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Fat Cat's 99 SAS

Well, I finally pulled my head outta my SAS! Now that I have things just about right, I'll post a ton of pictures to show how everything went.;)

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with my questions and everyone who posted all the info about other SAS projects. This forum is a great place to search and find loads of info.:salute:

Test-run-2.jpg

Test-run-front.jpg


Engine:
4.0 SOHC

Cooling:
EBAY Transmission cooler
EBAY Power steering cooler
Trans pan tapped for Temp gauge.

Drivetrain:
Atlas 3.8 Transfer case
Custom Drive shafts

Front Axle:
‘75 Bronco Dana 44
Ected locker
Purple Cranium Half cover, diff guard
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
Superior Chrome Molly inner and outer axles.
SuperJoint U-joints
Warn premium manual locking hubs
14" travel 2.0 SAW resi coilovers
Light Racing Hydro Bumpstops
Trail Gear Hydro Assist Ram
1st. gen steering box, tapped for hydro.
CAGE Arms

Rear Axle:
Explorer 8.8 31 spline
Superior Super 8.8 axles
Detroit Locker
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
Stock rotors re-drilled to 5.5
Fox 2.0 resi shocks
Spring-over
McNeil Racing Anti-wrap bar
Mag High tech Diff Cover
Add a Leif.

Tires:
37x12.50 17 MT/R's

Rims:
17x8 Black Pro Comp 7089 Aluminum Rims

Body Mods:
Glass front fenders
EBAY black headlights
Harbor freight roof rack lkights
Pro Comp 130 driving lights
ABS plastic rear windows
Removable vinyl side windows


Body Armor:
Custom Built Bumpers by Renoso Racing Tijuana
Full roll cage By Renoso Racing Tijuana
Under body skid plate and transfer case guard by Renoso Racing Tijuana
Rock Sliders by McNeil Racing Tijuana

Miscellaneous modifications:
Currie Universal AntiRock
Headers
K&M intake
BamaChips tune
MileMarker 9,000 winch
2" wheel spacers


Here it is when we started cutting the IFS stuff off;

Before.jpg

BeforeSide.jpg

UnderCut.jpg

CrossCut.jpg

Cleanframe.jpg


The new front axle getting re-worked;

NewAxle.jpg

Cut2.jpg

Cut1.jpg


Here is the steering work done by Willy's 4x4 shop in Tijuana. They reinforced the frame and tapped the steering box and mounted everything as well as making a funky custom High Steer arm using a pitman arm, cut, flipped and welded to the knuckle (so good so far);

SteeringBoxplate.jpg

SteerBox.jpg

HighSteer.jpg


Some more shots of the work done at Willys and the truck standing on its own to be moved to Renoso's for the cage and hoops;

37side.jpg

AxleandArms.jpg

Frontworking.jpg

FirstWalk.jpg


Over at Renoso's shop we started the bumpers and mocking up all the steering components;

EarlyTieRod.jpg

Earlymounts3.jpg

Earlymounts2.jpg

Earlymounts.jpg

Earlyhoopmounts.jpg


Once everything was lined up we finished the steering stuff and added the coilovers;

Rammountdone.jpg

Hydrodone.jpg

Coiloverstestfit.jpg

Coilandhoopin.jpg

Enginecross.jpg

Enginehoopmeet.jpg


After that, we started on the cage. I wanted the cage to be inside the pillars and channels and welded to the body. That way I could hopefully put back most of the stock interior and give myself some extra interior space;

Gutted.jpg

Dashtrashed.jpg

Cagepillar.jpg

Cage3.jpg

Cage1.jpg

Cage2.jpg


The rear storage and bumpers came next. I wanted to mount the CO2 tank, battery's & spare tire inside, down low, and still have room above for my footlockers for storage. I can fit 3 footlockers inside and 2 more on the roof rack. They are marked; Spares & tools, Camping, kitchen, clothes. Plus a misc. one. I only load the ones I'm going to use on any given adventure:)

Reardeck.jpg

Rearstore.jpg

Rearsparebox.jpg

Bumperside.jpg

RearBumpFull.jpg

RearBump1.jpg


Here is a few of the radius arm mounts, the transfer case cross member, and the skid plate which incorporates a front cross member in front of the oil pan;

ArmMounts.jpg

Skid-plate.jpg


OK! that's about it:eek: Here are a few shots from my first trip out with the new locker and rear axles. I ran the truck hard to try to find the weak spots and except for being a bit tippy (I'm going to lighten the AntiRock settings) the truck worked great!!!:D

It was a 2 hour freeway trip to Jacume & the truck was a dream on the road. No wobbles, shaking, or anything unpleasant. It drove like a comfy truck & wheeled like a Hell Raiser!

Test-run-flex-rear.jpg

Test-run-flex-front.jpg

Climb-down-1.jpg

Climb-down-2.jpg
Testrun1.jpg

Tire-up.jpg
 



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Your rig is AMAZING!!!!! I love the look of it! Looks like tons of work but you came out iwht a nice rig! You should try and get it featured in a mag before you chop it up!
Can't wait to see the next phase!
 



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Your rig is looking awesome these days but you're getting like me, going through several rebuilds until you get it the way you want. I'm sure you cringe like me when you think of all the money you've spent...I try to forget about it:p:
With that said, have you considered buying a pre built chassis and build off of that? The Explorer frames (and ranger) suck to build from since you have to beef them up with plating everywhere. Yes they can be built to bad ass but seems like a lot of time and money that could be saved with a tube chassis.
Just something to consider:thumbsup:
 






have you considered buying a pre built chassis and build off of that? The Explorer frames (and ranger) suck to build from since you have to beef them up with plating everywhere. Yes they can be built to bad ass but seems like a lot of time and money that could be saved with a tube chassis.
I second this.

The explorer's chassis aren't bent deep enough at the ends so IMHO, you end up lifting the vehicle too much and the center of gravity just shoots through the roof. Not to mention its difficult to get good panhard angles, link angles (anti-dive, anti-squat), and other geometries because the engine is in the way and yada yada yada.

ORRR: you end up chopping everything in front of the link mounts on the chassis and going tubes for everything after that. But at that point, all you have left is a small 3ft or so section of the chassis (the section between front and rear link mounts) so you might as well have just started with a tubular chassis that was build for lower CG (no pun intended).
 






Yeah, that would be the smart thing to do. I keep going back & forth on this rig & every new build up I do, I keep thinking I should just sell it and get something else.

I've spent way more then I should trying to keep it good looking as well as able to carry the family on camping trips and still wheel good.

I plan to go 3 link in the rear & will probably cut off a foot or two of frame when I do. The frame has a lot of reinforcements where the steering box and front cross member are and again in the middle where the radius arm mounts and trans cross member are. It's already as high as it's going to be so & figure that cutting off the body will save a lot of weight and make it less tippy...

The best thing would be to sell it and get or build something else, but at every new stage I keep telling myself that I've gone too far to turn back now...

Well...who knows??? I have a friend that builds buggy's down here & I can get a bare bones set up for about 2K & put all my stuff on it, but we'll see:confused:
 






If you end up cutting it up...i will take your fiberglass fenders and grill.
 






I was just curious to see if you were driving this thing around without the overload springs in still?

I'm leaning towards taking mine out..
 












Fat Cat has been holding back! You guys didn't know this, but the guy went big...REAL BIG!!

I don't know why he didn't let you know, but his Explorer is the biggest one in Tijuana, Mexico! Probably in the entire zona frontera nortena de Mexico!!

...feast on Chris' T.J. Taxi on 40s!!!

P1030240.jpg

P1030222.jpg
 






Hey Ken Cooke -- long time no see!
 


















ROCK READY FORD EXPLORER!!!

Chris%20on%2040s.jpg

Chris%20on%20big%2040s.jpg

Chris%20rolling%20on%2040s.jpg


When you're big like Chris...Pimpin' ain't easy!!

Chris%27%20modelo%20girls.jpg
 






beadlocks anyone?
 












Yeah seriously, my rig has ran ~5 PSI and crawled around on the sidewall w/o beadlocks
 






I hear Fat Cat has a new mod, I can't wait to hear how it works! ;)
 






umm, how does the size of the rig affect whether or not you blow a bead?
 






I still blew inner beads with the Allied's I had and that was only aired down to 8psi.
 






I hear Fat Cat has a new mod, I can't wait to hear how it works! ;)

Yup, picked it up at Wild Bills Midnight Auto Supply:D

beadlocks anyone?

Are you talking about that last photo? Cause I yeah, after squeezing the beer girls, I almost popped a bead right there:D

J/K I'll be installing a set of the Staun Beadlocks soon...
 



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J/K I'll be installing a set of the Staun Beadlocks soon...

Have fun installing those, that's unless you have someone doing it for you. Drilling holes in your wheels for the valve stems only hurts for the first one:p:
 






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