i lost the tail end of the truck.

Now in a normal situation, this would be no problem. Slap the ***** down and gear, floor it and correct.

However, I only had 1 hand.

This was all taking place in miliseconds but i knew i either had to correct or down shift with my hand. Seeing as to how there was a huge drop off to the right where we were headed, i decided to correct, and over corrected.

The truck slammed into the ditch on the opposite side and flopped 3 times.

Each time i thought to myself something different.

The 1st impact was on the passenger side, did i mention i wasn't wearing a seat belt like an idiot? i got slammed into the roof and threw my legs down into the floor pushing myself up against the roof as hard as i could. I was also thinking to myself "GOD DAMN IT! i just build this bed rack! Holy ****..i am rolling my beautiful wonderful truck...noooo!!!"

2nd impact on the roof-I realized Jess is screaming my name at the top of her lungs. "holy crap, im going to get Jess killed. On her first offroad trip ever. Oh my god! we are going off the cliff on the other side of the road!" I was disorientated and thought for sure we were going off the large cliff.

3rd impact, Drivers side- "wow, i could die."

crap was flying everywhere. Things you don't even think about during a wreck that you had tucked away behind the seats, under the seats. It was everywhere. Glass had been broken and was everywhere.

Then it was still....








I opened my eyes and realized i was fine. We had stopped on the drivers side of the truck. I then heard Jess still saying my name. I jumped into action to get her out of the truck as fast as i could as she was hanging from her seatbelt. I opened her door and lifted her out.

By this time the guys behind me as i was 2nd in line of all the trucks had caught up to me. Ben and Mark where the first ones there and Mark helped Jess and lead her to his truck to sit down and she was very shaken up.




Ben and i...just stood there....looking at the truck....in awe...






he then lean towards me and said in a hushed voice. "Dude, you should probably turn it off.."

In my rush to get out, i had left the truck running. So i climbed back in and shut it off.





Everyone seemed blown away by what had just happened. I mean..i was too a bit. But I...was....PISSED. So mad i had let this happen. I instantly started barking orders at people to help be flip it back on all 4s. and we had it back up top side in no time.

Not what i had planed..







https://youtu.be/SWj0-DEqNyU?t=10m11s

After a quick inspection, i drove it back to camp. Jess and i stayed up till 4 am that night just staring at the fire letting the adrenaline slowly fade off.

 

[Blackdawg]

Needless to say...i took the next day off. I had had intentions of doing Kanes Creek..but that was not going to happen. I decided to just go to town and buy Jess a nice meal and get the truck looked at by a mechanic.

The exterior damage was..well..bad.

Jess made some lovely double thick cardboard windows and i had to use a ratchet strap to hold the whole bed together now.

The mechanic i asked to look at the truck was very busy but he said he would in the afternoon. Jess and i did some touristy things and shopped around while waiting.

Besides a torn CV boot, mechanically everything was fine.

I returned to camp where we awaited the arrival of everyone else from their adventures.

Once people showed up, i borrowed a grinder from a good guy named Alvin and used a 2nd gen owners bed inverter to run it and cut the bed rack up into pieces for the journey home the next day. I just cut the roof rack off it and flipped the bed rack upside down and repacked the truck.

At the raffle i won a BAMF diff skid so that was a very nice addition to the **** day.

after a pretty crazy but fun last night around the camp fire with friends. I took my last night in the tent felling better about things.

Right up until i got home from the trip. IT was a grueling 14 hours home and after dropping Jess off and pulling up to my house. I saw my Mom, brother and Dad all awaiting my return. As i got out of the truck my dad walked towards me in the dark. Only the porch light and street light lighting up the area.

He came around the truck and i braised myself for the heckling and scolding for what happened and what i did to my truck.

instead, he stopped just in front of me and said, "Son, your Grandma passed away tonight. About 2 hours ago."









And thus ended one of the worst weeks of my life. **** happens in 3 folks..

But, something good did happen.


Frankenstein

was born

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Holy buckets. You, my friend, have terrible luck.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Wow. Man, that truck has been trough a lot.

 

[Blackdawg]

Holy buckets. You, my friend, have terrible luck.

ha...yeaaaaa...funny you say that...cause..well...something almost as bad as that happens to me..almost half the time! haha im at about a 50% success rate on trips

Wow. Man, that truck has been trough a lot.

You have no idea...only getting started!

 

[Blackdawg]

To continue the story.

After i got home ideas raced through my head. Doing a flat bed, caging it, SASing it, parting it out, and more.

I didn't want to do most of those things though. I wanted my truck back damn it! And i had just ordered some parts that cost a lot and would work with the truck only as a truck. For instance my new custom rear bumper i was waiting on to show up. I went to the local junk yards and they didn't have any but told me even a straight bed would cost around $1000 alone!!!

So i hit the interwebz and through craigslist i found a guy selling a tacoma body clear over in ID, almost to OR really. It was a 5 lugger 2wd body. And the pictures looked rough. But it was only 500 bucks. My dad was gracious enough to drive and pick it up and tow it back. The 2nd time he towed a truck for me.

It wasn't the prettiest body...definitely not compared to the silver one.







But..it was straight unlike my current one.

I tried putting the fenders on first since the silver ones were so damaged.

They...didn't fit. Right..turns out 4wd tacoma fenders are flared about 2'' or so compared to the 2wd ones which are straight. Didn't line up with the bumper.





So, basically used that as an excuse to blow 500 more bucks on fiberglass fenders...ha jesus. Same price for the whole body..

I also go some great news on the new bumper being built by Tim at Elite Offroad. this is the first and the only swingout bumper he ever built. No longer makes bumpers at all. It is awesome. I end up adding to it later.












But about a week later, i pulled the truck into the huge shop of my very good friend and started work.

 

[Blackdawg]

Then i just started stripping the cabs down with the help of my dad. The plan was to use the full interior of the Silver truck as it was in WAY better shape. Hell the whole cab was other then the outside. Was depressing stripping it out and seeing how imaculate the inside was. The paint was gorgeous. The "new" cab...was not. Had even a nasty rust spot that i had to patch. And the paint everywhere on it was pretty bad.





















This would prove another problem with the 2wd cab. It was an automatic tranny originally and of course no low range transfer case box. We had to cut this bigger for the manual stick shift and the low range.

you can see the difference


little small compared to this..







took a lot of work. The engine bay was tricky.

But after a while, the cabs where ready to be swapped.

 

[Blackdawg]

We borrowed the trucking shops fork lift and lifted the damaged cab off the frame.









Thought about leaving it like this VROOOM!




Took this time to put in my BEEFED CB drop. its a 1.5'' drop and its angled too. Pretty nice piece.



And more new parts arrived..specifically the CVT Mt. Shasta i got in the first GB they ever did.





This was good incentive!

It being summer and the fact i had 3 jobs to pay for this rebuild as i was blowing through cash. I had more stuff arrive.

a better CB, seriously, this radio is hands down the best CB you can buy for the price. I have no idea why, but in every group ive ever wheeled with, the people with the Undien 520xlpro always were louder and better range. I have had amazing results with it



Also some more lights that i wanted to use to light up the bed area.



The next day, the bed came off and kept the frame outside for the time being as the shop was getting crowed with two cabs and millions of truck parts plus all of Tims cars and other stuff.





Took the time to remove the spare tire jack and arms as i wouldn't need it with the new bumper.




and the cabs ready for final touches.

 

[Blackdawg]

The big thing on the cab that needed fixed was the fire wall on the drivers side. It was pretty rotted and nasty. So..i cut it out and used a bigger section from the original cab to replace it. Tim welded it not me. Not sure why really.

may have caught it on fire at one point..













Also did the pinch weld mod since it was easy to do at the time.



and enlarged the tranny tunnel hole.




and..more lights! i got these for more bed/rear lights or something..they were just so cheap i got 4 haha little did i know how much id use them later.