Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Holy shit, your bumper is beautiful. Nice work man. Just you know, I 100% intend on copying it. [emoji12] Nice work on everything [emoji1360] Did you use that Milwaukee saw to cut all the plate for the bumper?
AssBurns 2000 Limited Build Thread
- Thread starter AssBurns
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AssBurns
New member
Thanks dude! You are more than welcome to copy it. I used the Milwaukee saw for all of the long cuts. It's kind of a pain to use it for the short stuff. I use a guide when I make cuts with it, so it ends up being more work for the little cuts. But for the big cuts it's awesome. I cut a 3 foot section with it today in about a minute. It makes perfect cuts and doesn't heat up the metal. When the blade was brand new, it cut like it was cutting ply wood.
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Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
[MENTION=118730]AssBurns[/MENTION] I appreciate that, 'cause I REALLY like your design. Good to know about the saw. I know carpenters use them to cut metal studs, but I didn't realize that type of blade can be used to cut plate steel. Pretty sweet. I'll have to go back through and look at your outboarded setup better. I'm REALLY unhappy with how much up-travel I lost when I did the longer Bilsteins, so I need to figure something out to get that up-travel back.
AssBurns
New member
The saw is worth the investment. It's pretty damn big compared to regular wood circular saws though. I think if I were to do the shocks again, I would go with better shocks and go through the wheel wells to get the lower shock mounts above the axle. I'm super happy with the setup but there is very little clearance between the shock and tire. The stock up travel was definitely something I didn't want to lose when I did my lift.
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AssBurns
New member
So I got some new parts in over the last couple of days. Fortunately I ran into an issue that will work out in my favor. When I purchased the Duroflex joints from MetalCloak last week I ordered them over the phone to make sure I get the builders kit that included the weld in bungs in the right size joints. I spoke with Eric (I think?) and he told me that they don't sell LH thread joints in the 2" size which really sucks since it would make adjustment of the UCA's a bigger pain in the ass, but I said screw it and send me 4 RH thread anyway. He also said that they don't carry the weld in tube bungs for the the 1" shank so I had to source them elsewhere. So I ordered four 1" RH thread tube bungs from Trail Gear. I got the joints today and matched up all the parts to check them out and found that they sent me 2 RH and 2 LH joints for both the 2" and 2-5/16" joints. At first I was like "Are you shitting me!?". But now I am really glad that I got what I initially wanted. I just wish they would have let me know earlier. Now I gotta order some LH bungs from Trail Gear and hope they will be here by Sunday so I can finish the links before the next wheeling trip next weekend. I'm super stoked to test these things out. These joints are super beefy and appear to be well made.
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AssBurns
New member
Finished painting my bumper and finally got it installed. I did make it fit a little too tight to the body to where the body hits the bumper. I'm debating what I want to do about this. I can either A) Let it work itself out to where it stops hitting. B) Trim the upper lip of the bumper back to gain more clearance. C) Install Polyurethane rear body mounts.
I will probably start with option A then check out C if it doesn't work itself out quickly.
Also got my rear links finished but only 3 out of the 4 installed. Since the new joints are much bigger in diameter, the mounts needed a little clearancing to make them fit. I ended up cutting about a 1/2" on the mounts to get things to fit without hitting. Unfortunately I couldn't get to the drivers side upper frame mount with a grinder without dropping the gas tank, so I just left it off for the time being. Now that I have links that should not fail, the next weak links are the axle and frame mounts. These will hopefully be upgraded in the near future. The plan is to eventually 4 link the rear but I need to move the gas tank to do that. Well here in California, we have to do SMOG checks every 2 years, so that isn't really much of an option if I keep this registered in CA. I would like to register it through Arizona so I can hopefully put a fuel cell where the spare tire used to be. Speaking of gas tanks, I found that mine has a small leak somewhere. It's not bad but there is a light wet spot from gas on the bottom of the tank.
Now the fun part. I was airing up my tires this morning and found this...
I'm thinking I'll just throw a good weld on it and call it a day until I can come up with a better shock tower when I go to coilovers.
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I will probably start with option A then check out C if it doesn't work itself out quickly.
Also got my rear links finished but only 3 out of the 4 installed. Since the new joints are much bigger in diameter, the mounts needed a little clearancing to make them fit. I ended up cutting about a 1/2" on the mounts to get things to fit without hitting. Unfortunately I couldn't get to the drivers side upper frame mount with a grinder without dropping the gas tank, so I just left it off for the time being. Now that I have links that should not fail, the next weak links are the axle and frame mounts. These will hopefully be upgraded in the near future. The plan is to eventually 4 link the rear but I need to move the gas tank to do that. Well here in California, we have to do SMOG checks every 2 years, so that isn't really much of an option if I keep this registered in CA. I would like to register it through Arizona so I can hopefully put a fuel cell where the spare tire used to be. Speaking of gas tanks, I found that mine has a small leak somewhere. It's not bad but there is a light wet spot from gas on the bottom of the tank.
Now the fun part. I was airing up my tires this morning and found this...
I'm thinking I'll just throw a good weld on it and call it a day until I can come up with a better shock tower when I go to coilovers.
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AssBurns
New member
[MENTION=48999]Tyler[/MENTION]JamesInc
I used my circular saw to cut my tubing and wanted to show you the saw in action. Cutting 2" x .250" wall DOM. Blows my mind every time I use it. I initially tried to use my chop saw but it took WAY to long so I went with this saw.
https://vimeo.com/199688844
Also a clearance shot of the shock and tire. I still had about an inch more up travel because my new bump stops kept that from happening. I didn't get a picture of the shock/frame clearance but it wasn't much.
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I used my circular saw to cut my tubing and wanted to show you the saw in action. Cutting 2" x .250" wall DOM. Blows my mind every time I use it. I initially tried to use my chop saw but it took WAY to long so I went with this saw.
https://vimeo.com/199688844
Also a clearance shot of the shock and tire. I still had about an inch more up travel because my new bump stops kept that from happening. I didn't get a picture of the shock/frame clearance but it wasn't much.
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Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
I think the SS rear body mounts are a must on our rigs when you go to a stout frame-mounted bumper. Just too much give in those stock units. Bumper looks great though [emoji1360]
Lame about the coil bucket. Seems like a fairly involved job to fully reinforce it. Links look good. Do those transfer quite a bit more road noise that's noticeable?
Lame about the coil bucket. Seems like a fairly involved job to fully reinforce it. Links look good. Do those transfer quite a bit more road noise that's noticeable?
AssBurns
New member
The links do transfer a little bit more vibration but nothing that I think would bother people too much. Not very noticeable on the road but a little more noticeable on some washboard type stuff.
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AssBurns
New member
No my strut should not be bottoming out, especially with the super bumps installed. I don't think this shock will be able to fully compress even at full bump. I'd like to make a bigger, stronger, better shock tower so coilovers can be a direct fit instead of making top hats for it.
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AssBurns
New member
I wonder when/ how this happened...
I guess I either need to slow down (probably not going to happen) or upgrade to long travel (probably not happening anytime soon). I'm probably just going to weld it up for now and run it until I have time to replace it. [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] Hurry up and come up with that LCA solution your were talking about the other day. I think I can use it now.
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I guess I either need to slow down (probably not going to happen) or upgrade to long travel (probably not happening anytime soon). I'm probably just going to weld it up for now and run it until I have time to replace it. [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] Hurry up and come up with that LCA solution your were talking about the other day. I think I can use it now.
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Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Oh I just saw your video and shock pictures! That's crazy how fast that cuts 1/4" wall tube [emoji43] Thanks for the shock pictures too. So what's the final BS on your wheels right now? I think I would have quite a bit less room with my 5" BS wheels and 315's. Not sure though. And are those Total Chaos lower shock mounts?
Also, this is the picture I was talking about in the Panhard thread when I was talking about you cutting your quarter seams-
Is that not cut and welded?
Also, this is the picture I was talking about in the Panhard thread when I was talking about you cutting your quarter seams-
Is that not cut and welded?
AssBurns
New member
Oh I just saw your video and shock pictures! That's crazy how fast that cuts 1/4" wall tube [emoji43] Thanks for the shock pictures too. So what's the final BS on your wheels right now? I think I would have quite a bit less room with my 5" BS wheels and 315's. Not sure though. And are those Total Chaos lower shock mounts?
Also, this is the picture I was talking about in the Panhard thread when I was talking about you cutting your quarter seams-
Is that not cut and welded?
Wheel backspacing is whatever stock 5 stars are plus 1.25" wheel spacer.
I made the lower shock mounts.
Yes the quarter seams are now cut and welded as of November. I was saying they didn't need to be cut like that to clear my 285's. I initially only cut like 1/4" up on the sheet metal to clear. I just recently cut another 1-1/4" further to make room for 35's.
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jkeith.w
Official Vendor
I wonder when/ how this happened...
I guess I either need to slow down (probably not going to happen) or upgrade to long travel (probably not happening anytime soon). I'm probably just going to weld it up for now and run it until I have time to replace it. [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] Hurry up and come up with that LCA solution your were talking about the other day. I think I can use it now.
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4runner skunkwerks testpilot you are...
Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Damn! You're all sorts of broken [emoji15]
AssBurns
New member
It appears to be worse than I thought. I just cut the cracks where I could and threw a bead or two down on each crack. It is not perfect nor will it be permanent but it should hold till I figure out what exactly I will do. I may, for now, make a plate for the top of the shock towers to brace it a bit. The plan is to go to coilovers soon and redo the towers to be a direct fit for the coilovers. I will warranty the LCA when I have time to swap it out since it is only like 2 months old.
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JoshuaDudee
Member
That suspension though!
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