Thread: Never built a prerunner, let alone a truck ever,, soo heres what i came up with soo far!

Super nice looking truck. Keep it up. Wish I had the fab skills and tools to do builds like this

youve had no issues with those lowers like that?

those wheel bearings must be hating you hahaha...

Originally Posted by TheTequilaWorms

youve had no issues with those lowers like that?

those wheel bearings must be hating you hahaha...

I put about 6500miles on them with the half assed +3 lift coils/coil bucket setup and recently inspected them when i installed the fox C/O's, they look fine. Also, the truck could be 15ft wide or 3ft wide, the width isnt going to affect the amount of stress on the wheel bearings. Tire diameter, a funky offset wheel, and rediculously high spring rates would though. I will be building a boxed lower A-arm after i finish the rear end of the truck.

i wasnt referring to the width of your truck. stock snouts and 35 inch bajas is where the wheel bearing statement came from.

Originally Posted by TheTequilaWorms

i wasnt referring to the width of your truck. stock snouts and 35 inch bajas is where the wheel bearing statement came from.

Sometimes you just gotta hold it wide and pray!! haha. Im slowly planning a new spindle build with a 2" hub/snout. Untill then we'll see how much abuse it will take before it fails.

not too bad.... two things. mount the limit straps so they pull flat not crooked. it will make them last the longest. also slip a piece of .120 tube over the threaded bung on upper arms all the way to where the bend starts. it will clean it up and make it stronger then the little gusset things you got. make sure to do a couple Rosette welds too. at first i thought this would end up in crappy fab but its far from it. not race truck stuff but then again ive seen race trucks with way more ghetto stuff on em.

you guys want to talk about wheel bearings hating you? my friends f-150 race truck has the stock 1995 2wd beam hubs with the go kart bearing on the outside. only replaced the bearings once and they looked fine. he used to run 35s now on 37 projects. not one issue so far. goes to show you what proper suspension geometry/shock setup will do for the life of parts.

Originally Posted by DiRt YoTa

not too bad.... two things. mount the limit straps so they pull flat not crooked. it will make them last the longest. also slip a piece of .120 tube over the threaded bung on upper arms all the way to where the bend starts. it will clean it up and make it stronger then the little gusset things you got. make sure to do a couple Rosette welds too. at first i thought this would end up in crappy fab but its far from it. not race truck stuff but then again ive seen race trucks with way more ghetto stuff on em.

you guys want to talk about wheel bearings hating you? my friends f-150 race truck has the stock 1995 2wd beam hubs with the go kart bearing on the outside. only replaced the bearings once and they looked fine. he used to run 35s now on 37 projects. not one issue so far. goes to show you what proper suspension geometry/shock setup will do for the life of parts.

Thanks! My roomate already yelled at me about the limit strap's tab on the a-arm, lol. Also, i sleeved 1&3/4" tube over the upper A-arms. (overkill) In that pic i hadnt made it that far yet and its 1.25" tube sleeved into the camburg's 1.5" tube. Thats still temporary anyways, im going to relocate the upper uniball on the spindle by moving it closer to the tire which will require rebuilding the upper A-arm and il use 1.5" .120 wall DOM from the heims to the uniball. This will make the upper A-arm longer by about 1.5-2" (forgot the exact measurement) and im hoping it will help lessen camber change at full droop and bump. Also i might be able to squeeze some more droop out of it because it will provide more clearance from the spring to the A-arm when fully drooped. You can see in the pics where i have the jack underneath truck drooped out, the spring is almost touching the upper A-arm. Of course, i strapped it before it actually does touch.

As for the wheel bearings, your exactly right! Granted if you whack a boulder at 65mph, thats a different story, haha. This is my play around truck and daily driver, the type of abuse im going to put it through will never compare to the abuse race trucks see. No matter what i might attempt, in the back of my head is that voice saying " you gotta get to work monday dickhead, dont fuck the truck up!" hahaha

i would honestly just strap it higher. your not gonna miss that travel. trying to build somthing just to get the biggest number possible is not the way things work properly. last couple inches are just tons of camber change and bump steer. I like your selection for the future motor swap. ive got a complete ls1 block thats gonna get rebuilt in the near future. my friend has a drag car with a stock internals 5.3 turbo. runs like 6.80 in the 1/8

Originally Posted by DiRt YoTa

i would honestly just strap it higher. your not gonna miss that travel. trying to build somthing just to get the biggest number possible is not the way things work properly. last couple inches are just tons of camber change and bump steer. I like your selection for the future motor swap. ive got a complete ls1 block thats gonna get rebuilt in the near future. my friend has a drag car with a stock internals 5.3 turbo. runs like 6.80 in the 1/8

It is strapped higher than the pics for that exact reason, i just wanted a dirt nasty ass pic to put a smile on my face. You cant beat the LS engines, take a look at my "street car" in my albums. -93 Rx7 w/ Ls1 w/ 88mm turbo. -evil grin-

So you just cut the lowers, then added a 4.5 plate 1/2 inch thick to connected them back together? then plated over it?
did you leave the gap i high lighted like that when you plated over or did you add more 1/2 plate there?

Yes i left that open, honestly the 1/2" plate was way overkill. it just made it easier for me getting the exact spacing and angle correct so both A-arms were identicle. I ground the welds flush, then boxed it with 3/16ths plate and welded it up on the underside. That lower is bomb proof practically, also i will be building fully boxed lowers once i finish the rear end of my truck in the next month or so.

yea i was thinking about trying this. going to a pick a part and picking up some lowers and just start while i can still use my truck since its a DD.
did you plate both top and bottom or just on top?
and did you just aline the two pieces to be level or did you make the balljoint portion lift up a bit?, if you get what im saying
looks clean tho nice work.

now it just needs an alignment.

looks sick

Did you fab your own steering clevis? can you post more pics...

Originally Posted by RangerDanger1484

Did you fab your own steering clevis? can you post more pics...

bought the camburg clevis steering setup. Simply cant go wrong with that.

Originally Posted by Pinned27

yea i was thinking about trying this. going to a pick a part and picking up some lowers and just start while i can still use my truck since its a DD.
did you plate both top and bottom or just on top?
and did you just aline the two pieces to be level or did you make the balljoint portion lift up a bit?, if you get what im saying
looks clean tho nice work.

upper and lower parts of the arm are plated along with the internal 1/2" thick spar plate added for good measure which was primarily used for accurate spacing between both arms. As for the uniball, i forgot the number of degrees they are set in reference to the upper plate of both arms. 18* or 23* i cant remember, i just know that both arms are simetrical upon building and that the angle required was determined upon the suspension at full droop and full bump to allow proper clearance at either end of the spectrum.

I just haven't wanted to drop a buck fifty on it yet ;P

shes lookin purty! cant help but look when i see her driving or parked =)