Carwash Crawler - Build Thread... again.

[carwash]

I think this is the 4th time i have had to rehash this thread here, maybe that is some sort of sign or something... anyway, here goes, lets take a walk back in history, to a time when i had such unrealistic goals for completion time on this rig...

I have started this new thread and have forgotten the old one, as i need a clean slate to start with.

So, some details...

Chassis - 3 seat tube chassis, mix of .109, .120 and .134 wall 1.75 OD DOM. Front clip from a YJ (thanks Kargomaster). Other than that, no Jeep parts, sorry. Side panels from .125 aluminum or thicker lexan or hdpe (undecided still).

Axles - 2.5 ton Rockwell toploaders. Stock shafts for now, 2" shafts soon from OEM. Detroit lockers in both. Pinion brakes. Full hydraulic steering.

Wheel / Tires - Custom double beadlocks. 44 x 19.5 x 16.5 Boggers. Big meats.

Suspension - 18" Travel 2.5 Fox Air Shocks. Triangulated 4 link front and rear. Upper arms 1.75x.375 wall DOM. Lower arms 2.0x.500 wall DOM. Johnny joints at all ends, no threaded shank, no adjustment, no weak links.

Driveline - SBC 350, .030 over, 4 bolt mains, Corvette Speed Density TPI. TH400 built to the max by John Carr. STAK 3 speed t-case.

That about covers it for now i guess. On to the pics. You have already seen a lot of these, so just shut up. I will do my best to update this with every bit of progress i make. Be sure to offer any feedback or input you may have.

The base chassis build:

[carwash]

And now back at my shop finally:

[carwash]

Axle tear down and rebuild (well soon to be rebuilt)











Jury is still out on whether I will be running this twisted shaft of not, need to find someone to float me a stock replacement. I don't want to buy one as I will be doing the 2" soon.

[carwash]

Gotta show off the STAK, it is such a work of art.

[carwash]

And a pile of other miscellaneous build parts, shocks, joints, trans, unbuilt motor, etc...

[carwash]

Pics of the BTF parts that arrived today...

Tube chassis winch plate, orbital mount, Rockwell 4 link mounts, and a pair of DIY diff cover kits.

[fabricator]

done yet?

[carwash]

Thanks for the reminder of how slow i am at building this thing. I have moved my shop back to my home shop, and spent two weeks doing that.

Oddly enough, i did some work on it today, and will be heading back out in a little bit to do some more.

No, not done. Won't be for a while.

[carwash]

Well, being without a job has given me a lot of time to work on this damn rig... Idle hands are the tool of the devil.

I put some catch cans, or curved plates more than cans i guess. I wanted to attach these since my bumps hit my links, and the links have some movement left and right under articulation. These will allow the bump to still hit a surface when this happens.









I just hope that welding these on won't weaken these links too much. but then again, i see all kinds of comp rigs etc that have the air shock mounts etc welded to this link, and that is a lot more stress than this bump will be.

[carwash]

finally finished the dash and all the floor panels. what a *****. got pretty good by the end, figuring out which way to bend and break the plates. I will tell you i will never again use round tubing to do the trans/tcase tunnel. Square tubing would have made it so much easier.

some might say im overkill with so many tabs and 3/8 bolts, but it's what i had, and wanted all the tabs everywhere to be the same. What the large amount are for more than anything is to keep the sound and buzzing down.







And i never thought hood pins would have been such a ridiculous pain in the ass...

[carwash]

And now starts the tear-down for final welding. I can only dream that it will go back together as quick... hahhah.

Here are some shots of the rig at full compression. Took off the air shocks, and the bumps are sitting at full compression on their pads. Clearance is pretty damn tight in a couple areas, mainly with the rotors and chassis. But even with jumping up and down on it really hard with my full fat ass weight, i can't get them to hit, so all should be good to go I guess.









Starts to look funny as an empty carcass again. All that's left to remove is the axles and links, and i will be welding for 2 days straight or so.







More to come soon. Recruited my daughter to screw bolts into all the tabs so that they don't get a bunch of weld spatter in them. I'd rather waste a few bolts than have to run a tap through every tab.