got cope?'s Tacoma Evolution

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current specs:

Suspension:
Front: 2.0 SAW's
Rear: FT 205 aal / Daystar shackle / 10" Bilstein 5125's

Drivetrain:
Engine: 2.7 stock
Transmission and Tcase: stock
Rear axle: 1997 FZJ80 elocker rear axle, disc brakes, full float
Front: stock open diff
Precision Gear 5.29 fr/rr

Exterior:
37x12.5x17 BFG KM2
Pro Comp PXA7005-7883 17x8
Slee Off-Road 1.5" wheels spacers in the front
4Crawler 1" Body Lift
Trimmed fenders
Tubbed Firewall
Bobbed and Dovetailed Bed
Sliders
Homebuilt rear bumper
ARB front bumper w/ WARN M8000 80ft of syn 3/8" rope
Optima 34/78 Yellow Top w/ homebuilt battery box.
ProComp 9" H11 lights

Interior:
Mastercraft Baja RS seats
benchseat shifter bezel gives me a total of (4) cupholders
In-channel Ventvisors keep the rain out - FWIW I prefer the in channel over the exterior adhesive model.

Current Picture:

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New/Pre-modifications:

Bought new in June of 2000.

SR5 2.7 W59 3.91 gears and 30" Michelins
added the typical stuff, toolbox, Husky floor mats.



31's They were huge! Still street treads though

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Fast-Forward April 2005 - First Wheelin' trip to Tellico:

Only mod was some fresh and yet to be painted sliders.

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By May 2005, I had caught the bug and had ordered and installed an OME N91/882 set-up with a crappy Rough or Tuff? Country aal and some crappy Pro Comp 3000 shocks to match.

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My 33x10 BFG KM's were installed in June 2005 in time for the First Annual Southeast Takeover. I also figured out riding with the doors off was fun.

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By July 2005, in time for the All-Pro Jambo, I had an ARB locker installed in the rear axle along with some 4.56 all around.

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In November 2005 I got into a little fender bender and took the opportunity to replace the stock plastic with an ARB bumper.

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January 2006, gave BudBuilt a call.



Installed:



Went and played in the snow at Tellico in February 2006.

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In May of 2006 I decided plating the gas tank skid (thanks STOMPER) would be a good idea, as well as swapping those crappy Pro Comp shocks for some Bils. Thank you MarshyTaco for the relocation fab work.

For the skid, I just picked up a 4x4 sheet of 11ga. steel and cut out what I needed. Plenty of steel to do 3 or 4 skids and have some left over to play with.

I highly recommend plating or skidding the gas tank, adding to what the factory gave ya. Just this past year or so we've had 3 or 4 guys really mess up their skid resulting in other problems other than the obvious deformed skid and reduced gas capacity, such as sending unit problems causing the gas gauge not to read properly.







I finally got a rock to reach beyond the plating James had done for me, so this past (2008) summer I added on to what was already there.

Also you can see the drain holes drilled into the existing plating form the first round. I did not drill drain holes into the latest addition as the way I had to space it down to meet flush with the existing plating provided adequate drainage.


Not the prettiest fix, but it works.



Shock xmember is some 1.75 HREW with holes drilled in it for the shock bolts. Welded through the frame. Shock mounts on the axle are from Ruff Stuff. Good stuff.

Somewhere around this time I also ditched the Rough Country aal and replace it with a Fabtech p/n FT205 aal from TRDparts4u.

Also installed All-Pros ubolt flip kit.

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In June 2006, hit Tellico for the 2nd annual SETO.

Thanks Ted.





A compilation of wheeling shots up until about this point.

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Right before Takeover in July of 2006, I broke out the plastic for a WARN M8000.

Note: Plastic aka Credit Cards are teh debil.

Couple of metro-sexual, non-wheeling pals helping with the heavy lifting...



On the way to TO.



Perfect, cept I forgot to screw the turn signal lenses back in. After being held in by the wind for 10hrs on the interstate, the first bump in Hot Springs rattled them out. Luckily I had no trouble finding them.

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Well after I got back from '06TO, my winchline had arrived as well as a few accessories.

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An August trip to Tellico with some newfound Hummer friends pretty much wrapped up my season in 2006.

By early spring 2007, I had the mod itch and had been tossing around the idea of a bed bob and possibly a dovetail.

As of this post's date it has been over 2 years since I have done this modification, there have been multiple requests for a how-to on dovetailing the bed. Unfortunately, when I did mine there wasnt a write-up, much less a complete detailed one on how to do this.

There were two trains of thought, and I picked the wrong one although it did turn out alright for what it was, and the fact it was my first major sheetmetal undertaking, it has and continues to serve it's purpose and remains a functional mod. That is if you consider losing a few cubic feet of bed space functional

I don't have a ton of pictures but I'm gonna try my best to explain the two ways to do this retaining the stock sheet metal bed, and why the other way is the way I should have gone.

This does not cover the countless ways to do a custom tube bed and then rehang the outer skins on your new totally custom tube bed.

Be patient, I'm rounding up pictures

Text for pics - Coming Soon.

First I'm going to show you how I did it, how I don't recommend doing it.

Then I'll post illustrated pictures of how I would do it, if I ever do it again, and I would, with the cut lines I would suggest.

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Wheels

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Bumper - Text Coming Soon

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Firewall Tubbing (I'm using HillbillyYoung01's pics because I did a much cleaner job on his than mine, it was my 3rd tub, gets better and more simplified each time )

Picture Text - Coming Soon

A quick before and after comparison:

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Coming Soon...