Thatbassguy's financially irresponsible build and record of where all of my money went

Glad you got your son home okay. Sorry to hear about your father. Will pray for him tonight.

 

Thank you! He's doing pretty well, actually. He has a lot of work to do to get back to being independent, but he's a tough SOB.

 

Take your dad on a 4runner ride, and if the temps by you are like they are up here.... stop for ice cream!

 

I made some more progress on the sliders since Saturday.

Yesterday morning, I coated them with rust converter primer, and today after work I sprayed them with a few coats of rustoleum spray on bed-liner.

Picture from yesterday:



And, today, after applying the bed-liner. I went with this because it has a bit of a texture that I figured will provide some grip for standing on them. But, should also be reasonably easy to touch up.



They look decent from a distance. Hopefully I can get a year or two out of them before I need to do all of this again!

 

25-foot paint jobs are the best! I hope to do the same in my front bumper. Might have to wait until next summer, though.

 

My front bumper is going to need some love pretty soon, as well. At this point, I'm thinking I'll pull it off sometime this winter, unless I get ambitious sooner.

 

Spa day is underway. Front and rear diffs are done, oil change is in progress. Next is the transfer case, and grease!

 

You are earning your beer today!

 

I thought it was mandatory to have a cooler close at hand

 

I mean, I had five coolers within 25 ft. Of the 4Runner. But, I overserved myself a little bit on Friday night and decided to take a few days off, lol!

That said, I might have something later while I'm making dinner.

 

Transfer case done.

Grease done... I think. I greased two fittings at the front of the drive shaft and one at the rear. Not sure if that is correct. Also greased the ball joints on the UCAs. Not having a very impressive experience with this generic grease gun. Could be something I'm doing wrong, but I keep getting air bubbles and having to reprime the gun.

 

I did something I should have done a long time ago on Friday. Unfortunately, I waited until after it was a problem.

I highly recommend chopping the tailpipe if anyone is going to be doing serious wheeling with these things.

Last weekend, I was trying to climb a fairly steep rock, but I started slipping sideways and decided to back out. When I did that, the tailpipe got plugged, and bent.

Fortunately, I was with a group of excellent people, including @McSpazatron and @Stoney Ranger . A few of them dug out the mud around the tailpipe and dug the dirt out of the tailpipe. When it finally spit out a clump of dirt, I heard Carlos say "it's a boy!" and everyone laughed!



To add insult to injury, I decided to "redeem myself" by going through a nasty mud pit right after this fiasco, and couldn't get up the steep bank at the end. Then, when I tried backing up to make another attempt, the side of the mud pit caught my front bumper cover and just about tore it clean off.



Fortunately, it looked much worse than it really was, and it popped back into place pretty good.



I strapped the tailpipe up to the frame as good as I could with a cam buckle strap, as the tailpipe is now pushed in so far that the hanger on the exhaust is a few inches ahead of the hanger on the frame.

So, now I have the last 10 inches or so cut off, but I might need to replace the tailpipe anyway because it is rattling. Maybe I will look for a takeoff exhaust from somebody who installs a cat back.

 

I was crimping my tailpipe on the rocks, too. I solved the issue by cutting off the underside. Looked like a snake when I was done so...

 

I can’t visualize how the exhaust got pushed in. Where did things bend?

 

I think it bent where it goes over the rear axle/panhard bar. It comes off the muffler and bends up and over and then back down and towards the rear. The pipe is actually caved in a bit where it must have gotten mashed into the bracket for the pan hard bar. I didn't take any good pictures while I was under there, unfortunately.

 

It's about time you took a bit of shiny off that rig

 

@McSpazatron , I believe it bent more at the existing bend here:



Here's as close as I can get the mount to line up by pulling it back with a ratchet strap.



This also seems to be pulling it apart at the spring fitting by the catalytic converter.

 

Ah, ok I get it now. That’s actually good, in the sense that the bend was contained to the muffler section of pipe, and not the section of pipe that is less flexible further forward.

Time for a Pro muffler? Now I kinda see a possible advantage of those with the side exit. Maybe you can mash the tips easier, but the pipe probably has enough flex in the hangars and spring connection to avoid a permanent bend. It would also be harder to push forward when reversing into mother earth lol

 

I hear the PRO exhaust is droney, so probably not. I thought about just replacing the tailpipe section, but the bolts in the flange behind the muffler look pretty rough. I suppose I could just take it to a muffler shop and have them replace that section. But, I wouldn't want some crappy aftermarket tailpipe that's going to rust out in 2 years.

 

Cut it and be done. I want to cut my tail pipe. Just haven’t decide where. And side exit, I want roll the back window down. Lol

 

I already did. Just not soon enough. Even if I replace the tailpipe, I'll cut it in the same spot.

I'd recommend cutting it just behind the last hanger like I did. I roll the back window down regularly. No problem, unless you're sitting still.

 

I got sick of listening to what was left of the exhaust rattling against the bottom of the bumper cover, so I hacked off more of it yesterday. It's nice to have a quiet ride again!

 

I also rotated the tires 2 weeks ago and wound up with a bad wobble in the steering wheel. I set up an appointment at Big Bear tire, near Lac LaBelle for a rebalance.

After I got there, a few minutes into the job, the tech popped in and talked to the service advisor, and I could tell I was about to get some awesome news.

Turns out I have a bent rim. They said they could probably balance it, but that I should replace it or get it repaired eventually. Sure enough, they got it to ride properly.

But, I ended up swapping out for the "winter" tires this week. Between that, the exhaust, and pulling the roof rack off, it's like an entirely different vehicle.

 

Was it the standard ORP rim?

 

Are your toyo atIII, your yoko MTs, and the KO2 before E loads?

 

No, Black Rhino Stadium.

 

No. The KO2's were C's, and so are the Toyos. The Yokohama's are E's, but I think all MT 's are.

 

Well no wonder its bent, look at that rock you hit.

 

There are load c MTs in 255/75r17, jeep tires I guess (lower weight rating i believe). There is an E load mt hankook in that size too