The Heap. A Gen 2 Tracker/Vitara Build

[IdaSHO]

Bit of progress to be reported...

An interesting combination of tear-down and rebuild going on

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but there was evidence of rodents living in this thing...
So I started with an interior gutting, as well as seat tear down.

The seat covers soaked in the shop sink with a purple-power solution for a week or so.
Considering just how soiled they were, they came out pretty darn good.
Assuming they didnt shrink, they should go back together nicely. They are comfy seats.

The rodents it seems had made nests in both rocker panels.
No amount of flushing the rockers with water would do it.
So I cut them open.... what a mess. I removed a full 5-gallon bucket of nest/waste out of there.
As well as expose some rust from all of it.

No worries really, it just means the little tracker will get some rocker-sliders.
Ive got the local machine shop breaking some 1/8" steel sheet for it.
The result should be a slight gain in rocker clearance, and they will be slightly boat-sided as well.
The rockers themselves are just cut open at this point, in order to sanitize this nasty heap.
Final cutting and clearancing will have to wait until I have the correct wheel/tire package.
Its getting 31/10.50's, as well as deeper gears. More on that later....

Finally, did some junk yard shopping.
Drivers fender, grille, headlamp. After some more body work on the inner fenders, things went back together well enough.
Not exactly going for show quality here

 

[Inyo_man]

Nice project!

Trackers are great little rigs...my kids both learned how to drive and turn a wrench on a '91 and '94 Tracker. The 5-speed manual is fun to drive and when you dial in the motor they will run like a champ.

Nice work with the winch! Keep the snap shots coming...

Cheers

 

[IdaSHO]

Will do

Some ******** cell phone pics from this evening.

For now, I've got a single full size matching spare rolling, to do all the flex/body tests.
This will be a slow project, so I wont bother buying the full set until things are nearly wrapped up.

They fit better than anticipated. Though there will be plenty of steel to be removed/altered.
The plan is to squeeze these on, without any body or suspension lift.

Going to try the Milestar Patagonia 31/10.50r15 on cheap vision steel wheels.
Originally I wasnt totally sold on going so large, but I did manage to find the deeper gears (5.12's) to match, so here we are.
Stock are roughly 27's, with 4.62 gears. The deeper 5.12 gears will be a nice match for the 31's

 

[IdaSHO]

This wont be nearly as involved as I thought it would.

These are flex tests with OEM struts, OEM bump stop in place, with coil and sway bar removed.
The footwells, and and some of the inner fender on door side will have to be reworked,
the fender tab on the front will have to be shrunk, and the fender opening raised + flares.

No sweat. let the sparks fly.

 

[IdaSHO]

Easy enough.

Foot wells removed, and inner fender trimmed all the way to the door pillar.
Its tight, but it clears.

 

[IdaSHO]

I like where this is going...
And the current weight loss program seems to be working great.
When in doubt, cut it out!

Full droop, approx ride height, and full stuff.

 

[operator john]

Cool build ! Big tires & no lift.

 

[IdaSHO]

A bit of progress, but not without a casualty.

Lots the rear motor bearing on my 15 year old Dewalt angle grinder...
After determining nobody in town had the bearing, I made a mad dash right before things closed to get a replacement.

No worries, once I get the $9 replacement ebay bearing, Ill have two POS dewalt angle grinders to beat on!

Anyhow...

After a bunch more cutting and grinding, my two-piece, slightly boat-sided, rocket panels are gong back in.
I had these broke into shape at the local machine shop out of 12ga cold roll.

'nother ******** cell phone pic

 

[IdaSHO]

Not a whole lot to report.

Im slow.

But I have progressed more into putting steel back onto this thing.
That feels like progress

Both rockers are fully welded in, and we are moving onto patching the gaping holes in the inner fenders now.

I have also introduced myself to clecos
Fantastic little buggers
They will help this amateur body guy sort out this sheet metal mess.

 

[IdaSHO]

Inner fenders fitted and welded in.
Just cheapo rattle can primed for now.
Once the body come off all will be blasted, seam sealed, undercoated, etc.

Tires still clear, but it does lok like I might have to rework the clutch pedal arm a bit, it hits the new sheetmetal

Fenders trimmed and rehung.
Next up is the rear inner fenders.

 

[IdaSHO]

Well, I was making decent progress with the rear inner fenders, until the fancy chinese Harbor Freight flange/punch tool quit workin'
So I changed gears and started on the front end with the winch tray.

We should be under 3,000lbs once done, and to keep with the light weight theme, a cute little 4500lb ATV/UTV winch is being fitted.
With some extensions and a block it should do just fine. Amazon special, with a gift card, it was just $55
Pretty sure its the same 4500/5000lb unit that everyone (including badlands) is rebadging.

A couple of brackets will be welded to the frame horns, then the tray w/winch will be bolted in.
The front will be finished with a simple, custom tube bumper.

 

[IdaSHO]

Awesome part of about such a project, that has so much on the list to do, I can pretty much just pick part of the car to work on and be productive

Also a good thing Im in no hurry.... 'cause Im slow.

I played with 1-1/4 SCH40 black pipe and the cheapo harbor freight tube cruncher today.
Made decent progress. The roundy round of this Gen2 is a bit tricky, but Im liking where this bumper is going.

Slim and trim, it follows the contours pretty well.
Just have the wings to tie together, recovery points, and tow-bar points to work out.
I think Ill relocate the little winch fairlead to the bumper as well. Placement of the lower tube just isnt the greatest.
But I dont want to loose any more clearance.

 

[oddball4x4]

Doing awesome work with this! When my Tracker gets retired into a play truck I may have to copy what you did with the wheel wells.

I'm very interested to see how the front bumper turns out! Most the bumpers that I see for these trucks are boxy and just don't match the style very well. did you use a tube roller for the large curve that cover the center part of the truck? or was this a piece of steel that you are reusing and it just so happened to have the correct curve in it already?

 

[IdaSHO]

No tube roller, and no pre-bends.

All was done with the Harbor Freight bender. Just took time, as you have to go slow to do long continuous smooth bends.

 

[beanco]

remove this bolt 10 extra horsepower makes a difference




great work with the pipe kinker.Love trackers and sidekicks.
check timing chain and make sure cooling system is working properly.
Ben