New to the Forum, but not to TLCs

[gcruiser]

Aluminum Front Control Arms

Hi everyone, I just thought I'd stop in and introduce myself. I've gained some useful info off this site and wanted to say thanks. I've been doing off road expedition travel for several years, and have settled into Series 80 Landcruisers. I got my whole group in El Cajon, CA to switch over and we've built a dozen cars. We've made shocks, (more or less) made front control arms, rebuilt motors, replaced motors. We're building second gas tanks. Re-geared a dozen cars's diffs. repainted, un-rusted, replated, re-upholstered, and reconditioned a lot of stuff now.

I own a HJZ 105 that I keep in Munich for travel in the Sahara and have gone three times now. If you're unfamiliar with that model, it rocks. Series 100 body on Series 80 frame, diesel, manual transmission, very spartan, very cool. From El Cajon we go to Death Valley and Baja in our American version cars.

I still have a pretty nicely outfitted H1, and it's great, but I'm very partial to Series 80s for lots of reasons. Push come to shove, I'd choose the TLC.

I started a guitar company when I was a kid, and it's grown. I have a world-class tooling department and lots of my Cruising buddies are from work. One in particular is a brilliant car guy and provides the lion's share of our expertise. I ended up hiring a mechanic as well, because the work load was pretty great on all these cars. So, in my personal shop, which has been mostly woodworking, we set up an auto shop.

We may be able to answer some questions and add some value to the forum. This forum has some smart guys with lots of answers and we can contribute our experience now too. In the last 18 months we've racked up a lot of time and seen almost everything on these cars.

Anyway, there you go. It's a fun hobby. I love these cars.

Bob

 

[PACNW96]

Welcome to the forums Bob!

 

[Marco7]

Official welcome:

 

[Lc80series]

Nice Bob! Always good to have another person here who knows more than me!

 

[arndog123]

Welcome. How about some Cruiser pics?

 

[PRAYN4U]

You sound like a good person to know! Welcome aboard! Can you tell us which guitar company? I love guitars also!

 

[gcruiser]

Taylor Guitars. I'm posting a few pics.

Hopefully, I uploaded a pic of one cruiser, you can see for yourself what's on it. We get pretty deep into them. There's a pic of a restored rusty rear axle. Plus a pic of the front control arms we make ourselves. These are 7075 aluminum, very strong, light, and have 7 degrees of caster correction to fit the Frankie 4" lift springs. We like soft shocks for the bad Baja roads so we bought some rebuildable Bilsteins with 11" travel, remade the ends, and worked on the disk stacks until we got what we wanted. Anyway I'll post another interesting photo in my next post.

 

[gcruiser]

I was going to post some more pics but I guess I've exceeded my posting limit with the other three. What's the solution to that?

 

[Brunt Force Trauma]

I think you may need to host them on another site? Those arms are amazing. Do you sell them? BTW I am only 10 minutes from El Cajon, do you have shop? Id love to come by and take a look at your rigs!

 

[gotmud]

Buy a star.

 

[gcruiser]

Yeah, I have a shop. It's on the Taylor Guitars campus. I haven't sold any arms yet, but who knows? They're awesome.

 

[gcruiser]

Brunt Force, you can PM me and we can arrange for you to visit.

 

[OGBeno]

Those arms look incredible.

How does the strength of the aluminum compare to say forged/cast steel arms of OEM or aftermarket versions found in Australia or the arms fabricated by Slee?

Are you using OEM rubber bushings in those arms?

Welcome.
-onur

 

[spdwaver]

Welcome, Bob Taylor.

After reading your first post, I was going to ask an off-topic question, "Do you happen to make classical guitars" --but then your next post gave it away.

Your products are second to none, and I see your vehicle choice coincides with the products you make.

Enjoy the forum!

 

[gcruiser]

Well, 7075 aluminum is strong. I don't have the numbers at my fingertips, but they compare favorably to the forged Toyota arms. What we lost in just a tad lower strength of material we gained in a bit larger cross section. They're just cool and they work.

We press out our old OEM bushings and re-use them. We work to keep things affordable. We used to all drive different vehicles, from H1's to old Cherokees. 18 months ago we decided to all switch to these trucks. We work on them together, we have great resources, and we multiply our knowledge rather than divide it. We've done pretty much everything you can think, repair-wise, to restore this many cars. It's working out great. You never feel like you're wasting money on these trucks. They're worth the rebuilding effort.

 

[spdwaver]

When you get an opportunity, you really ought to do a "Rig of the Week" (or, "Rig of the Fortnight") thread to showcase that truck, inside and out.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-...0-july-2010-added-ac-service.html#post1823397

 

[arndog123]

Those control arms sure are purty. Nice LX too.

 

[gcruiser]

Thanks, they are purty, huh?

What's "rig of the week" and how is it done? When I get the rear, inside done, I'll do that. It should be cool.

Here's a custom front arm for my buddy. It's a memorial to his son, who died young. His son made a shirt that said this on the front, and he wore it, like every day it seemed. I thought it was a cool place for a message to travel with him when we wheel.

 

[alia176]

drool....

 

[VanGo]

What a small, small internet world. I have Taylor guitar that my late father passed on to me, Great guitar with awesome memories- welcome to the forum!