The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[railman]

Lot of little details but I’m running out of reasons for this not to be on the road soon!

and the trail soon after

l8r, John

 

[Kage]

and the trail soon after

l8r, John

Very true! I ran into a bit of a speed bump this week when I ran out of welding gas (kinda hard to move a tank around when all you have to do it with is a Mustang). A good friend of mine got it swapped out for me today, so I should be able to make some more headway here soon. The goal is to have it drivable by next week.

In other news, the tube for my exo showed up today, even came via a 'special' courier...

Now I have to do something about this soon as 22' sticks don't fit in my 18.5' garage very well...

Its only a matter of time before the wife trips over that mess

 

[4.0B2]

Uh oh!!!! Let's get to Fab'n. I'd like to check this one out in person. To bad your like 300 miles from Memphis.

 

[kris97ranger]

yup... seems like the best place to get that tube ouuta the way would be to bend it up and weld it to the truck

 

[Josh40601]

I love that XJ. Just like how he kept the Exo to match the Limited paint scheme. Classy.

 

[Kage]

Uh oh!!!! Let's get to Fab'n. I'd like to check this one out in person. To bad your like 300 miles from Memphis.

Bah, not that far of a drive, swing on by!

yup... seems like the best place to get that tube ouuta the way would be to bend it up and weld it to the truck

That's the plan, though I'm probably a couple of weeks away from being able to bend the first tube. Guess that means I need to start thinking about how I'm going to do this cage at some point

I love that XJ. Just like how he kept the Exo to match the Limited paint scheme. Classy.

The thing works really well to boot! Here is his build thread on our local Jeep board. He's got more than a few hours into it at this point

 

[Kage]

Front Shocks

Using some 2” x 2” x ¼” wall tube, I made up some quick axle shock mounts:

I then used some 3” channel to make the frame side shock mounts:

After those were burned together, I slapped them on the truck. I’ll probably wind up adding a gusset or two to the frame side, but I’ll hold off until I get a chance to flex it out first (less to cut off if I goofed on something):

And with the Shock installed, you can also see the bump stop hanging out there as well (again, that’ll wind up with another gusset after I confirm its where I want it to be):

The shocks came off my old XJ, and are setup with 3” up and 6” down worth of travel. I wanted to allow for a bit more up travel, but there wasn’t any room without moving some things around. So it’ll either be cool, or I’ll swap them out with something else.

 

[97fordrunner]

Looks solid but isn't that gonna be really close to the tire when you stuff it in the fender during flex?

 

[Kage]

Looks solid but isn't that gonna be really close to the tire when you stuff it in the fender during flex?

That's part of the reason I haven't finished getting everything burned in

It Looks/Measures like everything will clear fine, but I want to get it flexed some to be certain.

 

[86 slo-vo]

planning on any kind of gusset for the shock tower?

 

[kroussinoffroad]

yeah think he's plannin on gusset's???

look's sweet. can you run those shock inverted like that nitro/hydro?

Front Shocks

After those were burned together, I slapped them on the truck. I’ll probably wind up adding a gusset or two to the frame side, but I’ll hold off until I get a chance to flex it out first (less to cut off if I goofed on something):

 

[Kage]

planning on any kind of gusset for the shock tower?

yeah think he's plannin on gusset's???

look's sweet. can you run those shock inverted like that nitro/hydro?..

Yup, it'll get something in the near future, They'll hold for a quick trip out to go get it flexed out (more so than what I can do witha cherry picker anyway). After I get that done, I'l add the gussets then.

As for the shocks, the're Rubicon Express monotube's that were on my XJ. I've got no idea what they are fillled with, and I'm hoping they'll work out for me in this application as well since I'm cheap They are installed correctly as shown.

 

[Kage]

Painting the Bed

Big day today, this fellow came over and promptly ran into my truck...

After which, he got to work throwing paint on this in hastily thrown up Paint booth:

Tack coat:

Somewhere inbetween:

Last coat:

Turned out pretty good save for the dirt that came in on the last coat (The Three sided Paint booth isn't without its flaws :lol: ) But it'll work just fine for what its going to see in the future.

I’ll get it slapped on the back of the truck here in the near future. Right now I’m still tidying up some of the loose ends in the rear right now.

 

[Bennybooster]

cute......its missing somthing..........custom pinstriping

 

[Kage]

cute......its missing somthing..........custom pinstriping

That's why I'm not really worried about the dirt in the paint, first trip out it should get plenty of custom stripes