TnA's 86 Jimmy Shop Build / Product Development Thread - (Trailing Arms?!?!)

[CFMi]

very cool thank you for the write up and thank you for giving me some ideas

are you going to do a four inch flip and get rid of the blocks?

No Problem!
And no, I think I'm going to leave the zero-lift shackle flip in there. I'm going to put some 6" long shackles in instead of the 4.5" ones currently there. That should, along with a slightly lesser shackle angle, bring it back up to level while keeping the 4" blocks. The main reasoning for that is the rear shackles will still be above the bottom of the frame - if I do the 4" version of the shackle flip then not only will my pinion angle have to be adjusted but the rear of the leaf spring will hang down below the frame. I've seen so many of these rigs come off rocks and slam the spring/shackle and although it doesn't really do much damage to them, I am thinking I want do something different.
There might be a build of a traction bar that bolts in place of a 4" block in the near future, lol.

Looks awesome!

Thanks!!!

 

[CFMi]

Well I haven't had much time to spend on the Jimmy recently, due to a 1951 Cadillac rear suspension build, but this morning I did finally get my "fangs" trimmed and got a winch cradle bolted up with the side wings.

Here' the Caddy rear suspension that I built:

I even cut the Cadillac logos that are on the sides of the "truck arm" - everything under there was hand built. I had to cut out part of his trunk, and remove a factory crossmember to make room for a hand built HD crossmember that supports the panhard bar and the RideTech shocks. I think it turned out really good, and the customer loves it! The car handles soooo much better now than with the leaf springs!!



Here's the Jimmy:

I cut about 3/4" down from the little "tang" that the fenders have here:

Then cut along the "fang", parallel with the turn signal:

Then this fell out from between the inner and outer fender:

Winch Cradle and Wings installed:

That's all for now!!

 

[cyclic]

When I trimmed my fangs on the burb, I bent in that little piece on each fender that points to the center, back 90 degrees. Looks cleaner and is much less pointy/grabby to my hands and body.

Didn't cut them, just folded them back to the rear using a pair of large smooth jaw pliers.

ETA: that is exactly the same cut I did, works perfect. I did think about leaving the inside a little long to make a tab to connect the inner/outer together, but expediency made me cut it. I might add a little square tube as a filler, but probably will just leave it open.

 

[CFMi]

When I trimmed my fangs on the burb, I bent in that little piece on each fender that points to the center, back 90 degrees. Looks cleaner and is much less pointy/grabby to my hands and body.

Didn't cut them, just folded them back to the rear using a pair of large smooth jaw pliers.

ETA: that is exactly the same cut I did, works perfect. I did think about leaving the inside a little long to make a tab to connect the inner/outer together, but expediency made me cut it. I might add a little square tube as a filler, but probably will just leave it open.

Yeah, I thought about bending the tabs back, and I may still. I also thought about maybe making a filler panel to go above the side wings, and if I decide to do that, those little tabs might make a perfect mounting spot.
I also thought about cutting the fangs about an inch long, and folding them under and tack welding them to the inside part of the fender but just like you, decided the time involved wasn't worth it. When I take everything off to paint it I might fill the void between the outer and inner fender there with a little panel. Maybe.
Speaking of painting the cradle and wings...

What color does everyone think I should paint???

I think that a "hammered" black or flat black is a great choice since it is easy to touch up when it gets scratched. But it is also kind of a product show-off truck, and painting everything something that stands out is also a good option. What's everyone's opinions??

 

[Heavyleft]

I think if you want to make it "pop", you should big or go home. A red or a blue or even an orange. I tend to lean towards the safer side so I would go a blue....I think it would compliment the gray color nicely.

 

[cyclic]

Silver hammered (black undertones)

 

[CFMi]

I think if you want to make it "pop", you should big or go home. A red or a blue or even an orange. I tend to lean towards the safer side so I would go a blue....I think it would compliment the gray color nicely.

Silver hammered (black undertones)

To make it "pop", I could always do what I did for those Caddy truck arms. They are a coat of light primer, two coats of heavy silver metalflake, two coats of candy red, then two coats of thinned clear mid-coat loaded with House of Kolor mini Fireball flakes, then three coats of regular clear over that. Took all day but holy crap does it POP!!! Too bad they are pretty much fully hidden under that car. It was really just a learning exercise to get used to adding flakes to a mid-coat clear. I've never done it that way before, and the customer wants to do it to his roof later on, so I figured why not the control arms too?!

I normally spray hammered grey on bumpers and such, I love that color, better than the hammered silver IMO. But the Jimmy is already silver, and I don't want it to look like I tried to match the color and missed, lol.

I guess I still need more opinions, cause I'm still undecided!!!

 

[CFMi]

It's so hard to catch a good pic of paint via phone camera, no matter how good they are. Here's my best shot of the red on the Caddy, and it really just doesn't show the sparkle. I dunno...

 

[CFMi]

paint color

Well, I'm leaning towards either the Silver Hammered (as cyclic suggested) or the Grey Hammered. I would like to make it "pop" but I already painted the gas tank skid with the Hammered paint since it is so easy to touch up after a scratch or two. So I think I need to do the same up front. I live in CO, so it usually lasts quite a while too before a re-touch is necessary.

 

[CFMi]

Update

It's been a while since I've posted again, so there are two things to update you all with.

1.) I recently picked up a set of 6-LED light pods from Sidetracked, and I cut some openings into my front "wings" for them. All I can say is "WOW", I am highly impressed with the quality of the product vs. their price. I also got a wiring harness from him and am super impressed with the harness and connectors too! I will be offering the option of the cutouts in my wings specifically for these (or the 4-LED models) from now on. If anyone here is interested in getting some new lights, I seriously recommend Sidetracked, I think it's hard to find good quality at a fair price any more!

2.) This:

It's a 2014 Dodge 1-ton front end, along with a set of Dodge 8-lug wheels and some used 37" BFG Mud Terrain KM2's. The only question is... Try to find the time to get it under the Jimmy before BB15??????????


-Darren

 

[cyclic]

Cool axle. I was seriously thinking of getting a Dana 44 one for the front of my Tahoe, before I found my suburban.

After all my research, I was going long radius arms. Decent articulation with great manners. Simple to set up and maintain. Half ton dodge coils in what ever height you need should suspend it nicely.

 

[CFMi]

Cool axle. I was seriously thinking of getting a Dana 44 one for the front of my Tahoe, before I found my suburban.

After all my research, I was going long radius arms. Decent articulation with great manners. Simple to set up and maintain. Half ton dodge coils in what ever height you need should suspend it nicely.

I'm thinking if I do it, I'm probably going to do a 4-link and track bar setup rather than the radius arms. I pressed out one of the factory huge rubber bushings the other day, and drew up some sleeved poly bushings to go in their place, so I can get some articulation without the bind of the vulcanized factory bushings. The axle is already set up for crossover style steering but the arm on the passenger knuckle looks to be pretty short, so I might have to search around for a shorter pitman arm than I'm used to using.
Also, I have a pair of old short coilovers sitting at the shop that I'd love to use, but to be honest, the coil spring buckets that are already on the axle look pretty stout, and they are actually angled slightly and look like they'd line up with the GM frame pretty well, so I might just stick with Dodge coils like you were thinking. I might also look into the diameter of the old full-size Bronco coil springs since I've had really good luck using those in the past for a flexy front suspension, but I think they might not fit the axle.

I also picked up an NP241C so I can get the driveshaft over to the driver's side. That's frustrating since I spent all that time cutting, welding, cutting, welding, cutting, welding, etc... my exhaust crossover tube and making it fit perfect and tight but it's on the wrong side now... Oh well...

The rear suspension still needs more work too. After installing my new spring hangers and moving my shackles to the back hole in my flip kit, then installing 64's, it now sits an inch lower in the rear. I am just going to make a slightly longer rear shackle to make everything work good, but I've still got to design my 4" block replacement traction bar to put in there. Or, maybe I'll make my idea for the leaf spring pivots to put in there instead of the blocks, then make an upper two links, triangulated to hold the axle in place better. If I did that, then later on a couple lower links and some coilovers could easily make it a triangulated 4 link rear end. Hmmmm, might have to think about that.

 

[CFMi]

So I got the itch over the weekend, and decided to take the "old" rig out again. She had been sitting for almost three years, other than some moves when the shop moved. The last time she went out on a trail, it was just to rescue a friend that had slid down the side of a mountain, and it was a good while before that since I actually took her for a decent wheelin' trip. I've had plans to build a tube buggy with an S-10 cab for years, and I was going to use the drivetrain, coilovers, and links from this truck so my plan always was to tear her down at some point. So she sat, and sat, and sat, and I never took her apart. So why not take her out, right?????

Here she is showin' off a little... and still not fully flexed!

Right Side:

Left Side:

This is my buddy's Bluck?/Trazer? (Blazer chassis with a Truck cab and my old tube bed) that was with me:

Got a nice little poser pic on top of one of the trails, looking out over the gorgeous Colorado mountains:

And then......


Nick and I were running around, egging each other on, and of course I had to push it just a little much. I guess 39.5" swampers on a fullsize with hydro assist, 30mph dropping into a washout with a cement parking block down in there is a little too much for a D44 knuckle! I know better, but I still do stupid stuff on occasion...

Close up:

So yeah, that was a fun one. I pulled Nick's truck apart, stole his knuckle to get down to the trailer, pulled mine back apart, got a ride back up to camp, and put his truck back together. Luckily, I got his mostly assembled just as it was getting dark out, and only had to do a small amount in the dark. Of course it started raining/hailing on us at the very end too. But all-in-all not too bad, everything considered.


SO, for some strange reason, I got motivated today after fixing my truck with a new knuckle, and started pulling apart the S10 I picked up a while ago for the cab. I don't really have the time or the money for the build on that, but at least I can get rid of the rest of the S10 and save some space around the shop for now.

So I want to design a bolt-on outer knuckle assembly, that can house a larger u-joint and get a little more steering angle. Kind of like the stuff Spidertrax makes, only out of a little heavier steel, and with tapered roller bearings for pivots (like the D60 kingpins) instead of the little pivot balls they use. I would also make a few different weld-on bolting rings that could be welded to different diameter axle tubes. This all comes from wanting to build a couple 14 bolt steering axles. I know there is already stuff out there to do it with, like the Solid Axle products which are great, don't get me wrong. But it seems like the idea of the Spidertrax stuff with its large u-joints and high-angle steering combined with the massive size of the Solid products could be a game-changer for the full-size rigs out there. I dunno, just a thought - no time or money to design it right now.


-Darren

 

[Deuling]

Do it. That would be killer

 

[mrk5]

So I got the itch over the weekend, and decided to take the "old" rig out again. She had been sitting for almost three years, other than some moves when the shop moved. The last time she went out on a trail, it was just to rescue a friend that had slid down the side of a mountain, and it was a good while before that since I actually took her for a decent wheelin' trip. I've had plans to build a tube buggy with an S-10 cab for years, and I was going to use the drivetrain, coilovers, and links from this truck so my plan always was to tear her down at some point. So she sat, and sat, and sat, and I never took her apart. So why not take her out, right?????

Is that Moody Hill?

 

[CFMi]

Is that Moody Hill?

That's just up past the camping area at the start of Spring Creek trail in Downieville.

 

[CFMi]

Quick update...


Got the winch cradle and wings painted finally. Took forever to decide on a color scheme. The old Twizted colors were a metallic red and a gunmetal grey. I wasn't sure if I wanted to copy those colors but they look good together and it makes the red stand out nicely. Plus the Jimmy is already silver, not quite right but it'll do, lol.

I also got the SideTracked lights mounted in there and wired up. Great wiring harness, simple to hook up, well thought out, includes the relay and a lighted switch, plus good sealed connections. Can't wait to get more of them!!

I also got back to working on the Wrangler for a bit. Finished up a 400ci small block with Vortec heads and a mild cam, Edelbrock intake and adapters to run a bored out TBI injection unit. Should be fun when it's done!!

-Darren

 

[CFMi]

After I got the rear 64" leaf springs swapped into the Jimmy a while ago, I found that it sat about 1" too low so I've been wanting to build some longer shackles for it since then. This weekend I finally got a little bit of free time to spend on it, and made the swap from 4.5" shackles to the 6" shackles, and also got a better shackle angle at the same time. I even managed to play around with welding thicker material (1/4") with the TIG. I haven't ever really done any thick material with it before, so that was pretty cool. Here is one of the shackles installed in the no-lift shackle flip:

Also, after swapping in the longer springs, my exhaust was routed directly into the shackle, so I had pulled the rear section of it off. I cut and pasted with the TIG once again and re-routed the back section of the exhaust so it comes out just under the rear bumper, pretty much even with the gas tank skid:

After all that, I still had a bit of time left and decided to pull the top off, since I have never had it off since I bought the Jimmy. I think it looks great, being topless and sitting almost perfectly level now!

Now comes the problem. Now that the top is off, I don't know that I ever want to go back, lol. I had all sorts of ideas running through my head, one in particular that I think I'm going to persue - a roll bar setup. Thanks Deuling!!! After seeing his, and now seeing my Jimmy topless, I think it's inevitable. Of course I have a slightly different direction to go with it in my head, but I think something will happen, hopefully before BB this year!

I'll keep you all posted with any progress I make.

-Darren

 

[CFMi]

Well, it's late and I've been working in Solidworks for too long, but I've got a concept for the fabricated roll bar. It's only half of one at this point, but I think you can see what it would look like pretty easily.

Here's a perspective view:

And an ever so slightly rotated right side view:

View from the back:

And finally a view showing the inside:

Time for a shower and bed now. I'll keep thinking about this, but let me know your thoughts!


-Darren

 

[Rugger187]

Very cool. Can't wait to see how you put it all together in real life.