Project El Taco...1990 BII

[RacinNdrummin]

I'm not a fan of the tall and skinny. B2s don't need to be any more top heavy. IMO you need some more offset, but if its working for you roll with it. I know there are several things on mine that others would say don't do.

Also going to cut my fenders like that. I like it and didn't want to lose the whole flair.

I actually agree. In the future this thing will be getting some 35x12.5's with 1.5" spacers when I build my other axle and it gets the 44 outers. I got a killer deal on the LTB's, and I needed wheels to go with them, so got the stockers for $30 thinking they were 15x7's... They turned out to be 6's, and I was actually worried the LTB's wouldnt fit well. Either way, Im somewhere in between 4 and 5 inches of lift and its not terribly tippy with this setup.

 

[Bennybooster]

If you decide to sell these tires let me know!

I want some

 

[RacinNdrummin]

It wont be for a while, my plan is to get this thing to where I can have all the fun I want in it, and wheel it for awhile while I get my fairmont back on the road, then Ill rip into this thing for phase 2. The tires will probably be worn out by then, lol... Plus I was thinking about tossing them on CL for $600 when they bald out, like everybody else.....

 

[shawn.m]

bumper

I would think about cutting the lower front valance to get the winch tucked up a little better. This way you could put a flat plate between the rails like I did. Also lets you strengthen the front end even more

 

[RacinNdrummin]

Thats actually what I have been kicking around the last couple days, I have the cradle built already, but im not sure if I like how far it hangs down. In reality, it doesnt hang down any further than the factory bumper (which was at prefect height in my opinion), but it sets couple of inches further forward because of the winch. Well see, im kicking it back and forth, luckily its rained yesterday and today, so I have some time to think this over.

 

[Bennybooster]

Yea, I wont be looking untill at least august if not later

 

[RacinNdrummin]

Update time...

I was actually hoping to update after I got the bumper done, but I thought ive done quite a bit since my last update and I guess progress is worthy now.

So...

I had started fabbing up a winch cradle a couple weeks ago, which I was going to fab a bumper around. Well luckily It rained for about a week straight, so I had some time to think about how I was going about it. I didnt really like how low it sat (pretty much even with the bottom of the frame rails) so I scrapped what I had going and decided to box in the front of the frame and locate the winch plate between the rails. Doing this netted me about 2" of extra clearance, and made it so the winch actually mounted to the frame instead of the bumper. I pulled the valence from under the grill and trimmed the fenders so that i could run the bumper evenly across the whole front from fenderwell to fenderwell, with the winch tucked in behind the bumper. I made fish-plates with nuts welded to them, that I welded on the inside of the frame before I boxed it in.

Here is some pics:

My helper/legal-owner-of-the-vehicle doing some wire brushing-

The winch-plate setup-

Bum-housin' it-

Cad drawings... I plan on adding a Bull-bar with a couple lights, and some recovery points to the front... I think it will break up the "fanny-pack-ness" look of the bumper... and obviously it will be painted black to match...-

I also sealed up the gap in the back fenders. I just bought some great stuff from lowes and used some DAP polyeurathane caulking to seal the foam up... Dead easy way of doing it.-

Tomorrow im going to bring the DXF files into work and burn out the pieces for the bumper on the plasma table, much easier than doing it by hand.

Updates soon...

 

[88_Eddie]

plasma table??? that's cheating lol


i like the looks of the cardboard model, hurry up and finish

 

[disciplerocks]

I was going to ask how you filled the gap. Thats actually what I was thinking about doing too, along with filling in a couple rust holes lol.

 

[kris97ranger]

that bumper looks awsome! ive seen some people use the flip down liscense plate holders to hide the cables for the winch as well. looks pretty slick

 

[RacinNdrummin]

Here is pics of progress today, got further than I thought, but not as far as I wanted.

More tomorrow...

 

[88_Eddie]

badass.....1/4" plate?

 

[RacinNdrummin]

3/16" plate... I Think 1/4" would be overkill for something like this. Hell I could plow into the back of another car and I dont think this thing would have any damage...

 

[shawn.m]

good job!

 

[RacinNdrummin]

Heres a small update, the weather hasent been cooperating the last few days, this La-nina shit is really getting old... but I finally got it to the point to where I can pull it of and start to finish weld it all up. I still have to put the recovery points on, but I can do that while its in the garage. The light housings will be painted black also...

Hoping to have it finished up by this weekend... I really need to clean my garage up, lol.