Crazy Fabricator gets his hands on a Gen 3 Montero

[ctdfab]

Hello friends!
Well I'm new to the forum and new to the Montero game but I'm pretty excited about the capabilities of these beautiful trucks.

Ok. So I live in Puerto Rico and have been here for 2 years (still suck at Spanish). I work as a custom designer/fabricator/weldor on mostly race cars but I have done just about everything. I had to leave my vehicles in Arizona due to the cost of transporting them to this beautiful island. One of them made me fall in love with the 4x4 culture and life off the beaten path.

Now I'm sure most of you will laugh...but it's a 1985 Honda Civic wagon 4x4. This rarity of a small Japanese beast actually proved to be pretty capable and reliable after a few custom mods I made. The wagon was in pretty amazing shape and it sported a torsion front and solid rear axle with a five link rear suspension. The 4x4 was button activated and had no center diff plus locked the rear. I saw the potential and made my own 3" custom lift kit plus added 1" wheel spacers and rounded it off with 14" BFG all terrains (yes that's not a typo). Being so small I could romp on ATV trails and actually even with the stock 60hp I was able to keep up with most jeeps to their dissapointment haha.

Here's a couple shots. Butcher Jones Trails, Arizona





Fast forward two boring street driving years and boom! In need of a nice car but with some of the added capabilities I used to have with the honda. My boss offers to sell me his very well maintained 2002 Montero LS for a good price. About 160k on the clock but had a recent timing belt service, new shocks, plus the whole top end of the engine rebuilt. A very good mechanically sound car which is very very hard to find here in PR!





Now my expectations are not to build a crazy rock crawler or anything like that. I love to camp and explore so I guess you guys would call it an expedition vehicle. Pretty much I want to be able to go wherever I want whenever I want lol.

I was told these cars aren't outfitted with the same parts as the states. It has a regular auto, 3.5 SOHC, part time 4x4 and I'm not sure of the rear diff but I'm going to check if it has an lsd.

My plans include bunches of custom fabricated parts and things to make this thing better offroad. Please if you guys have any suggestions I would love the input!
- roof rack (mainly for kayaks)
-small lift
-BFG All Terrains
-interior mods for comfortable sleeping (safer in some areas)
-extra lights
-secondary battery
-maybe a bull bar
-skid plates and armor
-remove steps and fabricate sliders
-custom headers
-custom exhaust
-custom intake (maybe snorkel)
-possible piggyback and tuned (we have a dyno in house)
-dunno about the rear diff

I'm particularly excited to design and build headers as that's my bread and butter! Included is a pic of some custom long runner velocity tuned GTR turbo manifolds. Exhaust is kind of my thing haha.


Anyway. This will be my build/adventure thread and even though it may be progress slow I'm sure some of you guys will enjoy it. I actually just came back from a solo 4 day camping trip and put 350 miles on the truck, it's absolutely what I'm looking for and if I could find the potential in that Honda just imagine what I can put into this beast! Stoked

I would love to hear any comments or questions! And if you guys like metal fabrication and tig welding plus a race car here and there my Instagram Name Is @Vince.ctdfab . Thanks guys

 

[airbox]

Buenas y Felicidades! Are you around San Juan/Carolina area?

 

[Monstero]

Love the Civic. Thats awesome. looking forward to seeing what you have in store for the Monty.

 

[Toasty]

Where about in Az did you live? I'm on Ellsworth and Brown so you probably have driven past me to get to Butcher Jones at some point.

 

[eurosonic]

awesome! Looking forward to it.

 

[ctdfab]

Buenas y Felicidades! Are you around San Juan/Carolina area?

Yup. I live in Santurce and work at Predator in Carolina. I've been asking around to find some places to drive but don't know to many people into off road in here. I might hit up Cerro de Nandy on Sunday, the road looks mild and fun and the food looks amazing!

Love the Civic. Thats awesome. looking forward to seeing what you have in store for the Monty.

Thanks! Raising funds as we speak!

Where about in Az did you live? I'm on Ellsworth and Brown so you probably have driven past me to get to Butcher Jones at some point.

I lived in Tempe. Actually still have the wagon stored there just in case I move back lol. Ah BFE, you like it out there? I could never stand the amount of tweakers lol. I do miss butcher and canyon lake.

awesome! Looking forward to it.

Thanks! I'll be sure to update.

 

[ctdfab]

Well...took a look at the rear diff and I had hoped for some kind of miracle but looks like a normal open. Guess I'll try to source a stock lsd because it's hard for me to justify the cost of a locker for my light duty truck. Can't weld it due to tire wear and safety in the rain lol.

 

[BOPOH]

well look at it this way, at least you don't have 4.2 in there

eurosonic got me hooked on 4.9 sport's axle and diffs, i've been looking around trying to find a good deal

 

[airbox]

Make sure you go kind of early on Sunday, it will get packed! Shouldn't have any issues getting up the mountain, although I've heard mixed stories about the road (but mostly from normal people). Have you been to La Selva? Its a long mud/dirt track to the beach just past Luquillo. Lots of big puddles (semi-truck sized) to plow through. Beach at the end is a nice treat since theres never anyone there and you can park right on the beach.

 

[ctdfab]

Make sure you go kind of early on Sunday, it will get packed! Shouldn't have any issues getting up the mountain, although I've heard mixed stories about the road (but mostly from normal people). Have you been to La Selva? Its a long mud/dirt track to the beach just past Luquillo. Lots of big puddles (semi-truck sized) to plow through. Beach at the end is a nice treat since theres never anyone there and you can park right on the beach.

going early might be a problem since I only have Google maps to lead the way and you know how reliable that is here jaja. I did a little dirt track in Guanica this past weekend but I haven't been anywhere else. I'll have to check out La Selva and I was told the ecological park has good off road too. Thanks for the heads up and good looking rig. If you ever need anything made hit me up

Btw I like the shade you have going on. I was thinking of building a roof rack that would pivot off one side and be able to support a hammock. Gotta have the hammock lol

 

[ctdfab]

Small issue I might have just found. So my rear tire and center diff lights weren't working so I went to the nearest auto place and found out they Didn't carry the tiny bulbs. So just for fun i switched some of the bulbs around and realized my center diff light doesn't illuminate. 4 high and 4 low work just fine and at least it's not flashing so maybe it's just the indicator switch. Searched and searched but nobody else seems to have the problem.

 

[ctdfab]

Well Every weekend I try to go on a trip on the island. Somewhere new and fresh. Last week end it was a beach call CrashBoat and I setup camp Saturday night in a good spot before everyone came in on Sunday. Awesome day with a ton of kayaking and snorkeling way out towing the kayak.

Left the beach midday to go explore another town and Google maps took me on an unexpected offroad adventure, pretty fun though. Interesting thing, I saw a bunch of earlier fully modded Monteros actually being used and a bunch or jeeps just being driven around lol. Monti ******







Didn't do too bad on the MPG , got about 18 with a kayak on top and a ton of tight curvy mountain roads plus about 5 miles of pure dirt "I'm lost" road.

I also really have to plan that roof rack because now km just strapping the kayak down. Doesn't do damage as my roof is wrapped with 3m carbon fiber but I want it to last.

 

[airbox]

Love Crashboat. Sounds like an awesome time. You should check out Roosevelt Roads sometime and get lost in there. Pretty erie place. BTW does your shop do valvetrain work?

 

[lordtrunks]

You can pickup a aussie locker for the front those are pretty cheap and work well, and if you find a rear lsd in the future the front locker, rear lsd combo is a very very good setup together.

 

[ctdfab]

Love Crashboat. Sounds like an awesome time. You should check out Roosevelt Roads sometime and get lost in there. Pretty erie place. BTW does your shop do valvetrain work?

It was a pretty good time except for some local kids blasting reggeton at 6am... I will have to check that out but after I get some decent tires at least. I tried going up to cerro de nandy this morning and failed on the second steep hill to the right. It was wet and the road is in bad condition with some deep holes. Lost traction 3 times halfway up and had to reverse down. Guess my tires are ****tier than I thought plus dual open diff not helping. Embarrassing but there wasn't anyone else around.

We contact out our machine shop work but do everything else in house