3rd year anniversary of the start of this process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=Bmi23KLbT6aN6sAL&v=hplAGUMn7Tc&feature=youtu.be

one hell of a mall crawler! nice build

Made the mount for the front shocks today. I think mentioned in my last video we are moving the lower mounting point a little forward and shock will be canted back toward the firewall.

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The last week we got the truck down on its own weight and we measured from the bottom of the frame rail to the ground and we got an astonishing 22". Sadly I did not take any pictures of that.

As a point of reference, my 2012 has a small lift and I measured from the bottom of the winch Mount to the ground and compared it to this one and it was only 1.5" higher. The 2012 is on 33" tires and of course this one 43" so this was quite an amazing job we've done with the new frame rails and suspension setup, etc.

I have much more up travel and the same down travel and right now on the up travel we can go all the way up to the motor mounts with the top links and just below the dry sump pump on the other side.

We will put some 1.5" bump stops in to make sure we never get quite that high but as high up as physically possible without causing any damage.

Today we fabricated some panels to go in the back to mount the winch relocation controller, ARB compressor and the welder control panel. Yes I have decided to put a welder in the vehicle to do a both stick and coil welding with the bun welder.

We will make a similar amount on the passenger side where we will ultimately Mount the oil tank and other things. Will build a simple box in the front where I will keep liquids, my main tools and Jack.

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Here's a few photos from the past couple days.

All the panels in the rear of the were sent to powder. They should be back tomorrow and I'll get everything finished mounted.


The photos with the three radlock connectors and four pin trailer connector are for the front winch controller relocation which is now inside the vehicle. The ugly bulkhead for the 4 wire connector is a hole I drilled a long time ago which I had to drill and put wires through blind which is why all that stupid sealant is all over the place.

Started the rear firewall this week as well. The bottom is steel and the top is going to be lexan to keep a little bit of visibility

It's definitely coming together quickly now and should have the engine fired for the first time later in August.

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It's a fabrication masterpiece ... but?

Here we are finally approaching the finish line.

All coolers and reservoirs have been mounted just about everything is back from powder in the back and reassembled.

Now we are finishing up the mount for the radiator and evaporator, but sadly we found out when we took it out of the box the evaporator was 3/4 of an inch out of square so it needs to get replaced.

Due to the massive amount of up travel we now have, we are going with a dual bump stop solution which should be completed next week.

Before the end of next week the engine and trans will be coming out so we can paint everything then reinstall and plumb. I don't have a count but I think it's going to be at least 80 to 90 ft of hose to plumb the entire vehicle.

Once all of that is done, the wiring will start and the first fire. Given all of the stumbling blocks we have had, we are estimating to start wiring 3 weeks from today

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Here is the the radiator mount all tacked up and ready to be finished. The new evaporator will be here on Monday and we can finish it. It will sit 0.5" off the front of the radiator.

This entire Mount can be removed in a single piece, making it very easy to access everything. We have put a tremendous amount of thought into ease of maintenance and access to important parts.

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Don't even know what to say. It's such a massively over built/complex build.

Overbuilt for what; going to mall, overlanding, riding blue trials, sure it is I don't plan on doing any of that. I will welcome you to come down to Windrock, Black mountain or any other park in the SE and we can ride together in late September or October.

It's not as complex as you believe. it's actually much more simple than most other builds. We chose not use tube on the top of the engine bay and do something different. There is no other 5th gen like it so why use tube and make it look like every other buggy?

I can smell the metal from here.

Getting closer to finalizing this. Next Friday it will go for wiring and the first fire should be very soon.

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Finally got the headlights done. Plan was always t use my existing LP9's but after getting the biggest radiator we could fit the LP9's were too big. Therefore I got some LP4's to use as my main headlights. Would have preferred LP6's since they have low and high beam just like the 9's, now I will just use the LP9's in conjunction with the 4's for the high beam and will have a dimmer on them once they are very bight.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be all painted and engine back in so we can complete the plumbing next week. It's insane the quantity of fittings we are using.

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today after a long time we finally fired the engine for the first time.

I was wondering about you and this project yesterday, if it was ever going to come to a conclusion and actually hit some trails. Looks like ... maybe.