Long travel DIY

Well been talkin to a pretty smart friend of mine about the dana44 option, but I think right now I'm gunna stick with the factory unit bearings and cv's because of the availability of axles, just want a better kpi than what the stock spindle has and a properly converted hiem steering, plates seem like it'll be easier to fab a vertical ball in there, then of course new upper arms, bump off the spindle too

 

I got most the stuff drawn out too for a more race style lower too using 1.5 tubing and plate with a integrated uniball cup

 

Tubing in the lower would be used as internal strength or some exterior design kinda like a chaos kit?

 

The D44 route sounds like a pretty expensive route with 4wd. If you are making a truck to huck then it would be worth the extra $$

 

Yea kinda like a chaos kit

 

Yea I was just brainstorming, it's not impossible to do at all but eh don't need to do that.... It's a mountain prerunner, I use 4wd to crawl around and the skinny pedal to get there in a hurry

 

I need to just buy a nice plasma and make some shit

 

Don't forget brake press

 

Yea I have a press, just need to get the kit from swag

 

i literally just bought the swag heavy duty 20 ton finger brake kit.......I have a serious tool addiction

 

Shit, I better start buying up more tools to do this shit myself lol!

 

its just as bad as this truck parts thing man. metal fab tools are pretty cool...I just need to come across my own milling machine and stop pestering my pops to use his. already have a lathe so I guess I got half the battle.....but then theres the tools for the tools... it never ends. I just buy tooling as I kinda need it sorta. plasma cutter is the next big purchase

 

Yeah every time I start thinking about doing my own little fab shop thing (not as a business, just for myself and friends on occasion) I start looking at the garage and thinking of the shit I can get rid of to make room for a weld bench and other fun toys

 

yea I don't have a lot of room...most my stuff is on castors which makes it a lot easier. my main fab fixture table is actually pretty small like 24'x36' 1.2"plate. but the castors I can stack all my big tooling in a corner when im not using it

 

I have more tools than I do furniture.....I don't even own a TV

 

Yeah I go back and forth on the subject. I might do away with one of my giant shelf sections so I can make a weld bench of the same length and then I can store all the fab stuff under/over/on it and not take up a boat load of space. Need to look in to a bender and a chop saw soon

 

The biggest problem is space. I sold my stop shear and sheet metal roller cause they took up real estate that could be used to store tools that will get more use. All my fab tools are stored at the shop. And I have a small machine shop with a mill and lathe in my garage. I used to have a mill and lathe at the shop because they took up a big footprint and honestly I spent more time making parts work by turning them down or milling them rather than just ordering what I needed and waiting a day for the parts. The only tool I own that's a bigger time robber than the machine shop stuff is the tig welder.

I just added a tube roller with all the swag upgrades and a few extra sets of swag dies to my collection. But I've been working out of town in Vegas. It's tough to roll tubing in the hotel. I usually reserve my on the road hotel time for ammo reloading.

 

a portaband with a table attachment instead of a chop saw is a bit more versatile....cleaner too

 

Yeah but how easy is a portaband to make clean angled cuts and such? that looks like 'FUCK THE ANGLE IS OFF' grind grind grind.

 

Haha I'd like a press brake don't really have the room for it. I do like with the brake you can add that extra nice look too plate work. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck they bend this thing up and weld it.