Search results

Thanks. I'd love to see what you did. You have any pics. Thank you.

Love new parts. It's good to get to finish something for a change. This year has been very unpredictable. I still have 4 projects under construction at this very moment and ALL of them need to be finished soon. Juggling jobs takes a toll on my pea brain.

That's quite a compliment. Thank you! I do have updates. Haven't been working on the '83, but I have been gathering parts for the new front axle and suspension. Hopefully by the beginning of March I will have enough time and parts to build my new Diamond axle and three link for the front. After...

Thanks! Next up, flat steering arm install. As mentioned before, the raised steering arms and low ride height cause a bit of a concern. 2.5" of clearance from the tie rod to the oil pan is not enough. We were able to get an additional inch of clearance by sourcing a pair of flat steering arms...

The Blackbox is a pretty nice piece, but there were a couple improvements I made here. The bolt heads on two of the supplied bolts were machined to fit the adapter, but two others interfered, so I machined them as well. While I was at it, I machined pockets in the adapter for additional...

The only thing left to do on the transfer case was shifter mock up. Not much room under there. I think we found a nice home for it though. The cable shifter linkage.

Here is the truck with the stock FJ80 rear springs. New springs. As it sits now.

Final welding of the axle brackets. We left the stock sway bar brackets just in case the FJ80 sway bar fits. I think it will.

Stock FJ80 springs were used for mock up, and to give us a baseline measurement on ride height. We found that we were about 1.5" lower in the rear so we sourced some OME springs that were 1.5" taller and 200 pounds firmer. This is stock spring mock up. We still didn't know where the shocks...

Time for complete mock up, with springs.

More pics. Frame end link mounts. Panhard bushing being made. Panhard mount on axle raised and reinforced. More lifting points had to be fabbed. New OEM FJ80 upper spring buckets were bought and modified. One of the stock crossmembers was in the way, so it was removed.

Now that the front suspension was more or less complete, the rear link system was on deck. Our initial thought was to use custom leaf springs from Deaver or Alcan, but the customer really wanted links. After a few false starts, we finally settled on a stock FJ80 link layout...or so we thought...

Building a custom suspension, there are a lot of decisions and mistakes to be made. For the front end of any truck, I don't care what the link calculator says would be the best design, it has to fit. There is an engine, transmission to clear and the steering axle means that link/tire and fender...

Thanks everyone. I'm compiling more pics now so expect an update soon.

It's roughly the same amount of time, but I have a 2 post lift. If you don't have access to a lift, you can do it with about 4 guys. There are a couple differences between frames like the exhaust hangers and fuel lines, but nothing problematic. The one caveat with the high steer is the low...

I forgot to mention the fuel sender. A stock Ford sender will make the Toyota gauge read backwards, so a new OEM Toyota unit for the '87 truck was modified to fit the new shallow depth of the Ford tank. It should work flawlessly.

More fuel tank pics.

This truck is going to be a farm truck, hence the thread title. It will be carrying a 100 gallon tank for spraying fertilizer on the front of the bed. The customer asked if we could sink the tank into the front of the bed, but the stock fuel tank limited the depth it could go. So...F150 fuel...

It's tough to get anything done when I have so many builds in progress. I will be working on the Jeep soon, but I have two other trucks to finish in the meantime. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Sorry for the hiatus. I've been focusing on other projects. But now it's back on the block, and this time, to completion. I've got some updates, but I need to compile my pics first. Be back in a few days. Happy New Year!