Ultra cheap offroad race Explorer turned rock crawler

[Shran]

Rock sliders are mounted and done except for a quick coat of paint. I also ran breather tubes for the diffs, added a couple recovery hooks on the front, and put a new winch rope on. My to do list is getting very short.

 

[ryan]

I'm at the part in this project where I feel like I'm starting to half ass stuff.

Man, I feel that

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Man, I feel that

I am pumping the brakes on that urge too...

 

[Shran]

I used a rubber hose from an air mattress pump for the rear axle breather tube and one from a sink sprayer on the front. Tonight I am going to look at welding together at least two stock skid plates and reinforce them to make one that will sit under the t-case and won't collapse. I think starting with a rig that was pretty rough has successfully tempted me into using stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have.

I'm really just ready to wheel this thing. I'm tired of buying metal, very close to being tired of welding on it. I've gone through two 10lb spools of wire and two gas cylinders. My bill at the steel supply place this month alone was over $500. Good thing I have not kept very many of the receipts from this build.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I used a rubber hose from an air mattress pump for the rear axle breather tube and one from a sink sprayer on the front. Tonight I am going to look at welding together at least two stock skid plates and reinforce them to make one that will sit under the t-case and won't collapse. I think starting with a rig that was pretty rough has successfully tempted me into using stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have.

I'm really just ready to wheel this thing. I'm tired of buying metal, very close to being tired of welding on it. I've gone through two 10lb spools of wire and two gas cylinders. My bill at the steel supply place this month alone was over $500. Good thing I have not kept very many of the receipts from this build.

At least it looks different though.

I worked on mine for three hours last night to reroute two wires.

 

[Shran]

Small things in progress:

Rear skid plate is about half done. I have a bit more welding on the inside and will be reinforcing it with a couple pieces of angle iron. I think that should be fine. I used two factory skid plates and a piece of 3/16" for the rear part. It's not pretty but I don't want to go overboard building a nice one that I have to redo if I end up putting a doubler in this rig. Planning on picking up a piece of 1/4" plate for the front skid plate tomorrow. That one should be easier, no crazy bends and stuff, mainly just flat.

I got my tool boxes mounted last night too. I was going to build a metal frame so that these would be turned 90 degrees and up against the seat but that's a lot of work and I'd have to buy more metal. It also affected my visibility out the back because they'd sit about 7" higher. So instead I riveted packout plates to the floor. Still a lot of room for other stuff so I am pretty pleased with it.