Patrick's Samurai Build

With the uptravel in the rear it's become obvious that the rear is going to have to be doved. The back half of the cage will be reworked as well. So, to make life a little easier the back half of the tub got the chop.

With the rear tub gone it was time to knock out the rear frame.

 

I knocked out the tierods today. The ram is behind the steering arm mount which gave me a nearly perpendicular tierod at full lock. I haven't had any issues with the tierod going negative on my previous build, but this should result in less stress on the steering arm.

 

With the tub out of the way and the new tires mounted it was high time to see what she was going to look like.

 

The front frame plates are in. With the added stiffness from the front clip that's coming the frame isn't going to go anywhere.

 

I dropped the front axle while I worked on the frame plates so I started welding out the truss. In order not to warp anything I had three different areas to weld on through the day. Both sides of the frame and the truss.

 

Now that I have the front frame plates in I can knock out the new motor mounts. I don't know about you, but I like to use what I have laying around the shop. So the cross member mount kit that's been sitting on the shelf got used.

Yes the oil filter will come out just fine and I can still get an impact on the bolt for the bushing.

 

The shock towers are in and the ruffstuff axle mounts are on. So the back end is pretty much wrapped up at this point, minus some bump stops.

 

What do you guys think of the paint color?

 

I can dig it!

Looking good!

 

I wasn't going to pull the tub, but it sure does make welding out the subframe easier.

 

And to make life even easier the drivetrain came out. I built a new transfercase cross member above the belly before pulling everything out. I'll get some finished pictures of that this week.

 

Flipping the frame to weld the bottom of the subframe sure was nice. I also added an additional brace on the sliders. The front link mounts will be tied into the middle slider tube this week.

 

@JBTacoma

 

She's officially a roller. I was able to flex her out a bit and confirm that the links work the way I expected them too. Of course the front end isn't going to droop out as much as the pictures show, but it was fun to do it anyways.

 

He is building a tank

 

The work looks awesome, just wondering if the motor has enough power to move that tank?

 

that's a cool build. I wish I could fabricate.

 

That crawl box will move it

 

There's a hairdryer going on the little 1.6 to help out with that, but the dual cases will move her just fine.

 

I rolled her outside to see what the grey really looked like. I'm digging the color.



The front driveshaft will ride on a carrier bearing to clear the new belly. Even without the belly there it would have needed a carrier bearing. That's a long ways from the front output to the axle.

The driveshaft will just clear the lower at full bump.



I put the tub back on so I could start laying out the front clip. First things first though, that hood is way too wide for the tires and travel.