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I also found that my alignment guy left me a gift. This wrench traveled 300 miles on a highway and about 100 off road clinging onto the torsion bar adjuster jam nut. The open end!
Unfortunately the alignment guy is a friend of mine and I'll have to give it back.
lmao...
I drove around for a weak with my old craftsman 1/4" ratchet jammed into the shock of my audi (you need it to spread it for removal)...
whoops!
That's impressive though, open ended!
Finally had time to adjust the crazy 2.5 inch rake out of the 1g. Still plan on building a baja style bumper for it before I take it back to Mexico, but I'm running out of time and It's hot as balls outside.
I'm giving my first shot at building a bumper a go on the old x. It isn't done yet, the next steps require some tube coping skills that I currently lack. In other word's I'm uploading some stuff now before It goes all fubar on me. Also I'm adding some steel plate on the bottom and some catwalk mesh to make sure creosote bushes and what not don't puncture the radiator. Not sure how that will look yet either.
Lets see, what else. It doesn't really go out far enough. I should probably have gone another 3 or 4 inches in front of the front fascia. I didn't want to stick a 600 plus dollar winch on it then leave it parked 6 months out of the year in Mexico which is why I just went with a front hitch to pull from. I tried to tuck it out of the way as much as possible, but that also means my bush armor will need to fill in on top of it so I can access it. I dunno, this is more of a experiment than a how to. Don't do what donny don't does.
The stock bumper is sorta hanging in there. Still has at least 30 percent of the plastic clips in place. PO took the fog lights when they sold it I can't imagine why
Bumper off, the lack of fasteners made it easy.
No going back now. Trying to get more approach angle, I also has a bunch of 1/4 plate laying around to help reinforce the crash zone cut up frame horns.
12 holes 4 times each (stepping up bit sizes). I think I've drilled less than 60 holes with that craftsman drill and after this it literally let the smoke out.
More quarter inch steel, I cut apart a trailer hitch from a RV and re-purposed it. That's kinda a theme here. The only steel I actually bought was 70 dollars worth of 1.75 inch tubing.
adding more gravity
first bend with a new tubing bender. No more welding tubes shut with sand to bend with a harbor freight pipe bender for me.
Mustache
Frown
Basic shape achieved.
That's it, hopefully more to come. Unless it's ugly, then you will never hear of it again and I'll sell it to the circus.
A Pipe fitter I am not. It feels like every joint takes me hours. Now a smarter man would have designed it so that all the joints were 90degrees, but here I am.
Stapler, isn’t that going to add a shitload of weight to the front end? Are you going to have to completely redo the front suspension so the truck isn’t grossly nose heavy?
Thanks all. It's just it takes forever. Like I can hang a door to a house, but when I figure in my hourly rate it becomes like a 800 dollar job.
It will ad a little weight. At the moment I can still lift it easily so it doesn't weigh that much. That is the main reason why I went with this instead of a 3/16 plate bumper like you see from ARB, it's also why tube bumpers are more common on desert running trucks that are 2wd.
The truck already has upgraded springs and shocks, If it does sag a bit all I should really have to do is tighten the torsion bars when I'm done. I took the height measurement with it off after it's last alignment so that is what I'm going to go with.
It's done with the welding and bending, still need to take it back off and paint it some color.
This was my excuse for taking on this project. I didn't have a real tubing bender. If I have the chance to buy a tool for the price of a part I always take the tool. I consider making the stand out of scrap part of the project too.
Welded up
Test fit #2 (this was actually before the welding up-ening)
Well this is the part where the aesthetic starts to go sideways a bit. I really like the work I did with the tube, but the material selection to keep brush out wasn't great. I also don't think the design I chose with the 1/3 diamond plate and 2/3 catwalk helps it either. It could have used some more sketching and maybe a trip to actually buy some new metal. OR I could have left it bare and just not run over creosote bushes twice.
The side that won't be seen
Making sure it clears the supports for the beat to shit plastic fascia. Seriously, making that dip and getting everything coped was a huge pita. Should have just cut up the plastic and made it straight.
Clearance for the washer bottle... It may still rub as it's body on frame. It would have been nice to get another 1/4 inch in there.
Fugly side
And the meat grinder front. I think it's growing on me a little, but I still would like to do another one differently. I wouldn't put the trailer hitch so low, not because I'm worried about hanging up on it, but because it dictated how the rest of the bumper was built. If I had a bottom tube instead the tubes that come up on the side would be a little lower and the whole thing would have a little less of a pencil mustache look. I also would give it a much bigger overbite so it would have more room for lights and be easier to make bends.
I don't know what it weighs yet. I can still lift it into place, but I don't even lift bro... so I don't know how much that is. When I take it off to paint it I'm gong to put it on a hanging scale to see.
Final weight was 91 lbs. I was hoping it was like 500 and I just happen to have a amazing dead lift without working out.
Quick tutorial on how to cap a pipe using the tulip method. First go find the formula and draw it out on paper. 2nd, cut out the paper and tape the template to your pipe.
3rd, find out ballistic fab is like down the street and go buy the the ones they make on a cnc lathe for like 8 dollars.
Then weld that in, it's all new steel so it welds fraking great. Oh, a note on the cheap chinese bender. It tears up the pipe unless you polish the bending dies. I learned that here. That was filled in before the next step.
You forgot to mention that the ARB probably costs close to a thousand, if not that much. You did a good job bending it and all, I can only imagine how big of a pain it is to do all that yourself.
I sprayed knocked loose the surface rust and treated the old metal with rust converter. I think the flat black looks pretty good, but I have a gallon of herculiner I bought for a project that never happened I'm going to use.
OR, that has all gone to shit and I'm going to be shopping for some flat black tomorrow morning.
as it comes together, I have to admit, I'm impressed.
I know it's function function function for the desert but any thoughts on polishing out those headlights?
that's a peeve of mine, especially for safety reasons.
I have a laundry list a mile long of little crap to fix. I have the headlight kit sitting in the passenger seat.
Other things it needs.
Somebody had a bitch'n stereo they ripped out before they sold it. It still has a ok head unit and speakers, but there are shorts in the wires I need to track down.
Head liner is sagging... I was going to do this but last time I was in mexico the local upholsterer came by and quoted a price that was crazy low... I wanted the god abraxes on the roof, but he had some left over Nissan material from another job.
I want to remove the stupid aftermarket spoiler in the back, who even does that?
The aftermarket CAI needs to be replaced with a stock air box. Yay water in the engine.
I would like to make some rock rails, Nissan side steps are actually worse than nothing.
Rear bumper with tire carrier? Sure, why not. (the current rear bumper is a bit bent up anyway)
I don't drive around in the desert at night, had some bad experiences. Still, I have 4 old KC highlights that would look kick ass on the front.
I would like to put some okay at tires on it, but I'm not going to do that until I kill at least two of these long fails.
Nothing super expensive, but plenty of crap to do.
I don't have to look, my shop is filled with them. My 56 ford, vw thing, sandrail, scooter... I think I have a bmw 2002 buried somewhere. I just need 3 more me's.
I sprayed it today. I asked for a flat black at the paint store, they put in 8 ounces of flattener, still looks pretty glossy, but it is what it is. It's also possible that you need to spray it differently and I've never sprayed a flat color before.
Busted out ol' binks model 7.
I also took the time between primer and paint to sort out the stereo. It has some Panasonic Kevlar coned component speakers, but it was making some weird warbling when you went down the road. There were multiple splices in the speaker wire that were just twisted and taped. After taking all the door panels off, removing most of the center console, and crimping/soldering everything it actually sounds pretty good. Also I thought it was missing the rear speakers, but the connections were just loose.
I could get 17 if I really tried in town in the frontier, but only managed about 20 keeping it under 70. If I forgot what speed I was going it would drain that 15 gallon tank pretty quickly. Anytime I took a long trip I just stopped anywhere they sold gas.
One more update. The headliner is fixed and I can go down the highway with he windows open without it flipping down in front of me. I also got to take it down some trails again and replacing all the bushings and ball joints made it much nicer off road. It's basically like a real car now.
Oh, and I got the parts I was talking about before at the Pick n Pull yard. I got a Factory air intake and a couple spare discontinued automatic hubs. The frontier needed a couple of bits of trim for the doors and radio bezel I can't buy new anymore too. ~100 bucks in total.
shit yeah, nice score...
what do you go with for your suspension stuff like ball joints and tie rods?
I'm currently considering revamping the Yukon's and I'm trying to keep it budget friendly. I know Moog can be good...but they say to stay away from the Moog pitman arm...so I
almost pulled the trigger on the Advantage AC Delco line but I'm wondering if the Pro line is worth the extra scratch.
Moog as far as I know has a hit and miss reputation, though they are okay on nissans. Mevotech has been pretty solid for me and they also re brand things like SPC upper control arms, but despite my luck with them my alignment guy considers them to be a low end budget part... You probably are better off just checking the suburban forum to see what their hive mind has settled on.
After a little bit of curious searching it looks like ac delco does their part tiers like Napa. Some of those "advantage" parts may be moog, their pro stuff should be a step up from that (but isn't always for some parts like ball joints). For gm they do offer another tier of "gm oe"
they mostly say moog or acdelco pro but then the amazon reviews on it say that they aren't quality parts...
apparently acdelco OEM version is the best but I don't see it anywhere...
My grandpa has had this old Ford f-150 and I decided to make it run last week, good thing I also have my mid 80's Sears Craftsman Diagnostic Analyzer.
It's a 85 his friend bought new, but barely kept running with little fixes. Every wire is patched with home wiring and wire nut kind of fixes. I just went through the spaghetti monster of vacuum lines and gave it a little tune up and the old l6 seems to run strong. I also adjusted the doors, installed new window weather stripping, got the signals and headlights sorted, replaced the duct taped mirrors, and upgraded the battery box from a 2x4 and a rag to something that would actually hold down a battery. Still need to get it a non clapped out carb somewhere though and if I can find a unmolested engine compartment wire harness I'm grabbing it. I like that our state doesn't have safety inspections, but sometimes people take this shit to the limit.
Anyway, it's 4.9 L6, short bed, with the 4 speed (1st is a granny gear). I love this style of truck and if nobody in the family needs it I'll try to buy it off him. Oh and it's got a "Patina" which means it's worth like 20k right?
06-01-2018, 06:35 PM
