Builds Moonshine - A Build Thread (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Johnny,
Thanks for letting me ride in her saturday! Me and my pup both loved it. I was very impressed!!!

Ryan
 
sweet! Dont bother with cutting the fenders just lower the bumpstops a bit. :steer:
where's the pitbull rockers?

clint

What bumpstops?

Fenders are getting cut, no way around it. Pitbulls aren't on yet for two reasons. First is that the fenders aren't cut yet and second is that I haven't bought another set of rims for them yet.

Kick ass man!

Thanks Zach!

Nice!

Good to see some action again! I wanna go wheeling :frown:

Stupid concrete jungle I'm in.

I hear you there. It's not often that I go so I try to get the most of it when I do.

wow! nice trail there. a good thing to invest in SOA conversion..Makes me miss wheeling too :frown:

anyways GLTHFJ60 you got a sweet ride!!

Thank you sir!

Liking that trail and digging the vids. There's something about a white 60 that looks good on the trail.

I agree. 60s work so well on the trail too.

Johnny,
Thanks for letting me ride in her saturday! Me and my pup both loved it. I was very impressed!!!

Ryan

Ryan, no problem man. Like I said, it's good to have a co-pilot. When are you getting your pictures loaded up?
 
Rear springs are still too stiff but I'll take out a few leaves and then it should perform like the front.

Thanks for the kind words sir, I'm pretty happy with her:D


Also, I forgot to mention that my tires rub badly on the front fenders, so bad that the outer lugs are all cut up from this last weekend. The fenders are going to be opened up soon.


Recommend you not remove rear leaves. If you load up for a big trip, you will need all the load capacity you can get.


Looking closely at the front flex, you do need bump stops. I would place them so that they stop further uptravel when the springs are exactly flat. When the invert like that, it will ruin the spring in short order. As a side benefit it will limit your tire rub too. You won't notice the loss of articulation.

I run 37s and don't get fender rubbing, though it's close.
 
Recommend you not remove rear leaves. If you load up for a big trip, you will need all the load capacity you can get.


Looking closely at the front flex, you do need bump stops. I would place them so that they stop further uptravel when the springs are exactly flat. When the invert like that, it will ruin the spring in short order. As a side benefit it will limit your tire rub too. You won't notice the loss of articulation.

I run 37s and don't get fender rubbing, though it's close.

When I loaded up to move down to NC, my rear springs were just beginning to flatten out. I'm glad I had the capacity then but I don't think I'll load her up like that again, at least not for any type of offroading trip. I'm going to try taking out the overload and seeing how she feels.

The front suspension works really well right now, but the springs are both perfectly flat while sitting still. Adding bumpstops to keep the spring from inverting would literally prevent any uptravel my front axle has, so that would have a noticeable affect on my suspension travel. The solution would seem to be to add a leaf or two to make the springs not flat while sitting in the driveway, but I don't want to be any higher than I am. How do you retain flex while staying low?
 
Longer leaves, or a higher spring rate.

I have stock FJ62 spring packs up front, with a long ad a leaf. Then bump stopped at neutral.

It's a dead horse, but 3/4 ton Chevy 63s in the rear could solve both problems.
 
How do you retain flex while staying low?

I'm in the same boat. In the front I have an AAL with the 2 smallest leaves removed. Bump stops set at about 3in of up travel which is slightly inverted. The rears are stock packs with about 2in of up travel before the bumps. I've actually hit the rear stops driving down the road. I cant decide if I should do 63s out back and RUF with frenched hangers and such to drop her low or throw bigger tires on it. My 35s dont even get close to stuffing. But due to all my droop it still wheels great! So for now I'm lazy and am just happy to be driving it!
 
Ya know Johnny. I could of brought the rims up there also that day.

Probably no room in the rig of yours, but they are here for you.
 
Longer leaves :p
Longer leaves, or a higher spring rate.
I have stock FJ62 spring packs up front, with a long ad a leaf. Then bump stopped at neutral.
It's a dead horse, but 3/4 ton Chevy 63s in the rear could solve both problems.

True. I need to get me a set of 63" chevys. Stevo has a pretty good setup with the 63's in the rear and a RUF conversion. That may be the way to go. Then again, a front 3-link would be sweet too. Oh the options:p

Lookin' good Johnny!

Thank you sir!

I'm in the same boat. In the front I have an AAL with the 2 smallest leaves removed. Bump stops set at about 3in of up travel which is slightly inverted. The rears are stock packs with about 2in of up travel before the bumps. I've actually hit the rear stops driving down the road. I cant decide if I should do 63s out back and RUF with frenched hangers and such to drop her low or throw bigger tires on it. My 35s dont even get close to stuffing. But due to all my droop it still wheels great! So for now I'm lazy and am just happy to be driving it!

I hear you there about being lazy. I'm doing the same thing, just driving and enjoying. I tell you what though, driving and enjoying really shows you how many little things bug you! I'm planning on dropping her low, but that isn't going to happen for a while. I like the clearance, but I think I like lower COG better. I need to get some better armor to protect my expensive bits under the truck.

whoa, i'd love a trail like that! Looks like fun... Now i've got the same dented rear drivers door like you. popped it against a tree...
Good work on the t case ;)

The trails over here are pretty awesome, I'm quite satisfied. Congrats with your trail carnage. It feels good, doesn't it? Now you'll have less reservations the next time you go out. Ask me how I know:lol:

Thanks for the kind words!

That photographer should be a professional, those are gnarly flex shots :lol::flipoff2:

Seriously:D Your shots are my new favorites of my truck. Thanks again:cheers:

Ya know Johnny. I could of brought the rims up there also that day.
Probably no room in the rig of yours, but they are here for you.

I didn't have the cash to burn. I'm not in a big rush so as long as you're not planning on selling them out from under me, we're good:hillbilly: What backspacing are they, 3.5"?
 
Liking that trail and digging the vids. There's something about a white 60 that looks good on the trail.

true about white 60s. even the australian ARB 60s are white
 
Noticed this yesterday while fueling up. Moonshine is developing some really weird shakes and rattles now a days.:bang: I've really got to get moving on the new body.

IMG_20111015_104158.jpg
 
Looks like you are doing well in NC. Making friends and finding new trails to hit.. Looks like a fantastic trail too by the way.
A new body? wow you will have replaced just about everything on moonshine now.....LOL
I think your flex was loooking great...however the 63's would be sweeter....
Glad to see NC is treating you well sir!


Moab????
I'm still planting seeds Johnny!!!!
 
Looks like you are doing well in NC. Making friends and finding new trails to hit.. Looks like a fantastic trail too by the way.
A new body? wow you will have replaced just about everything on moonshine now.....LOL
I think your flex was loooking great...however the 63's would be sweeter....
Glad to see NC is treating you well sir!

Moab????
I'm still planting seeds Johnny!!!!

Oh man, I'm doing very well down here in NC:D The guys down here are awesome, lots of fun to hang out with and are all very motivated when it comes to work on their rigs. The trails down here are excellent too, with Uwharrie only 1.5 hours away. I really couldn't ask for a better setup:grinpimp:

I agree, the 63's will be sweet and they are definitely on the list of things to buy. The body has to come first though, it's literally falling apart.

Rubithon '12 is definitely on the to-do list. I'd really love to get moab and the rubithon in on the same trip, but we'll see. I've got a lot of work to do until then, gotta get to work!!
 
On to the next set of upgrades for Moonshine in preparation for the new body. Replacing the intake manifold since it's cracked, so everything's gotta come off. After removing the intake, I saw that the remflex gasket did it's job very well, even though it doesn't have fire rings. It sealed perfectly to the head and manifolds.

Once the headers were off, I found that they are in pretty rough shape in terms of rust. Made a call to a local ceramic coating company and it costs right around $200 to have my headers blasted, baked to remove oil and ceramic coated inside and out, so that's definitely happening. I'm probably going to drop off the valve cover with the headers to get them both coated satin black:grinpimp: I straightened out the slightly warped collector flange with some heat and a 5lb sledge.

I have to order a new carb insulator plate so that will take a couple of days, but so will the coating process for the headers. She'll sit in the garage until the headers come back, hopefully Friday, and then we're off to Fayetteville for a club HAMOM and to mount my pits:bounce:

Cracked intake manifold:
IMG_20111022_182619.jpg

Rusty headers:
IMG_20111022_164152.jpg

You can see that the remflex gasket did it's job in sealing in the exhaust gases:
IMG_20111022_164143.jpg

Missing a couple of things:
IMG_20111022_180645.jpg

New manifold and carb that's waiting to be rebuilt:
IMG_20111022_182644.jpg

What should I put on the empty garage wall?
IMG_20111022_182859.jpg
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom