No, its still at full stuff.  The axles are at their "ride height" though.

Update:

After the last update, i have since gotten a lot of little things taken care of.

First, the front fenders have been hung on the truck and cut to clear the tubing.  I like this look a lot better than the other options that i had and I'm glad that everyone else confirmed that.



Next was the grill of the truck.  Using some 1/2" solid stock and flat expanded metal, i built the grill.  My intent was to pay homage to the old FJ40s.  While the grill doesn't look exactly like the FJ40 grill, it looks pretty similar in my little mind.  haha



I also took care of the hood.  So with this, it pretty much wraps up the "body work".  The body of the truck is by no means pretty/straight, but i am not really concerned or worried about that since after all, it WILL get dings and dents in it.



With those items taken care of, i went to work on the winch and how I'm going to engage/disengage the winch without having to open the hood each time.  That would be a pain to deal with.  I used more of that 1/2" solid stock and made a "T" handle of sorts.  Then made a bracket to attach it to the handle/lever of the winch.  I still need to radius the bracket some but this is how the handle turned out.





With the winch disengaged, the handle tucks pretty close to the grill.  But still plenty of room to pull it out to engage the winch once all done free spooling it.  With the hood closed, you don't even notice the handle.

One of the items that i still needed to address for the rear steer was mounting the sensing ram.  This proved to be a little tricky since the sensing ram only has about 4" of stroke, yet the actual steering ram has 10".  But after some time and trial and error, i finally was able to get both rams to go the full stroke.  The ram is mounted "upside down" but that was due to the clearances plus to protect the connection to an extent. 





I had almost for got one of the most important items on the truck....the bottle opener gussets.  Can't have a rig without those.  While i was at it, i added the other cage gussets that i had on hand.





And then finally we are at the point now to take the truck apart for final cleaning/welding and then paint.  This is really exciting to me but before i went ahead and tore the truck completely apart, it wouldn't be fair to not roll her out of the garage into the sun light (well...as much as i had today) and take a few photos.  Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure.  You better enjoy it!  hahahaha





Here are the money shots!

"Damn daniel" I'm glad to see its almost done. This is going to be so awesome on the trail.

Small update:

In just a week, the truck went from being a rolling chassis to a bare chassis.

With the help of a couple buddies, i was able to pull the cage and cab off the truck.  Then set the cage back onto the chassis and drag it back into the garage on its lid so that i can fully weld everything that i wasn't able to get to before. 





I found a couple good flat spots on the chassis that without the axles in the way, the truck could possibly sit on its side very easily.



The part that i find funny about this picture is that this will most likely not be the last time the truck is sitting on its roof.  While i don't intend to flop it, it's probably only a matter of time before it does occur.  hahaha



After the welding, I'll clean and paint the chassis while its on its roof then flip her back right side up and go through those steps for the top of the chassis.  It's getting close to final assembly.

Remember that comment you made about my rig might be done before yours? It's still just like it was when I got it lol

 Check the tow pig section out. You might like my latest post.

Update:

While it seems that there hasn't been a lot of progress since the last update, i've been painting the parts and pieces of the truck.  Sadly, the painting process is certainly a slow one...something about waiting for paint to dry.  haha

I've been able to flip the chassis right side up and fully paint it.



I then started to shift my focus onto the rear axle.  Before i got too far on the rear axle, i needed to verify the direction of the portal gears so that i don't break them the first time i lay the hammer down.  For those that aren't familiar with the 404 axles, the gears in the portal box are helical cut.  So, under normal applications when driving forward, the gears will pull together.  With that in mind, when you put a steering axle out back in a 4 wheel steering application, you need to account for this.  If you don't, the gears will push apart from one another and break the portal box.

Initially, i planned to pull the outer axle shaft out of the CV joint but that would be a pain.  There are 60 needle bearings and the cross pin that goes through the shaft has to be pressed out.

My next thought after reading the Unimog Service manual was to pull the portal gear and bearing off of the axle shaft and swap sides.  This proved to be very difficult with the tools that i had or could find.  The issue is that there is about 1/8" gap between the gear and the inner bearing.  So i would have to find a tool that is thin enough to fit in that space, yet has enough ass to be able to pull both the gear and bearing that are pressed on at the same time.  Also, without ruining the threads inside the outer axle shaft (there is a screw in the outer shaft that holds a washer to keep the outer bearing in place so that it doesn't walk off the shaft).  I would love to have the Mercedes tool that they call out in the service manual but i couldn't seem to locate one.  In a moment of frustration and lack of patience, i decided to try to pull the outer bearing off by itself.  This ended up being a bad idea and all that i did was ruin the bearing.

What i did to resolve the issue ended up being a variance of the first option.  The plan was to swap the outer axle shaft and portal box assembly from one side to another but where this plan differs; is that this time, i'll keep the needle bearings and bearing caps attached to the shaft.  Just by unbolt the outer axle shaft from the CV joint.  I over looked this option at first because i didn't realize that the CV joint would fit and pass through the outer part of the steering knuckle.

In this picture, you can see the pieces that i'm talking about.  In the CV joint, you'll see roughly 3 sections.  There are the bearing end caps for the outer shaft, center section that contains 2 zerk fittings, and an inner axle shaft bearing end cap section.  If you look to the left of the center section that contains the zerk fittings, you'll see the inner axle shaft bearing end cap.  Then to the right of the center section, you'll see the stub shaft bearing end caps.  The bolt passes through the inner shaft end cap, through the center piece then finally into the outer bearing end cap.  There is a cotter pin and castle nut on each bolt, you may have to dig through some mud or grease to get to it but it should be there.  When you separate the outer bearing end cap from the center piece, you'll notice a rubber seal where the grease passes from the zerk to the bearing end caps on that side of the center piece.  You'll have to watch out for the rubber seal in case it sticks to the bearing end cap like it did on my spare box/axle shaft.  You can swap the seal back over if it stuck to the axle shaft end cap.  Once the bearing end cap is separated from the center section, just unbolt the port box backing plate from the outer C of the knuckle then remove the entire assembly.  Easy as that!



In this picture, you can see what they look like taken apart.  This one still has a bunch of that cosmoline on it.  But it will help you see how the pieces are notched to fit together as well.  I experimented and took apart this axle before i did it on the "rear axle" of my truck in case i screwed it up.



I hope the pictures help explain it well.  I know it would have been nice to come across this info before i dicked up my bearing; but sometimes, someone has to learn the hardway so that they can pass the info along to others.  hahaha

Once that issue was resolved, i moved forward and I cleaned it up and layed some paint on it.  I then unmasked the PSC ram and mounted it back onto the axle for good this time.



I then addressed the blue BTF high steer arms.  While i do like blue, it just wouldn't work with the color scheme i want for the truck.  So of course, it got the orange treatment. 



The tie rods for the axle got the same treatment but i just realized that i failed to take any pictures of it.  I will admit that i had some issues painting them and the finish didn't turn out as good as i had wanted, but it will get scratched up soon so i didn't worry too much about it.  BUT...i did get some pictures of the rear links painted and with the new heims installed.



Now, once i finish up getting the passenger side of the axle assembled, i'll be able to attach it to the chassis and move onto the front axle.  I actually may press forward with attaching the axle to the chassis, just minus the portal box.  I've got a space issue in my garage.  haha  With any luck, soon; i'll have a painted rolling chassis.

Are you referring to my Yeti?

Yeah, thats the Yeti.  Its currently broke right now.  I drive it with the zero f*cks given mentality so the rear r&p are shot.  that and i need to replace the rear trailing arms since i KO'd one before and band aid fixed it to go play the last time.

Update:

There hasn't been anything huge to make note of since my last update. 

While i was waiting for paint to dry, i figured I'd go ahead and put a few items on the truck that wouldn't be in the way down the road.  So, i went ahead and installed the winch, fair lead, the hood prop, head light buckets, and orbital valve (the latter 2 were not installed when i took the picture).



But once the paint finally did dry on the tie rods and high steer arms, i was excited to start final assembly on the rear axle.



Next was the slow process of getting the chassis back to ride height so that i can attach the rear axle.  I then had to lift the rear axle to its "ride height" as well so that i could properly set the rear caster angle and position.



Now that the axle was installed and the bearing and seals that i ordered from Scott at expedition imports showed up, so i replaced the one bearing that i screwed up and put that portal box together.  With it being attached to the chassis now, it made it a lot easier to apply leverage to the bolts.  The axle previously wanted to flip over on me.  Made things exciting in the garage.

Here is a parting shot of the rear axle finally installed.



With the rear axle complete, it was time to move onto the front axle.  I had to clean some things up and fully weld a few others.  One thing i went ahead and took care of was to add some gussets to the upper link mount.  Probably not needed but since these are portal axles and I'm only running a 3 link up front, i wanted to give the upper link some extra love.



I then installed the front axle into position and attached the freshly painted links.  I then repeated the process for getting the axle to ride height, then centered it, and set the caster.



You may have noticed that the front high steer arms and tie rods are not installed....well, that's another one of those situations where I'm waiting for paint to dry enough for me to handle it.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get them installed and put the front rollers on the truck.  The rear axle is now sitting on the rollers.

Here is how she is sitting now.  Don't mind the mess leaning against the rear of the truck...just a little space issues with doing this major of a build in a garage.  lol



Once i have the front axle finished, I'll bring the chassis back down to full stuff and install the struts.  At that point, I'll have a fully painted rolling chassis that I'll then move outside into my back yard and hide under a massive tarp.  Then i can drag my cab inside the garage and start working on the paint work for it.

Side note, I don't recall if i posted it up here before or not, but i was able to borrow some corner scales the other day.  I weighed the axles, tires, suspension links and chassis.  I forgot to weight the drive shafts but i can get that weight with my bathroom scale.  lol  I'm hoping the rig will be close to 5k but I'm pretty sure it'll be closer to the 5300lb mark.

At any rate, here are the weights that i was able to get:

The bare chassis weights 960
Fully assembled wheel/tire 190
Lower links 30
Upper links 22
Track bar 12
Struts 20
Axle 630

This means that I'll have approx 2k of the rig's weight below the chassis.  I'm not disappointed by that.  After all, if she is gonna be heavy, I'd rather the weight be down low.  Once the truck is complete, I'll put it back on the corner scales for funnzies and get a better picture of the weight bias.

Update:

I was finally able to fully resolve the issue at hand where the lower links contacted the frame during full suspension travel.  This wasn't as much of a pain to remedy as i had expected.  I ended up only having to add 2 plates to box it the frame.  It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but i had to add one vertical plate and then one plate to tie the peak of the "tunnel" to the outside wall of the frame.  Once that was done i painted it and snapped the pic.



Now that i had a fully painted and ready chassis so to speak, it was time to roll it out of the garage so that i could start to work on the body.  Here is where is sits now for the next couple weeks while i take care of the body work.  Of course she'll be covered under a tarp for the time being.



With some room now in the garage, it was time to start working on the bottom of the cab.  The cab is pretty light thankfully and with the help of a couple buddies, we set it in the garage (previously sat on top of my gooseneck trailer under a WAY oversized tarp) on its back.  At this point, it was time to clean up the cab.  The perk of building an older rig is that i get to clean off the 33 years of road grim, grease, and mud off of the bottom of the cab.  I drilled the spot welds off of the inner fender to cab mounts since Toyota has everything (core support, inner fenders, and cab) spot welded together.  This left me just the cab to work with.  I was able to get most of the junk off of the bottom of the cab and firewall, but next will be pressure washing it to get it cleaned up the rest of the way.   



From there, I'll address a few issues that i need to take care of.  I am going to redo the lower fender mount on the cab.  The factory bolts broke off inside the cab some time ago and I've just had the lower part of the fender attached via a self tap screw.  This has started to not hold so well so now is the time to address it.

I'll also address some of the extra holes in the cab that were previously used for the factory wire harness.  Since I'm going to run a completely aftermarket harness, there isn't much of a need for the large holes.  Since Toyota basically dimples the holes outward, i cut some of the surrounding sheet metal off to weld in a patch panel.



I also started to clean up some of the areas on the cab where the original sheet metal met with the new sheet metal.  I ground down the excess metal so that it was smooth.  I'd rather not filet open my hands/arms when i have to work on the truck down the road.

While i did like the striped paint job on the hood, it was time to start stripping the paint off to prepare for the sand/tan color that it will have.  I picked up some "aircraft paint remover" from the local parts house and got to work.  I ended up using one entire can and this is what I'm left with.  I may go pick up another can to work on the hood some more but so far, I'm pretty pleased.



There has been a slight change in plans as far as the paint goes.  No longer is my buddy going to paint it due to scheduling issues plus the fact that the little bit of body that is expose, WILL get hit and/or scratched and it's going to be a lot easier to touch up the paint with rattle can vs an actual automotive paint done by a pro.  Plus, this way, it'll be easier to get the colors to match once i finally continue to build my half doors.

The entire interior of the cab, firewall, and bottom of the cab will receive the truck bed liner treatment.  I'll be using the rustoleum bed liner paint for that.  The rest of the body pieces will be painted a "sand" color.  I still plan to paint an OX head on the hood near the passenger head light.  I've got 3 different size decals to use for a template.  I'll have to decide which one i like best.

I'm excited and happy to be on this phase of the build now.  Once the "body work" is done and everything is painted, I'll get to put it on and start stabbing the drive train back into the truck.

Sand? I've never seen orange sand.

Oh yeah. Over there in navarre 

Is the wheel spacers and smaller than stock wheels pushing the scrub radius out enough to notice.

That i do not know for certain until the truck is complete.  I honestly have not even calculated the current scrub radius or compared it to stock to see if its even much different.  I'm sure that it is different due to the wheel spacers but whether its enough to be noticed i can't say.  With that being said though, the truck has full hydraulic steering so i'm not sure it'll be a fair assessment either since the steering input effort will be a lot less than stock as well since (to the best of my knowledge) 404 mogs didn't have any power steering.

DAMN! badass build Dan! yeehaw!

Update:

Over the past few days, I've been working on the paint for the cab, doors, fenders, and cowl panel.  And finally....they are now all done.  They are painted on both the exterior and interior.  Probably a bit over kill for a crawler that I'll beat on but i figured now is the best time to address them.

The only item left is the hood, which required a lot more work than i had expected due to the layers of paint on it. I was finally able to get the hood sanded and smooth enough.  So first, i started on the underside.  Here is what the hood currently looks like.  I'm letting the paint dry and once its done, I'll get to work on the top side.  This will get exciting since I'll get to lay on the ox head logo.



I masked off the cab and started to lay down the "fancy" rattle can gloss sand paint.  I will say that i was actually really impressed/surprised with this paint. The paint laid on really nicely and turned out a lot better than i had expected honestly.

View from the front.



Rear view of the cab.



Once that was all dry, i removed the paper/masking tape to reveal the final product.  I'm thrilled and at this point, couldn't wait for the cab to get installed.

Another front view of the cab.



I was even able to install the rear window.  Just another step down for the build to be finished.



Here are a few photos of the doors, fenders, and cowl panel painted.

Bottom side of the cowl panel.



Top side of the cowl panel.



Inside of the front fenders.



Exterior of the front fenders.



Inside of the driver side door.



Exterior of the driver side door.



Inside of the passenger side door.



Exterior of the passenger side door.



Don't mind the waviness of the doors, they'll get crushed soon enough.  lol  I added a 1x2 rectangle tube brace in the door and while welding the sheet metal to the .125" thick tubing, the sheet metal had some distortion.  I wasn't terribly worried about it since the brace is there for function, the doors were already dented up, and the reality is this...the doors will get crushed again, I'm sure.  This is the 3rd set the truck has had since I've owned it after all.

And now for the big moment that I've been waiting for, for quite some time...today was time for the cab to get installed.  This ended up going more smoothly than i had planned/expected largely due to the fact that i had several friends over to help.  Due to the tight clearances, we had to pick the front of the cab up quite a bit more than the rear to get the cab to fit down into the chassis below the top of the cage.  i masked off the back corners of the cab where the ID tube clamps get very close and over all, that worked great.  The cab went on and the only real scratch that occurred was due to the chain from the A frame slipping out of our hands and hitting the cab.  Oh well.  Its easy to touch up.

Here you can see the cab now in her final home. 



I left the top of the cage off at this point since i still need to install the windshield.  But to install it, i need to order the clips/guides that allow the windshield to rest on it while the glue dries that seals the windshield to the cab.  Once that is in, i'll be able to install both the cage, and the cowl panel of the truck.

At this point, i didn't want to install the doors since they'll be in the way and make it a little tougher to get inside the cab to install the rest of the components.

This is very exciting to me since I'm getting close to the home stretch of this build.  Now i can start to install the components of the truck for good and get ready to take care of the plumbing and wiring.  Speaking of the wiring, i ordered a 20 circuit kwik wire chassis harness and it arrived.  I'm very impressed with this kit and i look forward to getting to wire it up...i enjoy wiring a vehicle strangely enough.  lol  For the wiring of the truck, i plan to make all of the items in the truck ground switched instead of the norm hot side switched.  I'll add several relay's to the system so that i can just run smaller gauge ground wires to the dash for the activation of the relays.



The next item up to install is the engine.  I need to paint the engine mounts then i can set the engine in along with the transmission.  I have to wait on the dana 300 since i need to rebuild it first.

While i hunt for the windshield clips, i need to find a new transmission fill plug.  The one on it was tightened too tight before and i ended up ruining the hex head.  I don't like how "shallow" the hex head of the fill plug is.  It is very easy to round off while trying to use full retard strength to loosen.  that ultimately caused me to round the head off and then i attempted to get the bolt off with a hammer and chisel to no avail.  sadly, what finally worked to get the bolt loose was to weld a both onto it but now it needs to be replaced.