3/4 doors

[crewchief888]

well the jeep guys have 1/2 doors.

after crushing the passenger door, breaking the glass, and generally making it almost impssible to open or close the door, on my s-10 last weekend (damn tree)

i decided to cut the doors down a little.
heres the progress so far.....
it's not perfect, wasnt meant to be, just a solution to mangled doors.
the truck doesnt see any street use, it's a wheeler
total cost so far $ 0

 

[atari]

I have a spare set of doors for just this purpose. I think it looks really good, You didnt go to far. I have seen some that are really hacked up. Also, I dont know what the law says in Indiana but in Ohio doors are not required.

 

[crewchief888]

I have a spare set of doors for just this purpose. I think it looks really good, You didnt go to far. I have seen some that are really hacked up. Also, I dont know what the law says in Indiana but in Ohio doors are not required.

i hadnt cut up the doors before, cuz the windows were still in them and they worked. all the rest of the glass was "taken care of" 4 years ago when i rolled the truck

after i rolled it, i knew i'd never be able to drive it on the road again since the pass side windshield post is pushed in far enough that i couldnt put a winshield back in.

i wanted to keep some of the door in place for some protection for the wife/kids, and to keep trees limbs and rocks out of the passnger compartment.

gonna do a little body work to the seams, to smooth off any sharp edges, and get the armrest put back in.

 

[atari]

In Ohio you don't need a windshield you only need wipers. I don't know if indi is as f-up as we are but it might be worth looking into. I think any thing be it race car or wheelin truck loses something when you take it off the street.

 

[crewchief888]

this truck lost a LOT of arguements with trees and rocks in the last 4 years.

i dont care if the body gets beat up a little, thats why i built an s-10, theres plenty of usuable junkyard parts available for them.
and the total investment from the time i dragged it home with a blown eng and bad trans is around $2500.

plus it was a class winner at the last show it was in.

 

[rsanter]

get some 2" round tubing
weld it across the door opening as door bars
install 16ga over them

better protection than the original door

bob

 

[crewchief888]

i had thought originally when i built the truck i'd remove the doors completely, and run door bars in the cage.
in a way, i'm glad i didnt do it, between my bad knee, a 5'2" wife, and even shorter kid, climbing over welded in bars wasnt gonna be a good idea.

 

[atari]

That thing is cool! I loved bobbed trucks. Are you still running factory drivetrain?

 

[crewchief888]

That thing is cool! I loved bobbed trucks. Are you still running factory drivetrain?

i swapped in a TBI 4.3 & 700r4 from an astro van, and still have the factory 207 xfer case. i was on my 3rd (and last) IFS axle, i knew it wasnt going to belong before the spider gears exploded
over the winter the IFS front suspension got cut out, added wrangler front springs, d30/35 with 4.10 gears from a 92 yj, had to locate the proper rear u-joint from my s-10 driveshaft to the dana axle, and fabricated a new small diameter front driveshaft from DOM tubing, and a handfull of yokes and slip joints to clear the header collectors.
it still needs the steering box replaced so the tie rod from the steering box to rh knuckle isnt so severe, and new tie rod ends.
it's a low bugdet truck, the only "new" parts that got put in were the guages , prolites, air cleaner, headers/exhaust,fuel pump, all new ujoints, rear brakes.
engine/trans seats, harnesses, fuel cell, tires, wheels, most of the cage tubing, bumpers ect, were all salvaged, or scrap.
and the truck wasa freebie
i'd say right now, total investment is around $2500.
it's not the best rock crawler, mud bogger, but it works good as a trail truck, ( thats what it was built to do) and has room for the wife and her oldest kid.

thanks for the compliment

 

[csp]

I can understand swapping in the high pinion YJ Dana 30, but you actually swapped in the 35 on purpose?

 

[crewchief888]

I can understand swapping in the high pinion YJ Dana 30, but you actually swapped in the 35 on purpose?

i got the axles, steering and springs for $75 off CL.

couldnt pass up the deal, i'll see how they hold up, but people been wheeling jeeps with d30/35's for a long time.

if i try hard enough, i know somethings gonna break, but i'm not that hard on my equipment. my goal is to be able to wheel all day (or 2), be able to get back under my own power, and not have to replace a bunch of broken parts when i get home.

 

[atari]

Yea, I am trying to keep my junk as cheep as I can. I rebuilt a toyota 22RE for a guy for my truck. I prolly have 1000 out of pocket in mine so far but I have traded a bunch of stuff too. I parted out another bronco also and that has funded some. The 9inch has been killing me as of late. It started as a stuck brake bleeder and turned into a full rebuild with a disk conversion. I might get to drive it soon, its been 2 years. I cant wait to at least get the rear drive shaft in so it can at least be rear wheel drive again let alone argue with trees. I was thinking about starting a thread about it but I have not gotten a round to it yet. Is your rear locked or open? I was gonna weld mine but a mini spool was only 35 bucks. I was there so I did it. Sound familiar?

 

[crewchief888]

Is your rear locked or open? I was gonna weld mine but a mini spool was only 35 bucks. I was there so I did it. Sound familiar?

the rear in mine is welded.
when i had the stock axles under it, i welded up the rear, after one of the spiders broke. i knew the axle was a POS, and would never hold up to 35's and off road use, so i removed the spiders, welded the side gears to the case, and the axles to the side gears , i had a spare set of axles out of another s-10 i parted out.
i thought aout building these axles the "right way' ie: detroit locker in the rear, good axles, either a ox or air locker up front, but decided it wasnt worth the cost.
once it destroys itself, i'll probably part it out and scrap the rest. i quit the 4x4 club i belonged to for many years, so my wheeling time was scaled back a lot
anymore, it's a "distraction", something to occupy my time when i'm bored than anything else, plus nobody else is crazy enough to cut, chop, weld, modify, an s-10

 

[atari]

Thats awesome! I already have a back up center section on the shelf. Well, most of one anyway. I started to build this truck so I could build stuff for it. You can only weld so much stuff to a mustang and I really dont want to polish chrome so a trail rig it had to be. So far I have not got to build anything, I to busy welding up holes and making sure the body is not going to fall off the frame.

 

[bronc3buster842001]

Man I hope my S10 Blazer never looks like that. have too much money and time into mine.

Here is my build thread. http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225129

 

[crewchief888]

Thats awesome! I already have a back up center section on the shelf. Well, most of one anyway. I started to build this truck so I could build stuff for it. You can only weld so much stuff to a mustang and I really dont want to polish chrome so a trail rig it had to be. So far I have not got to build anything, I to busy welding up holes and making sure the body is not going to fall off the frame.

i hear ya

i'm not much into keeping anything cleaned and polished anymore. lost interest in that a long time ago. i have another 4x4 also, but it's mainly a tow rig/ run to HD for 2x4's/ pick up mulch & dirt, kinda truck. it's had a couple of off road mishaps, and has been run in a couple of mud drags. i'm not gonna replace it anytime soon, it's almost 11 years old with just over 80,000 miles on it, it'll be a rusted pile of scrap when i get rid of it.
the s-10 has been out 1 time this year for a total of 8 or 9 miles of wheeling, the tow rig has had maybe 3 tanks of gas run through it this year. i spend most of mytime in my service truck, usually the last thing i want to do when i get home is drive anymore. i end up in the gareg on the weekends, after the honeydo list is done, and beat some helpless piece of sheetmetal, or weld something on that wasnt 'spose to be there.
helps me keep my sanity i guess

 

[csp]

couldnt pass up the deal, i'll see how they hold up, but people been wheeling jeeps with d30/35's for a long time.

True, and most anyone who wheels a D35 ends up replacing it. Weak shafts, small pinion, weak axle tubes. Glad to hear you didn't spend money on a locker for it. If you had, you would be polishing a turd. When it does go out (and it will), find a deal on a '95 or newer Explorer Ford 8.8 axle.

 

[crewchief888]

True, and most anyone who wheels a D35 ends up replacing it. Weak shafts, small pinion, weak axle tubes. Glad to hear you didn't spend money on a locker for it. If you had, you would be polishing a turd. When it does go out (and it will), find a deal on a '95 or newer Explorer Ford 8.8 axle.

the newer 8.8 was the plan even before i swapped out the stock axle to the dana.

 

[Kevin54]

In Ohio you don't need a windshield you only need wipers. I don't know if indi is as f-up as we are but it might be worth looking into. I think any thing be it race car or wheelin truck loses something when you take it off the street.

Couldn't get any more redneck than that So in other words you just run the wipers to keep time with the music?

 

[atari]

Calm down Kevin, I know it sounds like fun but dont do it. Rain hurts at 65!

 

[crewchief888]

Man I hope my S10 Blazer never looks like that. have too much money and time into mine.

Here is my build thread. http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225129

took a glance through the 1st 2 or 3 pages of your build bronc, looks like you got a good start.

the massive amounts of chopping and cutting were needed to clear 35's with a body lift. when i had stock wheels on it, all i had to do was some trimming to the back edge of the front wheelwells. i'm not running inner fenderwells anyway, so that wasnt a problem.
the body was stock until i ended up on the roof one day
after i ran a few trails with it, i narrowed the front clip to gain a little tree clearance. when i swapped out to wider wheels, i had to cutout the fenders even more for clearance.
i built the truck to run trails, and be able to take the wife and kid along, and if i did smack a tree, or bash a rock, it wouldnt make any difference.

i cant even think about the amount of hours ive spent working on it. it's been an ongoing project for the last 4 years.

 

[bronc3buster842001]

I trimed the back part of my fenders. may have to trim the front too. havent had it flexed out yet. Mine has been a work in progress for the last 4 years too.

 

[crewchief888]

when i swapped in the straight axle, i extended my wheelbase about 3", took care of the probelm of stuffing the tires into the firewall, but had to sacrafice a little more sheetmetal up front.
seems to have helped my approach angle quite a bit, and it seems more stable on longer uphill climbs.
really too soon to say, running 4.10's now versus the 3.42's, it's a little different
ive only had it out once since swapping the axles, still have a couple of steering issues to deal with.

 

[bronc3buster842001]

I moved my front axle forward about an inch or so. Cant remember. Didn't really take a before measurement. Im running 4.30 gears in mine. My goal is to make mine a DD. steering on my was great, but I have crossover.