Quad Cab - 4 door coil sprung shortened troopy/extended swb build

[Sporty Forty]

Some mock up progress shots of the speedo surround.

I also gave the wiper arms a sand blasting and paint. Being from a LX donor 40 it is the 3 wiper version. 2 long arms and one short. It does wiper the screen a lot better than a 2 wiper one.

I put the 1/4 vent window's back together. Lanotec was my friend here as I struggled for a while getting no where trying to get the windows into the rubbers into the frames. 30 minutes later 2 windows done. Came up looking way better than how they started.

 

[Grant Woodbridge]

Bud... This build needs its own show on Discovery.
Unreal absolutely unreal. thanks for sharing.

 

[GarethsSixty]

Really enjoying this thread. Awesome work. Out of interest, how hard was it to fit the 80 arms to the patrol diff? Also, did the shocks line up to the GQ diff without mods? I'm putting a GQ diff into a 60 and I reckon the GQ spring buckets are to low, I'd like to run a longer coil and shock...

 

[Sporty Forty]

Really enjoying this thread. Awesome work. Out of interest, how hard was it to fit the 80 arms to the patrol diff? Also, did the shocks line up to the GQ diff without mods? I'm putting a GQ diff into a 60 and I reckon the GQ spring buckets are to low, I'd like to run a longer coil and shock...

On the rear it was easy as the 80 diff housing size is smaller than the Pootrol so when you cut the bracket off the housing it is pretty much the correct size to go onto the pootrol housing. As the 80 has an offset diff and one of the brackets is shorter, we just added some steel into make a new base.

The front uses a pootrol drop box arrangement as I went with pootrol radius arms rather than a hybrid. Would have liked the hybrid version as the 80 set up is a lot better design with the heim joint rather than the squashed bush arrangement.

The spring hats had to be moved a bit as the GU is 30mm wider than an GQ/80 so we moved them. As for GQ to a 60 chassis I would say that you will have to move them a small amount due to the chassis width on a 60 being slightly narrower than an 80.

 

[GarethsSixty]

Cheers for the info. For some reason I thought you used 80 radius arms up front. I like the radial bush better to, but I'm assuming adapting stock 80 arms is not an option because all the angles are probably wrong.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Cheers for the info. For some reason I thought you used 80 radius arms up front. I like the radial bush better to, but I'm assuming adapting stock 80 arms is not an option because all the angles are probably wrong.

Yes as the GU is 30mm wider than GQ/80 I would have had a slight triangulation going on. GQ will be better as the same width.

I started out doing an 80 radius arm flip on the GU front but the fabricator guy was full of it and delivered nothing but ill fitting parts and I had to start again. Same as I wanted a GQ/U 80 rear diff, ie 80 series full floater outer and GQ/U center on an offset location same as the 80. Guy did that but made the thing 1560mm wide as opposed what was asked for being 1630mm wide. (80 std is 1600mm)

First work from the guy looked promising, but holes didn't line up in the flange plate he made and it had warped in the welding process as well.

 

[GarethsSixty]

Looked okay, pity it wasn't done properly, is that a panhard link on the passenger side or is the picture reversed? That's a boo boo right there. What axle option was there for GQ centre Tojo outer? Full custom axles I'm assuming?

 

[Sporty Forty]

Looked okay, pity it wasn't done properly, is that a panhard link on the passenger side or is the picture reversed? That's a boo boo right there. What axle option was there for GQ centre Tojo outer? Full custom axles I'm assuming?

yep first guy had a X set up, rally bad and I mean really bad. He makes buggies for tough truck apparently!. The first engineer laughed at his welds when I had the chassis extension done and we still had the old brackets on there and a few other bits. Only paid him 1/2 of what he was owed as I had to start again and told him I would send him the bill for getting it to the same stage but engineeringable!.

Was going down the custom axle way and the guy said they were ordered etc...... blah blah blah..... yadda yadda yadda then nothing appeared for 3 months. Asked where he was getting them from and called them up. Never heard of the guy, same with superior engineering when I asked about the shocks and springs that they delivered that the guy said were wrong. They didn't have any deliveries to the guy.

Using someone good now, makes a world of difference.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Below the rear door I had an issue in that there would be a 50mm gap between the brush bars and the side of the body. Wanted to fill this in with something so purchased a bent pair of side steps and proceeded to cut them down. Made them 30mm wide and used the leading and trailing edge radius's at each end and made them about 550mm long. The blue tube in the photo's is the approximate location of the brush bars and the same size.

Only a small thing but in my opinion having nothing there would have looked odd and was not in favour of one big long wide step going from the back of the front guard to the front of the rear guard. In keeping with the theme of 40 series bits it has come out looking pretty good. As it wont be taking any load as the weight of the person getting in will be mostly on the brush bars it is only bolted to the body with the little gusset underneath as per 40 series.

The gap between brush bar and body. There will be a 20mm distance between the bar and the step.

Take one bent step and modify. Found one long line of impressions that I could use so used them.

Front and rear radius will be used on the new step.

Rear step in place showing relationship with the front step and approximate brush bar location. The brush bar will end just prior to the rear guards as these form my side protection in this area and will start afterwards.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Onto interior stuff now.

Handbrake proved to be an issue as the panel work we had there was a bit low. So we decided to make a new panel there 25mm higher. Worked a treat as it cleared the transfer case lever mechanism nicely now. This is the old one and it was hitting the lever there.

Using a 79 series hand brake mechanism here as the angle of the handle was better than a 40 or 60 or 80 handbrakes I had lying around. Wiring will also work well with the 79 loom, but basically 80 and 79 are exactly the same in the lower aspects of the handle except for the actual handle area itself. Newer panel in place with strengthening ribs there.

Planning on using an 80 center console after some trim work. Seemed to fit in there nicely. Will have to notch the bottom of it for the gear selector cable to pass through.

Gear selector unit I will be using. Comes from a 200 I am lead to believe.

Put a heater box in there to see how it would all line up.

 

[GarethsSixty]

Well that handbrake came up mickey mouse. Good work!

 

[Matthew Trollip]

Any updates?

 

[White Stripe]

photo showing bolt holes that will go through the body panels onto another piece the same as this blue piece. It has come out better than I thought.

View attachment 1333067

Has the same profile as these fibreglass flares. These have been ripped a bit so will make another set to suit this at some stage.

View attachment 1333070

Where are those fiberglass flares from??

 

[Sporty Forty]

Where are those fiberglass flares from??

I got some 3.5mm walled tube and some 25mm sq tube for the inner frame mandrel bent the same radius as the fibreglass flares I had and then proceeded to cut them in half and make some 3.5mm outer lip flares with them. they have come up a real treat but $$$ to do but cheaper than by a second set after some damage I reckon.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Any updates?

Not much lately as it has been school holidays and the likes and the next step is an Auto Electrician. That is happening this Thursday so it will be a rough in of the wiring, drill some new holes and fill in ones that aren't required. Then the dash area will still need some attention but otherwise it is pretty much done for fabrication work finally. So back into it late next week again.

I have been busy doing to 40/80 extra cab ute project in between working on this. Had a lot of parts left over so all I needed was a SWB body and chassis and engine and 2 doors. Picked up most of it cheap, so that has helped and I am doing most of the work myself this time in my shed. Only out sourcing things like chassis extension and body and engine mounting as our local engineers like those bits done to a standard.

My old man left me some tools and included was a small folder and guillotine. Works a treat.

Sides welded in. An additional 11 3/4" in there.

Used the SWB rear floor to make the missing section of the body. Looks factory'ish.

Used the floor supports underneath as well and will have body mounted brackets supporting the round rubber bits from the chassis.

 

[alberta mac]

nice work ! I really think you need some staggard welds on the seems of your floor plate you patched in ! The plug welds are good but you do need some stich welds, Then some kind of undercoating or primer undercoating. glad to see the underbed channels you put in ! I would utilize the old mounts and install new brackets on the frame for your new channels with body mounts.
Good stuff !

 

[Sporty Forty]

nice work ! I really think you need some staggard welds on the seems of your floor plate you patched in ! The plug welds are good but you do need some stich welds, Then some kind of undercoating or primer undercoating. glad to see the underbed channels you put in ! I would utilize the old mounts and install new brackets on the frame for your new channels with body mounts.
Good stuff !

Will do as I haven't finished there yet. There is a double row of plug welds there, one from the top as well.

As for the mounts, the engineers here like 'factory' stuff better but will talk to the guy doing that little bit next week when I'm down there with the body and then engine. Then it will all come back and be put together and then taken to bits and sand blasted, painted 822 blue or 857 blue, yet to choose that.

Thanks for comments

 

[whirleybird]

Following ever step of this great build. Any new progress? Im looking at doing a 45/47 cab onto a vdj-- chassis. Im assuming the 1vd-ftv wont fit without widening the body or did you widen yours for some other reason?

 

[Sporty Forty]

Following ever step of this great build. Any new progress? Im looking at doing a 45/47 cab onto a vdj-- chassis. Im assuming the 1vd-ftv wont fit without widening the body or did you widen yours for some other reason?

Not much progress of late as I have been waiting for an auto electrician to do some work and while that is going on I have been sidetracked with an extra cab 40/80 1hdft powered build. Had a lot of parts left over from the 4 door thing the only thing I needed was an 80 chassis that I scored cheap and a body (some beers) and engine (the costly part) I had all the rest sitting around here so I either sold it for what would amount to nothing or I make an extracab 40/80 thingy. So I did that.

Put 11 1/4" into the body.

Not sitting square yet.

1HDFT fits in there nicely

On the 4 door project the body was widened for a few reasons, none of which was about fitting the engine into the bay.

I am not a huge fan of the 100mile wide front guards so wanted to massage the dimensions a tad without it looking too over the top. I have put 75mm into each guard and 50mm into the body and this pretty much comes close to covering the wheels. I will also run brush bars on the front to get another 70mm of cover without it looking too wide. Photo below.

The engine only just fitted between the shock towers of the 80 and the guards are needing some new inner guard sections. But the most important thing that came up was getting the steering column from the hole in the body to the box up the front. If I didn't do the body widening then I reckon I might have had to run some sort of dog leg in the steering column and that would add a lot more play and less feel through the wheel.

It's a lot of additional work, but once completed I reckon(hope) it will have been worth it.

 

[whirleybird]

These two are going to look great when theyre done. keep it up