Crossbreed

[stangtjk]

And almost forgot......

Got the next project already. Unfortunately whoever "restored" it last time was a little to fond of Bondo lol.

[stangtjk]

And this one is another in my backlog.

[71meangreenc10]

How did you make the Jig for the body? I am about to pull the body off mine soon and that looks like a good idea.

Did four years at Eustis, did not care for all the I-64 mess....

Smitty

[stangtjk]

Jig was pretty simple. Just 2 2x6s some leftover plywood and a hand full of carriage bolts.

Discussed it a little more in the link below but I pretty much just threw it together using leftovers stuff I had laying around.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=449

I live about 15 minutes from eustis and work at the shipyard.... Don't care much for the area myself. Would like to head out west to get away from this horrible humidity.

[71meangreenc10]

Out west is where it is at...I love Sierra Vista, not oven hot like Tucson or Phoenix, just got to drive a little to get what I need.

Im going to shoot some skin or raptor on my under carriage.

That jig is just the ticket I needed...

Smitty

[stangtjk]

I like the raptor liner for the undercarriage. Easy to get different textures with it so you can dial it in to fit your preference. I don't think I'd ever use it for it's intended purpose as a bed liner though. Seems to hard and slick for that.

[71meangreenc10]

Originally Posted by stangtjk

I like the raptor liner for the undercarriage. Easy to get different textures with it so you can dial it in to fit your preference. I don't think I'd ever use it for it's intended purpose as a bed liner though. Seems to hard and slick for that.

Awesome info.

Smitty

[guynamedloren]

Originally Posted by stangtjk

Making a little more progress. Took the front axle apart and stripped and painted it. Same for the springs and shackles and I replaced the bushings with some red poly ones from
prothane. I also started mocking up the rear axle. Almost have a rolling chassis again.

What kind of paint did you use on the front axle, shafts, etc? Looks great and nice build.

[stangtjk]

The axles and shafts never actually got "paint". I liked the flat black look of the epoxy primer so I stopped right there.

[stangtjk]

I attempted to move the truck under its own power for the first time in over a year. Didnt move far as the HMMWV wheels are rubbing on the tie rod ends. Not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. Wheel spacers are the easy fix.

The stock rod ends we're replaced with some 7/8" heim joints before I got it so the taper in the knuckles has already been drilled out for a 3/4" bolt. The 7/8" rod ends are 2" in diameter. I could step down to 3/4" heims (1.75" diameter) and gain 1/8" of clearance but I don't think it would be enough. 5/8 heims are only 1.5" which would probably do it but I think they are a little too small. If I run spacers I'll have to get some longer wheel studs because they are barely flush with the lug nuts as is.

[stangtjk]

Got the steering issues worked out, pretty much had to redo all the po's work..

Decided to run wheel spacers for now. Ended up using a set of the adapter type, 1.5" up front and 2" in the rear.

Since I got the clearance I needed I drilled the knuckles out using a 7/8 step bit and used some tapered bushings from barnes to convert back to tie rod ends instead of heim joints. The heims we're 7/8-14 tpi vs the tie rod ends 7/8-18 tpi so I had to cut off the tie rod tube ends and weld on new ones with the correct thread.

[stangtjk]

Stripped the quarter panels and took out the inner bed sides to get to the back side..... Shot epoxy primer on everything and hit the back side of the quarters with bed liner... Didn't want to risk painting just to have a rust hole bust through a year or two down the road. Glad I took the extra step because as I was wire bushing the rust off the back side a couple pitted areas busted through even though there was nothing noticable after stripping the outside.

[stangtjk]

Fixed the double wall top.... Cut out each of the 6 sagging sections on top, glued in some rigid foam insulation and glasses over it all... It also got a coat of epoxy primer followed by raptor liner. As much of this stuff that I've used they should be sponsoring this build lol.

[stangtjk]

More primer and raptor liner. Funny how priming over that last little bit of yellow makes it seem like I'm starting to get somewhere.

[Lieferson]

This thing is slick!

[stangtjk]

Finally got a warm enough weekend to shoot some liner on the inside of the top. Came out pretty nice.

Tried to upload a few pics but getting an error message.

[71meangreenc10]

Nice work on the top. You said you shot raptor through HVLP. What was the needle size?

Smitty

[stangtjk]

Finally able to upload pictures... Deleted browsing history and cookies and it started working again.....

I only used the hvlp to shoot the raptor liner on the frame using a 2.5 tip. Everything else I've done using the schutz gun.

[SeventyOne]

This is an awesome build! More please.

[stangtjk]

Started mounting the winch. I plan on clocking the clutch 180 so it sicks out the top of the mounting plate. With the 67-78 front clip I should be able to just reach into the bottom slot of the grill to access it.

[72ironmike]

Nice build & a testament to talent & perseverance !

[SeventyOne]

What was the "4x4 Challenge" between you and your friends you mentioned awhile back?

[stangtjk]

The original challenge was who could build the best rig with a $4k limit but it evolved as time went on... By the time I jumped in on it everyone was a year into the challenge and all had pretty much blown the budget so I didn't feel bad about starting off spending over 5k.

As time went on all but two of us lost interest in actually building anything so the challenge kinda lost it's way. The others ended up with pretty much stock Jeep's (wranglers and a Cherokee). The one guy that did some building has a first gen 4 runner that we did a solid axle swap on.

In the end the challenge turned into a camping trip with a tiny bit of mild trail riding but my rig with the full blow resto wasn't drivable at the time.... My buddy with the 4runner likes to joke that I'm building a show truck...

[SeventyOne]

Originally Posted by stangtjk

My buddy with the 4runner likes to joke that I'm building a show truck...

If a quality build = show truck i think a lot of us are guilty

[twp1]

Problem is when you start you want to keep it simple and cheap but with every turn you always want to try to go the extra step and you spend a little more than expected!!!! But when your done you will be more satisfied with the extra steps!!!!! I will be watching!!!!