"Big Darla" Build Thread

[XionicWaste]

More updates...

I went down to Denver last weekend and helped my buddy stretch his TJ jeep. We threw in a YJ dana 44 and XJ leafs. We got about 5 inches of stretch.

As for me, the guy who did my buddy's gears had a Ranger TTB so I got some shafts and also some extra locking hubs. With those shafts I tacked on the caps so I wouldn't have another incident like the one a few weeks ago... Now yesterday I read that you shouldn't weld the very end of the shaft because it weakens it and you shouldn't weld the sides because you cannot fit the shaft in BUT I did. The tacks are not very big and I doubt they will effect strength very much. The needle bearings didn't heat up and no grease boiled out.

There is a kid at my college with an older lifted land cruiser. The rig is cool but and check out his pinion angle:

We also got some snow... I want to be there when that dude throws his land cruiser throws it in 4wheel drive.

 

[hockeyryan]

thats a nice ranger that you got.
holy that is some pinion lol

 

[XionicWaste]

Thanks Hockeyryan,

Some updates:
Ive always leaked a little bit of anti-freeze and finally got the part and replaced it:

I also made a tire siping tool out of a 40w soldering iron, razer blade, and small vise grips. It works great!:

and siped the tires:

My blend door had never worked on the truck (I always had hot) so I decided to see what the issue was. The axle on the blend door was broken so I could do the "nail fix." I fixed it without removing the dash, I only had to
fold down the glove box:

Works great now! Clicky for blend door fix.

My land lord gave me some wood so I made a RTI ramp. I actually found out how poorly my front end flex's:

After I backed off the side of the axle one of the caps came off the ujoint on the axle shaft that I did not weld yet. Its odd that the caps on both sides come off now but not earlier. I welded my spare axle shaft's caps on and threw it in... I need to either get new ujoints for the spares or just pick up a new set of shafts, It might be cheaper and more beneficial to just get a new set of shafts from a TRS member (PM me if you have a set you'll sell).

My buddys jeep with the stretch and rear leafs:

Seeing how poorly my front end flexed compared to my buddys jeep motivated me into buying new springs. These are Rancho #6423 springs rated 240ppi. They are for a jeep XJ and are a 3 inch lift. They are 18" long. I got them for 140 shipped from amazon.com.

Im working on bondo and paint, Im hoping I will finish this weekend.

Upcoming projects: instal CB (old one broke,) fix ground wire on battery terminal (sometimes during start up it will just click and lose battery connectivity) Either make euro style grill and mount my old off-roading lights in the grill or just run them with stock grill. Theres way more to be done but thats it for now!

 

[XionicWaste]

Heres an idea, what do you think?

 

[Kage]

...I also made a tire siping tool out of a 40w soldering iron, razer blade, and small vise grips. It works great!:

...

Heres an idea, what do you think...

I'd skip on putting lettering on my hood

 

[XionicWaste]

I'd skip on putting lettering on my hood :thefinger:[/QUOTE]

Ive been debating on this for some time now...jk :icon_cheers:

[IMG]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-KGkugHt_u6E/TqL3IiMAjfI/AAAAAAAAA9c/51umQLqtDEo/s912/red%252520neck.jpg

 

[kroussinoffroad]

sweet truck, one thing i really wanted to do to my truck but never did was shorten the frame like you did. woulda been sick with the fullwidth's.

 

[XionicWaste]

sweet truck, one thing i really wanted to do to my truck but never did was shorten the frame like you did. woulda been sick with the fullwidth's.

Yeah I agree! Full widths are in the future.

Im actually kinda frustrated at the moment. As you know I ordered some xj coils they talk about in the tech section and here I figured the truck would sit a little low in the front but its a bit lower than I anticipated.

I guess I cant really return them because I painted them prior to putting them on the truck...

I also ordered some f250 shocks for 10 bucks a piece... There super long:

I guess I should have realized when I put the new coils next to the old that issues would arise because the new and old were the same height.

So Im going to sleep on my predicament... Im either going to lower the coil bucket OR drop 250 bucks on a pair of skyjacker D70 coils... their 7 inches long and 300 ppi. I think the truck will sit fairly high if I get those coils though.

 

[XionicWaste]

So I just figured out what I'm going to do. I am going to order the Skyjacker D70 coils and if they are too long then Im going to raise my coil buckets. This way when I finally do a SAS I can use those coils. To fit the shorter xj coils I would have to lower my buckets 4 inches. Im just going to have to be patient and wait for the new ones to come. The upside is I have a friend who is going to lift his xj and Im pretty sure I can offload those springs tomorrow.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

yeah we tried the xj coil thing in the "dirty white boy" it sat correct but was WAY TOO SOFT!!! if you were stricktly crawling they woulda been o.k. but they struggled to keep the front of it up down rough trails and talk about brake dive. if you touched the brakes the front just droped. they came out right away and got the ttb coils thrown back in imediately.

might have to get a weekend of wheelin planed next time your up in WIS. I'm allways game for a good adventure. my new project should be ready by mid to late november.
plan a ultimate TRS weekend adventrue

 

[XionicWaste]

Well Im going to start off by posting a picture I find kinda funny; My buddy used my shop:

I noticed awhile one of my drop brackets cracked so I welded that up, heres a shot where it cracked:

Moving on... I finished paint and bondo ... the bondo isnt perfect but Im not a perfectionist so I dont mind. I painted my shackles too:
before:

After:

I got the front end to flex a bit more than usual:

I also started a local 4x4 club and got some business cards... They turned out pretty well except the back got messed up, they were pretty cheap so I dont mind:

I started to work on that grill mod I posted awhile back:
Cut:

Design Concept:

Then I taped over the cuts:

Layed down some healthy layers of filler bondo:

Then I cleaned up the bondo, painted, and worked on lights. I welded some threaded rod to the lower radiator frame area and wired the lights to a relay which turns on when my main headlights turn on.

Heres a pic from my dorm window... Ill get a better pic later but do you guys think I should add mesh/expanded metal or leave it?

I also was having a CB radio issue that I resolved (antenna was grounding itself out) and I bought a 60" highjack for 66 bucks shipped and am going to do a custom-ish bed mount.
Thats all for now!

 

[4.0B2]

I would try to find some kind of mesh or something for it..

 

[kris97ranger]

I like it without mesh.. if you put mesh in itd just look like every other billet grille out there

 

[Kage]

No mesh. I'm still digging the truck!

 

[kroussinoffroad]

now to shave the taillights