shizzl

Pokeno, technically north Waikato. Get labelled Auckland .

What is cjc?

I’ve tried organising a casual cruise day. No one showed interest. left it.

Tailgate 99% done. only have some minor fiddling to do on the concave fold line. Might need to make a shaped sanding block for it. then sand out the 80g scratches ready for a filler primer. i also played with spacing the balljoint to achieve a better angle. tried a 9 degree wedge (achieved by washers). this got the crossmember to 20mm clearance. id be happy with that, but still don’t like the idea of the bj being close to maxed out. so I decided to pie cut a set of arms (I have a spare set on the parts ute). cut it to gain a 10 degree change. balljoint sits neutral at ride height and very nice at full lift and full slam. crossmember is on its tits. Now it’s time for some c notch action. with the frame currently sitting at 90mm with the diff on the frame, a 6” notch should be sweet. I will set bumpstops to max out to the legal scrub line or whatever it’s called. think it still equates to 50mm clearance “legally”. doesn’t need to be smashing the frame into the ground. I needed to get the body into final prep before I head to Japan next week. So pretty stoked so far.

Yeah I figured that aswell, I’d aim to have the shocks spaced out as far as possible to the factory offset to the chassis. the spacer idea seems far easier to accomplish with less risk of error and less welds

Thanks Clint @cletus that’s exactly the info I need to move forward. so making a tapered “wedge” spacer between the upper A arm and balljoint is ok? would be better than cutting.

Cheers Matt, that one that got sent to me didn’t have the majority of its front tubs and was road legal, so had me scratching my head with so many conflicting opinions out there. have spoken with Tim from shoresfab about doing the pie cut. Just need a yes or no from a certifier to proceed. will start with a spare set of arms I have to get the initial angle right. and retain the correct castor angle

Does the bonnet count ? Haha all good looks at the manual, but as I’ve found by experience it’s always best to get confirmation from the certifier for their opinion. 1 says yes, the next says no.

Well well well, another day of progress, well , a couple hours anyway. knocked the nubs off the welds, etched, then set about throwing mud at it. actually hasn’t taken much except where the previous body guy has just filled instead of pulling the corner out to align with the other side. not much left to finish the filler off, used about 400gm of filler with most of it going the floor after sanding. almost ready for paint. Just need to see if I can “delete” the inner guards before I lay colour. No pint going back and doing it after paint.

Also, is it legal to completely remove the inner guards like that one?

@cletus after your opinion as you’ll be getting this project eventually , whenever it’s done. So I need to get this ute lower than what it’s maxed out with the balljoint, I’ve been told to do a pie cut and reinforce it etc. these pics are of a 1st gen b1600 , bagged and pie cut uppers. what I need to know is what documentation do I need to support this mod? NDT report only? these arms sit completely flat standard, so you can judge how much it needs to drop overall to sort the binding. i also not the bump stop on the bottom arm is completely toast in those pics. what is the expected minimum for these? I do plan to retain using a bump stop for max lift travel too, I’m sure it’s wise to not over inflate bags and max out bjs etc the opposite way too. always open to suggestions and tips. also going to dig into the C notch and 4 link when I’m back from Japan. Similar to @kp60nick set up, although I think my arms are slightly shorter. I’m not aiming for massive travel change. Ride height at 100mm, slam and lift of “enough”. Using 8” travel bags. solid advice is rewarded in beers/hugs/high 5s/fist bumps/east coast waves

Now it’s time to get the axles back in to get it rolling, and sweep underneath it. it’s become a bit of a tip under there. im actually pretty keen to make this one RX3UTE the more I work on it. and make the 2nd ute mongrel as. Or an RX4UTE???

So much for working today. First proper day back and had a mad case of CBF. had a site meeting, made a plan. Went to the workshop for more ute shenanigans. this time I decided to stitch in the new tailgate skin. Mainly so when it comes time to lift the deck it doesn’t just fold up without the floor. turns out they built up the lower corner a fair bit with filler. Don’t know why. There are no dents.

I have a strata 215c and a XA 250, both migs. the XA was almost 1k cheaper and welds so much nicer. a box smootharc 185 was around $1600 the last time I shopped for a mig. just bought a XA plasma, really happy with the quality of this brand so far. support is great too. ive had to a couple of returns on my spool gun (Ali) where the driver quit, a screw backed out internally the first time, think they said the trigger failed the second time. Has been good since. i found the price of welders dropped by 50% over the last 5 years but may have gone up due to shipping increases

Was just about to leave the shop and decided to look at the 2nd chassis. nek minnit decided to put some extra strength into the crossmember as it utilises the swaybar mounts. i added wings that pick up the bump mounts, 8 bolts in total now. will send it out to powdercoat along with the gearbox crossmember yay for plasma cutters

Just a quick stop in at the workshop today. etch primed the tunnel, still want to clean it up some more before painting. finally got the steering box out, had to lift one side of the cab to get it done by myself. Mega Kent. sliced off the factory rad supports and mounted the radiator and oil cooler. etched the cuts. only have the tailgate to finish before I can start the final prep and paint. i will remove the cab and deck for painting. that way I can prep the chassis side of it before they go on for the last time. (Fit fuel tank back in, touch up the etch with top coat) might even fit the engine and box onto the chassis and get the exhaust done with the cab off. im not sure where I want the exhaust to run at this stage. i have 2 flexi’s, 2 resonators, a 2-1 muffler and one of those ugly rotor shaped mufflers. i will make a new set of headers for it for better clearance.

No pics but I’ve done a couple of small jobs on this. 4 weeks off work and not a single day available to spend in the shop. so 1st day back to “work” I played cars. finished the filling and sanding in the engine bay, coated it all in epoxy again as a cover . Still needs flattening off before primer and paint. hit the crossmember with the grinder to smooth off the old engine mount welds. just needs top coat painting now, left it in epoxy. then set about untucking the tunnel. previous owner went full cactus and cut a huge L shape hole on the tunnel. 250 long x 120 wide and dropped down the side 120. no idea what he was up to. cut the top off the parts truck and had a pig of a job stitching it in. But I got there. needs a bit of grinding to knock the welds flatter then seam seal under the tunnel before reapplying under seal and paint inside. tried removing the steering box but I need to lift the whole friggin can to get it out. Dumb as.

This really fills my heart with warm fuzzies, which is the reason I've been lingering here for so damn long. You guys are friggin legends.

Is it ok to pie cut the uppers to correct the ball joint angle? or is a custom A arm an option?

Yeah everyone on mtnz etc says to pie cut the upper arms. drop spindles only happened for the next gen up unfortunately. i have seen those adapted to the 2nd gen but probably a stuff around. have also heard of hilux spindles adapted too.

It’s the top ball joint that is the issue.

Put the chassis up on the table today. then fired up the lightning scissors and whipped off the spring/shock pockets. them found that the ball joint angle maxes out pretty quickly. any ideas on legal ways to ease up on the ball joint? by my calculations this limit only gets the frame 80mm off the ground. Weak as pic is at the ball joints limit. flipping and swapping upper arms doesn’t solve anything, thought about it, tried it, it failed.

Took the old girl along to the Pukekohe car clubs Xmas grasskana . it was a sack, single wheel peel , so zero traction. but I did have shitloads of fun. one really good course in the afternoon, basically doing the old scandy flick (handbrake did f all), power over, sideways for 90% of that course was good fun. needs an LSD asap. might have to find an LSD or get one through palmside for the escort English diff I have.

Not necessary but you can spray it with a high temp paint I dont normallybother with it myself, itll outlast my ownership

Did you figure this one out? my adaptors that are supplied are a 2 piece like that. the guy said to put a couple of tack welds at each end. i guess it’s no different than having a washer as a spacer like the palmside m16 caliper kits have that I run.