The Desert Cruiser

[whothehellisdan]

Sorry for the late replys. I've been away with work the last couple of months.

No major damage from the tree falling on it, Defender isn't mine, but more on that soon.

So the 60 has been giving me a little grief lately with intermittent bugs popping up including dying on me while I was reviewing a camper trailer. It culminated in me trying to get it running in the pouring rain in a shopping centre car park before it jumped back into life giving me a belt while I was trying to work out why no spark.

I cracked the s***s, handed in the registration and went and bought a new Ford Ranger as a work/mild wheeling/camping rig. It's a 3.2L turbo-diesel with a factory rear locker and a whole bunch of goodies heading its way.

It'll also function as a tow rig for the 60 which is getting chopped in half and a wheel base stretch soon with some bead locked 37s and a bit more go-fast suspension setup. Should start making some progress on it in January hopefully.

 

[mongoose2231]

I like the twists in this thread!

 

[enfield]

Australians get all the cool vehicles.

 

[whothehellisdan]

I like the twists in this thread!

No one knows what will happen next, not even me haha

 

[shameless60]

Sounds wicked can't wait to see what you do. Let me know if there is anything for sale. Cough wheels and tyres cough.

 

[whothehellisdan]

Started gutting the 60 today selling everything that's of no use to me soon, I've been lying in bed at night planning the ins and outs of basically every step for a while now so it feels good to make some progress, even if it is pulling stuff off.

It's catch 22 though. Cage is easier to do while the body is still cut open, but to do the cage I need to know where the back wall of the cab will be and where the seats will be mounted. So I guess step one was buy some racing seats? A set of Beard Ultras should do the job just nicely I think.

From here I've got a bit more stuff to gut and then need to cut it open so we can start on the cage.

 

[whothehellisdan]

After a full day of crawling over the 60 with a tape measure and dummy fitting seats finally have a cut line that'll allow room for the cage and gear and not look too goofy.

In other news, Ranger is kicking ass, got about 3000 miles on it now and averaging about 24mpg. Absolutely stoked with it.

Although there is some bad news. Last night some friends and I were doing hood rat s*** in a state forest in an Ultra 4 buggy and I blew the gearbox in half so now have an awkward and expensive repair bill in someone else's car which may hold progress up a little.

For anyone curious what i'm actually doing cutting a perfectly good Cruiser in half, it's getting built for this event in the hear of Australia.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Ok, but that's no need to cut up a perfectly good truck! When, where, and do they allow spectators to follow around?
Is this the purpose for that very cool front end suspension then? You had this idea all along?

 

[whothehellisdan]

Ok, but that's no need to cut up a perfectly good truck! When, where, and do they allow spectators to follow around?
Is this the purpose for that very cool front end suspension then? You had this idea all along?

I'd always had dreams of off road racing so wanted a family wagon that drove like that. Now I've got two vehicles to do the two roles so don't need to make one that'll do everything. It's in September out at Silverton on the NSW and SA border, spectators are allowed but it's an endurance race so prime seating isn't always available.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

After a full day of crawling over the 60 with a tape measure and dummy fitting seats finally have a cut line that'll allow room for the cage and gear and not look too goofy.

View attachment 1389145

In other news, Ranger is kicking ass, got about 3000 miles on it now and averaging about 24mpg. Absolutely stoked with it.
View attachment 1389146

Although there is some bad news. Last night some friends and I were doing hood rat s*** in a state forest in an Ultra 4 buggy and I blew the gearbox in half so now have an awkward and expensive repair bill in someone else's car which may hold progress up a little.
View attachment 1389147

For anyone curious what i'm actually doing cutting a perfectly good Cruiser in half, it's getting built for this event in the hear of Australia.

That looks FLIPPING AWESOME!!!! Can't wait to see how you prep your 60 to compete.

 

[whothehellisdan]

Alright I figured I should stop being a lazy sack of s*** and give a bit more in-depth updates rather than the cliff notes. The class I'll be racing in require some pretty extensive roll cages. Like 50mm DOM tube with 5mm wall thickness. That and the room for harnesses, bilge pumps, and a fresh air system meant I needed a fair whack of room behind the seats. We settled on about 6in of room. A little more than I wanted but shouldn't look too bad when it's all done.

After spending an ass load of time measuring and marking to make sure the cut line is bang on we finally got chopping today. We welded a cross brace in to help keep things square after the chop as well. They're down to the seat mounts as thosw are going anyway.

There was a LOT of stuff that was double skinned so took some strategic cutting. Absolutely killed me to basically wreck half my 60 but when it goes back together it'll be better than ever. Gotta break a few eggs yadda yadda. Anyway, here's how it looks now. Will start getting a back wall on it next week. The body lift will come out soon, was only in to clear the rear tyres but leaving it in to give us a little more room to do the wall first.

 

[whothehellisdan]

That looks FLIPPING AWESOME!!!! Can't wait to see how you prep your 60 to compete.

Thanks mate, keen to get stuck into the details, just need to get the big stuff knocked over first

 

[enfield]

Looks awesome man! I don't have the nerve to cut a perfectly good cruiser up like that, hahaha.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Damn man, it takes some cohones to cut that far into the truck. Impressive.

5mil wall thickness tubing is some serious s***. The entire cage has to be built out of that? There's going to be a few hundred pounds of tube in this truck when it's all said and done.

 

[DickM]

Damn man, it takes some cohones to cut that far into the truck. Impressive.

What he said! Subscribed.

 

[whothehellisdan]

Not much to report in the way of updates, waiting for parts and time, either one would be appreciated.

One of the guys who does concept art for the car mags down here is drawing some stuff up for me for a series of articles 4x4 Australia is running. He needed a rough idea of what it's going to look like so I sharpened my pencils and did my best photoshop job I could.

My skills are hilariously bad but I thought you all might be interested the direction the Desert Cruiser is taking.

 

[enfield]

That rear suspension is sick! Looks like you will need every bit of it for that race though, hahaha!

 

[whothehellisdan]

Finally made some progress. Well progress that isn't just acquiring parts.
There's now a 4L80 to go behind the LS1 when i've got some more dollarydoos to spend on it. Also picked up a set of trick trailing arms for the coilover and bypass arrangement in the rear. Got sick of looking at in on stockies after I chopped it too, so threw a set of 40s on there temporarily.
Now for actual cool progress. Finally got it over to my mates shop for us to start building the cage. Yeah it's heavy, but it's also the minimum I need for the class i'll race in. If it crashes it'll be end over end at 80mph+, not a gentle flop. Got a little more work to go and a couple of extra tubes to add before it can get slid back in and welded up.

 

[wheelin62]

Looks like where I cut mine. Haven't looked back yet. Looking forward on the progress.

 

[enfield]

Looks good man!