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
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
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