Trail Pig (1 Viewer)

[Ferntucky]

Buddy of mine works for a
company called Blue Sea Systems. They are primarily a marine electrical systems company, but a lot of their products can have application for our rigs. Personally, I will be using their enclosed fuse blocks etc in my engine bay.

Also, they have a very nifty app available on their website called "circuit wizard". You can figure out wire size, voltage drop, fuse size etc. by using it. Pretty cool, FWIW.

Blue Sea Systems - Innovative Electrical Systems — Built to last

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Among the wiring project, and what little dash I have to work with, anybody use anything other than aluminum for a custom buggy-style dash panel?

I love the clean look of FC's pig dash:

but was thinking of making it with some thicker sheets (3/16 or 1/4) of HDPE (cutting board plastic)

other than having to ground the gauges, i think this will be pretty slick

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

factory turn signal switch was still available thru toyota about 3 years ago. cost me 135 bucks. I have seen some nice wood dashes...

 

[J Mack]

I made this temporary dash from ¼” Kydex to see if I was going to like the aftermarket gauges before making my permanent dash from aluminum. The Kydex is easy to work with and looks good.

Same dash in aluminum

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Nice! that is intense. Does Kydex expand/contract a lot in cold or hot environments? I remember making some fender lip flares out of UHMW for another project, and they would expand so much in the summer sun and get all wavy between the mounting holes.

I also tore down my 3spd case and ordered the Advanced Adapters NP203 doubler. Need a seal/gasket kit for the tcase too.

 

[J Mack]

Nice! that is intense. Does Kydex expand/contract a lot in cold or hot environments? I remember making some fender lip flares out of UHMW for another project, and they would expand so much in the summer sun and get all wavy between the mounting holes.

Lot's of stereo installers and custom car builders use it for interior parts, I've never had an issue with it.

Kydex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[RUSH55]

I made this temporary dash from ¼” Kydex to see if I was going to like the aftermarket gauges before making my permanent dash from aluminum. The Kydex is easy to work with and looks good.

Same dash in aluminum

Damn that is SICK!!

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Put my NP203 box together this morning while the wife and kids were at the gym. still needs the input seal, but it was very easy to assemble.

I used some spraycan Ford blue engine paint from autozone, very good stuff. (really pops in the pictures too!

 

[SKULLYOTA]

next up is rebuilding the stock t-case, which looks daunting considering how long ago I took it apart (which i didn't really need to do)
found this good site thought, kudos to whoever wrote it:

Page 3: Reassembly

 

[J Mack]

next up is rebuilding the stock t-case

Do yourself a favor and buy the heavy detent springs for the shift rails and put them in before you install the transfer case.
I reused my old springs and had some issues popping out of low this weekend, getting to the detent spring plug in the vehicle will be a treat I'm not looking forward to..

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Do yourself a favor and buy the heavy detent springs for the shift rails and put them in before you install the transfer case.
I reused my old springs and had some issues popping out of low this weekend, getting to the detent spring plug in the vehicle will be a treat I'm not looking forward to..

I just finished reassembly before seeing this. where do you get the "heavy" springs?

 

[J Mack]

Call Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters and he'll know what you need

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Got my Doubler installed and crossmember fabricated.

ignore the fugly bolt heads and stacked washers...i'll fix that.


and it looks like i'll have lots of floor to remodel also.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

FJ60/62 steering box is installed, I'm using a factory 87-95 Pickup pitman arm and Sky Manufacturing adapter. The draglink will be a piece of 1.25" DOM threaded for the 23mm FJ80 end at the tie rod and the Sky adapter at the other. Easy.

The Tie rod looks like it might be a mix of late 40, FJ60 and FJ80 stuff to keep it simple. I just spent some coin at RockAuto buying various ends to see what i can get by with that is somewhat factory. We'll see.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

My attempt to re-taper a factory drum brake '55 end showed that it wasn't quite on center...

If none of the TRE assortment I bought works out, I do have this piece I made for a Samurai years ago that used FJ80 ends. It'll have to be cut off, re-bored and put on new tube. It worked awesome on a Sammy though

Not to mention I still have to come up with some sort of steering shaft too.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

hmmmm what else have I been able to do...


Made some high clearance rear u-bolt plates.

I mocked up my old front bumper again (for the 10th time it seems) my dad originally built it for some project over 10 years ago, and it's been kicked around either his or my garage since. It'll work I hope.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

My tire/wheel combo is the classic poor man's 16.5 HMMWV tires, only with out the matching beadlock wheels. Instead I have a set of OLD 16.5x8.25" slot mags. They're cool, but the problem is that they are almost an inch thick at the lug holes and have flat seats. They also come very close to the TRE's. I couldn't find any longer versions of the funky studs that come in Marlin/Trail Gear/Etc wheel spacers. They apparently have much wider knurls that typical 12mm studs, making them unicorns or something.

Thankfully I was able to find 14mm studs with the correct knurl diameter (application is a newer Duramax GM 4x4) and pressed them in. I also found a Gorilla lug nut that fit perfectly too.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Picked some parts of the carcass of this old pig being parted by a local cruiser dude. Not much left, it was flopped over at some point in its life

scored the grille, re-furbed radiator (UNINSTALLED!!!!!) and the rear end for a future full float build.

also ordered SBC headers, Wiring harness from speedway and some AN fittings for the power steering. Getting a little closer each day.

 

[bobm]

Poor little Piggy. Another 1 bites the dust. What a shame .

 

[Gumby]

I recently rewired a lot of my trail pig. I moved a lot of the electrical to an easily accessible spot as I had done a lot of fixes trying to probe stuff under the dash. I put mine on the side of a center console.