Red Rocket

[Jbh97009]

Bumper looks as good in the pics as it does in person!

 

[bmikes]

Thanks Joe!

 

[bmikes]

Side note.. Here's a vice! Who thinks it'd be a good idea to have a vice that goes into your trailer hitch? Like to be able to replace u joints, or whatever on the trail?

 

[Demonoid369]

Side note.. Here's a vice! Who thinks it'd be a good idea to have a vice that goes into your trailer hitch? Like to be able to replace u joints, or whatever on the trail?

That's a common upgrade for expo rigs, it's good to have it, I plan on buying one or like in your case building one for exploration use. A vice is invaluable for changing u joints, hammering, etc... Out in the wild

 

[SPECFab]

https://www.macscustomtiedowns.com/product/TrailD-Vise/trail-d-vise
Make one like this ^^^

 

[bmikes]

Trying to wrap my brain around how that works...

Nevermind! When I get spare cash for some more metal I'll make one

 

[bmikes]

Got a little work done

Mock up

Everything fully welded and wire wheeled. Gotta flap wheel a few areas tomorrow

Still deciding on a couple more features, but if I go through with them you'll be in for a surprise

 

[mojojojo]

Lookin good mang !!!

 

[Jbh97009]

Bumper looks amazing Brandon! I'm impressed with how it came out! Thinking maybe I might need to save some cash and just make my own as well....

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

I've never been able to buy an off the shelf bumper, I just don't see the value..

Looks awesome brandon

 

[bmikes]

Thanks guys. And yea, there's no way I could pay for a bumper. For one, I don't wanna have the same thing as everyone else. And for two, I am cheap.

Got a little more done today, had some other projects so I didn't get much done.

Cut out some shackle tabs

Puppy ain't going no where.

Cut the bottom plate to length and drew some pretty templates.. Haha

I'm going to TSF on Sunday, so it'll be done by Saturday!

 

[bmikes]

Got the bumper done and on, just gotta add the lights and find maglite brackets for the license plate.

Going for a shakedown run at browns tomorrow, taking my parents out!

 

[Jbh97009]

Looks great! Have fun tomorrow, and take pics!

 

[stang65]

man that looks good

 

[bmikes]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

Had a successful trip to browns yesterday and hit fire break five, airplane hill, and waterfall all without a hickup. Feels nice to have the rig work the way you built it to work :\

Check out the trip report
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1114662

TSF trip with the parents 8/24/14

 

[MFXJ97]

That thing looks awesome. I love the front bumper. Great work.

 

[MFXJ97]

Well I finally got around to making a bumper

The spindle I got comes with the spindle shaft, and also a tube to weld it to to keep from distorting the shaft itself as much as possible. So I welded the tube one and reinforced and and then welded the spindle into that.

So... I ended up getting tunnel vision I guess you could say. I got off work last Friday morning at 6am, slept til about 2:30, then needed up working on the bumper from 3pm til like 6:30am. Yes, am.. I was welding and grinding and cutting in my garage allllll night. That picture was after I was done, and after I had already swept like twice through out the night. I'll never grind that much in an enclosed space again... One time I looked up and it was like the air turned grey and it was just a hovering cloud in my garage.

Anyway, here's the final project

I was going thru your build and really like your tire carrier . Where did you get your spindle at.

 

[bmikes]

Thanks man, I got it from here
http://www.atozfabrication.com/store/product.php?productid=16138

 

[bmikes]

Well, got off my a$$ today and did something. I got the correct clicking ring in the mail from iron rock offroad last week so I finally went through with my plan to clock the tcase.

Pretty simple really just take out your transfer case, drill new holes, bolt it back up. I used a 1/4" spot drill, then 1/4" drill to finish the holes with the jig still clamped on. Then I used an 11/32" drill, and finished with a 13/32" drill bit.

The factory holes are 7/16" (.4375") and my holes are 13/32 (.406"). It was a snug fit getting the tcase slide back in (maybe it was cause I was bench pressing it and trying to rotate the output shafts and line it up at the same time :eek) but even with all 6 holes being .031" smaller it fit up nicely.

Less room for it to possibly move, and more material left on the adapter to hold it on, that's a win/win in my book.

Wrapped up the output shaft, didn't want any chips getting in there

Clamped the jig on

Clocked it roughly at 12.5 degrees. The outside of those spot drill guides are basically the same size as the finish holes. So I just looked at how the original holes were in relation to the edges (how much material was left) and tried to replicate that on the other side, and it ended up lining up with the 12.5 degree mark.

I wasn't silly, i wrapped the willy even more when drilled. Those are the finish holes.

Progression of drills (.250 spot drill, .250 drill, .343 drill, .406 drill, chamfer.)

When I went to bolt it back up the little ear on the top of the output shaft was just barely contacting the body. So... I did what I do best... whipped out the sawzall!

Good to go

Bolted back up, you can barelyyyyy see the bottom of the tcase below the frame rail.
So for comparison to rigs who have the stock cross member, the bottom of my tcase is pretty much flush with the bottom of my transmission oil pan. Maybe 1/2" lower.

 

[bmikes]

Here's some more pics. Next on the list is rework the exhaust.
Clearance of the corner