The thread of The Frank

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Ironman springs

I have been accumulating parts and I think I have too many projects at once. On the list are:

Man A Fre extended stainless brake lines (body to axle)
10W led flood lights for the rear of the truck
Onboard air setup with MV50 compressor and 3 gallon tank
finish rear bumper wings
finish desmog (remove smog pump, EGR, and accociated lines, valves, etc)
do something with my bent up front bumper (oops during snow wheeling outing)
repair FR fender flare (oops during snow wheeling outing)

To add to the list, I bought Ironman 2 inch "performance" springs from Redline and installed them in the middle of my rear bumper build. On the factory springs, the truck was more than 1 inch lower on the DS than PS in the rear, and leaned slightly in the front as well.

After installing the Ironman springs, the truck is nice and level :). However, the rear is a bit high compared to the front for my liking. I may reinstall the 1" spacers I had fabricated before into the front of the truck. I'm going to wait on this and see how it settles after a bit of driving. Interestingly, the front Ironman springs are notably shorter (uncompressed) than the factory springs. Both the front and rear springs are constructed from thicker wire and are noticably stiffer. Here are a few shots of the springs for comparison. I have neglected to take any pictures of the lifted truck, but I think there are some on the night wheeling thread during air down.

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I think I have my build thread fairly caught-up to the present time. I had a few hours to work in the garage this weekend and was able to make some progress on the rear bumper wings. Here is a shot showing the brace to the frame on the drivers side. The passenger side is similar, but I had to construct the brace a bit differently because of the exhaust.

I do not think I built these strong enough to jack the truck from them, but I think that they will be able to survive minor encounters with trees or rocks with minimal damage.

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Cutting all that metal with a grinder and cutoff wheel had to have been an arduous task. I'm with you though, the first bumper I made was the one on the front of my old 4runner, I cut all those pieces with a sawzall, using it upright like a big jigsaw :)
 
I'm interested to see the results of your 3F-E desmog. I've tought about doing it myself, but just wasn't sure if it was worth it. Those Ironman springs are definitely worth the money IMO. Love mine. Can't wait to get back to CO and drive it again.
 
black95 said:
Cutting all that metal with a grinder and cutoff wheel had to have been an arduous task. I'm with you though, the first bumper I made was the one on the front of my old 4runner, I cut all those pieces with a sawzall, using it upright like a big jigsaw :)
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I tried the sawzall, it just goes through blades very fast. Also, a bit harder to control then the grinder. Im sure it would be a lot less messy.

MrMoose said:
I'm interested to see the results of your 3F-E desmog. I've tought about doing it myself, but just wasn't sure if it was worth it. Those Ironman springs are definitely worth the money IMO. Love mine. Can't wait to get back to CO and drive it again.
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I'm not sure how noticeable the de-smog will be, so I'm curious too. I think that there was a little improvement from the cat removal. I need to get a new belt and some small parts to finish the job. I have an extra stainless steel EGR Valve block-off plate for you if you do decide to go ahead and de-smog.

Get back here and lets go wheelin'!
 
Springs505 said:
Get back here and lets go wheelin'!
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Wish I was back in Colorado already. They closed down base because of a little snow...

I did order a set of sliders from White Knuckle this weekend. They should be waiting for me when I get back.

I'll be read for the April run. A shakedown for Moab I suppose.
 
MrMoose said:
Wish I was back in Colorado already. They closed down base because of a little snow...

I did order a set of sliders from White Knuckle this weekend. They should be waiting for me when I get back.

I'll be read for the April run. A shakedown for Moab I suppose.
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Sliders...nice! Can't wait to see your truck in action!

I had some time this weekend and made progress on my rear bumper wing build. Fabrication is pretty much complete, but I may add one finishing touch a bit later. Now, its time for paint:

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Got the rear bumper done!

I finished painting the bumper wings up on two nights ago. Last night, I got them installed on the truck so that I could give them a "test drive" on the china wall run.

On the way to the china wall run (and also literally the first drive with my new bumper wings on), I had to hit the brakes to avoid a collision with another car who was merging into my lane. The aftermath is below. If there can be such a thing as a "winner" in a car accident, The Frank was the CLEAR winner. I was glad to see that everyone was OK when we got out of our cars. I suspect that the other drivers were a bit sore, and my wife is hurting a little bit. I am fine so far and the kiddo is pain-free, as well.

The brand new bumper wings fared well as the trailer hitch took the brunt of the impact. There is some light damage to my trailer hitch, exhaust, cross member, and new bumper wings, but the damage to The Frank was quite minor. I will inspect the frame tomorrow to see if things are straight.

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I got some garage time today, and was able to re-install the aforementioned busted fender flare. It does have a crack, but I think it was worth saving. Next time I break one, I may have to consider removing them all.

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I removed my banged up bumper (a victim of improper previous repairs/install, running into a big pile of snow last year:hillbilly:, running into a tree during the snow run :rolleyes:, and probably a whole list of things I don't know about). The bumper is pretty much toast. It's got a fold on the bottom mount from the tree and is a bit twisted up. I tried jumping up and down on it to fix it, but no luck. So much to my wife's dismay, I started plans for a new front bumper.

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The cutting for the rear bumper wings was a bit more than I bargained for, so I figure I will get the front cut on some sort of NC machine. Quite a few trips to/from the computer later and I came up with a design. Let's call it a rough draft. I will have to do some mock-up to get the contour of the bumper hugging the front of the truck nicely, but the winch box portion of the design is good and should fit the truck and the HF 12k winch I plan to use. Anyway, here is the rough draft:

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I plan to purchase a light bar from trail-gear and install across the winch box. I haven't put it in CAD yet, but I will add it as I refine the design.
 
Lookin good. That's almost the exact design I had on the front of my 4runner, I did make mine with an extra 45 plate on the outer front face corners after getting it mocked up, just to eliminate the sharp, hard corner. Just a thought. And add tube! The guy who bought my old rig added just a couple pieces of tube and changed the whole attitude of the truck for the better, makes me jealous I didn't think of it.
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Fitzgerald said:
That design looks great man! Can't wait to see it in steel. What's your ETA for this baby?
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I'm not sure yet. I will have to get my design wrapped up, buy material, and get it welded, ground ( I plan to round the welded edges like I did on the rear bumper) and painted. Hopefully in the next month or 2 I can get this built.

black95 said:
Lookin good. That's almost the exact design I had on the front of my 4runner, I did make mine with an extra 45 plate on the outer front face corners after getting it mocked up, just to eliminate the sharp, hard corner. Just a thought. And add tube! The guy who bought my old rig added just a couple pieces of tube and changed the whole attitude of the truck for the better, makes me jealous I didn't think of it. View attachment 880894
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When I said I would add a trail gear light bar above what I meant was this:

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I agree, It wouldn't be complete without some tube. This will give me a place to mount my HF lights, or maybe a 12" led bar ;). I am also thinking of adding some sort of provision for my hilift jack, maybe some brackets above the fairlead across the front of the bumper. There is NO good place for that thing in the back of the truck...
 
Fitzgerald said:
That's going to be sweet!

When you're done, I'll lend you the 100 for a few weeks... :grinpimp:
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Why not spend a few weeks putting some steel on the 55?:pig:

I pulled the trigger on 16sf of 7ga A36 steel and 2sf of 1/4" A36 yesterday, so materials for the bumper are on hand. Now, I need to get the design wrapped up. I realized that my previous design has the back edge of the top of the bumper about 2 inches into the front of the body, so I had to push the bumper out from the front of the truck a bit. I also scribed the contour of the front of the truck to the top of the bumper. This was kind of tough to get right, so I have tried to error on the side of being too close to the front of the truck (which may force me to grind a bit later). I raised the winch box about 1/2" in an effort to maintain approach angle and added t slots for the hi-lift, a place for an air coupling inside the winch box, and a bottle opener (I am not sure if I really want the opener). Anyway, here are a few screenshots:

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Unfortunately, it looks like I may have to relocate the solenoid box for the winch if I want to keep my lights. It's close, and I modeled the winch based on drawings from the instruction manual that were not fully dimensioned, so the height may be off a little.

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Really liking the look of that bumper man!

Springs505 said:
Why not spend a few weeks putting some steel on the 55?:pig:
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Anytime you want to come over and give me some ideas on the direction I should take the 55, you're more than welcome. Let me know before you drive over and I'll pick up some beers. :beer:
 
Fitzgerald said:
Anytime you want to come over and give me some ideas on the direction I should take the 55, you're more than welcome. Let me know before you drive over and I'll pick up some beers. :beer:
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I'd love to check out your 55. I'm sure I will have some ideas to offer, but I can't promise they will be good ones ;).

I liked the idea you posted with a soft top. I saw a pretty REALLY sweet looking 80 that had been flopped with a fabricated soft top and cage. I just can't seem to find any pictures of it now. I'll post a link i your soft top thread that might give you some ideas.
 
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