Build Lynchburg Lemonade, matzell's STW

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mdsims said:
You think you’ll keep the hard top long term, or move over to a soft top/bikini full time?

Any recent work on the rig?
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Hard to say....I have it off and want to clean up, prep and repaint the rusty areas. A soft top would make more sense for a wheeler but I really like the way it looks with the hard top. I am going to add a rear lift hatch so I can make it more water tight as I am not going to give up my tail gate. A 43/44 soft top would look cool as well and make it a lot easier to remove to wheel in the wooded areas.

I have a bunch of parts on order and plan to make some changes to suspension and ride height, it needs 1-2" of lift for more up travel. I have some others things to get done and work on then this will go under the knife in Feb after KOH.
 
From my limited personal experience, hard tops are a tree magnet. I crunched mine pretty good at fall crawl. My drip rail seems to find a tree about half the time…

Edit to add - I’ve contemplated making a drip rail out of 3/16” rectangular tubing…. Basically just cutting the rectangle lengthwise into two “L’s” of about the right dimensions, and then bending it to shape. The drip rail isn’t a complex shape, and it would certainly up-armor the roof, just not sure if it would look ridiculous.
 
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Photo dump...

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BBRC had a KOH viewing party yesterday. Never thought I would be up that late, but the first finisher crossed the line after midnight EST. Needless to say I got a late start today😊.

Anyways spent a lot of time measuring and taking notes. Then had to figure out mounts. The 80 arms are a little longer than first thought so I had to get creative on where and how to put the frame side radius arm brackets.

I also played around with a rear 4 link set up. Still waiting on some parts for that.

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I will be swapping in a FJ62 front housing. I will be also add a RCV long side o the existing 40 RCV's and reuse everything else as it is already 60 series knuckles and brakes.

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clrussell said:
I’m taking notes. I’ve been collecting parts for this same swap. 62 axles and 80 suspension.

I wasn’t planning on coil overs, however they would make life a lot easier. I wonder about longevity on a daily driver though.
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I think the coil overs should make packaging really good and add a tunable ride and ride height. These are "tuned" and valved for the weight of my vehicle and how I plan to drive it. I am not sure the spring package is correct, but we can figure that out.

I have 80 series axles, as well as tons, but I do not want it to be that big or tall. I am sill planning to keep the 35's for my small tire wheeler. I just want it to ride more like my 80 off road.

I plan to strip the 40 axle this week and then go full on with the new suspension this weekend.
 
charliemeyer007 said:
That's not beer!
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I have suffered from Gout for the past 28 years due to drinking "beer". Colorado Kool-aid does not give me flare ups, so by default it is one of my "beers" of choice. It still "works" lol!
 
This week flew by. I managed to finally get out in the shop this afternoon. Front axle is out. I will cut out the spring hangers and start on new links Sunday if time allows.

I post these front springs for sale soon. Dobinson 2-2 1/2" rear springs I ran in the front.

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RWBeringer4x4 said:
From my limited personal experience, hard tops are a tree magnet. I crunched mine pretty good at fall crawl. My drip rail seems to find a tree about half the time…

Edit to add - I’ve contemplated making a drip rail out of 3/16” rectangular tubing…. Basically just cutting the rectangle lengthwise into two “L’s” of about the right dimensions, and then bending it to shape. The drip rail isn’t a complex shape, and it would certainly up-armor the roof, just not sure if it would look ridiculous.
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Just catching up in this thread and wanted to mention I made a set out of 1 x 2 1/2” tube, 12 gauge IIRC because that’s what my supplier had, which is about half the thickness of 3/16, but they turned out great, much stronger than original, 3/16 might be pretty noticeable.
 
Ditcherman said:
Just catching up in this thread and wanted to mention I made a set out of 1 x 2 1/2” tube, 12 gauge IIRC because that’s what my supplier had, which is about half the thickness of 3/16, but they turned out great, much stronger than original, 3/16 might be pretty noticeable.
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Awesome, don’t want to hijack this thread but if you’ve got a link to how you did it (or the finished product) I’d be curious to see it.
 
RWBeringer4x4 said:
Awesome, don’t want to hijack this thread but if you’ve got a link to how you did it (or the finished product) I’d be curious to see it.
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Sure thing. I’ll get some pictures of the finished product and link them in my build thread in the hardcore corner and tag you. Will be late tonight at the earliest.
Basically just jigsawed them, slightly off center and put the shorter side out. Turned out wavy and we tried to grind it flat. Not perfect and a lot of work but I don’t notice it. We gave up on the concours build part way through.
 
The fine people of Henrico county did not play nice today! I got both a State Police tow call and. County call. Really cut into my shop time... but I did get to play in the rain on the side of the highway🙄

I did manage to get the rear spring mount off and the radius arms installed. I need to notch the one side next to the diff. Next will be the panhard bar.

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A couple of quick notes.
front axle will be in the same position it was with the 2 1/2" springs. I do not want to cut on the front fenders any more if I do not have to.
the front drive shaft has a slight bind at the upper yoke at T-case. I can grind a 1/16 off and it will be smooth, but I can turn it by hand.
I set the front pinion angle at 6 deg up at ride height.

I can get measurements on where I cut the radius arm brackets to meet at the body mount outrigger.
I had to angle the frame side mounts out about a 1/4". I did not take into account that the frame curves in and the arms would point inwards too much. I had to cut the tack welds off and adjust. I also notched the flange and bent it inwards in the vise to fill the void between the mount and the frame. I did not get any pics but if you do this you will see what I mean.

I played around with the pandhard bar. Looks like it will work perfect. I am going to put the slee diy adjuster in. I need to get the steering in to get the angle of the drag link before installing the pandhard so I get the angle correct.

Let me know if anyone has any questions
 
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