m_lars

In my never ending battle to spend as little money as possible on modding my r50 I found another option for rear springs. My brother had 2 pair of front springs for a Land Rover discovery 2 which we figured out are nearly identical in specs to the r50 OME lift springs. The stock disco springs are 368mm tall with a spring rate of 150lbs compared to OME lift springs of 360mm height and 140lb spring rate. The only difference I found was the overall diameter of the unit was a little smaller so it did not seat fully on the lower spring perch. He also had a set of OME light duty lift springs for the same discovery and I opted for these since they had a free height about a half inch taller. I removed my stock super saggy rear springs and 2" spacers for springs only and gained about a 1/2" of height. I carry tools in the back and have a receiver mount spare tire carrier with a hi-lift and 2 Jerry cans, so I have a lot of weight out back. I end up with some rake if I take everything out and off the back so stock disco springs might be perfect if you don't carry the load. My cost, free! Your cost, I'm not sure but some boneyard or eBay springs would be pretty cheap.

No, it's just welded to the top of the old rocker in the door jamb and the pinch seam on the bottom. Given how heavy the steel tube is I'm not sure you could hit it hard enough to need a tie in. That was definitely the tricky part of this project! You'd be welding along just fine and boom it'd blow through.

So the XJ guys do it all the time, mine were gone, so why not try it? I used 12' of 4x3 11ga steel that ran me $60 cash and a few rattle cans of "corrosion resistant" rubberized undercoating. Cut out was really easy because the bottom at the pinch seam was literally 90% gone, the top seemed more solid but that turned out to be not all that true. We had to notch out the tubing in 2 spots where there were structural components. One was at the front of the front door, the other was at the pillar between the doors. There was another brace that appeared to give lateral stiffness to the rocker area, I cut that one out since the box steel has way more strength than the rocker ever had. After the cutting was done we jacked it into place with a slight downward angle and welded the top in place. It was rough welding because the steel was so thin in places. You'd start getting a nice bead and it would blow through. With the top done the pinch seam extended about a 1/2" past the steel, so we hammered it around the bottom of the steel and welded away. I then taped off the door jambs and gave it a couple coats of undercoating. I still have the passenger side to do so I'll try to get some pics of the process. But in the mean time here are a couple of the finished project. It's still a rusty, ugly beast but it's my rusty ugly beast. Probably the best $250 vehicle I've bought.

So I just picked up a cheap used receiver mounted spare tire carrier. I mostly bought it because it came with a hi-lift and 2 Jerry cans for a little bit more than the cost of a hi-lift. I'm not certain that it'll be installed all the time, and when I'm out and about will probably hang a trasheroo on it so I don't want to mount it on the spare or rack. So, my question is what do you suggest to relocate the license plate on the tailgate? I've looked at cheap lighted trailer mount kits but would love me something that looks less cobbled together. I'm guessing the parts off a truck with factory swing away tire carrier would be hard to come across in my area. Any other bright ideas?