Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...)

[dieselcruiserhead]

Once mocked up, I could have welded up and drilled holes later but figured that would be a PITA and they wouldn't be level.. Don't have a drill press so I went back to friend's shop to use his drill press.. On each piece, drilled holes for:

4 complelely through for front slider mount
two completely through for 45 degree truss the the rear bumper to towing stability
four (two completely through) for actual bumper mounts
two in bottom for future gas tank / slid plate mount

So total is 40 holes drilled for these two pieces, 20 in each... Plus another 12 for plates..

Here are mockup lines for where the holes were going to be put. Measured and center tapped.. Looks super clean but in the end there is some variation... I should have been cleaner about measuring for the holes...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Actual drilling of holes.. Drill press is from the 60s, something wrong with it, only runs in high speed. In order to not kill bits had to use lots of oil.. Second pic shows plates I made (four total - so another 12 holes drilled) that the sliders will be welded to then they will be bolted to this part of the frame...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

here are the frame pieces from the bottom. I didn't want a bolt all the way through for future gas tank / slider plate (if I have to use one) so I welded nut inside...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

By then I was finally ready to start mocking up the pieces on the actual frame... First got level, then tacked on one side, then used a straight edge to make sure it was aligned with the front part of the frame. Back here it is not so 100% crucial because it doesn't effect steering, but can effect how the bumper hangs etc so I definetely took my time.. I made use new pieces were vertically and horizontally level then tacked in place...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Once perfect, tacked in the other side. Then double checked everything again, then burned in. Then came back to other side and burned in...

The pen marks show where I would need to take out steel from the frame because the 2 x 4 is shorter verticlaly that the OEM frame, also increasing reduction of ass from a big rear frame...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Then I did the same on the other side, here is product by this point.. Finally a rear frame again..

You can also see the ratcheting straps I used to keep squat and level.. The big one OrangeFJ45 Georg gave me a long time ago on a trip to California to buy my first pig when I was in a bind, I still use it, if you are out there Georg thanks again

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next step was scab plates.. Though I think I probably could have pulled off frame weld here that might be OK with some light scabbing, and even though I think these are slightly ugly particularly in this place, I want to be able to tow etc with confidence that rear frame won't come off So I scabbed up again just like the front ones... So I went back over to my friend forest's and used his iron worker / shear again for four 4" wide .25" thick plates with three holes in each. Took about 15 minutes to make there. Then back at the shop again, I trimmed up to actually fit on the frame. Also generally I'm told you want to avoid vertical welds on a frame as it can create a place for a frame to crack, so that is why you auger them as I have... In the front on the outside pieces, I made a little notch for the passenger side outside plate to get around the rear cross member where it wraps around. I mimicked on drivers side even though I didn't need to and it isn't particularly attractive...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Before I could weld them on, I had to take care of that last little bit of frame. So I cut triangles out as seen in these poor pics and hammered the bottom piece of frame up and welded.. Sorry I did not get good pics but will take some later I figure...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Then finally welded plates on.. Seen here from drivers side.. I welded all but top and bottom, which I'll fill in when I have body removed again to have good clean welds...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

From passenger side...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

So finally, basically goal of all of that was to move rear frame up.. Here is sort of illustration of what I was talking about... White represents image of what it was like before..

 

[rapovt]

lookin real nice

 

[usmcruiser]

Way to be man. It's coming along nicely.

 

[chops78]

fn sweet,lookn real good man

 

[72cruiser]

alright alright alright...lookin awesome andre

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Last night I was hoping that I would crank out the rear bumper, I have all the parts and it doesn't need too much labor.. But sure enough it was the first real "bad" night I have had on the rig, surprisingly everything has gone pretty smooth so far.. Basically two vital tools crapped out on me and very little went as planned except for mocking up the rear bumper... So that is basically all I got done.. Lately I have been spending a little too much time on the truck (I am self employed doing websites so I control my own scehdule) and I have been focusing on the truck and its hard not to get lost here on mud during the days so I haven't been too productive lately when "working" so I hate to say it but I'll have a little hiatus I think for at least a week or two before I get much done.. Also, can't rmeember if I mentioned it but we are moving to a bigger better shop and looks like my lease is up on my actually house on the 1st so that will be a PITA, double move! Anyway, here are latest updates sorry its going to be it for a little while!

So here is rear bumper.. 1/4" thick again, 2 x 4 steel about 56" wide... I am welding tabs to it to mount to frame. Then, two 45 trusses to back corners of new frame for lateral stability. Then the sliders will probably welded to it as well, then they will bolt on using the series of 4 bolts towards the wheel seen in photo at top of this page... So it should be very stable, particularly for towing etc.. Again I want to be able to tow a car if I need to without much concern...

Anyway, rear tab welded on. I also ground the top and bottom welds smooth mostly for cosmetics and should a rock ever be back there for smooth sliding even though the realworld chances are probably slim...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Probably my favorite tool is my trusty Makita grinder, a little cheapie to replace a complete POS Ryobi Grinder (the one that crapped out earlier LOL) from Home Depot that I support has sort of been a lot like a Toyota, super reliable and I have literally built almost all of my last rig with it and a lot of this.. I use it with the cutoff wheels which is how I do a lot of my metal cutting, then for grinding too... Anyway, I was grinding away and sure enough it cut out, smoke pouring out of it then even flames! Bummer RIP Makita! Also that pretty much knocked me out of the loop for the bumper in one night as I need the grinder for both cutting metal and grinding this new bumper.. Anyway, second photo shows all the smoke, stinky of course! First show you can't tell but smoke and flames were literally pouring out of it seconds before I took the pic...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I took it apart and you can see where it caught on fire/melted.. RIP favorite grinder probably ever LOL...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is mockup of rear bumper and about as far as I got.. Plan is to mockup, get level, then use 5/8" bolts to keep in place. I have a pretty good little bolt collection, I drilled 9/16" with the drill press but turned out I didn't have any bolts that size.. For some reason I thought maybe they didn't make 9/16". So I have one 5/8" bit, one big motha.. Somehow mid drilling it actually bent! So that also knocked me out for the night.. So this is about as far as I got...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I also I'm not sure if I mentioned tire size / choice for this rig..? Ideally I would love 3.73s in the axles because gearing in last pig with 35s and 4.10 was a hair too slow IMO (about 85 mph max - ideally I'd love 90 or even 95 mostly for better mileage when doing about 75 mpg because RPMs will be lower). But there are no 3.73s for these axles, 4.10 is fastest.. So this means I have to run at least 35s or close to it. Which I don't mind, it is my ideal wheeling size I suppose but is a little big for reasonablyt comfortable DDer duty which is what I am hoping for with this one...

I have been having a little debate about muds versus all terrains lately.. Seems like everyone is on mud terrains and they are good for very hard wheeling but I am sort of sick of them after running them for a few years. Horrible in snowy road conditions, loud, wear poorly etc. Also Damon with the BJ42 has BFG ATs on his rig and recently I have sort of been impressed with them again as I sort of wrote them off before.. I was also driving his rig during first snow and they did killer.. I posted a little thread about it on RME, the Utah 4WD guys forums....
http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/showthread.php?t=38624

So conclusion is to use BFG ATs this time around.. Best of all worlds I suppose... Ironically H2s use 315 70 R 17 BFGs A/Ts as stock, I am surprised they are that big and they look tiny on the Hummer2s.. I am a little embarrassed these tires are off a hummer but honestly whatever... I figured this out after seeing ClownMidget's posts over in the for sale section for his tires of the same size on Sequoia / Tundra aluminums..

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=100531
another thread with those same rims:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=110644

Rims are 17" by 7.5" wide with about 4.75" backspacing so they will suck the width in of these wheels perfectly IMO for the 80 axles under the narrow FJ55 body.. Wheels will stick out about inch, maybe inch and a half, but the best option.. I was considering these bling wheels but turns out there is a steel version Sequoia/Tundra/FJ Cruiser even though they are very rare... Same size much less bling, much more traditional.. Here are photos of an FJ cruiser with them, they are about $50 a pop on ebay...
http://www.westcoastcruisers.com/FJsuspensionpics.html

So, I started poking around.. I was able to pickup two tires, brand new, for about $90 a piece with the ghey H2 Rims.. Took a photo to put them up on ebay or whereever.. I am pysched, these are $220 each new, so that is a score, about $180 for two of them... I will keep my eyes peeled for another two, they seem to be popping up here and there, a lot of people also sell them putting rims on their H2s so they are not too hard to find..