Flank
American by Birth, Texan by the grace of God.
x2 - breaks are spendy for thicker steel, and take up a lot of room in a small shop, and a cut / bend/ and weld will be very strong.
Redneck Enginuitive Belly Pan finished!!!
- Thread starter CreeperSleeper
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #42
You have to support the trans/t-case. I usually use a jack stand under the tailshaft of the t-case.
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- #43
With the angle that it ends up being, I really don't foresee an issue. If someone wanted me to do that on one that they are ordering, I could do that.
I'm sure I'm overly OCD. But in the back of my mind I keep running through a cost analysis of a simple brace over a destroyed t-case. And since I'm a major wimp when it comes to cash I usually choose the cowardly route.
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- #45
Well buy one from me and you can add all the braces you would like!
- Thread starter
- #46
Okay, here was the best I could do the one day I got to wheel. This is on the trans skid. Sorry, there wasn't much room to get a camera in there!
From the back:
And the front:
I'm proud to say the skid did it's job! (And I did drop onto it... obviously. Just for you LandTank!
) Other than some scratches, everything was in the exact place that it was before the hit.
From the back:
And the front:
I'm proud to say the skid did it's job! (And I did drop onto it... obviously. Just for you LandTank!
) Other than some scratches, everything was in the exact place that it was before the hit.
Awesome. Now the question is, how did you get off of it or did it not cause you to get high centered?
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- #48
Oh, I was very high centered! There was a bigger rock that I drove my DS front tire onto to drop on to the rock. I got off by being winched backwards back onto that rock with my DS front. Then we used a prybar and three guys to roll the rock out of the way.
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- #50
Oh trust me, I wheeled like a 
that day.
that day.
you call that a rock? I drove over bigger ones in an H3!
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- #52
That's how I dented my oil pan. But dented it back out during my oil-pan-seal PM.
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- #54
There will be two 80's running my skidplate at CTW at the end of the month... I will try to get some better pics, then I will be seeing if the interest is enough to justify a jig.
As most of you guys know, I’m kinda hard on my FZJ… The last time that I had it up I managed to loose my t/c skid plate along with bending up my rear driveshaft. By “loose” I mean I looked under the truck to inspect the driveshaft and it was missing. No idea where or when it came off, but it was there when I was airing down at the beginning of the day. Needless to say, something needed to be done before I went wheeling again!
My original plan was to buy an IPOR skid plate… Until I found out it would be $410 shipped to me (!!!). I honestly think it is worth it, but if you don’t have the money… You know what I mean. I looked at the one Slee has (I didn’t see the full belly one on his website, nor could I find a price.) and wasn’t really thrilled. It was just like the one that I lost! MAF has one that looks just like IPORs (to the point where they may be buying them from IPOR and selling them), but I have given MAF two chances with ordering stuff from them and both times were an epic pain in the butt. No thanks.
I pondered this for a couple months. Then it hit me… Nothing on the market is exactly what I want. I like the clearance and protection of IPOR, but I don’t like the trans mount bolts hanging down. (I will destroy those!) And everything else that I have seen has even more drawbacks. So I enlisted my dad to help me build one… We ended up building three!
We ended up using my 80 and the factory cross member as jigs and used the thickest metal we could justify. Well, you have listened to me long enough! On to the pics!
Main cross member box tube:
Slowly gathering parts to tack together:
My dad getting the holes punched for the hardware and the drain plugs:
Mocking up the pieces under my 80 (Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic…)
The T/C skid before the bracing was tacked on:
The Trans skid after the bracing was tacked on:
Pulling it out from under the 80 to finish weld:
All welded up and ready for paint!
The top side painted:
How she looks on the truck:
So the first one is on my truck and I’m so happy with the way it turned out. I ended up with roughly the same amount of clearance I had with the original T/C skid on there. (We left enough room so the skids could deflect and not hit the T/C or the trans pan, but tucked it up as tight as we could.) The second one is welded up and is going on Jerry’s (RedSoxCruiser) rig. The third one will be used to make a jig for duplication and then sold. I’m more than pleased with the Redneck Enginuitive Belly Pan!
Now all you'd have to do is offer a nice adjustable link tower to the driver side of the trans mount. Run a big link to the top of the axle housing and you would be very well on you way to a 3 link. Ive analyzed this 'till my neck was sore and i will be borrowing your squaretube crossmember design for my 3 link project..link angles and length would be favorable. I am also not concerned with twisting these fabricated axle housings with a driverside link mount...its not like these are dana 30s!
Black version
Hey Chad,
Thanks for the armor! The mounting holes were all spot on and it bolted up perfect! The only concern is since my 80 is a '94 with the A442F tranny, the hole for the drain plug is useless. No big deal - I'll worry about it next tranny service. Anyway, I'm jazzed for the "better than stock" protection. It was a cinch to install. The frame mounting plate on the driver's side may have to be trimmed for slider install. I'll find out after the sliders arrive. Here's some pics:
1st pic: new skid plate after painting
2nd pic: What was removed - OEM cross member & protection plates
3rd pic: new skid plate installed
Hey Chad,
Thanks for the armor! The mounting holes were all spot on and it bolted up perfect! The only concern is since my 80 is a '94 with the A442F tranny, the hole for the drain plug is useless. No big deal - I'll worry about it next tranny service. Anyway, I'm jazzed for the "better than stock" protection. It was a cinch to install. The frame mounting plate on the driver's side may have to be trimmed for slider install. I'll find out after the sliders arrive. Here's some pics:
1st pic: new skid plate after painting
2nd pic: What was removed - OEM cross member & protection plates
3rd pic: new skid plate installed
Black Version, more pics
IMHO this mod is definitely worth it! Some more pics to view:
IMHO this mod is definitely worth it! Some more pics to view:
Last edited:
hmmmmm. more pics for sure...
Looks great again. I may just have to have one made for mine as well. I like.
- Thread starter
- #60
I'm glad you are happy, Tom! I didn't even think about the drain plugs being in a different spot on the earlier transmissions... 
As an update, I no longer have any skids pre-fabbed... I would be happy to build more, but the wait would be longer as I will be building them on an "as needed" basis.
As an update, I no longer have any skids pre-fabbed... I would be happy to build more, but the wait would be longer as I will be building them on an "as needed" basis.
