Builds The Trail Snail Build | Above Average Overlandish (1 Viewer)

[Feldrian]

Took a break from things to do some Christmas shopping…. Got the wife taken care of
View attachment 2844284View attachment 2844285

You're still allowed to own long distance, one handed, cordless hole punches in Colorado?

 

[SmokingRocks]

They sure do, but not in Boulder.

Well got back from hunting and noticed coolant pouring out all over my driveway, so that was exciting. Turned out to be a bad o-ring on the recirc pipe, not sure what this o-ring was made of but it had the consistency of pudding. Very weak, squishy and slightly sticky. I've never seen something like this before, whatever chinesium that it was made of must have reacted with the coolant causing it to break down. I'm also not sure why its a brown o-ring when the OEM rings are black, I may have grabbed the wrong o-ring when I rebuilt the engine? idk, it's fixed now.

Also replaced this pipe as it had galvanic corrosion on the inside, anyone ever seen this in our engines?

Lastly, I replaced my PCV and VC gasket, it was nice to see the top end so clean-looking 60,000 miles after the rebuild.

 

[baldilocks]

Looks like you run Diesel engine oil. Nice, clean upper end there.

 

[SmokingRocks]

Looks like you run Diesel engine oil. Nice, clean upper end there.

Only like every 5th oil change, otherwise its 10w-30 synthetic every 5k mi

 

[Feldrian]

The galvanic corrosion must be due to the unapproved green coolant.

 

[SmokingRocks]

The galvanic corrosion must be due to the unapproved green coolant.

While possible I'm willing to bet it's more attributed to my high ratio of distilled h2o to coolant for 9 months out of each year. Green coolants corrosion inhibitor properties decline pretty markedly after 2 years in service, since I do a partial coolant change once a year to adjust my ratios that shouldn't be an issue.

But it does make me consider switching back to toyota red, I'm going to keep an eye on the pH of the coolant and test it regularly to see if it's over 0.3 volts against the engine ground.

 

[Broski]

The galvanic corrosion must be due to the unapproved green coolant.

Well then I guess my motor must be shot because I have had the same green in the for over 5 years now

 

[Feldrian]

Well then I guess my motor must be shot because I have had the same green in the for over 5 years now

Definitely time for a new one then.

 

[Broski]

Definitely time for a new one then.

Not, runs perfect!!!!

 

[SmokingRocks]

Headlight washer mod complete. Since I have LED headlight bulbs one of the negatives is that they don't produce the heat of a halogen that melts snow and ice off of the lens in the winter. So we will see how well this works.

I had to add an inline electric solenoid water valve because otherwise, the setup would siphon out the washer fluid continuously since the nozzles are mounted below the level of the tank. Works great.
Parts

• Electric Solenoid water valve, normally closed
• Universal washer pump
• Custom Rocker Switches
• Several 2-pin Deutsch Connectors from my kit
• A 90° bracket from ace, two nutserts, misc tubes, hoses, & nozzles

Also got a custom switch to enable diagnostic mode, when activated this switch jumps the E1 & TE1 diagnostic ports so I can quickly and easily read any trouble codes (remember I'm OBD1 so it's all about reading the blinks) or it can also be used to check/set my timing. It's been pretty nice to have as I can quickly check to see if there are codes anytime.

 

[SmokingRocks]

The rocker chop has begun, body-mounted sliders are in the snails near future. 2x4x3/16 rectangular tube with DOM rails, I'm going to weld bungs into the rectangular tubes on each side so they can be additional air tanks.

Started by clearing off the bed liner

Removed the front fender and snorkel

Cleaned up the holes in the fender to prep for primer. The snorkel holes will stay as is, but I'm going to weld in the antenna holes and the fender holes that the PO just bondo'd over. Also going to push some dents out of this fender.

 

[Broski]

The rocker chop has begun, body-mounted sliders are in the snails near future. 2x4x3/16 rectangular tube with DOM rails, I'm going to weld bungs into the rectangular tubes on each side so they can be additional air tanks.

Started by clearing off the bed liner
View attachment 2870969

Removed the front fender and snorkel
View attachment 2870967

Cleaned up the holes in the fender to prep for primer. The snorkel holes will stay as is, but I'm going to weld in the antenna holes and the fender holes that the PO just bondo'd over. Also going to push some dents out of this fender.
View attachment 2870968

Best bang for the buck on a hard core wheeler !!!

I have been running them for over 5 years now.
For reference I add these braces to the front.

Just behind the brace you can see the tab I mounted to bolt down the finder.
Also to help maintain structural integrity I left most of the pinch seam and bracing on the back under side.

As you can see the bottom of the 2x4 tube that I used is above the bottom of the frame so going higher then that does not help with ground clearance plus I wanted to leave them low enough that if I ever bent them upward I would still be able to open the doors.

 

[SmokingRocks]

Thanks @Broski I was actually going through the thread where you posted about this for the last week or so to get my ideas, I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you flare both ends of the rectangular tube? Looks like you did
2. I was going to ask about the fender bolt but that makes sense, does this mean you have an exterior facing bolt?
3. I noticed that you held your 2x4 tube about an inch down from the other body mount slider guys, I get the reasoning. It looks like the others fit the 2x4 inside both sides of the rocker (welded the remaining walls of the rocker to the sides of the 2x4). Where you welded the inside wall of the rocker to the 2x4 side and the outside wall of the rocker to the top of the 2x4. Is that correct?
   • Does this mean there is a void above the 2x4 between itself and the horizontal face of the body as shown in this section view?
   • 

I like the way you did it, the idea of retaining the interior rocker walls structure is sound especially with the structure it has designed into it from Mr. T.

 

[Broski]

Thanks @Broski I was actually going through the thread where you posted about this for the last week or so to get my ideas, I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you flare both ends of the rectangular tube? Looks like you did
2. I was going to ask about the fender bolt but that makes sense, does this mean you have an exterior facing bolt?
3. I noticed that you held your 2x4 tube about an inch down from the other body mount slider guys, I get the reasoning. It looks like the others fit the 2x4 inside both sides of the rocker (welded the remaining walls of the rocker to the sides of the 2x4). Where you welded the inside wall of the rocker to the 2x4 side and the outside wall of the rocker to the top of the 2x4. Is that correct?
   • Does this mean there is a void above the 2x4 between itself and the horizontal face of the body as shown in this section view?
   • View attachment 2871093

I like the way you did it, the idea of retaining the interior rocker walls structure is sound especially with the structure it has designed into it from Mr. T.

1) yes they match the contour of the body

2) yes doesn't bother me.

3) Yes this is correct, I used a piece of 2" masking tape flush with the door jamb let it role down the curve of the rocker and cut along the bottom edge.

Hope this helps !!

 

[SmokingRocks]

Getting ready to start cutting

Also I think I found a bullet hole in my car. The hole is exactly .45” so at one time in this cars life before me a 45 caliber, probably handgun, was shot in the passenger side footwell

 

[SmokingRocks]

Cutting is done, next step is trimming for final fitment

 

[Izeloz]

Take lots of pictures! I'm going down this road come springtime. I already have all of Broski's pictures of the process saved. Any tips, tricks, or gotchas would be great (i.e. what welder and settings you end up using). Good stuff!

 

[SmokingRocks]

More fitment, mine is ending up a bit higher than @Broski ‘s.

Cut the pinch weld off, really once the vertical piece is welded to the tube steel the pinch seam has no structural value.

I’m going to need to cut the back vertical rocker up higher to get a good weld onto the upper half of the 2x6.

 

[SmokingRocks]

Additional photos

 

[baldilocks]

Thanks for the very good photos.