February 23, 2018: Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.2Next was to tackle clearance at the cab.
On older Hilux pickups and Hilux 4Runners, it's a pretty simple process, especially when the older trucks either don't have carpet or only have a vinyl floor covering. Very few wires or items to move. No insulation or sound deadening materials. Generally not too concerned with smoke in the cab or how hot things get. And so on.
We do have to trim quite far because with leaf springs the tire travels up and back, fortunately that doesn't apply to me because this was a pain to do on the Tacoma.
Interior carpet, insulation, and fuse box moved aside
Start cut'n!
Geeeeeeeez these newer trucks are a huge complicated sheetmetal mess!! I can see how they get such good crash test scores, have a nice quiet interior, and how they can be so dang heavy...
It. Was. Nasty. There was a lot of plastic pieces, and the seam sealer required between so many joints was a pain in the butt to remove and/or cut through
I originally planned to remove the entire body mount from the frame and make a new one with a new hole drilled in the cab, but actually thanks to my prototype lower A-Arms, the tire just barely clears the forward-facing mount bracket bolt and I decided to leave it be. I think once a plate goes over this it will contact the tire, but, this could be a good thing as it would keep the tire away from weaker sheetmetal parts.
But, can't let the small things get to me when I've got a clear vision for this Tacoma and know what has to be done to get there.
Here is the passenger tire at full up-travel and full right steering spindle lock
