Jump to content

A Tail of Two Sisters - Build Photos and Videos


Recommended Posts

This is the original "Calmini" rack that was on top. The lights and rack sucked 2-3 MPG out of the rig.

 

The new rack on the rig... Back to 17-18 mpg... that is change from $215 to $170 per thousand miles at 3 bucks a gallon. I liked the lights.. but not that much.

 

I hear that!!! I could absolutely fee a difference in wind drag between having my old roof rack with cheap square lights mounted on it than running it without a rack. That difference is very noticeable and a major part of why I wanted a new roof rack that would be a low profile as possible. That's the reason for running a single row LED bar rather than the more popular double row. That extra inch makes a very big difference. Ask a woman she'll tell you the same thing lol. The other reason I wanted a change is because my old rack was taller up front than it was in the back. This wasn't an issue when things fit in the rack. However there where many times I wanted to strap something to the roof that was longer than the rack. Boards, snow sled, furniture, metal for my shop, or whatever. Having the flat roof rack where the LED bar sits lower than the top of the rack will allow me to build a bracket to attach to this that will act like a lumber rack. Keeping things from sliding off the sides. Also throwing my bikes up there also becomes an easy option too. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way that keeping things simple is a better way to go. You have more options when the design isn't too complicated.

 

Plus this design will work well on an older Jeep Cherokee with the drip rails. I need to start building products to sell to the public. So I figured maybe I'll start here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

The roof rack is really happening finally lol. These are my first 5 bends with my JD Squared, Inc Model 32 bender since I bought it over a year ago. It took me 5 bends but I think I got all the data needed to use this die set properly without any waste or measurement miss calculations. Expect some videos about this in the near future. I have to fix a couple miscalculation on this bottom frame but the top one should only require one single seem if all goes as expected.

rack-01.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's coming together quite nicely!

 

Both top and bottom frames are complete. The top frame only has one seem. This may not be a big deal to those that bend tubing all the time but it's a bid deal for me lol. After spending two days racking my brain with numbers and measurements I finally got the measurements just right and documented everything so that I can build these over and over again if someone else wants one too.

 

What you're seeing between the two frames are jigs that I build to line up both the top and bottom frames perfectly. Now I need to figure out what my next step will be. Most likely the cross braces for the floor.

 

rack-02.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

So I haven't worked on my truck in a long time. The last thing I did was swap the auto trans so I could actually go wheeling last year. That lasted almost 2 months before the replacement failed and calling AAA.

At that point I decided that I was not going to do another auto swap. Anyone that has done that knows what a massive pain in the ass that job is. I can't even do it myself because my hands and arms are to fat to reach some of the bolts. I wasn't sure what I was going to do just because finding a manual trans WD21 or D21 up here in Syracuse in a JY is not easy at all. Most of these are long rotted away. I was considering many options including V8 swap, and an adapter that would allow me to bolt a TH400 to the VG30.

Long story short a buddy of mine called me last weekend informing me that our local yard had a hardbody with a 5 speed manual trans in it. I rushed over there to find that it was a 4 banger. :( However after stewing in my own @!*% for a few minutes I realized that all wasn't that bad. I found the damn peddle assembly! With that I could have a MT shipped to me and I would have the bulk of the parts needed to do the swap. So after spending a few hours in the JY I had the peddles in hand and a few other parts.

I headed home found myself a FS5R30A 5 speed manual trans in a yard that's about 2 hours from me. I placed my order and I should have that Thursday if call goes as planned. Now after days and days of research I believe I know everything I need to do this swap outside of the electrical. I'm not worried about that to be honest though. I maybe pulling the dash I just swapped into it and building a custom one when I cage my truck. For those that have installed peddles into our trucks you know how hard it is to access the bolts and that there is an air duck completely in the way of two of the clutch peddle bolts and blocking the clearance needed to fit it into place. So rather than fighting with it I figured now would be a good time to pull the dash, build a new one and build my cage too. My truck is not a daily driver anymore so I want to simplify everything on it. I'll be going through all of the electrical and getting rid of the things I don't need and reconfiguring the things I do.

The roof rack is also something I need to finish too. I stopped on that project when I blew up the auto trans.

Oh and after my local clubs annual event in a few months you can expect a radius arm sas to begin. It's time I get all this taken care of!!!

Stay Tuned!!!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

mount%20parts.jpg

 

mount%20mockup.jpg

 

mount.jpg

One of the mounting brackets for my roof rack is just about finished. I had to modify the design at the last min due to some miscalculations. And the fact that I didn't like the way they looked at first.

 

All I know is I need to spend more time tig welding steel. These welds don't look as good as I wanted but it's to late now lol. Good thing it's going to be covered up with a textured power coating lol.

 

P.S. This part is very time consuming. That's why it's taken me a year to update this thread lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it's not bad. Just not as good as I wanted. I finally got all the metal today to finish this. Built my LED bar mounts and the mounts for the LED backup lights that I plan on putting on it too. Other than powder coating this should be done by the end of the weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Just testing out the backup lights.

 

Not super bright but this will help while backing up on the trails at night. Plus I'm going to wire them up on a switch too. This way I can turn them on at camp if I need some extra light. The low amp draw will allow me to keep them on for much longer than the factory backup lights while the truck is not running. Maybe even turn them on if someone is tailgating me at night lol.

backup%20lights.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are more pics and a video.

This is a photo to show you the light pattern and how much light those little COB LEDs put out.
COB-LED-Test.jpg

 

Here is a close up of the Powder Coat texture.

 

texture.jpg

 

Here is the link to the video that also shows more of the COB LED light output.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Amazing... A job well done :)

 

Inspired from this, I have decided to build a roof rack for my 2001 Pathfinder. I dunno how am gonna manage that here in Qatar as the equipment or the material is not readily available and if I order online, the shipping costs alone will be more then what I will be bargaining for :P

 

Wish me luck...

 

Regards,

 

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I'd been awhile since I've been on the site. However I got something in the works for the Pathy. Everything should be finished by June (of this year lol).

  • SAS D44 out of an early Bronco
  • H1 wheels and either 36" IROK or 35 inch Super Swamper SSR
  • Full Cage
  • And I hope to start on the custom interior too. This might be a next winter project though. I need to focus on the cage and the mechanical parts first.

First things first. Time to shave down my Dana 44 and remove the old radius arm wedges from the axle tubes.

1929011_967512829990897_6744781538511247

 

And here are the parts needed to build my H1 wheels. I'm building a blast cabinet so as soon as that is finished I'll wrap up these wheels. I want to blast them before I weld on the rock rings.

12631489_10153443962423087_3471188968512

 

12669684_984836194925227_183120492150503

 

12643023_984954451580068_817381278661059

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok so I did some test fitting today. Made sure the wheel centers actually fit the wheels lol. Everything looks great. I did waste some money on those valve stems. The 24 bolt paired H1 wheels do not use this type of valve stem. So I'll chalk that up as a loss and something I should have researched more before buying parts. Oh well...

Anyway I'll be cutting the factory centers tomorrow and welding in the new centers. The rock rings will have to wait until I get my blast cabinet up and running. I want to blast the outer wheel so that they have a nice clean finish to trash once I hit the trails lol.

12654627_985946801480833_844910678844983

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Ok it's been a min since I updated this thread. The sas is moving forward very slowing. I have two projects going on at once and unfortunately one is more important and cheaper to finish than the SAS. I'm building a tow rig for the Pathy so I can tow it to events but more importantly so I can haul steel and other supplies to my shop. It's a 1998 Ford E350 Ambulance that I've removed the box and I'm building a sleeper/short flat bed to replace it. Here are some pics of that.

 

20140623_221223.jpg

10502351_699242753484574_606508239222472

4-25-2016towrig.jpg

As for the Pathy, the H1 wheels are sitting waiting to be finished. It's not easy to get that military paint off of them lol. Takes time and the tow rig got my attention first. Anyway here is a picture of how they will look on the Pathy. They will be painted or powder coated Black with Red rock rings. I'm going to run two sets of them. One with Military take offs for the road. The other set will have some bias ply tires for wheeling.

12647190_986643898077790_797224948527681

12813943_1006201002788746_15660982176977

12814651_1006200962788750_59274477982670

I'm currently waiting one some parts from Rugged Rocks. I ordered in both their 3 link brackets and the 4 link brackets for the rear. I also ordered their pitman arm. Outside of that I have parts stacking up here and there. I wanted to be finished with this by June but that's not going to happen. It will be later in the summer due to a kid graduating, wife and a kid's birthdays, Mother's day and my wedding anniversary all within the next two months. Stay tuned but if you are truly interested in updates you should be following me on Facebook Youtube.

Search "Alvarez Metal Works" and you'll find me.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
So now that my shop is cleaned up I spent last weekend working on the Pathfinder. Well kind of lol. The corporate 10 bolt I got for parts was on the chopping block. I had plans to do more but things changed as I battled it out with rusted parts trying to get them apart in one piece.
Some of the parts I removed will be used on the Bronco D44 front axle that is going under the pathfinder. And since it's been forever since I updated this project I remind you of a few things. The bronco axle is 5 lug with drum brakes. The stock Pathfinder uses a 6x5.5 bolt pattern. The 10 bolt axle matches that. It also gives me disk brakes and one high steer knuckle for the driver's side. I have a brand new Reid Racing High steer knuckle for the passenger side.
Here is the 10 bolt ready to tear down.
18209184_1462070520535123_86155902748854
Fighting to remove the spindles!!! This wasn't nearly as bad as removing the high steer arm!!!
18401919_1476827512392757_79245859359682
With a lot of heat and some abuse I was finally able to get both spindles off.
18320576_1477042039037971_82007758024915
18319156_1477041802371328_55995757586325
18318995_1477041662371342_10497374654961
Removed the ball joints from the knuckles. There wasn't much left of the lower ball joints lol.
18403966_1477264385682403_74824044223064
18358913_10154610707853087_3248636910605
So the high steer arm was a nightmare. I lost my patience and ended out tryings that may or may not make since to others lmao. In the first pic you will see mean heating up the that was sliced into in multiple areas. The idea was that I could spread the metal apart and get it to release the conical washers. That didn't work. My next idea was to run really hot beads of welds down the arm to hopefully get the arm hot enough to free it up. And in a worse case scenario I could place that weld on the lip of the welding table and beat that damn thing with the BFH I made lol. That didn't work either. So that's when I welded the nuts to the studs and used the impact to try and extract the studs from the knuckle. That work for 2 or the 3. The third one wouldn't budge. That's when I used the BFH to beat the hell out of the arm and spin it free now that there was only one stud left.
18278986_1477797185629123_38607185806461
18301360_1477795882295920_39403227332426
18401974_1477801855628656_57324247649963

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the plan has always been to run the stock axle shafts until I can afford a set of RCV axles. So last night I pulled the inner axle shafts out of the bronco d44 with the intention on cleaning them up and mating the 10 bolt stub axle to them. That's when I noticed a couple major issue.


These early bronco axles had two different sizes of u-joints in their axles. One works with the 10 bolt and one does not. Unfortunately I have the smaller 260 u-joint axles in the bronco d44. The 10 bolt uses the larger 760 joints. The other problem is that the inner shafts on the bronco axles are significantly smaller in diameter than the 10 bolt axles. So that plan has changed again. I'm going to put all the IFS back in and forget about this SAS...


FB_IMG_1494456039483.jpg


Yeah right lol. The new plan is to order some chromoly shafts that run the 760 joints. If these last I'll be very pleased. If they don't, then hopefully by then I have the extra money to buy the RCV axles. Mater of fact I just ordered the axles and new bearings/seals for the spindles/hubs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...