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*-j-rOds 85 Trail Roach*

85K views 240 replies 71 participants last post by  mystikk27 
#1 ·
Figured Id start a build thread now that I have enough done to warrant one...

Started with an 85 reg cab toy that I bought from a coworker, it had a fresh 22r, weber38, LC engineering header and exhaust, 3 inch procrap lift and 32s. I sold the bed, tires and wheels off of it and started doing work. First job was to get rid of the awful paint, so I scuffed it up and shot it with some krylon khaki rattle cans. Next was to swap in a IFS rear, do a 1 inch roger brown body lift, 2 inch spacers on the front and some sky boomerang shackles, all of which i did at my house in the driveway. I already had a set if 36x12.5 tsl sxs and some 5.29 thirds with a detroit in one so tires and gears were taken care of. Next was to gather parts to do 63 chevy rears, 3" trail mart front springs and shock hoops, skys front hanger, chevy swap kit and ubolt flips, Kongs hi steer arms, Shakerbuilt draglink and tie rod, all pro rock sliders, warn 9.5 ti, and dual cases. Got all of the parts together and got time to get out to a buds shop this past weekend and get the suspension and steering done. Still have to order shocks prolly gonna go with a set of 14" bilsteins, Weld on the sliders, order a budbuilt xmember and install the duals, and get a tube flatbed and exo done so I can keep a windshield in it when i happen to flop it on the trail. Anyhoo heres the pics so far, enjoy.

easy

-j-rOd:smokin::grinpimp:
 

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#90 · (Edited)
we did lots more wheeling after dark but only took a couple of pics... my bud managed to park his k5 on my pass front with 35s and 3.08 open diffs :laughing: and theres a pic of me fawkin around on a stump and one of my buds wifes bolt ons...
 

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#91 ·
I really enjoyed going through your build....Nice build!!

I can't wait to get my truck moving and your build made me wish I was running all toy parts. I have been strugling trying to figure out my 4.3/700r4/dana 300 (flushmount) combo.
By any chance do you know a nice build thread I can read with my combo?
Perferably a thread liek yours...detailed and a clean build!!
Nice work!
 
#92 · (Edited)
thanks for the kinds words man... i had a v8 toy and after i parted it out i said ill never do another conversion truck... just more work than its really worth for a trail truck...

theres a few threads on here with similar combos to what yer running.... check out the thread at the top of the toy section with all of the build threads in it.... ill dig around and see what I can find.

easy

-j-rOd
 
#94 ·
broke out the grooving iron last night and started hacking on my sxs... I cut the outside lugs with a #2 head and the wear bars and inside lugs with a #5. Cutting out the wear bars took longer than actually cutting the tread blocks... all in all i have @ 3hours or so in the tire from start to finish... Ill weigh one tonight and then weigh the cut one just to see how much rubber actually came off of the tire. The pile of rubber is about 1/3 of the actual rubber that was cut out of the tire... heres a couple of crappy cell phone pics because my digi camera took a poop this weekend...:flipoff2:
 

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#95 ·
Nice buildup J-rod! I look forward to wheeling with you guys in the near future or at least catchin a beer with ya sometime. I'll let ya know when the new shop opens and perhaps you can come by and check it out.

Sean Lipscomb
Custom Automotive Engineering
 
#96 · (Edited)
Thanks Sean, lookin forward to wheelin witcha... although I think Ill need some bigger sneakers on the roach to follow the trailmobile on 44s... :flipoff2:

Def wouldnt mind coming out there and checkin out your operation...

We'll hafta drink a beer at dennis' next month if nothin else...:grinpimp:
 
#97 ·
went back out to my uncles farm this past weekend and went wheelin, made some trails, had some :beer: and managed to break a birf with an open front and 35 bfg mts friday night :p Stabbed another inner and birf in it sat morning and beat on it the rest of the day... heres a pic of the birfield, still gotta get the rest of the pics from my buds...
 

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#99 ·
Yeah theres more tube in the future for sure... thatll happen over the winter since the truck is @ 3.5 hours away from me now... and Ive already pushed the upper windshield tubes into the tops of the fenders on both sides, so i may add a bar across the front of the hood as well right at the bottom edge of the hood...
 
#101 ·
as of right now I have @ 5500- 6k in the truck, now keep in mind that I already had the tires and wheels as well as the thirds with gears and rear detroit... and @ 1500 of that was tubing and labor for the exo... I have a spreadsheet at home I will post up exact prices on the build so that you can see what things cost... and there were a lot of places i could have cut corners to save $$ and built parts that i bought but it just wasnt an effective use of the limited time I had during the build to fab parts versus installing parts... And I also upgraded a few things along the way such as the bilstein shocks, tcase mount, matching spare tire, etc that I could have saved some more $$ on.. BTW the bilstein shocks are worth every PENNY for sure... Ill never own cheap shocks again...
 
#104 ·
stock birfs for now... i have a stockpile of them and will run them as long as i have an open front, then once i save $$ to get the front locked ill put in longs... gotta sell/build a house before I do all that though...:D
 
#106 ·
Heres a copy and paste from the spreadsheet that i tracked what i was spending on this project... i managed to sell enough stuff of of the truck when i first got it to only have $175 in it... Also i sold off @ 2k in random stuff that i had laying around in order to offset the costs of this a little more... :smokin:

1985 Roach Build Costs
Front Axle
Shackles $60
Spring hanger $100
Ubolt Flip $55
Steering arms $150
TREs $75
3" TG springs $199
Shock Hoops $49
Brake Lines $50
Diff Armor $15
Frame Bushings $8
Bilstein Shocks $150
Steering Stabilizer $65
Wheel Spacers $70

Total $1,046


Rear Axle
Brakes/seals $100
Chevy spring kit $120
Bilstein Shocks $150
Ubolt flip $55
Total $425


Other
Truck Cost $175
Seats $30
Grille $30
1" body lift $50
Shifter bushings/boot $27
Oil, silicone, misc $75
Carb Kit/ Air Filter $61
Rock Sliders $75
Dual Cases $500
Tcase Shifter Boots $20
Tcase Flanges $50
Winch Mount Plate $129
Steel for rear xmember $15
Steel for Front Shaft $15
Carb adapter, Book, FP Reg $82
Spare tire $40
Battery $50
Tcase Mount $88
Master Cylinder, Brake Fluid $43
Agri Supply Misc $36
Speedo Cable Extension $24
Low Profile Drain Plugs $16
DIY4x Misc $65
CB Stuff $38
Budbuilt Xmember $250
Fabrication/Welding Supplies $400
Hawse Fairlead $30
OBA tank, hose, fittings $100
Seals Bearings $77
Seat cover, lights $30
Misc Bolts grinding wheels $75
Rear Shaft and joints $120
Tube Work $1,500

Total $4,316


Grand Total In Project $5,787


Total out of Pocket Expenses $3,887
 
#107 · (Edited)
So I was back out at my uncles farm last weekend and somehow ended up breaking another birfield crawling/crossing some logs on a new path. So that being said I am scraping money together to buy a set of 30 spline longs and hub gears as well as an aussie locker for my junk and am probably gonna go ahead and do a fifth stud on the steering arm as well similar to what bobby long sells on his site... I also want to twin stick the rear case just so ill be able to turn better once i put the aussie in since it should ratchet easier when there is no power being applied to the front shaft. Anyhoo thats all for now, itll be after xmas before I can perform exploratory surgery and see how bad the broken birf is...

easy

-j-rOd
 
#108 · (Edited)
little update to this pile... Managed to get out this past weekend and fix the front end, again...

the energetic disassembly of my driver side birfield is getting more and more brutal... had to take the entire knuckle off of the housing this time to remove the bell and all of the bits and pieces...

The housing took some damage this time, put a pretty big gouge/dent in the seal surface and started chewing away at the trunion bearing race pockets as well.

Anyhoo heres a couple pics of the birfield stew and the seal surface.

This birf broke in reverse and the inner star didnt break so it was able to stir the shit around in the knuckle even more than last time when the cage and star grenaded. Definitely cause more carnage in the housing than last time. anyhoo onto the pics...

one day ill be able to get longs... hopefully:flipoff2:
 

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#109 ·
Heading out this weekend to work on the rig a little more, hopefully get some tube work done but if not then i still have plenty of other stuff that I can do to it... Updates next week...
 
#111 ·
I honestly didnt think that id be breaking them as easily with an open front and 35 mud terrains on dirt... i cant imagine how often theyd break if i had a front locker and my 36 sx's on in the rocks...
 
#117 ·
well I went wheeling this past weekend and broke another driver side birf after hammering on the front end in the rain crossing some logs multiple times... pretty sure i weakend the birf crossing the logs and it broke on a small greasy hillclimb... so it being this close to tax time, Im gonna wait and fix it after i get my refund and am able to afford longs and hub gears... All of this was on 35" bfg mud terrains with 25 lbs of pressure on aluminum wheels (76lbs), who knows how much sooner it would have broken it if I had my 36 tsl sx's on steel wheels (105 lbs)...
 
#118 ·
got my tax returns back and ordered up a set of long 30 splines and hub gears last week... :smokin: gonna move my detroit from the back up front and weld up the open front for the rear axle... now just gotta find time to get the front axle stripped down, weld on the gusset kit and install all of the new parts with a set of marlin inner seals.

One question for those of you that are running detroits in the front, do they ever ratchet when turning or is it more or less like running a spool in the front? (thats pretty much how it is in the rear of my rig right now) Also is there that much advantage to running a twin stick on the rear case to be able to disengage the front axle to make turning easier or is it just a waste of money that could be put toward hyd assist?

Everybody likes pics so heres one that ive been staring at for the last week...:grinpimp::smokin:
 

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#119 ·
Looking good man

The detroit up front will basically end up making turn a pain. I know I use my twin stick a lot to make tight turns it will also help you keep from beating the birfs up only thing is that there is a lot of trails you cant get away with using the twin stick.

I would go with the hydro assist
 
#122 ·
thats about what i figured... most everybody i know with a detroit up front ends up making a lot of 3 point turns... I originally wanted to get an aussie locker for the front but they are on at least a 4 week backorder right now... oh well if I dont like the detroit then maybe one day ill hit the lottery and will be able to afford a selectable locker...:D
 
#121 ·
Probably not gonna link this one... id rather keep it simple on leaves... which springs are you referring to (tg3s or chevys?)? so far I havent had any axle wrap problems... just birfield failures due to low gearing and abusing the throttle:grinpimp:
 
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