tehnzbrads hilux build

[tehnzbrad]

Ive been following Kpr's hilux build on here after seeing a video on facebook of it shredding mud and decided people might want to see how i guess a similar build is going. (not trying to steal spot light just think people might be intrested)

 

bare with me i have like 200+photos and alot of info to type so may take awhile

im a drainlayer by trade so deffo not a pro but have had my fair share of building 4x4s and other things. haters shall hate...

 

ill start from the very begining, so after i finished building 2x nissan patrols i wanted something abit more exciting,

so feburary 2017 i aquired a certified 1991 ln106 hilux with a 350 sbc with a R series toyota box behind it, it ran like shit when i brought it so the mods began and i got it running nice again with new carby, leads, intake etc

 

[tehnzbrad]

so after making it run well i got used to the power and was super unhappy with the factory leaf set up, twitchy steering, axle tramp, no flex, ride harshness and general truck trying to kill driver.

decided it needs coil overs... then the baja videos came..

i spent about 2 months measuring, drawing, reading and thinking about how i was going to undertake this, alot of info regarding building anything to do with speed and offroad is kept under wraps so it takes alot of time to get through whats on forums etc..

 

 

[tehnzbrad]

so after i decided on what the goal was and how i was roughly going to get there i contacted lvvta and submitted everything for TAC approval, which was a massive waste of time, basically told me its fully up to the cert dude which is what i gathered anyway...

trucking on.

 

sold the 350 chev, box and hilux diffs, stripped everything back and kept what i needed and sold/ gave away what i didnt.

 

[KP_wag]

I was just about to congratulate you on the pushrod 8 luxa, and then you yanked it... What's goin in instead? 

[tehnzbrad]

after that i cut all the suspension mounts off with a 18" steel cutting blade on my concrete saw and i had a blank canvas, 

following my drawings and roughly guessing where everything is going to fit i narrowed the rear section of the chassis to fit in all the suspension wizardry.

meanwhile all my fishplates and other related steel is being laser cut.

 

[tehnzbrad]

after waiting for the steel to be cut on the laser (so much nicer than old mate with a cutting disk on the grinder) they were finally done and i could start forming them and welding them up to the chassis.

now im no fancy engineer but all i am trying to achive is alittle more stiffness and to try keep the chance of cracking to minimum, so at every mounting point or where the rails change direction i fishplated.

im also trying to follow the hobby car manual to keep inline with the lvvta reqs.

 

 

[tehnzbrad]

some where along the way i got some GQ patrol diffs which a far wider than the hilux ones, and much larger and stronger, the certification part of the build comes into play here as i do want this thing on the road if i can, so i cut all the mounts off the patrol diff and jigged them up under the chassis best i could.

using a 300mm digital spirit level and the old stringline i managed to get close as to the same alignment as a factory Patrol (fluked it i think) apart from the toe but thats easy as just adjusting the track bar.

for the front diff i had to cut off rotate the housing and reweld up the radius arm mounts to achive the correct castor for the ride height i want (about the same as a standard hilux)

i threw some trusses on them also for jumps

 

[tehnzbrad]

the conversion kit arrived from marks adapters in ozzie (ls1 to hilux R series 4x4 box) and i ordered all the universal link mounts and engine mount kit from usa, cheap as all laser cut slot together parts out of 6mm plate too easy!

 

 

[tehnzbrad]

while i waited for all my univeral link mounts i carried on with power steering box mounts ( gq patrol steering box) and just playing around with numbers in the 4 link calc

and ordered all these FK rod ends heim joints from summitracing, these things are massive, sorta lame they took 3 months to get here though slowed the whole build down

[tehnzbrad]

my rear lower links ive designed to mount off the existing xmember, but to get the numbers i want in the 4 linl calc i have to drop them abit lower than what the xmember is, was sorta just winging it here with internal gussets i doubt they will break off

 

[tehnzbrad]

[tehnzbrad]

mig the world?

[tehnzbrad]

also had to do a similar thing on the rear diff to get that upper link mount high enough to achive the right numbers in the 4 link calc

 

[tehnzbrad]

i guess its fairly industrial? all 5mm plate

right about now my welder broke so had some down time while that was getting fixed and ordered some custom beadlocks which you will see later on $$$$

[tehnzbrad]

the good thing about a chassis is its light enough to flip over by hand so no overhead welding which is a bonus.. starting to get over fabrication..could never do it as a full time job

 

[tehnzbrad]

decided on final 4link numbers and the link mounts showed up so i started tacking them up and welding then together.

 

[tehnzbrad]

got some standard patrol front radius arms and put a m24 thread on the ends, and then had a custom threaded sleeve welded onto some 3"currie johnny joints to try get some extra flex and freedom of movement over the pin and bush setup, dont have many pictures of this part but here are the beefy mounts to the chassis i made

[tehnzbrad]

here are the final rear 4 link numbers, this is what ive come up with to suit my application after reading alot of others outcomes and stuff has a small amount of adjustablity but i hope it works.

 

[tehnzbrad]

pretty much finished the triangulated 4 link, not going to massive write ups of how everything is done as theres is enough people who have done it before me and have posted detailed methods on google...

and have started finishing off the front end panhard mounts, steering stuff..

 

scored a rebuild ls1 off TM for $500

 

[tehnzbrad]