Not much Tacoma left.. 4500 koh build

Housing showed up

 

New swag tube bender showed up. Last bender didn’t like going 2 in dom so had to upgrade.

and got the cs turned down to fit the housing

 

Got the trans mount done. Not sure how I feel about the tabs after seeing it in pictures.

And then got the frame side link mounts cut and welded. Will get the axle end lower link mounts and upper link mount cut and welded tomorrow to hopefully get on the axle

 

Trans mount tabs look good to me, those don't see a huge load anyway.

 

I’ll probably just box them. Half people say it looks good. Other half says it looks funky. I’m kind of in the middle. No real reason to bend them other than I didn’t want the tabs landing in the center of the node for no real reason.

 

Cut a big pile of tabs today and got the axle side lower link tabs welded and got the axle side upper link tacd together. Ended up cutting the housing down but left it about an 1.5 long till I get hubs to measure exactly what it needs cut down too. I put the cs where I think they will end up and got the link mounts tacd to the frame and axle. Pretty happy with everything so far. Front links are looking like 33.5. I was wanting 36 ish so I’ll probably push the axle the 2.5 inches forward to where I want it.

 

Few more

 

You know I’m always happy to see you spend money. 4500 is an interesting class since your limited by the 37’s and 2.5” shocks but can go full retard otherwise now that the steering is pretty much sorted with the servo setup.

You cutting the top of the cab off for helmet clearance?

 

4500 seems to be a class I can be competitive in since the 4800 is essentially single shock 37 in 4400 class. Steering is interesting and I hope it works out.

I hope I don’t have too haha. With cutting the floor out I’m hoping I can get the seats low enough to clear the cage with a helmet and still see over the dash bar haha. Seeing the samurai’s and first gen pickups gives me hope lol

 

Hmmm…
Just a wild guess, the shop must double as the casa? The pavers are a dead giveaway.
Also is there weight limits / minimums for the class? I would think that you would go for an aluminum block unless you are running boost? I think an off-road racer would be NA and bigger cubic inches for torque & reliability??

You know how the saying goes? Off-road racing is for the mentally insane!!

Been to a few Mint 400 races back in the day way before Lost Wages put a roof over the original strip.
Dear Old dad only made about 5 miles until the 2180 VW engine ripped out of its mounts and he couldn’t figure out why he lost all power. He and his co-driver got out to see that the engine and the cage around the engine were gone. Just to look back to see part of the engine was about 100 yards back just past the big G out wash they just passed through. They were in a class with unlimited engine or power but limited suspension. I can’t remember the class now. The co-driver owned buggy and talked the bank he was a construction inspector for in Las Vegas to sponsor them. He threw all kinds of money at a buggy that was designed for a play toy... Dad keep telling him that the frame wouldn’t last. And it didn’t.

Thanks & Good Luck!

 

I sometimes wonder if 4800 is easier since you don’t have to work around sheet metal and the steering servo deal. LS/TH400 in a Bomber chassis would be the easy button. But that’s less fun of a build

I’d think you can make it work one way or another since the 4653 and 4619 have made it work with a lot more restrictive rules in 4600. I’m 6’0 and all torso so it always amazes me that they can make it work since I tend to bump my head in the Tacoma even.

 

Yeah just my detatched house garage. Has a carport off the front. Kind of an oversized two car.

no real weight limit but if it’s over x weight has to have x tubing. I’m sure mine will be over 4400 lbs so I have to use 2x.120 wall tubing for the cage.


No boost. Just an na motor. May end up with a crate engine but found two cheap ls’s that where hard to pass up and been collecting parts to build one. Not overly concerned with weight but trying to keep it under 5000 or as close as I can to it.

my dad had a jeepspeed and 1600 car and those were always fun. Always wanted to go racing in my own car and finally making it happen

 

Yeah I thought about but that easy button is a lot of money to put out at once. I can kind of build it in stages and when it’s done it’ll still be street legal ish and can drive it to trails etc.

I hope it’ll work out. Once I get the front axle in place and know I have the front frame section height correct I can start on the cage.

 

Cut some tabs and made some hub tools for a few guys. Also got the mock up links cut and tacd and then got the tube I’ll mount the upper link off of cut and notched. It took forever with the 45 degree cut at the frame and 4 intersecting tubes to notch around at the bottom. But should work well.
Also made a magnetic grinding table to help hold tabs and clean them.

 

Got the upper link tacd in place. Drilled a 1.5 hole in the tube for a sleeve and then built a bracket to make it double shear. Itll all get covered in gussets and supports. Wasn’t till I got it all tacd up I realized I need a 7 in bolt but would only fit it I dropped the trans or sleeved the frame. So ordered a piece of chromoly rod I’ll turn down and tap for 5/8-18 threads and use the longest bolt I can fit in there.

The first set of pictures are how I had it at first and after staring at it, I didn’t like the way the bracket was sitting so ground and bent some more to get the heim in the center of its travel.

 

Put the axle at full bump and the upper link hits the motor mount so that will have to get redone. Currently it has 6 inches of uptravel. The lower links will hit the frame in an 1.5 and the housing will hit in 2.5. So I’ll change the motor mount and then probably cut the bottom of the frame to get the housing to bottom out on the frame. Shooting for 7.5-8inches of uptravel.

 

When I picked up the steering servo from a guy on Instagram. He gave me a few steering boxes. One was a depowered Saginaw box that was missing the sector shaft and the other was a complete box. So I took the complete one apart and put the sector shaft in the depowered one and made a template to cut a frame plate. I’ll order a rebuild kit and do the depowered box just to make sure it’s good and if I can find another sector shaft I’ll build the second as a spare.

And the trans tabs being bent bothered me so I remade them.

 

Can't take it with you when you go

You also enjoy and the build process way more than I do and I'm here for the ride to live vicariously through this build. I'll probably never own the Bomber I truly want, nor will I cut up Tacoma this much to make race car noises.

 

You aren’t wrong lol I sure seem to like to spend money lol

I do enjoy the build to an extent. I can’t stand wiring but I’m kind of looking forward to trying to do this clean since I am starting fresh and there’s nothing to splice or trace etc. I enjoy the learning process and pushing my skills. I always wanted a bomber or a chassis similar to the crawl magazine crawl America one but I don’t have that kind of money to drop at once.

 

Got the Saginaw box mount made.