Firewall Tubing

I just let the angle grinder go to town. It was like peeling back layers of an onion.

 

You have to remember that there’s a lot more leverage on the shocks/bumps due to the motion ratio. You’ll want to run more than you would in the rear due to this. That said, you do have a bypass with a bump zone so you do t have to rely purely on the bump stop.

 

I can't remember exactly, but I think I'm around 140psi in the front. There's less travel so it needs to be stiffer to slow down the same amount in a shorter space, plus the motion ratios of the arm means it's got a lot more force to deal with.

For tubbing I just used a cut off wheel and cut through all of that stuff

 

That’s pretty much what I did. What a pain in the ass.

Good point on the leverage as well as the shortness. I’ll pump mine up a bit more before testing it.

 

Pro tip number 2. Once steering is locked and everything is clearanced, spin the tire.

Drove it today with the panel mostly welded in. Was pumped to try some steering. First time in a few years I have at least an extra wheel turn of steering. Sweet I think as I keep cranking the wheel…then tires rub so hard I almost stop (was only doing a couple mph).

I still think I’m safe on the firewall but now I need to attempt to chop my cab mount even more, which I don’t know if I’ll be able to and I don’t really want to relocate it.

Maybe I just need to limit my steering by a touch so stop before it hits something.

 

Just relocate it. Easy and works. You've gone this far... Lol

 

So I think I also didn’t cut enough off because I was hitting the cab mount. Maybe I’ll just fix it by getting that jd fab lower arm mount thing one day.

 

Forgot pics but man the driver side has so many wires/cables. None of which will reach my distribution block. So it’s either splice them together or find where they come from and remake them all.

 

Whoever suggested the tape method for the template. Excellent idea. This side is turning out so much better. So much more clearance on this side I might have to redo the other side. Here’s the bottom with the tape method for the one piece. The other side I basically just bridged the two sides with a straight line. This time I am doing the piece convex for way more room.





Then for main piece I made it way bigger and then I can just form it in and take up the space making it convex instead of flat like the other side.


And a comparison of the two. Obviously I’m not done welding the driver side.



I think for the passenger side I’m just going to put a slit down the middle and hammer it back to match the driver side and then weld in a filler plate.

 

Am I doing this right?

 

I feel like at this point you should just delete the entire wheel well.

 

I will be, I'm just using it to locate the headlight for now haha

 

Good call. My first side I only took measurements and it’s a little off now. Other side I added some bracing before I cut the wheel well off.

 

I’m finally done. Since I did my wheel wells a little differently figured I’d post a done pic. Only thing left is a new reservoir. I’ll post that too. I bought a small one from Amazon and the stock pump almost fits. But decided I’ll just build my own. Also need to finish running wires to the front lights (two loose green wires). But that’s easy.

 

What did you guys do for washer reservoirs that couldn’t fit the stock one?

I tried a little aftermarket one but the factory pump didn’t fit (was so close) and I didn’t want to cut off the factory connector (weird I know) to splice in the new one. Plus I read a few reviews after I got it and tried modifying the tank that it wasn’t great anyway. So I tossed it.

Ended up making on from ABS from Home Depot. Much smaller but that’s okay. It’s mounted on the top and then underneath as well. Pretty solid. I still need to come with a better attachment method than the zip ties.

 

I cut my stock one in half, took 4" out of the middle, then melted it back together and used flex it sealant gooped all around it. made a little tube for it to sit in on the bottom like factory, and bolted to factory mounts. worked awesome actually.

 

I still havent put one in, but a buddy gave me a 4runner/gx/fj cruiser "relocated" one that is much smaller, since those rigs have one that bolts behind their plastic bumper or something

 

What’s windshield wiper fluid? Never heard of it.

Really though, I never put one back in. I’d like to if I can find a decent solution but have had many other things to fix that take priority.

 

nice work! This turned out great.