Meet Me... and Orange Crush

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K

Katrell

Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Threads
2
Messages
24
Location
Phelps County
Website
www.facebook.com
Well after years of creeping IH8MUD forum I think I'm going to try to be a little more sociable and meet some people and share what I've been up to. I'm Kyle a broke college kid from the Ozarks who loves 'crawlin.

This is my project, Orange Crush, a 1986 22R Pickup that is slowly being transformed into a Truggy on a very, very slim budget (so be nice.) I'll start from the beginning and eventually catch up to my current status on the project....

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I drove the truck around for a while like that, but a full summers worth of trips to the local offroad park and I was hooked. All of that wheeling in stock form took its toll though and a nasty little secret was revealed... rust, rust, rust. So build-time began...

Since I have scarce resources (no garage, welder, skill).... fixing the frame seemed a bit out of my league. I also had no money for an SAS kit and was not about to homebrew one on a rusted out junk frame so I had to get creative.

I sourced a good frame from a retired buggy that was sitting dead in a field, grabbed some buddies and got to work...
 
So here is what I had to work with before and after... Two days worth of cutting grinding and sanding. (10 points if you can tell what that thing used to be!)

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Aaaaand after....

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I HATED the huge body lift my truck had, HATED the IFS, HATED that at any moment it could rust in half and of course HATED how little money I had to spend. However seeing as the donor rig was SAS'd, had DOM rocksliders and front fender hoops, was set up for 63" Chevy's (which are a dime a dozen where I live) AND had a winch mount, I felt like I had come out pretty far ahead...
 
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Ah yes, so since I am a "n00b" I assume that my upload space is far too limited to continue my full write up. I guess I'll continue this when when I get my training wheels taken off.
 
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Congrats on your find and good luck with the build. Most people wouldn't tackle a build like that regardless of their budget. Keep us posted!:popcorn:
 
Get a Photobucket account. Works great.

We'll have to meet up sometime. I'm in Cuba.
 
2ndGenToyotaFan said:
Looks like a good start! :D Was the donor a 1st Gen 4Runner? Hehehe
Click to expand...

I was thinking 4Runner or Trekker...

Really sweet rig! And don't worry, we play nice in the tech forums!
 
2ndGenToyotaFan said:
Looks like a good start! :D Was the donor a 1st Gen 4Runner? Hehehe
Click to expand...

Ahh 10 Points for 2ndGen! If that thing was a Trekker I would have just cried given the point-of-no-return condition the body was in. The donor was a 1988 4Runner formerly known as "The Raisin" from Flatnasty ORP.

Thanks for the support so far guys I can't wait to catch up to my current state on OC.
 
With the motor pulled I enlisted the help of my girlfriend and a buddy and we peeled the cab off of the IFS truck with a cherry picker and a lot of hopes, dreams and busted knuckles.

Check out how broken and tweaked that rusted out IFS frame was by the end... You may also notice that I traded my 31x10.50 Timberline MT's for a set of 35x14.5" TSL Swampers. (Low tread, no side bite, yadda yadda... remember my budget)

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After scouring the countryside, I finally found someone who was willing to part with a late model solid front axle in decent condition... that was also in my meager price range. My first outright purchase for the truck. Here they are mocked up to get some measurements...

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Okay so right about here, something lovely happened that changed the course of this build. The University I attend hired me to their IT department to fix printers, projectors, etc. That meant my income now exceeded my school bills and some neat parts could be added to this project. I included a pic of me also in case anyone was curious... I always wonder what these forum people look like.

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So at the time TG 4.7's were on sale so I bought a set, along with a spool for my rear end. My girlfriend threw down on a ratchet locker (I know... they suck too) and twin sticks and I started researching how to do the transfer case gear install.

I got to work as soon as the gears arrived...

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I had no experience so I went super-slow and took no chances. I was pretty pleased with the final product...

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I found yet another field truck... this time a 93 2wd Chevy Silverado with 3-leaf, 63" Chevy's... $20 if I wrenched them off. Bingo

(The only thing that the PO wanted off of that buggy frame was his Chevy's)

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I also found someone willing to part with a very crusty late model solid front axle as I mentioned earlier. Cleaned it up and it turned out pretty decent. Very little play in the axle, complete from hub-to-hub.

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