Modern Farm Truck
- Thread starter Stoffregen Motorsports
- Start date
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
I will definitely do it for myself, but the customer has a real fear of pizza ever since I played a trick on him. I shot a 4 foot rattler a few years ago and put it inside a pizza box and emailed him the picture. It was just a practical joke but he says he hasn't eaten pizza since.
Some people name their cars and trucks as a rule. I have never thought it was a good idea for whatever reason, but I started doing it about four builds ago. Now, when I name a project, the inspiration for the name comes from different aspects of the job or a visual, etc. This truck had a rusty bed and a topper on the back, plus it just looked like Pizza Planet.
Thank you.
Stay Wild Outdoors
Observer
Pretty funny stuff. It would give me an irrational fear of opening my pizza boxes. Kind of like when you hear about snakes/huge spiders in the toilet...
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
No updates worth posting. I did get the truck running and driving and have been knocking all the details off the to-do list. Turns out, the front axle I installed may be bent so I'm trying to decide what to do there. It's only got 1 degree of camber difference side to side, but I am a stickler for details.
Who knows, you guys may get to see how to straighten a bent axle housing right here on ExPo!
I just sent the customer a drawing of the proposed flat bed and I am waiting for him to decide whether or not we're going to make a bed or just buy one. In the meantime, I have been filling in with smaller fab jobs and staging for the next big build, which I'm sure you guys will see here.
I'll post any interesting pics as soon as I do something interesting on the farm truck.
Who knows, you guys may get to see how to straighten a bent axle housing right here on ExPo!
I just sent the customer a drawing of the proposed flat bed and I am waiting for him to decide whether or not we're going to make a bed or just buy one. In the meantime, I have been filling in with smaller fab jobs and staging for the next big build, which I'm sure you guys will see here.
I'll post any interesting pics as soon as I do something interesting on the farm truck.
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
OK, details it is.
The Weber conversion we bought from LC Engineering came with a small rectangular K&N air cleaner. We did not want to use that so we also purchased the adapter to go from the DGV to the stock air cleaner. The whole adapter and carburetor assembly is very tall, so I knew right away that the stock air cleaner would hit the hood. An hour of cutting and TIG welding and the stock air cleaner was made to fit, simply by cutting out the middle and welding in a new plate. Will post pics of that later.
At some point, the fuel sender stopped working, and it made noise like it was hitting the inside of the tank, so a new OEM sender was purchased (not cheap) and the unit was replaced. But getting the old, rusted in place screws out...that took patience. Strip or break one of those and you're done. I swear it took 40 minutes to remove the screws from the sender and the pickup. I wanted to replace the gasket under the pickup while I was in there.
After building the front axle, with new gears (4.56) and new everything else, I discovered that the tie rod sat about 3 inches from the bottom of the oil pan. A new set of flat steering arms is now on order from Front Range Off Road.
Moving to the rear axle, the housing had to be modified to fit the takeout Tacoma E-locker. I have not figured out how to do this yet without warping the mounting flange on the housing. After welding in the new area, flattening and smoothing the whole surface took quite some time to get right. When any welding is done in this area, the studs closest to the weld tip in making them not vertical anymore so some straightening was done there too. It's all flat, but I am working on an idea to alleviate this problem in the future.
The rear diff gears were a major hold up. The gears in the box were 4.88's instead of the 4.56's labeled on the box. Boy am I glad I always check the before install. After two attempts to right the situation, a new set was just not available, but they did hae a set of 29 spline 4.56's. So I got those installed, but now I had the huge flange to deal with, so to the drill press... Four new 10mm bolt holes drilled makes for a new multi pattern flange. I have to do this quite a lot actually so I have it down.
Here is a pic of the proposed bed. As you can see, I did not spend a lot of time on the drawing. I have been looking for a design program to help with this process and there really isn't one available. Yes, you can design anything in CAD, but then interfacing the drawing with a photo of the customer's truck so they can get a visual representation is just not possible...yet. I did, however, find some software that will help in the process and it will be ordered soon. I still won't be able to attach the drawing to the photo without some photoshop work though. Anyway, here's the pic.
The Weber conversion we bought from LC Engineering came with a small rectangular K&N air cleaner. We did not want to use that so we also purchased the adapter to go from the DGV to the stock air cleaner. The whole adapter and carburetor assembly is very tall, so I knew right away that the stock air cleaner would hit the hood. An hour of cutting and TIG welding and the stock air cleaner was made to fit, simply by cutting out the middle and welding in a new plate. Will post pics of that later.
At some point, the fuel sender stopped working, and it made noise like it was hitting the inside of the tank, so a new OEM sender was purchased (not cheap) and the unit was replaced. But getting the old, rusted in place screws out...that took patience. Strip or break one of those and you're done. I swear it took 40 minutes to remove the screws from the sender and the pickup. I wanted to replace the gasket under the pickup while I was in there.
After building the front axle, with new gears (4.56) and new everything else, I discovered that the tie rod sat about 3 inches from the bottom of the oil pan. A new set of flat steering arms is now on order from Front Range Off Road.
Moving to the rear axle, the housing had to be modified to fit the takeout Tacoma E-locker. I have not figured out how to do this yet without warping the mounting flange on the housing. After welding in the new area, flattening and smoothing the whole surface took quite some time to get right. When any welding is done in this area, the studs closest to the weld tip in making them not vertical anymore so some straightening was done there too. It's all flat, but I am working on an idea to alleviate this problem in the future.
The rear diff gears were a major hold up. The gears in the box were 4.88's instead of the 4.56's labeled on the box. Boy am I glad I always check the before install. After two attempts to right the situation, a new set was just not available, but they did hae a set of 29 spline 4.56's. So I got those installed, but now I had the huge flange to deal with, so to the drill press... Four new 10mm bolt holes drilled makes for a new multi pattern flange. I have to do this quite a lot actually so I have it down.
Here is a pic of the proposed bed. As you can see, I did not spend a lot of time on the drawing. I have been looking for a design program to help with this process and there really isn't one available. Yes, you can design anything in CAD, but then interfacing the drawing with a photo of the customer's truck so they can get a visual representation is just not possible...yet. I did, however, find some software that will help in the process and it will be ordered soon. I still won't be able to attach the drawing to the photo without some photoshop work though. Anyway, here's the pic.
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
Boy, the timeout here on ExPo kills me. I don't know exactly what the limit is, but every time I write a long winded response, I have to cut and paste after re-logging in. Frustrating...
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
I just met most of them. I have known Harry for quite a while and he invited me to come along. For the record, I love Jeremy's LJ. The fenders, the color. it's just cool.
My Rover is just a little tractor, but it gets the job done. It never ceases to amaze me. I point it at something and it goes. Would I bring it to the desert or the hammers? No, but around here, it rocks (pun intended).
Thanks.
utroda
Observer
Nice build. I just picked up an 85' pickup going to start the build after hunting season. This makes me want to start sooner 
Take a look at Rhino ( https://www.rhino3d.com/ ) you can import photos and build on top and full 3d modeling.
Take a look at Rhino ( https://www.rhino3d.com/ ) you can import photos and build on top and full 3d modeling.
screwball48
Explorer
Looking good so far. Check with user name jscherb in the jeep section on here and see what software he uses. He always has nicely done representations of what he is planning to do, but I am not sure what software he uses (I do think he has mentioned it in one of his post though). Try his latest postings: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/127687-Barn-Door-for-JK-factory-hardtops
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
