SO TIRED MY HAIR HURTS. Didn't really start JB's Cherokee cage till 9AM Thursday. I forgot how hard it is to visualize angles when working in a full bodied vehicle. Finished this morning at 8 AM working solid through the morning. After its shakedown at the Stillwater Event this weekend, we'll add the dash bar and a few gussets. AK and Ted were with me without sleep, finishing other shop work and maintenance on their own rigs to make the trip. Good luck guys! I will see you on Monday.

And to anybody that we missed on the phones or swung by Friday, we are very sorry and we'll get back in touch with you next week.

I would like to thank every one who has patroned our shop over the past four years. We couldn't have been this successful with out such great support. I spent yesterday afternoon working on our photo gallery. Now it is a ton easier to navigate through all the albums and some are organized by vehicle make. If you would like to see the fab work or customer pages by brand, it is much more user friendly. Sorting through hundreds of customer work made me realize how fortunate we are to have developed this massive body of work. Thank you all!

Last weekend, Matt and I went to the coast and made his Tacoma soar! The DMZ and Total Chaos suspension combo worked flawlessly. It took one foot and two foot whoops all day long. We went sideways off the lip of a 3 foot ledge at 60 and the truck took it like a champ. Need to redo the rear bump pads and just go with the tried and true up and down orientation instead of the angled position... a miscalculation on my part. Other than that, it was a very successful shake down. Also met a few friendly Tacoma World BBS guys.

Last week we worked on a few Strand vans, seat mounts in my old F150 Prerunner, p/s steering conversion on Craig's FJ40, brakes on a Tahoe, built a prerunner on Shawn's Daihatsu Rocky, and pretty much finished the front of the 12V Burban Prerunner. This week we will finish the coilover reservoir mounts, spindle gussets, heimed steering, suspension skids and a regear on Ed's 08 FJ Cruiser... start on JB's cage, continue to wire the 12V, throw a motor in a Honda Accord, bob and the front of Jeff's K5, and make some progress on Colby's 1 ton LJ.

If you notice the posting time, it's almost midnight on Monday and all of us are still at the shop

Tomorrow we will be short handed. AK is coming down with something, so bear with us if it takes a while for us to get back to you.

this has been a rough week. monday morning I was traveling down I10 back to the shop from Houston. A high pressure metal fuel line burst on my F350, spraying diesel all over the motor. I pulled over and AK came to the rescue. Truck in tow, we didn't get back to the shop till well after 3PM.

Today, I tore the whole front end of my truck apart to find the seized inner bearing that howled as if the truck was about to spontaneously combust. After your truck leaves you on the side of the road, you got to make sure every thing else is in order before it can be trusted again. A $15 bearing, and good as new.

As far as actual customer work goes... AK has built a sweet Prerunner for the 12V. After a couple of finishing touches such as the mounting plate for the 4 Lightforce HID's, it will be done. After we get the hi-lift and make the rear mount, both bumpers and sliders will go out to powdercoat. We'll get back on the wiring as soon as we get a couple other odds and ends tied up.

I'm working on a prerunner bumper for a 92 Daihatsu Rocky. It's been very tricky building the mounting brackets on an IFS truck, but tube bending should go pretty smoothly tomorrow if the phones don't keep ringing.

Ted is working on a Strand Van, rebuilding an exploded D35 on a TJ, a CJ5 shifter, and soon will be doing a clock spring and shock mounts in Davin's Taco.

Projects for next week are hearing that 12V suburban roar, hanging the axles and stack box under Colby's LJ, steering on an Early Bronco, an interior cage in JB's Cherokee, a prerunner for Joe's 04 3500 Dodge, a winch mount and a few tweaks on Jeff's 1 ton K5, and there's probably a couple other vehicles I'm forgetting. After we get some of this work sorted out, we'll convert Chris' TJ to an auto with an AW4 and I'll pull that Northstar out of my Eldorado to start the Krawltex mid engine buggy build.

We need a bigger freakin shop again!

Here's the photo album with over 60 pics of the build: http://www.krawltex.com/newtex/g1/album282


Last week, I tackled the front Total Chaos A-arm gussets and the DMZ spring hangers with 10 leaf Deavers. Tonight I finished the frame plating, gussets on the tubular crossmember, and the engine cage. AK knocked out all of the plate work with the plasma table, some with the aid of my card board work.

Tomorrow I will cut in to the bed, knock the bed cage loose, reinstall the bed and do the final burn in on the bed cage. Then its final paint and reassembly. More pics to come with a couple other finishing surprises...

I'll try to post up some pics tomorrow of Matt's Tacoma. The DMZ spring hangers and 10 leaf 62" Deaver packs are installed. The bump pads are built and the cans are mounted. The majority of the bed cage is built. I still lack double shearing the upper shock mounts and plating the top of the cage. The lower shock mounts are mounted and dimple died. The rear driveshaft has been shortened and mocked up. The factory crossmember/spare tire carrier have been eliminated and replaced with 1.75 DOM.

Tomorrow I will finish and plate the bed cage, gusset the frame cossmember, mount the limiting straps and cut the bed up


Ted's assignment is to work on nothing but getting the 12V running this week, no excuses! We are also on to what is making the hum in Patrick's rear 44.

AK will be finishing up a very trick swing out/tire carrier and catologing parts for our e-commerce launch.

Wow. It's been forever and a day since I have updated the blog. Where to begin?

In the last few weeks, there was the Christmas party at Tony's. It was a blast with a band called Slab Trash... then a large group of Krawltex guys screwing around on the instruments. Thanks to everybody that came out! The BBQ was delicious and the washer pit was always entertaining.

As far as work goes, Ted converted a hack job of a quarter elliptical to coil springs in the rear of a 72 Early Bronco, is building a gauge cluster and wiring the 12V suburban, did a rear main on an 03 suburban with the 8.1L, started work on additional cage work to another Early Bronco, as well as some general fleet maintenance on a couple of Strand AC vans.

AK has been working on the Juggernaut, helping with sales, learning the CAD Torchmate software, and building a custom swing out bumper for the 12V suburban. It will hold a 37" tire, swivel in two pieces similar to the rear barn doors, with a shovel/hi-lift/3 jerry can mounts on the other side.

I have been in and out of the office setting up some promotions with a future Red Bull Event this summer in Houston, finishing up turbo/intake/intercooler/radiator work as well as the front bumper on the 12V, a leveling kit on a 3500 Chevy and a desert suspension for an 06 Tacoma. The Tacoma has received front 14" travel triple bypass King shocks as well as knuckle and a arm gussets on a long travel 3" over King coiled Total Chaos front suspension. On the rear, I am in the process of building a DMZ 17" long travel 62" spring conversion, plating the rear frame, and building a bed cage with 17" travel King triple bypass shocks and 4" King air bump stops. This Tacoma will soon be able to fly over the whoops and be a chase support/pre-runner for a class 7 Best in the Desert race team!

A collaborative Krawltex effort was made during the evenings to build a long arm suspension, 8.8 swap, sliders, seat mounts, and front bumper to shoe horn 37" MTR's on JB's Cherokee.

Check the photo gallery often for updated pics on all these builds.

Boy has this been a crazy week! First off, we would like to officially welcome Akamu Whatley as a new addition to the Krawltex team. He will be our main marketing and sales person, as well as plasma cutter technician and suspension designer.

Speaking of plasma cutting, Krawltex now has a Torchmate Plasma Table in our shop. We have the capabilities of doing custom metal bracketry, bead locks/wheel stiffeners, frame plates, gussets... whatever you can imagine on a 2D metal scale!

This week Ted has built the crossover heimed steering and wired the Black Magic fan in Ty's YJ, repaired a faulty ignition system in a Strand work truck, drawn a wiring plan out on Jake's 12V swap, and begun the reworking of Jeremy's rear 4 link on his 72 early Bronco.

Dave has continued the fab work on the 12V Suburban sliders as well as mapping the on board air system out, replaced worn ball joints in a Strand fleet van, regeared Marcus' YJ rear axle to 4.88's, and getting an old CJ5 running after sitting for two years!

AK and I are all over the place, talking with customers and working on expanding our resources. Stop by the shop and check out the new digs. As always, we are a phone call away to help you with your builds!