Blase's K.O.R.E. chassis build up.

[Blase]

Before I even get started I want to thank all the companies and individuals that are working with me on this build.

A little back ground into this project. I am not starting from stratch as far as parts go. I pulled the motor,trans,t-case,axles,wheels and tires all off of my jeep which I sold to guy that wanted to get out of mudding and into wheeling. Here is what the jeep looked last Oct.





Here is what it looked like leaving my house


It all ways served me very well but with a 3 year old and another on the way I need a four seater if I want to keep wheeling. Heres a link to the last build thread done in the Jeep section for anyone interested in spec's on it.

/forum/jeep-hardcore-tech/539098-never-ending-build.html

Here are some of the spec's that I am shooting for with this build.
105-108 WB
48"-54" wide
Four seats (Bench in the rear)
4link front and rear w/Alum links and JJ's
40-45 degrees of steering.
20"-21" under the belly at ride height
6-7" of up travel front and rear
3,000LBS-3,300LBS ready to wheel

What I plan on using to get there(Specs):

Chassis
I chose to start with a K.O.R.E. Rouge chassis and then had them Modify the rear area to allow the use of a standard 36" bench rear seat. It is not intended to be a comp chassis and as such I ended up making some changes to fit some of MY requirments. I want to stress that I choose to do thing the way I did! It is 54" wide at the cowl, 20"-21" belly at ride, the top of the cage should be around 76" at ride.

Engine
2002 LQ9 6.0L chevy crate engine,headers,cold air intake Ecm burn 375HP

Cooling
Summit universal fit alum rad. that the chassis was designed for.

Transmission
700R-4 with all the goods rebuilt in 2008.

Transfer Case
3.8 atlas II with 32 spline front and rear outputs. 1350 front yoke and a 1310 CV yoke on the rear (FOR NOW).

Tires and Rims
17" x 9" trail ready's with with 4.5" BS,cut down rings and 39 Krawlers

Axles
Front axle-High pinion shaved 60 with 5.13's, ARB and yukon 35 spline inners and outers.64"WMS
Rear axle- High pinion shaved 60 with 5.13's,ARB and Yukon 35 spline full floater axles. 62"WMS
(I know they are "going to break". But until they do I am going to run them. I had them under that jeep for five years with nothing more than a couple of broken shafts.!)

Steering
PSC full hydro w/8" doulbe ended ram. I would like to thank Lance for his help with this project!

Suspension
Four links front and back with 2.00" 7075 links and JJ's with a 16MM bolt. 14" King 2.0 coil overs at all four cornors and 2.5" King 4" travel bump stops.

I was lucky enough to win a drawing here on Pirate done by Down South Motors sports which got me four 2.0 King Air Shocks

Buy a star if you don't have one!!! $20=four free air shocks

/forum/general-4x4-discussion/723306-king-2-0-air-shocks-16-travel-drawing-2-a.html
Sonny has been a great help to me with this build and was even nice enough to let me pay the differance between the air shocks and coil overs which should work better for the type of wheeling/racing that I plan on doing with this buggy.

I talked/PM'ed some of the top builders on here about everything from the placement of the links to the shocks and bumps and would like to thank all of you!! Sonny,Tim and Randy where especially helpful everytime I ran into problems!!

Other parts
Corbeau seats- Thanks Snoopy!
Wilwood pedals
warn 9.0RC


I am a machinist by trade so I am making a lot of my own brackets and tabs for this build along with a lot of other parts and pc's. This buggy is going to be a true multi purpose rig and I am hoping that it will handle everything from Crawling Comps. and Trails to KOH and XRRA/MOROC style comps. I work slow and I type just as slow so it will take a little while to get this build completed and posted.

[the freeak]

Subscribed.

[chris demartini]

Sounds good. I'm doing the exact same thing with the exact same drivetrain, only difference is I have a ditch digger rear (14ff) and am going with a 48" chromo 2 seat chassis. I think you're a little light on your weight guestimate. I'd guess between 3500 and 3700 ready to rock.

Looking forward to seeing it come together.

[Blase]

I met with Kenneth at K.O.R.E. back in Oct. of 08 to pick up the chassis's and other Misc. parts. I have to say that Kenneth was really easy to work with and was willing to make some changes to the chassis's to allow me to place a back seat in a two seat chassis. Thus giving me a pretty small four seater when the family wants to come but a rig that is still trail/comp friendly. He was even willing to drive half way and to meet us and drop off the chassis's.



Here is what my Garage looked like once I got my chassis home.


Axles rolled in and waiting to go under the chassis.


Axles mocked up under the chassis so that I could take a good look at what kind of clearnace issues I was going to have.


The first one that I noticed was the rear diff. There is not enough room to run a typical four link in which the upper links meet on the top of the diff.

After lots of looking and talking to differant people about my options I decided to run a "reverse" four link where the lower links converge at the chassis and the uppers are "straight". Kenneth did a great job of desinging the chassis to make mounting the links easy. I was able to buy the "Batwing" bracket for the lower chassis links from K.O.R.E. but in true Blase style I modified it a little so that I end up with a completly flat skid once I'm done.





I machined 1/2 off of the bottom side so that it only hangs down 1/2 below the chassis. I plan on using 1/2 "UHMW" for a skid and everything will be flush. More to come in a bit.

[Blase]

Originally Posted by chris demartini

Sounds good. I'm doing the exact same thing with the exact same drivetrain, only difference is I have a ditch digger rear (14ff) and am going with a 48" chromo 2 seat chassis. I think you're a little light on your weight guestimate. I'd guess between 3500 and 3700 ready to rock.

Looking forward to seeing it come together.

Only time will tell but according to the timber company scales in Clayton my jeep weighed 3600lbs. Those scales may have been off but I am being VERY(overly) weight conscientious on every bracket and material used so I am hoping that will save some wieght without leaving me as a big trail plug.

[BamaSahara]

Looking good. Ken builds some cool stuff

[wngrog]

Originally Posted by chris demartini

I'd guess between 3500 and 3700 ready to rock.

Yep.

That said, I am glad you started the build thread. That teaser pic the other day made me wonder what you were up to!

[B.A.R.K]

It is about time you start posting some progress. Subscribed!
Count me in for the KOH Pit Crew

[srv8800]

been lookin' forward to this one. keep the pics coming.
mark

[rajincajingt]

it looks like a great start.

good luck with the build and the kid on the way

[513]

Been looking forward to this one also, those pics are about 2 almost 3 months old. You better have some new stuff for us

If not, then well damn.. you really are slow

[Blase]

Thanks Guys! Bear with me and I'll keep them coming.

Once I had a game plan for how I wanted to do the rear links I made a couple of phone calls and ended up ordering a couple of brackets from Randy at Jimmy's 4x4 for the upper axle link mounts.



I can't thank him enough for his help with the suspension that I am building on this buggy!!!

This was as far as I went with off the shelf brackets for the rear suspension, It was time to fire up the Lathe and mill to make the remaining brackets and links.




Milling out the lower axle mounts and the upper chassis mounts.


Machined and assembled rear links. I am going to cut wrench flats and put a logo in them when I tear the buggy down for final welding and paint.

I kind of skipped out on pictures of the mahined parts but below are some shots of the rear suspension all "finished".


passenger lower link axle mount


Drivers side upper chassis side link mount.


Jimmy's 4x4 axle link bracket all finished.





All of the brackets are welded inside and out and then ground down since I can't weld like pro's. All of the link brackets thatI made are built from 3/16 plate and have a 1/8 saftey washer that I machined welded to them so that the bolts don't oblong the holes.

[rugby]

if you ever need a hand or some one to watch you work and drink beer i am good at both. this is a nice build so far.
brandon

[offroadman83]

Love your buildups and love the KORE chassis!! Looking forward to more pics!!----------------Kyle

[SBChero]

what, no dimple dies on the holes?

looks good. i like that chassis.

[katesoffspring]

Good work Blase and the smooth holes look really good, to many dimple dies on some rigs.

[UCTJ]

Gonna be another nice build I am sure.

[muddyblzr]

its about time!
nice work so far now hurry up krocks is about to close!

[TJ Ken]

Right on Blase...Nice to see the build thread.

How's that 'other' chassis coming along? Lol


Let me know if you need anything to finish it

-K.

[Blase]

Originally Posted by SBChero

what, no dimple dies on the holes?

looks good. i like that chassis.

Originally Posted by katesoffspring

Good work Blase and the smooth holes look really good, to many dimple dies on some rigs.

I am working on a budget so I don't have the coin for bunch of differant sizes. I have some 1.00" dies that I made but since I just guessed at the presure angles and gaps to leave they don't work real good. IF the point of dimple dies is for looks.....my dies wont cut it.

Originally Posted by TJ Ken

Right on Blase...Nice to see the build thread.

How's that 'other' chassis coming along? Lol


Let me know if you need anything to finish it

-K.

Ken I was going to wait until later in the build to let the cat out about this rigs big brother buuuuut since you asked it is coming along nicely. He just started building a house and as of yesterday has not touched it in three weeks but it is sitting on it's own weight. I am heading back Home this weekend and I'll roll it out and take some pictures of it.

[B.A.R.K]

So which one of the Outcast is building another chassis? I will guess Beefy?

[Blase]

Couple more updates. As soon as I put the axles under the chassis I saw that I was going to have some issue's in the front. The WMS-WMS on my axle is 62" with out the spacers that I run(64" w/ the spacers). That along with the fact that the axle was built six years ago with my spring over jeep in mind left me with a high pinion axle that was rotated up some.
This is what I was dealing with.


Pinion anlge at full bump.


Pinion in relation to the center of the rig.

Kenneth at K.O.R.E. and I talked about issues I might run into in detail before I bought this chassis so I was aware that I may run into these problems. I decided to go with the same set up I was running in the rear only Modified to handle things like steering and drivetrain.

The lower links where pretty straight forward and done like the rear only a little shorter and with a little less triangulation for steering clearnace. Pictures below.


I discovered a broken King Pin stud and decided to take the front end apart to check for other problems. Other than some worn parts in the king pin's everything looked fine. That is why the jack is holding holding the pinion up


Lower link angle at full bump.


passenger lower link axle mount

The upper links where a little tougher to figure out for a couple of reasons. Due to the changes I made to the links from what K.O.R.E. normally does I did not have a good place to mount the link to at the chassis. I looked at a couple fo differant options but this was the only way I found to get the seperation and link lengths that I needed. This is what I came up with. Once I have the drive train in and the drive shaft installed I will brace it up better to insure it can take some abuse.

I used cardboard to cut out a template that fit the chassi. Then transfered that to 3/16 plate that just like the rear will get a customer 1/8 washer welded on to renforce the bolt holes. It is also welded inside and out and then the outside was ground down.

Side plates next to cardboard templates.


Finish bracket. The top and bottom are made out of .125 just like the rear.


tacked in place. Again once the drive train and drive shaft is in place this will get some kind og bracing from the inside for extra support..


i used my old one pc drive shaft to check for clearance and it will not be a problem at all, plenty of room. It turned out to be a blessing that the pinion was routated up when the suspension is at full drop the driveshaft will get close to the lower links but will clear


Completed front suspension. you can see in this picture how high the axle is in the chassis.

I promise you all these builders that make getting a buggy low look easy are VERY talented!! This chit is not easy!!!

More to come.

[LostIt]

Cool build. It's nice to see someone else from Pearland on the board.

[BigWoodyWag]

And you said you werent that good at welding...

Come on and get this shizz done so we can go test it out.

Originally Posted by Blase

passenger lower link axle mount

[FrkyMnky1487]

Why did you not make the bracket to fit in front of that tube instead of off to the side? Based on your highest hole it looks like you would not have a problem with it hitting at full stuff and that would have angled out your links a little bit giving some more triangulation.