[bandy rooster]

history

I had purchased the vehicle about 2 years ago from a guy in georgia, I bought it off ebay motors which was a big mistake. I took it back up to my former home in Pennsylvania and did a major tune up, I ran paragon for a little then got sick of the old F trying to keep up so i ended up purchasing a 86 chevy suburban (350 normally aspirated) and took the engine from it.the whole renewing process took exactly one year but i'm still working out kinks hear and there which is expected.

engine (1986 chevy 350)

• 4 barrel rochester quadrajet from a 1968 chevy malibu (brand new/rebuilt) from the manufacturer
• edelbrock performer intake
• rams horn exhaust manifolds
• new water pump,85 amp alternator,power steering pump and cooler,180 degree thermostat.
• HEI distributor running a hotter coil, autolite platinum +2 sparkplugs, autolite wires, braided spark plug heat shields on most of the wires.
• cooling: new stock radiator with a ford taurus electric fan hooked up only on high comes on around 190 i believe and works great now that i got the wiring all figured out, i have 130 amp water proof relay that i bought from a local marine supply warehouse that has worked flawlessly so far. the thermostat for the radiator is from advanced auto and it is a controllable thermostat.

notes on engine:

• chose the quad. carb because of the small primaries for in town driving and the enormous secondaries for romping on the pedal, as well as the centered float for off road driving.
• I originally had hugger headers from summit which leaked like a sieve even under double gaskets running to a single 3 inch out the back. wasn't to loud but didn't give me enough back pressure for the low end torque that i needed. went to rams horn exhaust manifolds, walker cross over, dynomax muffler (2.5")

transmission and transfer case

• SM465 out of a blazer
• 3 speed transfer case with new OEM parking brake pads
• AA adapter in between the two
• twin stick

notes on trans:

Really impressive crawl ratio, its a very tough transmission but it has its negative aspects of it being a tough/rough shifting transmission. I haven't had a problem with the transfer case yet, i was and still am alittle worried about all that power/gear reduction in front of the case but we'll see out it holds up.

electrical

• entirely new harness (EZwiring harness)
• next inline is APC conversion lights to put the newer style bulbs in my truck for better vision
• gauges are all mechanical except the voltmeter and tach. all of which are SunPro
• rear of the vehicle i have LED 3157 type lights that are stop turn and tail, they are susceptible to being hit but at 4 bucks per light I'm not worried.

notes on electrical:

• Ez wiring harness was awesome worth just as much as painless but half the cost.
• everything went well with the wiring first try, I just followed a cross of the EZwiring harness and the factory wiring.

Body and frame ( its almost like a johnny cash song)

• doors from a '72
• hard top from a '73
• body from a '71
• chassis from a '72 ( completly boxed in) with new rear cross member for shock mounts and extra protection.
• I painted the vehicle a stock color dune beige which was a single stage acrylic enamal that i bought from an IH8muder,its held up pretty good for the most part but the body got dinged and scratched from moving it around so much. I used an HVLP spray gun and it was painted in a garage up north.
• bumpers are standard 2"x3" which i would like to upgrade to something alittle more "cool"
• the rear fender wells are almost completly cut, I cut them down on a curve and welded 7/16" round bar, i think it really looks cool.
• whole body has almost no bondo everything that i found that had rust (just about everything) i cut out and/or replaced with new metal.

suspension and axles

• sprung over Front and rear
• front has cruiser springs with about 4-5 leaves
• rear has 4 whole sets of heep springs ( i believe they came stock with 3 leaves in a pack but not sure) i have 6 leaves in each pack and it rides better the cruiser springs, softer springs are longer and the ride height is perfect
• 4.10's ring and pinion
• front and rear disc brakes
• front has oem rotors, wearever Gold pads
• rear has posers rear disc kit and rotors that i purchased from him to. works perfect
• uses summit racing proportion valve at around 45% reduction of the full 57% that is capable of
• rear has an aussie locker
• front is welded spider gears
• warn hubs (came with cruiser)
• front and rear shocks are both the adjustable rancho 9000's
• front shock towers are ford shock towers (bolt on)
• tires: are 37" wrangler MTR's (best tire in the world)
• front/rear custom driveshafts
• 1" over shackles.

notes on suspension/axles:

the low gearing of the sm465 lets me get by without regearing of the differentials and the extra power of the 350 gives me what i need to get through the wide gears of the sm465. I love 4wheel disc brakes and it works great for me so far (no complaints.) just got the brand new aussie locker in the rear so i have yet to test it. the heep spring packs in the rear not only sits better but rides better then me OEM springs in the front ( i think the springs haven't settled yet although there not even full spring packs.)

[bandy rooster]

stereo:

Pioneer DEH700 CD player
pioneer 6" speakers in custom kicker panels stuffed with polyfill
Kenwood 1100 watt RMS amp with remote volume control
kicker 10 inch subwoofer (L7) 900 watts RMS in a custom ported box

upgrades to come:

next week i'm ordering a metal tech full cage kit
APC conversion lights
stinger for the front
fix the ride height in the front
i have a new kit from ruffstuff for the trac bar and a heavy duty heim joint for the frame side, that will get done before GSMTR
front sway bar. ( custom made from DOM) already have ideas brewing

steering upgrades
high steer arms from all pro offroad, new $tuds, new cone washers from them as well
5/16 wall DOM tubing for the Tie Rod using weld in steering bungs from spidertrax.com
All around 1 ton GM tre's
nylon locking nuts on the high steer arms
full rebuild on front axle - all seals and fluids replaced

notes on steering

I had used the nylon locking nuts on the high steer arms to prevent them from backing off as much as they normally do and lead to breaking on the trail i thought this was a good idea and have never seen it done but i'm sure it has been done before. I opted for all new studs and cone washers just for the hell of it. The steering is real beefy although i did have to ream out the arms on the high steer to fit the 1 ton GM tre's it does work well and there is tons of metal still there so breakage i don't think will be an issue. the metal and the weld in bungs were from spidertrax and i got all the TRE's at work, so all and all in was a clean project.




pics will follow tomorrow and i will add info and more pictures throughout the week.

[tlcruiser66]

Wow, thats alot of mods to do in 2 years. Looking forward to those pics.

Kevin

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

"Bandy," keep it coming! Great posts so far - can't wait to see the pics of your rig!

Regards,

Alan

[72cruiser]

cool man...

lookin forward to seein some progress pics on it since this summer


malphrus

[2badfjs]

i have a question







































where are the pics????????????????????

[camcruiser13]

Originally Posted by 2badfjs

i have a question






yes what gives
































where are the pics????????????????????

where they at

[Wayneraintree]

Hey Wes! Cool ROTW thread! Look forward to the pics....

Also, how are you using the 40 these days? Driver? trails only? Keep up the good work!

[bandy rooster]

shot of rear axle -rear disc brakes and shock mounted perpendicular to ground

[bandy rooster]

more likely then not my daily driver (while 40 gets new exhaust)
-its a 84 300d 5 cylinder diesel

[bandy rooster]

all pro highsteer, 1 ton GM tie rod ends, DOM tie rod

[bandy rooster]

rams horn exhaust - spicer u-joints on the steering shaft

[bandy rooster]

shot of entire steering - all pro off road rebuild kit for front axle, no bumpsteer at all

[bandy rooster]

about a 1 to 1.5" difference from front to rear.... really pisses me off lol

[Wayneraintree]

nice mercedes and cool DD.

The 40 looks great man! It has come a long way..... great work!

[bandy rooster]

more shots

[bandy rooster]

sorry about the pics size i'm having trouble getting them to work correctly resizing them... these are rancho shocks but i painted them black because i don't like how rancho shocks look...

[bandy rooster]

ford Taurus fan with adjustable Thermo-relay and an fj80 oil cooler mounted on my radiator to cool the engine oil.

[bandy rooster]

rear light style
steering box (saginaw)

[bandy rooster]

these came out cool and sound good - made a kicker panel from some kind of veneer type wood and sprayed it with truck bed liner- where the speaker mounts and near the kick vent i stuffed it with polyfill and it sounds great....

[tlcruiser66]

Originally Posted by bandy rooster

more shots

That dash kicks ass. What kind of wood is that and did you make cutouts for all the stock parts, ie glove box, ashtray, etc. or did you just put the necessary gauges in.
Could you post a couple of more pics of that dash?

Kevin

[kiwicruiserlj78]

ya going all out good on ya mate

[JJS]

I got you beat. I have four of those cheap tail lights on my bumper.

Nice rig, man. I like the wood dash, but I think I would trash the nice finish if I did it.

[oldIron]

Looks great Bandy!

[Mace]

This thing run yet???

Thought Bob was gonna be on the road first


BTW, you spec'd out the stereo???

[bandy rooster]

was on the road but i'm redoing the exhaust...

the dash i made from a sweet piece of poplar and used a honey oak stain and poly to make it last...

[bandy rooster]

i got kind of a gay boat theme going on... so i'll stick with it

[bandy rooster]

I really don't know if i want to buy the metaltech cage or if i want to go halfers on a bender with my brother and bend one myself.

pros of getting a metal tech:
pre-bent
pre-thought of
just weld it (minor mods)
cons for metal tech
for the entire cost of the cage i could have my own bender
pros of getting my own setup
always have it to bend new cages and design new things
i'd be able tweek my design to the way i want it
cons to doing it myself
might not be as good as a metal tech cage
never used a bender before


what do you guys think i should do????? (subtracting your bias from supporting a vendor lol)

[1phrogguy]

Go for the bender. Then you can make all sorts of extras, then sell them to schmucks like me.

[tlcruiser66]

If you got the space and can get a good bender for $500-600 i'd say get the bender, you'll have a lot more fun that way(bumpers, fenders, sweet cage). Good luck either way.

Kevin