Builds 40 Guy Builds a 100 Series

[REZARF]

I also got started on fabbing up a custom roof rack. With a growing family of 5, we need all the available space we can get. Tim @Gamiviti is a personal friend of mine and he makes some amazing racks less than a mile from my home. However, I have two friends who recently purchased 100 series and they thought it would be fun to make custom racks that fit our needs... and enjoy the ride of building them.

Tim was gracious enough to sell me his mounting system, which is high-quality and proven. THANKS AGAIN TIM! This made our planning and creating a roof rack much easier knowing the mounting system is bomb-proof. We built a jig and started building up the racks this weekend. Lots of tubing, lots of bending, and lots of notching... later there will be lots of welding, grinding and fitting.

3 custom racks... some assembly required

Bender all set up with a fresh stick in, you can see the temporary jig set up to frame up each of the racks.

I have a JD2 bender and a few dies, for this rack we picked a tight radius of 3.5" center line radius. It makes for clean tight bends in the 16 gauge tube. I love this machine, there is something cool about watching steel bend before your eyes. I get a kick out of it every time.

Here is one of the bases mocked up, I still need to sleeve and weld in the front and back sections that are missing. I need to track down some .875" tube to sleeve the sections I need to fill. We had some fun notching on the milling machine, we still have a lot more tube to notch. I think one friend wants a front halo to guard a light bar but leave the back open for a RTT. One of the other racks will likely have a short hoop similar to the look of the Gobi stealth rack and I might opt for a flat rack. But we will all have a base rack, this is the one without the sunroof cut out. The other two will have a removable sunroof panel. This is just a mock up the front mounting plates actually will mount one section forward from where they are pictured now.

The fit up is coming along nicely. This should make welding the rack up a snap, and tight gaps make for stronger welds.

 

[REZARF]

Picked up a new set of shoes today. Bought them from a fellow cruiser head here in Denver. They are the Toyo' Open Country MT's on 18" Tundra steelies... I want to run some of the new 18" alloys from the new Tundra's as I picked up 5 on Craigslist for a song. I am gonna spin these for a week or two and see if I like the tires enough to move forward with them, or if I should resell them. First impressions are they are HEAVY! Snap, they have got to weigh 100 pounds a corner if not more.

Anyhow the black wheels make a big difference in the look of the rig... but I for one am excited for the black wheel craze to pass over. I much prefer silver to black, but it is a fun change for a week or two. That is my epic finger in the pic shot too.

 

[Xpnsv72fj]

I just read though your whole thread and you've done an amazing job! I'm in the middle of a frame off resto on my 40 as we speak however a 100 series fell into my lap and I had to grab it. So now I find myself trying to learn everything I can about them. I love what you've done with yours and plan to take mine in the same direction once the 40 stops talking all my money!

Josh

 

[REZARF]

I picked up a 42" Light bar of Amazon. It's a Cree based 42" single row light bar from the company Arsenal. Here is the link:

Amazon.com: #1 42" 7D DIAMOND PRO SERIES Single Row LED Light Bar Flood/Spot Combo Beam CREE 40 5W LED's 200w 16,500LM Off Road Polaris RZR UTV Raptor Jeep Bumper Rock FREE LED Light Rocker Switch Kit Harness: Automotive

It's really well built. IP68 waterproof, breather to regulate heat and condensation, good wiring harness, solid mounts etc. It was hard to figure out the difference between the bottom of the barrel cheap bars and the uber-high end light bars... and what was worth the cost. I did a lot of homework and landed on the bar above. I hooked the light bar up at night the other day and I was thoroughly impressed. I am a Hella 4000 Rally guy with big hot halogen bulbs. This LED bar was pretty impressive. The center spot beam pattern is achieved with an actual optical lens, with the flood pattern achieved through the cut of the reflector.

I tossed it up on the cruiser to get an idea of its overall dimensions before mounting it up on my newly fabbed roof rack.

 

[REZARF]

Here is a buddies rack that is getting close to done. I have it all tacked up, tubes bent, mounts are ready to go and the hardware just showed up today. He plans on adding flooring to the front, and a RTT onto the rear of the rack. We will knock out a few mounts for his HiLift and MaxTrax. He got the same light bar as me but the double row verses the single row.

Here is the base model of the rack... it is basically like one of the amazing Gamiviti racks.

Obviously, we are using a different mounting system

The light bar fit up and stuff's inside the tube work to make sure it is protected from the rare Colorado/Utah/Wyoming trails where this Cruiser plays. The whole thing will sit down lower than it is pictured.

Light bar in daylight... uh it is BRIGHT!

A look from above. The fit is really nice front to rear and side to side. He plans on adding flooring for the front 1/3 or so of the rack and leave the rear open for a future RTT.

 

[REZARF]

So I have been on a wheel and tire adventure lately. I have been wheeling and dealing. I sold the black Tundra wheels with the Toyo Open Country MT's on them. They were just too heavy for the size and they were loud on the highway. They drove nice enough, looked good and balanced well. Anyhow I decided to resell them, so I did, and landed a set of BF Goodrich AT tires in 305-65/18's... this allowed me to mount them on my Tundra alloys I have had sitting around from a recent craigslist purchase. I REALLY LIKE THIS SIZE. It is roughly a 33.5' by nearly 12.5' tire on an 18" wheel. They look just about perfect on a 100. The wider tread seems to fill the width of the wheel well nicely where most tires seem skinny under the 100. Anyhow, I have to hunt down a spare but other than that I am stoked about these wheels and tires and will be dumping my Duratracs to put some coin towards an ARB Old Man Emu lift. I still gotta bore out the hub cap to fit the axle dust cap on the 100.
View attachment 1434538

View attachment 1434539

 

[REZARF]

My seat belts were not retracting. I read a tip in the pic thread and decided to soak mine in laundry detergent then hired my little guy to pressure wash them before reinstalling them... not sure how difference it will make but I hope it will smooth things out.

 

[REZARF]

I had a beautiful day here in Colorado and a hall pass to crank on my roof rack. I got to really work on my own today as I am wrapping up my friends. I started off by getting all my pieces fitted up and tacked.

With my floor design I decided to box in the mounting plates with additional tubes to give me an area to weld my floor to all around.

You can see how I fabbed up a removable panel for the sunroof. I decided to bend the corners instead of mitering the corners, this will make it a little stronger and it gives me ready-made "pockets" to create a mounting system. More on that later.

I need to figure out my light bar mounting system before I can figure out how to attach the front of the sunroof panel. I am heading to the local metal mart tomorrow to see if I can find a specific size tube to make my idea work.

 

[REZARF]

I keep a clean workstation when I get going!

Here is my current idea for mounting the sunroof panel. I will create something similar to the tab shown in the picture but I will attach the bottom gusset to the sunroof opening and another matching tab to the bent tube and toss a captured nut on the bottom so I can just use a simple bolt on the top. I'd like to figure out a way to "slide" the front into a locking system to keep it out of the wind and keep it from rattling. I am open to suggestions!

I started bending up the upper hoop for the rack. I am going to space it 1" inside the lower hoop on the sides and rear, and 2" from the leading edge of the bottom hoop. My hope it will look like a GAMIVITI and GOBI had a baby. I am not looking forward to cutting and welding 22 spacer tubes to connect the upper and lower hoops. It is funny that even though they are only like 1.5" long, they take exactly as much time as the main cross-bars do per piece. Time to set up the mill for repeatable cuts and see if I can't figure out a way to fast track them.

 

[D21FJ60]

This whole build is what dreams are made of.

 

[REZARF]

Well, I am closing in on finishing my rack. We got one done but I was hung up on how I wanted to mount mine. I wanted the following things in a mounting location/design for the 42" bar:

• I wanted to mount it under the rack to not take up any space on top.
• I wanted to mount it under for protection from branches
• I wanted to be able to mount it far enough BACK from the leading edge to prevent as much hood glare as possible.
• I wanted to be able to rotate the direction of the beam pattern up and down.
• I wanted light weight, simple construction.

I found all that I wanted in the Auxmart Universal mounts for 1" tube on Amazon:
Amazon.com: AUXMART 1 Inch Bullbar Nudge Bar Mounting Brackets Tube Light Clamp for Hid LED Light Bar: Automotive

They are simple enough, they are very adjustable as they rotate around the tube, and spin 360* around the "L" bolt. They would work for a large number of different mounting options.

Before I could mount them though I had to modify the mounting end caps on the light bar itself. There was a threaded M8 x1.25 area but the exterior hole would only accept the diameter of a M6 diameter bolt. So, I chucked a tap into my drill and opened it up and threaded at that same time.

A quick tip for tapping aluminum is to use a little cutting oil, a cordless drill with the clutch set about 1/2 way and drill on in... it makes quick holes and works really well. Obviously you gotta back it out and clean up the chips but this is the fastest way I have found to make quick, CLEAN threads.

The end result is about 3/4" of solid threads to hook into. I might add a rubber washer to clamp down and give me some friction on those geared teeth to hold the adjustment tight... thoughts? Thread locker for sure but I think a little friction with a thin rubber washer might do me some good?

 

[REZARF]

One things I like about the mounts is it allows me to set the LED light bar back from the front of the roof rack, this should cut down on the amount of hood glare I get as well as, how many branches it comes in contact with. Here is roughly how it looks on the truck. The rack isn't level so it looks like I am cutting it close but there will be about 3/8" between the bottom of the light and the sunroof. I will likely lose the ability to tilt my sunroof but since it drops down to slide rearward I should be all set for it to still open.

I had to use a 3/8" washer to space the mounting arm to clear the Gore-Tex breather. I have since bought a few 3/8" spacers that allow me just the right amount of clearance to rotate the light where I want it without hitting the breather nor the wiring.

 

[REZARF]

Here is the overall look this will achieve. I like how this is coming along, I think the balance of aesthetics, light output, glare, and protection are where I want them. Today I made a jig for my milling machine to start all the upper hoop stand-offs, and I bent up the upper hoops for my buddies rack to fit his dual light bars on top of the rack. They are gonna look great.

A few shots of the rack/light bar/truck and how they will sit on the 100.

 

[FxFormat]

Thoroughly enjoyed this build thread and learned a lot of great info, thanks! I'm looking to cheaply lift my LC too but those rear spacers lift i find are all expensive, where did you get yours for $50?

 

[REZARF]

Thoroughly enjoyed this build thread and learned a lot of great info, thanks! I'm looking to cheaply lift my LC too but those rear spacers lift i find are all expensive, where did you get yours for $50?

Make sure you aren't confusing wheel spacers with coil spring spacers. I used a set of 30mm (roughly 1.2 inch) spacers from SLEE Off Road. I am not sure they are on their website but they do carry them for about $50 iirc. Give them a shout they are the best in the biz for 100 series.

Thanks for the kind words, the nice comments keep me snapping pics and writing things up at the end of working on stuff. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[FxFormat]

Make sure you aren't confusing wheel spacers with coil spring spacers. I used a set of 30mm (roughly 1.2 inch) spacers from SLEE Off Road. I am not sure they are on their website but they do carry them for about $50 iirc. Give them a shout they are the best in the biz for 100 series.

Thanks for the kind words, the nice comments keep me snapping pics and writing things up at the end of working on stuff. I appreciate the feedback.

Yup we are talking about the same thing, coil spring spacers. Slee has it for $75 now, i guess prices went up. Parts seem to be the same as an 80 series cruiser? it is listed for 91-2007. Just want to make sure i buy the right one

 

[REZARF]

Yeah they were cheaper a few years ago I guess.

 

[TheForger]

Yup we are talking about the same thing, coil spring spacers. Slee has it for $75 now, i guess prices went up. Parts seem to be the same as an 80 series cruiser? it is listed for 91-2007. Just want to make sure i buy the right one

Those are the correct coil spring spacers. They're listed for the 80 series as well because there are similarities between the 80 and 100 series rear suspension setups. IIRC you can even use 80 coil springs in a 100 (correct me if I'm wrong). Go with them for the "cheap lift", or just go with springs because you will eventually want to lift your truck once the mod addition takes ahold of you

 

[nnnnnate]

What distro blocks are you planning to use for your power upgrades. I assume that you are putting the fuse block in the engine compartment then will run a power wire from there into the cab to a distro block to split power?

I'm still trying to decide whether to put the fuse block in the cab or under the hood. I'm leaning towards in the cab because that is where most of the gadgets that need power are but still need to nail that down. I also checked out your fuse block thread for your 40 and really like those special terminal lugs you used. They are pretty slick and I'll look for something like that as well.

 

[REZARF]

What distro blocks are you planning to use for your power upgrades. I assume that you are putting the fuse block in the engine compartment then will run a power wire from there into the cab to a distro block to split power?

I'm still trying to decide whether to put the fuse block in the cab or under the hood. I'm leaning towards in the cab because that is where most of the gadgets that need power are but still need to nail that down. I also checked out your fuse block thread for your 40 and really like those special terminal lugs you used. They are pretty slick and I'll look for something like that as well.

I've got a 12 circuit fuse panel with a common Neg (-) bus that I plan on using in conjunction with several relays and a terminal strip. I'm gonna mount it all together under the hood. I may add a second fuse panel in the rear of my 100 if I build drawers to keep the runs of individual wires down. I will relay the Hella 4000's, compressor, LED light bar and any other large draw devices.

Inside would be nice for mounting up the panel but I am going under the hood because of the space available. The Blue Sea stuff is all tin coated and I'll add quality terminals for my wires... they'll be fine, but I am in the west where there isn't a lot of moisture induced corrosion.