blueberry.taco build

[roanokercket]

DUDE!

 

[Deleted member 1276]

so rad!

 

[thezentree]

Not wasting any time, are you?

This thing is rad!

 

[blueberry.taco]

thanks for the compliments, definitely no time to waste, I wanna be out there adventuring again soon!

some updates:

I'm committing to spending money to source OEM connectors and pins to create little subharnesses rather than cutting the stock harness.
Even though I have plenty of experience and success building engine harnesses and such (see v8 swapped Blazer), not cutting the stock harness in any ways is for sure the best long term reliability.
Reliability > $&time

Got the rock shield mounted up with the airlift manifold

modified BAMF sliders fully on now.
Adding zip tie loops and relocating gussets for clearance to stock components in original locations a success. (installation instructions tell you to just shove the bracket over one bolt hole and hack it together which wasn’t acceptable for me, and the stock wire loom would just be dangling because one clip point hole is covered up now.

below pic from installation instructions... look at that bracket shoving right up into the body grommet!
That'll get torn up over time for sure!

And then Manuel got separated from his tranny and got his shaft extended for better feels

 

[Series1Rangie]

This is a great build, thanks for sharing. Question on the airbags, since you’re looking at extra droop in the back are you concerned that they’ll be a limiting factor? How did you size them, for your non stock suspension? I like the leveling capabilities at camp, and I’m just starting to research as I upgrade my 1st Gen tundra suspension to accommodate my bed buildout. Thanks!


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[Watt maker]

Amazing build! Very well thought out, I like that!

 

[blueberry.taco]

This is a great build, thanks for sharing. Question on the airbags, since you’re looking at extra droop in the back are you concerned that they’ll be a limiting factor? How did you size them, for your non stock suspension? I like the leveling capabilities at camp, and I’m just starting to research as I upgrade my 1st Gen tundra suspension to accommodate my bed buildout. Thanks!

Perfect timing on this question, I just got the lower mounts for the cradles finalized and bolted in.
As you can see, the air spring can fully separate from the lower cradle for when I droop out beyond the airspring travel

As for sizing, it was fairly easy as I selected the airlift load lifter 5000 ultimate line of products for the internal rubber jounce stops.
from there, they only offer 6 sizes. From there, figure out what height the space your airspring is going to be at for ride height on your suspension, which for me ended up at 7", so the choice was clear.
I had to get the "extended travel" 58496, which would limit jounce travel to 4.3" from ride height.



I love when the scrap metal I am always hoarding works out perfectly.
managed to make this useful tool without making a single cut, all the pieces worked out by just welding them together.
can you guess what it is?

 

[blueberry.taco]

made some progress over the weekend.
Got around to making a nice lightweight aluminum mount for my nice aluminum air tank

and got it tucked up in the frame rail.
It should never drag on anything here.

and used my fancy blue tool to hold up the front bumper so I can move it on and off by myself while making incremental cuts in the bumper cover and mocking up more tabs to weld on.
I finally finished up everything (fingers crossed) and dropped it off at the powdercoaters too.

 

[blueberry.taco]

forgot to post this one.
I’ve been hoarding this valve since my minitrucking days in high school to finally find a home here, 15 years later.
It's always so satisfying to find a nice permanent home for long-hoarded components

 

[blueberry.taco]

Major milestone!
Truck made its maiden voyage with the new rear suspension.
It successfully backed its way down, turned around and backed up the driveway again for more front end work.
Alignment is pretty bad right now, I'll try to get that done this coming weekend.
After that it's getting pretty close to seeing some road time.

It was nice seeing the blue in the sunlight for the first time in a looong time.
Although keen eye would notice a slight reduction of voodoo blue on the front end. Which probably isn’t a bad thing.

GMRS and weboost antenna mounted, we'll see how I like the giant weboost thing right there....

my dog was clearly not impressed.

 

[blueberry.taco]

got more wiring done, switchpros sure does make things easy.
reran the compressor wiring to go to the fuse block on the powertray, hook up the light bar and thought i was clever hooking the backlighting to the compressor enable.

Ran a 10gauge wire to feed an in-cab power distribution unit, a pair of 14 gauge wires that are currently not allotted for anything but for future proofing, a front camera cable/harness, a GMRS antenna cable, and a Weboost antenna cable all through the stock safety feature harness grommet on the pass side firewall.
What a pain! the stock harness is wrapped in a gooey sticky caulk-like mess of goop inside the grommet and passing all these wires including the RCA connector for the camera was quite miserable, even with the added access I gained by removing the SLEE compressor mount tray and the airbox.
But the peace of mind from not adding any additional holes for water to get in, and not tearing the stock grommet and maintaining full sealing was worth it.

once into the cab, i routed the front camera and GMRS stuff up and around the glovebox, following the existing harness in the dash structure.
I plan on having the in-cab power distribution live in the "back seat" area so I'll be running wires up and down under the pass side door sill.
I put everything back together again for now but I know for sure I'll be taking it apart just like this a couple more times, should be much faster next time now that I know how things come apart.

 

[blueberry.taco]

This simple little jumper took weeks to put together due to an online dealership who went out of business after I placed the order but didn’t notify me, and hung up on me most of the time after trying to call them, and then a 2nd dealership who never called to let me know the housing came in.
But it’s done now and I have factory bed lights that work!

Add this to another the list of those “I should have made it a long time ago” tools. Vice mounted and powered mini press brake. Worked beautifully for making tidy bends on 1/8” 304 bar stock today.

Fancy new press brake let me bend up a nice little bracket to hold up my front camera and air chuck

and alignment time! which means super close to first drive time!

 

[blueberry.taco]

first test drive to the carwash!

 

[blueberry.taco]

oh yea, I made little brackets to temporarily keep the stock fog lights until i upgrade them

 

[blueberry.taco]

my truck vs my buddy's TRD Offroad. big changes over the winter!

first pic: last september

2nd pic: this past weekend.