Ultra cheap offroad race Explorer turned rock crawler

[Shran]

I wire wheeled as much as I could yesterday and am calling it good. Not going to paint anything. Also finished up the engine crossmember. I just used a couple pieces of flat strap on the back side. I might revisit that in the future if & when I have the engine out and more room to see what I'm welding.

Axle is back under the truck and I am waiting on an email from AccuTune to tell me what springs I need. I have a long list of little things to work on this week. I really want to work on the front bumper and get the winch mounted.

 

[Shran]

Still waiting on spring info so I figured I'd work on a winch mount. The original plan was to use a Warn 8274 that I've had for years. I mocked up a quick mount and decided that it just sticks out too far, looks stupid, and is going to kill my approach angle.

Soooo I shifted gears a bit and took the winch off my car trailer. It is maybe a bit more ideal because the solenoid pack can be removed and relocated - makes them really compact. I was able to tuck it under the grill just a bit and that shortened up the nose of the truck by 6".

My original plan was to do my typical style C channel bumper but I got a bit ahead of myself and didn't plan that very well. I have done a bunch of those anyway, time for a change - the new plan is still formulating in my head but I'll just hint that it involves the tubing bender.

 

[Shran]

A bit done this afternoon. I am going to brace the back side of the wings and fill them in and the top.

 

[Shran]

AccuTune told me that the springs I have will be fine and that I just need to adjust the preload down further. Did that and am more happier with the ride height.

Not much picture worthy to share quite yet, I spent most of last night doing little things like putting the calipers on, lock nuts on everything, etc. I needed ride height to be where it needs to be so I could measure for a front brake hose which is now on order. Tonight I am hoping to have the winch mount 100% done and hopefully the bumper as well or at least pretty close.

 

[Shran]

Tonight I am hoping to have the winch mount 100% done

Hey dumbass, quit having your buddies over for beers on a Wednesday and you'll get more done.

I found a mounting location for the winch control box that should work great. I made longer wires out of some old janky battery cables and verified that the winch works properly after this. I am going to run part of an extension cord into the cab for a switch and that will be tapped into the control box here. That way I have winch control without having to dig out the controller, or I can still plug a controller in, or I can use the wireless controller.

 

[Shran]

Winch wiring is 95% done
Starter cable rerouted and secured
Links set for length and jam nuts tight, going to see how +7 degrees caster feels
Zip tied off a bunch of other wires and reattached the charcoal canister
Plus a few other little things done over the weekend.

Probably tied up this evening with shocks & struts on a side job Kia, 4x4 club meeting tomorrow night, but hopefully Wed/Thurs I can have the brakes fully plumbed and the bumper done. I would like to be able to drive it out of the shop next week so that I can clean it out, get my tool/recovery gear/fluids storage situated, then bring it back in to work on rock sliders and skid plates.

I need to order one inner RCV shaft and one inner early Bronco shaft so that I can do some parts swapping between rigs but I may wait on that till I have a trail run or two on this one so that I can work bugs out at the same time I have both rigs torn apart to swap shafts.

 

[Shran]

Brakes are plumbed in, just need a hand bleeding them.

I got the wings on the bumper filled in last night and capped the ends. I started making triangle pieces for the top. Hoping to have the bumper more or less totally done this evening.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

For yourself and others, you can vacuum bleed brakes and other hydraulic systems using engine vacuum. Tie into the christmas tree on the manifold if you have one. See pics...

 

[Shran]

I had my wife help me bleed the brakes on Saturday. Think I still have air somewhere, they work but are pretty spongy. One of my new reman front calipers had blasting media plugging up the bleeder port… that was cool.

Yesterday I drove it out of the shop for the first time in two years. That was pretty awesome. I got the bumper painted and put on last night too. Lots left to do but this felt like a big step forward.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I had my wife help me bleed the brakes on Saturday. Think I still have air somewhere, they work but are pretty spongy. One of my new reman front calipers had blasting media plugging up the bleeder port… that was cool.

Yesterday I drove it out of the shop for the first time in two years. That was pretty awesome. I got the bumper painted and put on last night too. Lots left to do but this felt like a big step forward.

View attachment 141921View attachment 141922

You know if you painted teeth on the plate inside your front bumper it would look like it is smiling...

 

[Shran]

You know if you painted teeth on the plate inside your front bumper it would look like it is smiling...

Don't give me any ideas!

 

[Shran]

I'm at the part in this project where I feel like I'm starting to half ass stuff. Mainly it's the rust in the rockers that I need to cut out. There is a lot of it but fortunately it hasn't spread upwards very far. I removed all of the passenger side rocker plus part of the fender last night and hammered the pinch weld by the front body mount up and welded it into a big blob. I think I am just going to clean up the sharp edges, shoot some paint over it, and put the rock sliders on. The body is a bit different here than on a Ranger where it's easy to just cut it out and replace it with a piece of rectangle tube.

The rock sliders are a piece of 2x6" tube, 1/8 wall with a piece of 3/16 welded to the bottom side. That worked good on the Ranger. I am going to weld another piece of 1x2.5" tube to the top that will slip into a channel in the rocker area between two pieces of the floor. It'll be pushed up against that which will allow me to have the rock sliders up as high as possible but not touching, while not being able to move upwards very far. The rock sliders will be mounted to the frame instead of welded into the body like I did on the Ranger - coming down on rocks started to crush those upwards and it was starting to mess up the cab. I think this should be better. Probably going to fill in the rockers with spray foam after the sliders are on.

As you can see I don't have much rocker panel metal left anyway and it was all crushed in from when I wheeled this rig years ago.

I quit working on the sliders last night when I discovered that I needed the 1x2.5" tube and shifted gears to the gas tank skid plate. The factory one was really bent and had a couple holes rusted through it. Figured I would just plate over the majority of it. It was almost not worth fixing but building a new one from scratch would be a complicated project and not one that I want to invest time into with only 3 weeks left until my deadline.

Hopefully it still fits when I go to put it back on.

 

[SenorNoob]

I can't see how it wouldn't fit. You didn't change a mounting point or the exterior dimensions.

 

[Shran]

I can't see how it wouldn't fit. You didn't change a mounting point or the exterior dimensions.

In theory you are totally correct. My welding projects always have this ability to shift or change shape slightly when finished. So there's that factor, and it was bent when I took it out, and to remove the rust chunks I beat it with a sledge hammer and threw it across the driveway a few times. We will know for sure this evening!