RMC's el hefe build.

[Wrightracing.net]

It would be worth the 10k. I am in the same boat. I have alot of work ahead and still have another project I would love to do.

[fomoco51]

Beautiful work. Hey how are your shocks valved? I want to orde mine tomorrow but not sure on valving. And are those still the 18's?

[Rmc]

Yes the 18's, as far as valving I'm unsure cause I got them used. I will go through them at some point but I'm thinking there a tiny bit soft but very close. The rear feels good but the front I think I'm still a tiny bit over sprung. I still need to redo my temp shock mount set up up front so I'm waiting till that's done before I make any changes to the valving. Up front I know for a fact I have .012 flutter compression and .010 rebound. And thanks for the kind words guys.

[Hauls Assington]

El Jefe is one bad machine! Very informative thread!!

I got the stock width beams on mine, I am basically going to copy what you did on the front shock towers. Where would you suggest I put the lower shock mounts? Would you mind taking some more pics of your shock towers? I am going to be using 14" kings on the front.

[Hauls Assington]

Also, how do you know if the passenger side beam is far enough forward, when mounting the passenger side radius arm bracket?

[Rmc]

Well how I did my lower shock mount might work out good for you, on mine the shocks are angled in on top which I've been meaning to change for along time. As for the upper shock mounts what type of tools do you have access to? Plasma cutter, band saw ect? If I wasn't going to cage it from one end to the other I'd do something similar to the autofab's or southwest set up. Basically a super tall coil over bucket with verticle gussets lengthwise top to bottom. My little tube towers were only ment to be temporary. I'll grab a better pic if you like. They were quick and easy that's all, if you read the beginning of my thread I had the city on my ass so it wasn't very pretty.

[Rmc]

Something like these,or save your self some Time and buy them from autofab. Only thing I'd add is a cross bar from one tower to the other and 2 tubes connected to the sides to give greater strength front to back as well.

[Wrightracing.net]

Spirit Racing does coil over shock mounts like those and a couple of friends have used them with a cross member. They have survived thousands of thousands of miles in Baja. I think Chris Wilson had them on olé Yeller. I may be wrong on his. It was a while ago when I saw it.

But the guys are Spirit are good guy's. I have know John for years at AutoFab and he is a great guy also. If you are running a basic coilover setup that is an easy way to go and still strong.

[Hauls Assington]

NIce, those look good, and a guy that I navigated for back in the day recommended I do some like that. I tried to figure out where to get the spirit ones, but I failed to locate any kind of website, or contact info for those guys.

I emailed them at southwest, and got no response.

So the plan is to do some hoops, and put a couple of tube gussets in there, and make them as beefy as possible.

The problem I have with doing the extended coil buckets is that I have no plasma cutter, I do have a torch, and I can cut decent with it, but I really don't think I could do as clean a job as I need to, also I am a novice fabricator at best. And I quite frankly wouldn't know where to start on those.

I have done a lot of arc welding on farm equipment, an random ranch and farm type stuff growing up, but nothing that I would bet my life on.

I got a mig, it is a craftsman, I am running .023 wire, with c25 gas, and it seems to do pretty good.

I can wrap my mind around the tubing shock hoop, and It seems like something I could actually pull off.

My project is not designed to win the baja 1000, but I would like to be able to beat on it, and expect not to break critical things like shock towers.

Here is the other thing I am dealing with, I will be using the "kinker" for this project, and I got a pile of 1 1/2 inch schedule 40 pipe. It is .135 wall and has a 1.9?? external diameter. I talked to the place that manufactures it and they said it is made of the same material as DOM and using a similar machine. I am not worried about the strength of it, however it will end up being a little heavy fully caged.

I am thinking that the shock hoops should be plenty strong with .135 pipe.

When I figure out where to mount the hoop to the side of the frame, what if I cut a 2" hole, and run about an inch of pipe through the hole, and weld it to the inside of the frame, with a 4"x4" plate around it, inside and out, and then notch the hoop to sit on that stubby pipe? Wouldn't that be pretty strong?

Also I saw on Trevors 94' thread where he ran two tubes up to a really awesome looking piece of tube with ends on it, with the shock tabs that are welded all the way around the outside, and then with the removable bar that goes between shock towers. I thought that was badass, and maybe something I could do.

[robertcrav]

If you need to get ahold of Southwest it's best to call...

[Wrightracing.net]

I would avoid using pipe. You run the risk of it splitting. I am doing the race radio for Jim ' s Red Bronco that got delivered to Spirit Racing last week.

Spirit Racing
15855 Dell View Rd
El Cajon, CA, 92021
(619) 561-2913

[Rmc]

My 2 cents is avoid the pipe as well, also very important thing is get rid of the .025 wire and change it out to .030 or. .035 if your machine will handle the larger stuff. The .035 puts more heat into the welded seam making for better penetration. The worst thing you could have is a great looking weld that's just sitting on the surface vs melted in, it's a recipe for breaks and shearing.
As far as my temporary shock towers there camburg shock bullets ( I was too lazy to make my own for the price those could be purchased at ) hang on I'll grab a link.

[Rmc]

http://camburg.com/store/fabrication-pa ... ck-mounts/

So these little guys and a 4 inch grinder with a flap wheel will get done what you need .

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Ask some of the guys. My welds weren't very pretty but I never broke one or had one crack. Work on penetration. The roll of nickels comes next.

[Rmc]

So in this pic it's two 2" pieces welded straight to the frame, then 1 tube with a camburg shock bung at the end going up from the 2 inch chunk sticking out of the frame . So 2 tubes notched to weld on the bungs, then the other side notched ( clocked accordingly) to mate with the 2" chunks. Then as high up the 2 verticles as you have clearance for ( assemble the spring and check clearance) weld 2 tubes angled out from the engine area into the verticles. This makes it so the only part that can flex is the upper last few inches. Pictured is 1 3/4 .120 wall dom. It's by far the cheapest and strongest over black iron pipe of any kind. I believe 12ft should more than cover the shock towers with room for mistakes. I'd almost rather see you arc weld than use the small guage wire especially when sticking stuff to the factory frame cause there not the highest quality steel in the frame rails. So you will hit pockets of junk ( occasional porosity ) as you weld along more than likely depending on if you sand it to shiny bright metal before welding to it ( prep highly recommended, meaning grind off the rust, undercoat ect)

[Rmc]

...

[Rmc]

I just noticed in that pic there's only one engine out reinforcement. On both sides I did one for each vertical tube. So it should look like a wide V with a small V welded on from the top angled out toward the tubes.

[Rmc]

One very important piece of advise: measure the shock eye width, stack washers or cut a piece of tube to keep the shock bungs separated. When you weld they will warp all over the place. So throw your washer stack in there with the through bolt tight to minimize them warping together and or across each other in replation to through bolt eye alignment. After I finished I had to chase the hole and pry just a little to restore the alignment to pass the bolt through.

Agian this is not the best way to mount the shocks but it's quick and dirty and pretty friggin strong if done right. I've jumped my bronco many times with no cross bar from tower to tower and no issues. Is is a bit of additional leverage against the frame but depending on the shock angle should add not a whole lot more stress to the frame than the coil bucket was applying.

[Rmc]

I was just rereading my stuff and was thinking 2 things:
It dosnt have to be pretty to work and it's scary that stuff like this works so well.

Just always keep in mind
{ force applied and reinforcement to disperse the applied force}
If that guideline is worked within, it won't break.
Your not always trying to stop the force but instead trying to re-direct it. Kinda like the spiderweb of shit in most modern roll cages. Energy redirection ( upon impact) to allow a path of disbursement.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Southwest performance coil buckets have a cross bar. I'm a believer that if there isn't a cross bar the frame will twist no matter the width of supports are unless the cage is tied into the cage.