85 4runner and the work never ends....

[kdub0013]

Fall and winter  You just spent all summer working on that thing and missed a bunch of good runs. Keep it to small chunks at a time like I am doing so your rig isn't down 100%. Get some snow wheeling trips in!

[boomtacoma01]

Great build. I  finally had time to go through the whole thing.

[John Doe]

Fall and winter  You just spent all summer working on that thing and missed a bunch of good runs. Keep it to small chunks at a time like I am doing so your rig isn't down 100%. Get some snow wheeling trips in!

I have no intention on keeping it down all fall and winter, most of the projects are relatively small. I will still be driving the truck almost daily for the most part.

[John Doe]

Been making progress on the internal cage. I will try and get a pic of it soon. My buddy is helping me but mainly guiding me with tips this is my 1st time dealing with tube work, it is going slow. Sadly I am having an issue with the seal between the T-case and transmission still. Until I get it fixed I have only bee making occasional short trips. Will pull the T-case again and see what is the issue soon. But 1st I want to finish the cage.

Still 1 or 2 bugs I need to figure out from the engine swap. Will need to double check why I have the check engine light and get whatever it is fixed before I go get Refereed.

[Shamb]

Im still interested in the soft top if you wanna get rid of it, just let me know.

Lets see some pics!

[John Doe]

I need to get a quote from a guy to make the new canvas 1st. Sadly I fear that he will need the canvas at his shop to get measurements from for a few days and it is getting into the rainy season. I'll try and get some pics of the cage tomorrow.

[John Doe]

Cage work....




Still have more work to to, finish welding and a few more tubes to add, all in due time.

[Shamb]

damn i like that... i'd like to do something similar to mine.

[garlicgabe]

Nice work! 

[kdub0013]

Did Steve bend up those center sections of tube or is that how it came? I thought it was a 4xinnovations cage is why I ask. Keep it up looks good.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[John Doe]

The B hoop is the only thing that is relatively untouched from the 4X kit. The runners going back to the c-pillars and c-pillar were both modified slightly. Everything in the middle was me with Steve's guidance.

[John Doe]

Got the cab portion complete this weekend.



Will be finish welding the rest tomorrow. Still need to add some gussets, and the grab handles.

[JANDO11]

I like the cage.... keep it up

[John Doe]

I will try and get a few pics up soon, I have been doing some long awaited maintenance as well as some extra work on the cage (grab handles and gussets.)

[*** YELLER ***]

nice werk buddy

[OCD]

Nice work on that cage! Got any pics of how you tied all that in at the kick, and at the dash cross bar??? I saw the beginning stages of the kicks at last years MCR and was very interested in the direction you were going with that. Hope to see it this summer. 

[John Doe]

For my A-pillar, dash bar and kick panel tie in.... After making a template I had a piece cut of 3/16" out on my buddies plasma table that goes from the floor, edge of the door, wheel well to the base of the windshield. That plate is me new lower A-pillar, this way I do not have apiece of tube going to the floor getting in the way of my big feet. I know that this will not meet requirments if I wanted to race but this will be plenty strong enough to hold up. Replaced the dash bar with 1.75" DOM and tied the cage A-pillar into it. I still want to add a gusset below the dash bar to the plate, but sadly there is almost no room for a gusset on the drivers side.

For those of you that are wondering I will be building a custom metal dash.

Well I have finally got around to extending my sliders after pushing my rear axle back...

[kdub0013]

Gonna update this?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[John Doe]

Gonna update this?

Sadly I have not had much to update lately. Got both sides of my sliders extended. Made 1 trip up to the Rubicon so far this year and it was snowing on me in May. Now I am fighting an issue with my speed sensor and cluster going bad. Had to fix my rear Hub after sheering 5 studs and the 2 dowel pins last weekend. Sadly I had neglected to check the torque on a few key parts, that was a pit of a hard learned lesson 

I have many small projects to work on to keep me busy

• rock lights
• paint
• cargo area modifications
• Dash
• Get the Engine Swap inspected

[John Doe]

Well I have been busy working on a few little things....

Had this idea years ago, got the parts and never got around to it. Although I have not had the issues with busted tail lights that my buddy has, that is a problem I will not have to worry about. I am all but finished with the passenger side, will get around to the drivers side soonish.

[Dingman.]

Ive seen a few people do that up here!  Never a bad idea, or you could be like my buddy who hoards taillight lenses.  He probably has 5 pairs. Lol

[86bobbedtoy]

Ive seen a few people do that up here!  Never a bad idea, or you could be like my buddy who hoards taillight lenses.  He probably has 5 pairs. Lol

haha THOMAS!...?

[Dingman.]

haha THOMAS!...?

Yup!!! 

[John Doe]

Sadly I do not have much to update. After having a few issues I made it to the Round-up and like usual I had a great time. I went to Fordyce with a buddy 3 weeks ago to aid in the trail clean up, after we got the Committee crossing are clean we headed up trail toward WH3. We got about half way when my gas tank got blessed by the rock gods, with a now holy gas tank we quickly turned around and headed back to the Cisco Grove staging area where I waited for a tow truck. Luckily the fix was just under $100 for a new tank, guess I will get a skid made here soon 

I have a pile of parts for yet another project but I am thinking I will hold off on that until I have more $ and time to work on it. Between now and then I will tie up many of my un-finished projects.

[86bobbedtoy]

well you got a new pitman arm!

[John Doe]

well you got a new pitman arm!

It was late and I was tired 

To take advantage of the better steering of the FJ80 axle I got a new pitman arm made that is double sheer for my Heims.

[John Doe]

Back from the dead.......

After working out many little annoying issues I finally got my sticker


1 of my issues was an exhaust leak between the cat and rear O2 that prevented the Cat monitor from picking up, which was required by the Referee.


Now that my Engine swap has been approved I can get to work on my long laundry list of other projects that have been put on hold. I will be slowly working on some post worthy and some not so post worthy projects as time permits. As I make progress I will make sure to post up and share with all who are interested.

[jimbo74]

SWEET!

[zebracrawler]

That was a good day for me when I got my my sticker for the 3.4 swap too. Nice work

[John Doe]

So I bought some fancy new LED headlights and for some reason they are not working when plugged into my truck.

I have confirmed that the headlights are functioning by directly wiring them to the battery but when plugging them into the harness and nothing!

Any suggestions?