okay the rust monster here in the midwest has taken its toll on my 83s frame in the rear.... not that tuff truck racing and jumping it helped either.
the 2wd and 4wd frames are pretyy much identical in the rear in most respects for all intensive purposes, I have a 2wd frame that I am using the motor mounts off for my FJ80 tundra V8 swap (yes the same mounts will bolt up to a tundra motor mount) and I have the rear half of the frame and after measuring and checking all the dimensions I see it is pretty do-abale,
So here is my plan - I will NARROW the rear frame rails in by exactlly one frame width and remove ALL factory cross members and fab up new one to mate to the now narrow frame, and on the 83 I will cut the rear half of the frame off entirely.
here is the reason(s) I am doing this like this-
1. a more narrow frame will allow better articulation with the rear IFS later model rear axle being able to leverage the tire/wheel up or down a little bit more (it looks good on paper
)
2. I will run the frame all the way up to about the cross member on the original frame and weld the 2 together lengthwise as well as some gussets to strengthen the 2 welded together all long the union. sounds much more white trash than it is
3. I will be able to run the shocks on the outside of the frame rails now attaching it to the axle further out as well giving better control of the dampening.
4. while I am doing these mods I will be doing either longer (56) or chevy rear springs (62) along with the an adjustable shackle mount that you can adjust 1.5 inches out or into the frame to allow better travel when needed or better load carrying by placing the shackle at a more vertical angle to place the weight on the shackle instead of aloowing it to be place entirely on an angled shackle.
5. by the time I find a rust free frame around here I will lose out on another season wheeling in it, and this is... free other than the welding wire and grinding discs
In addition to all the above mods I will be making a battery tray/mount down in the frame rails to take off the 40 lbs of weight hanging off the front of the truck and place it down low.
did I mention moving the motor mounts back 3 inches in the frame too?
most everything is ready to move over to the other frame all this weekend and enxt I will be firing away at this project so I can keep up progress on my V8 swap.
Here are a couple old pics of the truck, it now is a convertable and still has the tube doors like in the pics, I am doing a chromoly roll cage in it since the roof is gone and no more roll bar mounted to the frame though my bed- it will be in the cab and have kickers down into the bed.
the 2wd and 4wd frames are pretyy much identical in the rear in most respects for all intensive purposes, I have a 2wd frame that I am using the motor mounts off for my FJ80 tundra V8 swap (yes the same mounts will bolt up to a tundra motor mount) and I have the rear half of the frame and after measuring and checking all the dimensions I see it is pretty do-abale,
So here is my plan - I will NARROW the rear frame rails in by exactlly one frame width and remove ALL factory cross members and fab up new one to mate to the now narrow frame, and on the 83 I will cut the rear half of the frame off entirely.
here is the reason(s) I am doing this like this-
1. a more narrow frame will allow better articulation with the rear IFS later model rear axle being able to leverage the tire/wheel up or down a little bit more (it looks good on paper
)2. I will run the frame all the way up to about the cross member on the original frame and weld the 2 together lengthwise as well as some gussets to strengthen the 2 welded together all long the union. sounds much more white trash than it is
3. I will be able to run the shocks on the outside of the frame rails now attaching it to the axle further out as well giving better control of the dampening.
4. while I am doing these mods I will be doing either longer (56) or chevy rear springs (62) along with the an adjustable shackle mount that you can adjust 1.5 inches out or into the frame to allow better travel when needed or better load carrying by placing the shackle at a more vertical angle to place the weight on the shackle instead of aloowing it to be place entirely on an angled shackle.
5. by the time I find a rust free frame around here I will lose out on another season wheeling in it, and this is... free other than the welding wire and grinding discs
In addition to all the above mods I will be making a battery tray/mount down in the frame rails to take off the 40 lbs of weight hanging off the front of the truck and place it down low.
did I mention moving the motor mounts back 3 inches in the frame too?
most everything is ready to move over to the other frame all this weekend and enxt I will be firing away at this project so I can keep up progress on my V8 swap.
Here are a couple old pics of the truck, it now is a convertable and still has the tube doors like in the pics, I am doing a chromoly roll cage in it since the roof is gone and no more roll bar mounted to the frame though my bed- it will be in the cab and have kickers down into the bed.