Builds UWdave's Build - Mods & Chop (1 Viewer)

[UWdave]

I got a little ahead of myself. Before I did the shorten, I built a frame/bulkhead under the hatch. Because my hatch still opens, I thought it may be nice to be able to open up the bulkhead too. I'm still not sure if it was the right move.

Welded an angle frame:

Filled the sides with sheet. I didn't go for a perfect fit, later I'll add rubber flaps to enable movement yet seal it up.

 

[UWdave]

Trying to seal it up a bit. I'm not sure if it was the year old caulk or the <40degF temps, but the caulk didn't setup right. I'll have to re-seal once it warms up.

Here you can see the storage space I will have behind the seat.

 

[kaimi01]

good job so far man! keep us posted. oh and just out of curiosity are you going to sell your 4x4 labs bumper or put it back on?If so I am interested...just sayin

 

[UWdave]

good job so far man! keep us posted. oh and just out of curiosity are you going to sell your 4x4 labs bumper or put it back on?If so I am interested...just sayin

Keeping the 4x4labs... stay tuned.

 

[BruntForce77]

Just a heads up. The way you have the sheet metal all the way up against the inside of the rear fenders, if you bump a rock, instead of just denting the outside, its going to tear a hole in your side, and possibly destroy your bulkhead. I only mention this because I ran some sheet in a similar way on mine when I rebuilt the wheel wells, and it happened to me. Instead of just having to fix a dent, I had to rebuild the whole top of the wheel well. I would trim it so its lined up with the bottom edges of the hatch, to allow some ding room for the outer fender, since hat part doesn't need to be sealed anyway.
Hope that maks sense.

Build looks great!

 

[donutfj80]

I hope you don't mean "painters caulk"

 

[UWdave]

Just a heads up. The way you have the sheet metal all the way up against the inside of the rear fenders, if you bump a rock, instead of just denting the outside, its going to tear a hole in your side, and possibly destroy your bulkhead. I only mention this because I ran some sheet in a similar way on mine when I rebuilt the wheel wells, and it happened to me. Instead of just having to fix a dent, I had to rebuild the whole top of the wheel well. I would trim it so its lined up with the bottom edges of the hatch, to allow some ding room for the outer fender, since hat part doesn't need to be sealed anyway.
Hope that maks sense.

Build looks great!

Right now the smallest gap I have is 1/4". But thinking about it, I'll likely trim more.

I hope you don't mean "painters caulk"

I used a tube of DAP ALEX Plus. I had it in the garage and I found online that some people used it on RVs. Seems like there are many opinions on caulk/sealant. Who knows what I'll use to re-do things this spring.

 

[UWdave]

At this point I was very tempted to go extreme.

Relocated rear body mounts. Fairly straight forward process. Cut the stock welds, slide the bracket forward, weld it in place.

 

[UWdave]

Roughed in. I screwed up major and didn't re install my gun/hose properly after a spool change. 1/4" from fully seated meant that no gas was getting to the gun. Layed quite a bit of pitted bead before I figured out what was going on. I won't have to learn that lesson again.

Bed lined up fairly well.

Near the edges I had a gap too big to weld shut. I figured I didn't need that area welded for strength... so for now they are a design feature "drain slots".

 

[UWdave]

Got sick of metalwork and wanted to go wheeling... so making it pretty became optional. We'll see how things go, maybe I'll Bondo later.

 

[BruntForce77]

How did you wire up those LED brakes and reverse? I'm probably going to lose the factory lamps and do a similar approach. Thanks!

 

[UWdave]

How did you wire up those LED brakes and reverse? I'm probably going to lose the factory lamps and do a similar approach. Thanks!

The main wiring truck comes down the left side of the cabin. There are 2 (?) large connectors by the stock jack location. From these connectors, the harness goes something like this:

XX (connectors by jack)
|
|
|---X Driver Tails
|
O (through grommet, crosses under vehicle)
|
|---XX Axle & Fuel Tank (?)
|
|
|---X Tailgate
|
|---X Stock trailer plug
|
O (grommet into passenger corner)
|
|---X Passenger Tails
|
|
X Amp & Sub (?, were dead ends but I have no stock system)


So I ended up breaking up this harness into the bare minimum. I cut everything that wasn't going to the axle and fuel tank. Then I wired in a simple trailer brake converter. My harness follows the same basic path as the stock. Just way less wires.

 

[UWdave]

All the major work done... and 1.25" spacers installed.

I didn't take any of the bumper mod photos. I just trimmed 8" of the bumper. Then, because the holes didn't line up I had to drill new holes in the bumper and frame. I made a nut plate by welding 3 nuts to a 1" metal strip and sliding it in the frame.

 

[UWdave]

I ended up with 5.5" lift, 1.5" more than I wanted. Without thinking it out, I bought some OME J springs. After driving them for a bit I'm sitting with 5" now.

Hitting the trails on Feb 23rd, hopefully the welds hold up.

 

[UWdave]

Test her out @ Walker Valley
http://youtu.be/QnVSLdcjVrg

 

[Camino]

Looks awsome! we used thin diamond plate to build rails and inner fenders. We rivited them all in place then welded all the seams. We used boat deck hatches in the sides for access and storage. Keep up the good work!

 

[Geert]

OMG, crazy cruisers!
That would simply be impossible where i live...
Looks great

 

[UWdave]

Looks awsome! we used thin diamond plate to build rails and inner fenders. We rivited them all in place then welded all the seams. We used boat deck hatches in the sides for access and storage. Keep up the good work!

Because I'm in the NW, my biggest fear is trapped water & mud causing rust. I don't trust my ability to get everything sealed perfectly.

For this reason, I think I'm going to leave the sides of the 'bed' open with big drain holes in the bottom. When they get clogged with mud I'll just hose it out.

 

[UWdave]

With the spacers, I was rubbing my sliders with the wheel turned ~75%. (level ground) At stuff, it would have been worse.

I shortened up my MetalTech sliders by ~4". Next I trimmed 2" from the fender 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. From the 2 o'clock position, I drew pretty much a straight line to the end of my slider.

 

[UWdave]

Bent up my bumper & 1/4 panel pretty bad this past weekend. Decided to give the winch an overhaul:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/winching-recovery/743215-warn-9-5xp-overhaul.html#post8583651