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Koup's 94 reg cab build:38.5s, duals, links, etc..

101K views 303 replies 63 participants last post by  jopickens 
#1 · (Edited)
Koup's 94 Truggy Build:38.5s, duals, links, etc..

So I'm finally building another truck, tossed up the idea of building my 94 sr5, but couldnt justify ruining a perfect dd, so I bought a 94 reg cab with a "blown" motor for $300, with the sole intent of fixing the front main that puked everywhere n drop the 22/5speed/toycase in my uberly clean 88 zuk....then I changed my mind yet AGAIN and decided to just build the 94 reg cab and not care about body damage... Then the day after I got my 94 sr5 inspected, the headgasket in the 3.0 blew, so I sourced a 3.4 n decided to swap it, putting a huge damper on the trail truck build, but I've got a loooong history with my 3.0. Myself and my old man did everything except the wiring, which the auto trans harnes was cut, and i was in over my head, soooo the truck went to my old man's buddy's shop and he's doing the wiring. It should be done within the next week or two, and I cant start cutting the reg cab up, since it is my temp dd... so I'm going to start with the pics of the shit I've made for the build, since I took a million pics... enjoy!


94 Truggy build plans:

-build AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, before using my plastic money
-cut frame 28" ahead of leaf spring mounts, build new rails off the back
-double triangulated 4 link for the rear and stretching to 108"
-sas the front with leaves from my previous 87 pickup build
-dual cases for now, then 4.7's in the rear case down the road (baller on a budget)
-junking the cancerous bed and building a flatbed
-hydro assist
-partial exo.... and you'll just have to watch the thread to see what other little touches get thrown in

the ole girl before surgery:
 

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#2 ·
since I planned on building as much as possible for this truck, I went with 2x2x1/4" for links and had a big asss piece of 1.5x4 solid bar at work, so I cut 1.5" pieces and milled a slot in them to fit around the weld in the box tube
 

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#4 · (Edited)
next came boring the holes to be tapped... being as how where I work is the first time i got to use a lathe and mill, a lot, haha so that's most of the reason I wanted to build everything, because I had the facility and time to and I'm more of a "If I can make it, I'm not gonna pay for it"... to me, my time is free.... Here's some lathe action
 

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#5 ·
from the last pic you can see I started with a 3/8" bit, ran it in till the flutes filled up, then ran the 13/16" in until it's flutes filled up, then ran the 3/8" BACK through and then finished with the 13/16"... kinda time consuming, but whatever... :flipoff2: and I took a bunch of pics on the lathe haha
 

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#6 ·
told ya I took a bunch of pics on the lathe haha
 

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#7 ·
took about a half hour a piece to bore the blocks, the longest part was centering them in the lathe head... then this is the way I devised to run the 7/8" tap through them, straight... talked to a friend at a local machine shop n he said just throw it in a vice n tap em... me n tapping holes always ends in a broken tap... so I grabbed the centering point thing from the lathe n threw it in a collet in the mill, turned perfect true, so I lined the block up with the 13/16" bit, then ran the tap down... surprisingly enough, about 8 minutes a piece n they were done... took me about 3 hours total for all 4, but didn't cost me a dime :D just my time
 

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#8 ·
next came the housing... designed everything with the 4 link calc, started with the housing, last picture was a brain fart with notching the truss :shaking: , ended up welding the pieces I cut out back in and recutting and grinding them...musta been a Monday....
 

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#9 ·
some more of the rear housing. got the rear separation as close to 9.5-10" as possible, figured I could make up any mis-measurements with the link tabs...and my ultra high tech cardboard spacers...which later on made the tabs wayyyyyy too far apart, ha so i cut n turned a couple pieces of 3/4" poop pipe, to 2-11/16", and cut a few tacks, bolted and retacked them...
 

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#10 ·
few more right after I welded the truss up...
 

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#11 ·
finished housing pics... ready to rot n roll! really intended to make the lower link tabs so they would protect the flex joints...but with 38.5s, we'll see how much abuse they get and I'll go from there...
 

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#12 ·
couple more....was never a fan of the Esab Multimaster 260 when I started working here, but once it's dialed in right, one of the smoothest mig setups I've used, and I've used quiiiiite a few different wire feeders... changed my opinions on mutli-process machines..
 

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#13 ·
couple more of the housing...
 

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#14 ·
one more of the housing and then the crossmember build....some of the pics came out a litte fuzzy, but every picture in here was taken with my Droid, the original Droid, with tbi, before mpi, it's a step above the old carbuerated "dumb phones"...
 

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#15 ·
dont mind the 2x2x1/8 wall tacked on top, its just to hold everything in place before the top piece is made... measured and divided and added and multiplied then read the tape measure wrong for the first 3 holes in the upper mounts (the bottom 3 holes), then woke back up and drilled the other 3 holes with the correct offset to put the center of the joints where I wanted them... lower 3 holes are just for weight savings now...
 

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#18 ·
couple more of it basically finished, all thats left is to do it plate the bottom of the lower mounts, basically make "skids" for them... all the tabs are set at 2-11/16" apart, and for my links, I have 4 heims and 4 flex joints, heims at the crossmember, so when the heims shit out, if they do, the brackets are ready for ballistic forged joints to be threaded in and bolted on...
 

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#19 ·
next up was the links, can't remember the exact lengths, but the flex joints are ballistic 2.63s and heims are ruffstuff 7/8"x7/8" and the hardwares 5/8" for both ends...both the heims and flex joints are of amazing quality and dealing with both companies was a pleasure, y'all got a returning customer here...but I figured that should be enough for a 22re haha, only time will tell... decided to tig the flex joints in, just to reduce the chances of spatter getting in on the pretty little machined surfaces and further reduce any warpage, so I ran two passes on them and let them cool off slowly, worked out well
 

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#20 ·
once the links were done, I wanted everything together to make sure it all worked and there werent any issues, even though everything was already finish welded... started putting it together myself on my table, haha just picture monkeys and footballs.... yaaaa, so I called my buddy Mark up n he came and assisted in assembly, at 11:30 at night... all shots are at ride height and of course, a pic of the sickkkk flexxxxx....
 

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#21 · (Edited)
one more of some booger welds and then the start of the spring hanger, my 3 hour hanger...hangers made out of 2x3x3/16", got measurements from the spring hanger thread on here, with minor modifications for my setup, 2" drop, one inch stretch... and no fancy plasma table at my disposal, so i made a 20 minute porta band stand and did it the old fashioned way, a step above the Flinstones and torches...most other brackets were plasma cut n cleaned up with a fap fap fap wheel...
 

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#23 ·
couple more...phone impresses me with it's quality... at times
 

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#24 · (Edited)
couple more... only covered the the upper part, with the point being that my old one i just made boxes and welded them to the sides of the box tubes, looked like shit, but worked and the boxes doubled as a hi-lift pickup point, and it was very convenient when a wheel needed pulled, so I implemented it on the 2nd version... all the blue prints are written out and I can make them rather quickly now, so if anyone would like to purchase one, PM me...
 

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#25 ·
and the last couple, on the dining room table :flipoff2: I like how it came out and I've gotten a lot of :smokin: replies
 

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#26 ·
thats it for now, other than waiting for my old man's buddy to finish the 3.4 swap wiring so I can pull this piece off the road and get cutting on it... heres some pics of the boggers I scored for dirt cheap, just about brand new... didnt want boggers, the dude even said in the ad AND on the phone they were tsl's, after my hour n a half drive to get them, I show up to find boggers... kinda mad, but I was there so I took em, knocked em off the 5x5.5 wheels and now they just sit at work... updates will come as soon as I start on it... plan is for about 4" of lift and cut whatever rubs, and keep it pa street legal, to a point...
 

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