Custom control arms?

[Direwolf82]

So I've been playing with the idea of making a set of control arms for the truck. Has anyone had a set made for them or has anyone made a set themselves?
Just curious, it shouldn't be too hard to bend one up and stick it together on a jig but was wondering what people's experience was.
I appreciate your time reading but if your going to be negative about it please just keep scrolling.
I can bend steel, I can weld structural joints. If I can't get with my stuff my buddy has a full fabrication shop. Equipment and skill levels are high enough to pull this off.
I'm thinking about 30 bucks worth of steel can get it done minus ball joints and bushings.
Is there anything I need to know about specific to the 4runner before doing this?

 

[Inv4drZm]

So I've been playing with the idea of making a set of control arms for the truck. Has anyone had a set made for them or has anyone made a set themselves?
Just curious, it shouldn't be too hard to bend one up and stick it together on a jig but was wondering what people's experience was.
I appreciate your time reading but if your going to be negative about it please just keep scrolling.
I can bend steel, I can weld structural joints. If I can't get with my stuff my buddy has a full fabrication shop. Equipment and skill levels are high enough to pull this off.
I'm thinking about 30 bucks worth of steel can get it done minus ball joints and bushings.
Is there anything I need to know about specific to the 4runner before doing this?

So upper and lower control arms? Are you keeping factory length?

Aftermarket UCAs are usually made from chromoly tubing. Or you can build a boxed set from sheet metal. I've priced out building a set before and they aren't much cheaper than off the shelf units. Check out PolyPerformance's website they have all the parts needed including tubing, uniball cups, and misalignment spacers.

For the LCA's, some of the aftermarket long travel ones are made from chromoly too. And you'll need a machined part for the ball joint to sit in.

 

[Direwolf82]

So upper and lower control arms? Are you keeping factory length?

Aftermarket UCAs are usually made from chromoly tubing. Or you can build a boxed set from sheet metal. I've priced out building a set before and they aren't much cheaper than off the shelf units. Check out PolyPerformance's website they have all the parts needed including tubing, uniball cups, and misalignment spacers.

For the LCA's, some of the aftermarket long travel ones are made from chromoly too. And you'll need a machined part for the ball joint to sit in.

I'm in the super initial stages of starting plans but yes, upper and lower. There is a custom shop from where I grew up that said he could build high strength cv's to length. I'm half considering building them a little longer and getting the longer cv's to push the tires out and make some more clearance while keeping scrub radius in check although the price and lack of being able to get them anywhere else is fairly prohibitive. So probably just make the top a little longer to work with the lift I want. Currently sitting on spacers up front and getting antsy about putting in the permanent suspension. Also means I need to decide what I'm doing for bumpers and steel protection to get the right springs the first time around but that's another deal.
I have 1.25 od .25 wall tubing kicking around from a different project that should suffice, plenty of material to play around with as long as I did my math correctly. And my friend has a rack full of tubing I can buy off him for cheap if need be. He's a semi retired race car fabricator that likes his 4x4's which is super convenient.
I'm assuming the ball joints are press fit, haven't actually looked that far into it yet as that detail isn't going to be a make or break type situation. I'll take the plates to my buddy's and run it through his cnc mill. He has all the sizes for that stuff programmed already from what he tells me. I'm also getting a bunch of bits and pieces from him super cheap so hopefully my total cost would be around 100 bucks. Mostly I think it could be a cool project and I seem to have a little extra time these days.
It's either this or start my bumper and since I'm in the middle of the bumper build for my other truck I'm a little bumpered out at the moment.

 

[MrSeth]

It can be done.




+3.5" LT (somewhat) following the Blazeland LT stuff.

UCA's extended with DOM
LCA's extended, gusseted, and boxed with steel
Outer Tie rods extended
CV's extended and sleeved with DOM

The only reason I'm taking it off the truck is that I don't 100% trust the CV's in hard wheeling conditions. The price of custom machined ones is WAY outside of my price range since the rest of this only cost about $275 to do.

 

[Inv4drZm]

I'm in the super initial stages of starting plans but yes, upper and lower. There is a custom shop from where I grew up that said he could build high strength cv's to length. I'm half considering building them a little longer and getting the longer cv's to push the tires out and make some more clearance while keeping scrub radius in check although the price and lack of being able to get them anywhere else is fairly prohibitive. So probably just make the top a little longer to work with the lift I want. Currently sitting on spacers up front and getting antsy about putting in the permanent suspension. Also means I need to decide what I'm doing for bumpers and steel protection to get the right springs the first time around but that's another deal.
I have 1.25 od .25 wall tubing kicking around from a different project that should suffice, plenty of material to play around with as long as I did my math correctly. And my friend has a rack full of tubing I can buy off him for cheap if need be. He's a semi retired race car fabricator that likes his 4x4's which is super convenient.
I'm assuming the ball joints are press fit, haven't actually looked that far into it yet as that detail isn't going to be a make or break type situation. I'll take the plates to my buddy's and run it through his cnc mill. He has all the sizes for that stuff programmed already from what he tells me. I'm also getting a bunch of bits and pieces from him super cheap so hopefully my total cost would be around 100 bucks. Mostly I think it could be a cool project and I seem to have a little extra time these days.
It's either this or start my bumper and since I'm in the middle of the bumper build for my other truck I'm a little bumpered out at the moment.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the aftermarket UCAs have changed geometry from stock, they help to correct caster in lifted vehicles.

 

[Direwolf82]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the aftermarket UCAs have changed geometry from stock, they help to correct caster in lifted vehicles.

Yeah, that's part of the want to make them, lengthen them a bit and make it adjustable for alignment reasons. Mostly want to push the tires outboard though.
I think unfortunately this plan is being shelved until work comes back full time, custom cv's aren't cheap and I'd rather not sleeve them if possible. Have seen issues with sleeved shafts before.
So... Skid plates I guess? Steel is fairly cheap still, 4x8 sheet of 3/16 for a 120 bucks. Should get me new skids on the 4runner and the m715.