Tray back Disco build

airbornrover wrote:

Just found out myself when I was watching an auto show on spike over the weekend that there is a raw metal supply company that will ship whatever dimension of material you need.

onlinemetals dot com?

DarylJ wrote:

airbornrover wrote:

Just found out myself when I was watching an auto show on spike over the weekend that there is a raw metal supply company that will ship whatever dimension of material you need.

onlinemetals dot com?

Is nice for stuff that is harder to find - IE aluminum rod to make spring spacers out of but the shipping is killer..

Cut out all the rear wiring today

Before


After (fuel pump and ground)


Left overs


I also measured the overall length of the truck and it's 145" - 7" shorter than a standard D90

No exciting news - truck wouldnt start yesterday so I'm tracing down more wires and planning on removing almost every circuit in the damn thing.

as unbelieveable as it is you can reduce it down to this -



and six circuits

100A alternator
60A Ignition system
20A fuel injectors
15A fuel pump
20A ECU
10A OBD2 power


I'm not going to get that crazy with it will probably try to keep the windows moving up and down, CEL and MIL code display..

Once again not very exciting at this point but the dash is coming off tonight and I am going to go over the ETM with PT Schram tomorrow and see what I can and should do since he has done this a number of times.

Today I'm going to work on removing fenders so I can access the floor pans and see if the front fenders need work. Gonna be away for the weekend but work starts back up next week. My 1x1 square tube should be here if it isn't already. Gonna order some Dom to sleeve stock trailing arms and find a good place to get this sheet metal from.

Got some small projects to do on white truck to prep it for anthracite. HLC bumper, shock bushings, snorkel hose.. but other than that truggy is getting most of the work time.

Well since I got it running I decided to work on clearing some trails out back so I drove it in the woods a bit - drove it on a little hill and flexed it out - still has stock shocks in the rear and OME's in the front.. Front swaybar is still connected - barely.




Then I came back and started on taking the fenders off...

Both of the inner fenders look like this - rusted out in the wheel well area.. But this shouldnt be that bad to patch up at least I have some metal left to go off of.



Having the fenders off should make it a lot easier to get to the floor pans where they connect to the firewall.

I have decided to turn this into either a defender or series hybrid project. Looking for body parts now.

Jake wrote:

I have decided to turn this into either a defender or series hybrid project. Looking for body parts now.

You should just see if you can get dividing creek to bring you a whole tub and body parts over from the uk in one of their containers. It might be easier and cheaper than trying to piece everything from the US.

durt d1ver wrote:

Jake wrote:

I have decided to turn this into either a defender or series hybrid project. Looking for body parts now.

You should just see if you can get dividing creek to bring you a whole tub and body parts over from the uk in one of their containers. It might be easier and cheaper than trying to piece everything from the US.

Yea plan on emailing him now - In Iowa gonna try to stop by and check out a series 2A pick up out here the guy wants too much money and get some measurements.

Just trying to collect as many known available parts as I can so I can try to piece something together.

My recomendation would be to get a body off a 110 pickup. Its much easier to shorten a pickup bed, than to lenghten a d90 bed or wagon. Then you can leave the cab alone, and just modify the bed to make the wheel arches line up.

durt d1ver wrote:

My recomendation would be to get a body off a 110 pickup. Its much easier to shorten a pickup bed, than to lenghten a d90 bed or wagon. Then you can leave the cab alone, and just modify the bed to make the wheel arches line up.

I'm not using the bed at all - still sticking to the trayback plan - I will probably outsource the cage and have something crazy made up.

Thinkin something like this



Going to build it up and then maybe swap over all the good bits from the white truck.

Dont source it out, pick up one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/tubing-roller-99736.html

Get all the accessories for it from swag offorad, and goto town.
http://www.swagoffroad.com/Products.html

Pick up a drill press off craigslist, and some good holesaws, for notching the tubing, and build it all yourself. In the long run it would probably be much cheaper, plus then you have the tube roller to build other stuff

durt d1ver wrote:

Dont source it out, pick up one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/tubing-roller-99736.html

Get all the accessories for it from swag offorad, and goto town.
http://www.swagoffroad.com/Products.html

Pick up a drill press off craigslist, and some good holesaws, for notching the tubing, and build it all yourself. In the long run it would probably be much cheaper, plus then you have the tube roller to build other stuff

Yea thanks for all the links - I guess I will cross that road when I get there. I am in collect body panel piece and see what electric and parts need to be kept to swap over..

Fuck I am so torn as to what I want to do with this truck... On one hand I coule probably finish up what I have started for cheap (as a disco) and just wheel the hell out of it for fun. On the other hand I'd like to have a defender but this seems like it's going to be so much damn work and going to cost me an arm and a leg... I could probably import one for about the same price and call it a day..

what to do - what to do......

I would just stick with the disco trayback. Put all the good from the white truck on it. Build a cage be done.

Hilltoppersx wrote:

I would just stick with the disco trayback. Put all the good from the white truck on it. Build a cage be done.

Yea we will see I like the white truck too much although the engine I put in ths winter has been making some noise.. I need to learn to take it easy on stuff... I am thinking maybe finish this truck and then start on a 4.6 rebuild for the white one. Keep the black one for stuff like Robesonia and for when we get a farm

"as slow as possible, as fast as necessary"

i would even consider selling the white truck outright as is you can get a pretty penny for that and that will surely fund 4 links for the front and back of the tray back and some descent rubber, shocks and springs.

Hilltoppersx wrote:

"as slow as possible, as fast as necessary"

i would even consider selling the white truck outright as is you can get a pretty penny for that and that will surely fund 4 links for the front and back of the tray back and some descent rubber, shocks and springs.

If I was going to go that route it would be coilovers for sure.. the rest of the money would go into toyota axles or D60's and 38's. I'd do front steer and a 3 link in the front and then 4 link the rear.

invent a 5 link and put s110 axles in.. fuck this

[quote="Hilltoppersx"]invent a 5 link and put s110 axles in.. fuck this [/quote

I think a 4 link would work

However I do need two of these..

a couple more of this truck cause it's so awesome.. Series 1 with a 350 chevy, c303 portals and 39" tsls

I will show this to my dad and convince him to do that to his series II.

Thebloody323 wrote:

I will show this to my dad and convince him to do that to his series II.

Yea - this is the same truck that was on the easter expedition video - portals and q78's which on 16" rims meausure 36"..

I love how this one is angled forward on the back. I may go this route.. This picture made me want to keep the disco body..

You should throw portals into your tray back. God dam that would be hot... actually the thought of Portal Axles in a Disco makes me a little hot. Is that weird?