Builds Sweet Brown 80 & Sweet Brown Buggy - Dual Build Thread

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Got the ole girl home, got pulled by cops for my fender wells being very very very "open". I've been pulled one more time but knock on wood, no tickets. Once home, it was time to paint. I went with Steel it black cause why not keep spending big cash???

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Did some color matching on the fender panels!

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My friends and I started a business during the beginning of Covid and one of our best products are 80 series landcruiser tube doors!

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And that kinda brings us up to speed on the chop and the truggy that Sweet Brown has turned into!

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It has been a complete blast and a pleasure to wheel. The new weight of it as well as the more front forward ratio of weight I believe makes it pop over obstacles a little better. Put the front 2 on top of the obstacle and the rear kinda floats on up.

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The goal now is to start thinking about the exo. The ultimate reality is this ole girl is still wide and heavy - having some steel there on the outer wings of it would help me when I know I'm going to be leaning into something. One of our favorite trails at Windrock has become 15 and you're guaranteed to put her in the wall there, just an inch of additional protection I think would keep me completely unscathed. But thats a project for the winter.
 
Dude, sweet work!
 
Now that ole brown has a trailer to take her anywhere, two things have happened.

Thing 1: I bought possibly the last mod I'm going to do to the truck
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Thing 2: I bought a new project.

I guess I'll start a build thread in the hardcore section to document the progress here.
Goal is 42s, full hydro, 5.3/400/atlas pass drop, running chevy D60 and 14bolt. Haven't decided what I want to do for shocks yet, whether I go air, ORI or coilovers.
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NCTrey133 said:
Now that ole brown has a trailer to take her anywhere, two things have happened.

Thing 1: I bought possibly the last mod I'm going to do to the truck
View attachment 2835492

Thing 2: I bought a new project.

I guess I'll start a build thread in the hardcore section to document the progress here.
Goal is 42s, full hydro, 5.3/400/atlas pass drop, running ( Portal Axles ) Haven't decided what I want to do for shocks yet, whether I go air, ORI or coilovers.
View attachment 2835493
Click to expand...
 
2 Part Update: Why not, I'll just keep 80 series build and buggy build in the same thing.

80 series:
Got new meats!!! A local to my area was selling brand new 40" Treps and my procomps were getting pretty worn down. Couldn't pass up a local offer with a great price so now my shop smells like fresh rubber again and all is well in the world. Me and the boys did a trip to Windrock shortly after me getting the new rubber installed and I think they performed really well. I got up an obstacle on Little School Bus that I didn't make it up the trip prior (even when it was drier). All in all very excited about this tire, as its wearing in I'm noticing more of a bulge as I air down which is cool because the first time I aired down they barely even moved.

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Here are some shots of the truck on the lower portion of Rattle Trap

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Coming up the last right ledge on black bear

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Only other cool thing I'm doing on the 80 right now is getting new FK heims up front (desperately time for a refresh) and grabbing some Wide Open Designs aluminum links to match the rear ones I have. She gonna be shiny.
 
Ok, update on the Sweet Brown Buggy:

So a lot has happened since my last post where I showed just a chassis getting in. I'll run you through the whole build/order spectrum.

1. FABN801 Chassis "Sin City" model
2. LS 5.3 build with a torquey cam sitting right around 400 HP
--> building this absolutely racked my brain, I'm not good with engines
3. Monster Transmission Turbo 400 (reverse manual valve in it)
4. Midnight Metalworks Rockbox 4:1 tcase
5. Running on a set of Tons with all crane axle goodies including high steer, diff covers, 13 bolt shave, yukon super joints, chomoly 35 spline errrr thang, 5.38 gears, running an ARB up front and the factor detroit in the rear on the CUCV 14 bolt.
6. Got 42" Iroks mounted on battle born beadlocks
7. Using the holley terminator kit for wiring everything
8. Got a switch pro's cluster for all things ignition, lights, fuel & fans
9. PSC full Hydro steering with the fancy PSC CBR power steering pump mated to the LS using the WOD high clearance FEAD
10. Using Heims on 2" .250 wall DOM linkage
11. Corbeau suspension seats will ride in this sucker
12. Barnes trusses with FABN801 link & chassis tabs
13. Johnny's custom motor sports scratch designed radiator w/ trans cooler running on brushless fans will be sitting behind me

Haven't yet thought through brakes (may go hydroboost from busted knuckle offroad) and fuel cell (may have to go custom here).

I think that is a pretty good run down of all the major components. All of the above is currently sitting in my shop just waiting for me to put hands on it. This is a long build and I'm not rushing anything. I'm currently at linkage. Got the powertrain all mounted up and the axles are fully build (just haven't welded on the trusses yet).

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Got the rear 4 link set in place, all geometry has been thought over about a billion times. Goals were 80% - 100% AS, 0 roll center axis, and the ability to keep pinion pointed at tcase through droop.

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Waiting on a truss to be completed on the front axle (I switched out to a steering 14 bolt) so that I can work on front link geometry.
 
Nice buggy.


So who all says it's time to dove tail the front of the 80???
 
Update!

So the buggy has legs!!!! Suspension is mounted, geometry is as good as its gonna get, my drive shaft angles look good!!! I subbed out the 42s for some 43 stickys. Front axle now has a truss on it and we're making progress!

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Intermediate shaft to the carrier bearing is in!

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The 80 is getting some love right now too:

So I broke my inner front axle shaft (OG Bobby Long) and am on the 20 week wait for RCVs as well as Branik is building me some 300M shafts as well (so we'll have spares now!). In the meantime with the 80 way down, the NW Fab doubler has been mounted, I'm currently working on some skid plating for it, need to get breather situation squared away, and gotta find the right place to mount this cable shifter.

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Big updates:

I am officially no longer the owner of Sweet Brown. @Feldrian is who to follow if you want to see this thing live on and mob the Pacific Northwest! I'll leave Sweet Brown's beginnings on here in case anyone wants to learn from what I did beginning to end (of my possession).

Buggy progress! I'll keep posting new updates of the buggy build here until someone tells me to cut the build in half and move it over to the hardcore corner.

She's on her own weight!
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Flexed out

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Goals:
- panelling will begin soon when Mars Fab gets his tig setup fixed
- In the meantime, radiator is getting hard mounted and the nose is going to get a small re-design because its kinda sticking out there in space.
--> We're gonna still leave enough room for a front mounted winch (Warn 8k)
 
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