!New Improved! "Last Minute" buildup thread

[CheapJeep]

Cool stuff. Will it stay at the same wheelbase or do you have to stretch the rear a bit?

[J Cooper]

i thought those were bed sides off a hilux
... you should just find one of those beds then you would have a stamped toyota tailgate

[mudtoy67]

why wouldn't that work, it's basically a chevy anyway!

Cool stuff. Will it stay at the same wheelbase or do you have to stretch the rear a bit?

I gave up on the stock wheelbase idea. I want to move the engine back almost to the firewall, and I ditched the powerglide idea, so I'm gonna need a little more wheelbase.

i thought those were bed sides off a hilux
... you should just find one of those beds then you would have a stamped toyota tailgate

Either way the tailgate is going to be too narrow for the stamped lettering. I'm considering getting a LUV tailgate so that it matches the bedsides, but I'm also considering using my stock swingout tailgates.

[Reckless]

swing out would look so much nicer

[mudtoy67]

Got the bed cut out tonight. First welded in some braces to keep the body from getting out of whack once I cut the sides. Then cut the bed out...I really gotta get a recipricating saw, it took me 4 4.5" grinder cut-off wheels, 2 die grinder cut-offs, and 1 jig saw blade.

[mudtoy67]

[AggieTJ2007]

hmm, interesting

[mudtoy67]

so....lots of chopping today

Turns out the rear of the cruiser is bolted on to the back of the door frame. This made it pretty easy to remove as the only weld I had to remove was at the top rail. This is the plan I had originally...



the idea was to mount the tank directly behind the main beam of the cab then enclose it with the rear of the tub. After mocking up the 105" wheelbase, I found that this would have most likely resulted in the rear of the tub coming into contact with the tire on full stuff...you can see the rear of the tank is already behind the front of the 33" tire (and I'm going w/ 36's). So now what I'll have is the cab will end just behind the seats and the tank will be in the front of the bed.

I did a bunch of measuring on the seats been using, and determined how much cab I needed to be able to clear seats mounted in a similar location. So here it is mocked up.







I still have some cleaning up to do where the rear of the tub meets the door frame, and I'll tack it in place till it's cage time. I'll also need to make a fill panel where the doors were, finish out the floorboard, and make a fill panel to transition the bottom of the rocker panel to meet the bottom of the rear corners.

[mudtoy67]

Another thing I came across while mocking up the wheelbase...I shouldn't need to extend the frame any to make the suspension work for 105". Probably just build the rear shackle hanger off the back of the bumper. I'm going to continue to use the stock springs, the fronts will be in stock location but 180'd for about 3" extra wheelbase in front, then the rears will be 180'd as well and relocated rearward.

[davido]

That's slick man. I would be afraid to take mine that far apart. I'd have a 4 year old kid by the time it made it back to the trail. I'd like to stretch my wheelbase, but even that is probably too much to take on for a while. Really looking forward to seeing this done BDR. Cool idea!

[mudtoy67]

Thanks! I wouldn't be surprised if my kid is 4 years old before I finish...

I thought you did stretch your wheelbase?

[davido]

I did originally. I'm like 103. I wouldn't mind being 110 - 112 though.

[FJAggie07]

I love the idea of a 45 look. This is turning into a REAL sweet little project.

[mudtoy67]

Noticed this while doing some measurements on the frame....gonna have to do a little swiss cheese repair.

[Seth]

thats fawkin awesome. looks like the moon lander or somethin. heh.