The Cuda K5- from mall crawler to rock crawler

[gr8pumkin]

That looks about the same height that I did mine.

[Cuda K5]

another saturday down the drain. we started cleaning up the gas tank and cutting out the passangers side for the boatsides. got quite a bit cut out and the 2x3 welded in place. started cutting out the rear floor, unbolted the body mounts tore all that junk out. cut out some rivets and about 5 inches off the back of the frame along with the factory crossmember, tacked in the new bumper when a storm started coming. had to clean it all up and put her up for the day

[jakew88]

subbed, nice build.

[Cuda K5]

i forgot to mention yesterday i picked up a dual electric fan set up out of a 98 ford windstar with wiring harness which hopefully gives me some room to move the radiator back a couple inches.

today i completely welded up the rear bumper then started cutting away at the rockers. i managed to get all 3 braces tacked into place

[BB1]

Jake, your welds are looking alot better now.

[Cuda K5]

i know its pretty awesome! i practiced a lot before i started this. just look at elmers exhaust! hahaha

[Cuda K5]

boatsides are officially done. just need to weld it all up!

[angryblack]

This rig has come a long way. BTW your gonna love the windstar fans..I have always been addicted to 3rd gen f body fans but i cant get my truck to run past 190* even in heavy traffic with windstar fans

[Cuda K5]

thank you, hopefully they work out good. its a little toasty in AZ

the day started out slow. couple buddies came over to start throwing together the cage. first thing we did is miscalculate a bend. there went 4 ft of DOM. after that we got one done and then the other. started tacking things together and it all started moving much faster. we ended up using all but 2ft of the DOM we effed up so that was good. i got some of the tubes welded all up but mostly just tacked in place. everything is looking really good. i only expected to get the main structure done today but we managed to get the rear "X" in place before we called it a night. one of the few times that i will say we got more done than i expected.

sorry for the crappy pics. my phone is afraid of the dark

[HEAVY METAL]

pimp shit yo

[wingnuts514]

Great looking build, if you get a chance could you post up some good pics of the engine crossmember you built?

[Cuda K5]

I never built an engine crossmember. If I ever pull the 454 out again I will build one then though

[wingnuts514]

Oops I didn't notice that was Maxpf, post 108 in your thread.

[Cuda K5]

Yea that guy is a real quir, flooding my hardcore thread with his mall crawler tech

[Cuda K5]

here are some better pics of the cage. today i just welded everything up good then started cleaning off the rear of the frame in prep for my gas tank and made the mounts. once i get the gas tank in place i will start bending the rear portion of the cage

[Jeep4x4x4]

Hey the factory didn't build it the way you wanted so tear it apart and start over. Keep going, Like all the work you have put into this for the trail.

[MaxPF]

Originally Posted by Jeep4x4x4

Hey the factory didn't build it the way you wanted so tear it apart and start over. Keep going, Like all the work you have put into this for the trail.

The sad thing is that it was a super-clean AZ truck when he got it. It would have been better (and probably less expensive) if he had started with a gutted-out beater rather than cutting up a nice truck Oh well, you know what they say about hind-sight....

[Cuda K5]

If I could go back I would have kept the rig stock and bought a cab and frame

[Cuda K5]

nothing too exciting today. more welding, cleaning and painting. right now everything is welded in place and everything is cleaned up. i got the gas tank in place so i can start surrounding it with tube. i was going to start bending tonight but decided to watch my packers play instead

[Cuda K5]

today i finished bending the 2 main supports for the roll cage. its just tacked together for now but that is the last of the bending on the main structure of the cage. the only bends i have left to make are going to be on the tube front and some dash parts.

sorry if the small bi-daily updates arent very interesting. I'm learning everything as i go, which takes me a while. making small updates regularly keeps me more motivated.

[Cuda K5]

Tonight i cut more useless sheetmetal off then added a couple more tubes, I called it an early night since ill easily have 20 hours into this thing this weekend







I also received my pair of 5 points today

[Cuda K5]

alright, saturday was a great day to lay out some tube on my rig. got lots of braces and gussets in place and tacked together. i really like how its looking. i started running out of tube so i decided to start working on the front before i run completely out. then today i never got to touch my rig cause i was too busy trying to get a dead XJ to run

[Cuda K5]

i got a little more done tonight, a few more braces and quite a bit of welding. i should have all the cage braces done by tomorrow if i dont run out of tube then just more welding. i may have over done it on the triangulation but im liking it more and more

[Cuda K5]

so i finally have the entire cage tacked together. there is a chance that i may add a few more peices but i doubt it. tomorrow i will weld everything up and the cage will be done. next is going to be the tube nose

i also picked up some 14.5" travel pro comps from Fly-N-Hi and got my master instal kit for my 60 in the mail from Letzroll Offroad. that should be at my doorstep tomorrow

[redneckK20]

Looks sick man. That's some pretty crazy cage work.