Well, this was my first vehicle and has been a work in progress for quite a few years.. At the end of highschool it was pretty tame, with a body lift, 35's and a spooled 9" out back, and a 4bbl windsor under the hood.
nothing special.. but hey it was a start..
Gradually though college I swapped a solid 44 with a lockright under the front. I also built a 13-56/205 doubler for it, and swapped the 351 for a built 302 I had in my BII years ago. I was king shit rolling on 38" gumbos..
the next summer, i cut the frame down, added a flatbed, rear PTO winch, and went up to 40" hawgs..(poor college kids cant afford real tires) The carbed 302 came out in favor of a eif 351 also...
Last summer i swapped the 351 for a efi 460, the 44/9 were sold to make room for a 10.25 rear, with disc's, and a dana 60 up front with a lockright. The tires are now 40" boggers on H-1's..
Now that I finally have a real job.. i figure its time to make some real upgrades... And address some major issues...
the first being the frame was all fucked up in the front, from hacking away the crossmember for a 70's axle... (hey when your young and dumb, you don't think about stuff like stress cracks..) It also needed something done with the front springs... the old 200 lb/in superflex coils just don't cut it with a bigblock, and winch up front..
I figured as long as the front clip was off, i might as well pull the cab...
When I left college, i still had 60' of tube at my old place, and our club had a tube bender.. so last month when i went back to visit, i bent it up. I used my buddies F-350 for mockup on the cage parts.. I also bent coil hoops, and a rear axle truss.
and yes, the cage will have a windshield and dash bar, as well as an X behind the rear seat.
rear axle is out, rear axle truss and mounts are done, frame mounts should be done tomorrow. geometry seems decent, a bit of oversteer, but more triangulation on the lowers would be a pain, and its not going to see any street miles anyways...
Well today i got the lower mounts on, pretty simple, and ugly, but hey... this is ******* fab.. no CNC plasma and tig.. just a torch, grinder, and AC 225 stick welder.
It wouldn't be pirate if i didn't post up a picture of the welds for critique/BS/whatever.. :flipoff2:
Uppers will be adjustable, with holes for 79, 91, and 103% antisquat.
finished up the link crossmember, and bolted in the links, also started stripping the front suspension, hopefully my ballistic joints for it show up tomorrow.
Crossmember almost done, I added gussets from the frame to the bottom of the upper link mounts.
Thinking of chopping the frame off at about 20" behind the link crossmember(right before the factory crossmember that is in the way of the links), and then tubing the back of the rig.
first issue i ran into, was the weld on balsitic joints.. my tig still isn't here, so i welded them on with a the ol standby ac stick machine.. knowing that the threads were going to get fubared... I even threaded the nuts in, coated it all in grease.. and used 6013 instead of my normal 6011, to cut down on spatter..
of course i still got shit in threads..:shaking:
now being the cheapass i am.. i never bought the fancy ballistic joint spanner tool.. I instead wasted way to much time building one outa 1 3/4 tube, and some cut up cheap ass screw drivers... Chinese chromed junk steel welds pretty awesome btw...:shaking:
oddly enough.. it held up to a IR 231 barking on it full bore..
of course, i fucked the threads all up.. though somehow it threaded back together tight... and holds...
frame brackets are done.. and welded on, back of the frame still needs to be boxed
tires clear with ease at full lock, im going to have to turn the turn the streering stops in to take full advantage of them though, and of my 2.25x8 ram that is supposed to be arriving tomorrow..
This has got to be about the ugliest fucking thing I have ever seen but I imagine it's super cheap compared to my pipe dreams Where did you get your ram from?
yeah.. i saved $30.. but the amount of time i spent making it, had i been at work instead.. i could have bought about 4 of them.. :shaking;
i ended up getting a ram from trailgear, i looked long and hard at the surplus center ones, but the TG one come with the clevis ends, which makes up the difference in price.
Any pics of how you cut/ground the front axle housing and wedges to get the wedges on there for the radius arms? I will be doing the same thing in the near future.
steering mocked up, panard bar will be a tight squeeze, especially to get the roll center i want. Speaking of which, i've always been told the front should have a lower roll center than the rear, how cruicle is that? i always figured the higher the better, for top heavy rig w/ flexy suspension..
front mounts burned to frame, the back side is boxed as well. and i will have 4 sleeved holes through the frame on each side, for the cross member to bolt to
new parts..
biggest cell i could find with a sump and sending unit, and some budget bump stops.. im to poor for airbumps..
old winch is off, 20K was nice, but i have a lay down style one im replacing it with, which im converting to hydro
getting ready to cut frame
as it sits now
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Pirate 4x4
18.7M posts
366.4K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to custom off-road vehicle owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about trail reports, builds, performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, fabrication, drivetrain, and more!