It has been quite a while since my last update. Probably the longest year of my life has passed and I am finally working on my crawler again! Have a few pics of the progress I have made, accomplished quite a bit in the past few days! I like taking pictures, but I felt like I had not taken many during the construction, just shots after I had finished some larger stages of the build. I left off with just finishing up the transfer case mount, still working on upper suspension mounts and mounting the transmission.
I soldered the trans mount and both upper suspension mounts into the frame. Considering drilling through the trans mount and frame so I can bolt it up, thinking the soldered connection may not hold up there. I tried my hardest to figure out a way to mount the motor lower to help with the C.O.G. but ended up placing it here as it was the only way to line the shafts up between Trans and Transfer case.
There is slight interference with the axle case and the upper link mount at full stuff. A little shaving should help that.
Now that the drivetrain and suspension were almost complete and bugs worked out I felt it was finally time to start working on the body. First step was to trim the floor pan to accommodate the transfer case. I started by removing the center console in one piece so I can reuse it, it sat low and I wanted to raise it anyways, then I trimmed and trimmed until the floor sat flat on the frame. Planning on building a trans tunnel and placing the original console on top of it.
With my floor pan sitting flush, and my drivetrain 90% complete (still need to hook up steering) I was itching to get started on the cage! After a couple of years envisioning what I wanted to do, I finally came up with a plan for how to accomplish it.
I started with a 4"x10" sheet of aluminum, drilled two holes in the center of it that corresponded with the two main hoop mounting points, then proceeded to bend it into shape to simulate the bulkhead mounting points and drilled two holes there for the front cage struts. This was to be my cage "Jig"
Then, I bolted these brass nuts to the Jig so I could solder the cage to these, then bolt it into the tub.
Main hoop soldered into place
Main front structure constructured
Adding structural support
Here is the front cage section finished and bolted in, happy with the progress so far!
Got the angle of the front cage struts close to the windshield angle
Planning on finding some hinges for a fold down windshield
Satisfied with the front portion of the cage, I started on the rear
Here is the finished cage before I removed it from the jig. I tried to style it after something you would have seen at a rock crawling comp back in the early days. Added a crossbar above the dash and some cross bracing in smaller diameter tubing. Still have some cleaning of the joints but I really am impressed with my own work, was not expecting it to look as good as it does, despite the imperfections.
Planning on giving the rear of the tub a dovetail/pinch to match the cage and reduce the rubbing during flexing, not much room there!
Obligatory/Preliminary flex shot
So close, yet much to do!!