Project Baby Runner/Mini Crawler: R.J.'s Navajo Build

this thread is going to be just a thread posting any mods or work being done on the Navajo. I'll also make a registry which would kinda like a summery of whats in the vehicle and i already have a thread started about the work im doing to the front beams/axle. http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206455

well here's whats up with it right now, its in mexico at McNeiloff-road to have a roll cage put in it

here's just some randome shots of the shop.

Chad McNeils shop

Perry and Jason's shop

this is a shot from the front gate around the buildings. on the right it is Chad McNeil's shop (McNeil Off-road) and towards the left is the building where Perry McNeil (McNeil Racing/Perrys fab n fiber) and Jason McNeil (Fiberwerx) shops are.

some sort of buggy

some trucks

a cool bumper

a sport trac

pictures suck, but here's some explorers

king pin, equal length.

a ranger

i forget how massive desert cars are till i see them. all the shocks, springs, tubing, reinforcing etc. is huge.

 

[Glen4X4]

Cool pics.

 

[mounty71]

Sweeeeet!!

 

[Josh S.]

Damn dude now you're makin me feel bad, I haven't even started my cage yet! Are you still doing your susp yourself or did you come across a goldmine and are getting it done by them? **** should turn out awesome, glad to see that pile progressing nicely!

 

[R.J.]

haha thanks man. no the suspension is still going to be done by me, at least it will be if i stay coilbuckets. i haven't decided yet if i want coilovers or just coilbuckets. if i go coilbuckets, the whole front end will be built up by me. if i go coilovers, the beams will be semi built by me and the engine cage would be built by a shop.

 

[R.J.]

talked with chad mcneil yesterday and the progress is... the truck is solid mounted and he'll be getting 120 feet of tubing for the cage today. 6 lengths of 1.75 and one length of 1.25 tubing (1.20 wall)

solid mount = replacing the ruber body mounts with metal mounts welded to the body and frame

 

[R.J.]

picked up a neet shock crossmember for the rear last weekend and i used my black explorer to mock it up and try to see what size shocks i need. not the most accurate but i got a good idea of the length.

4wheelparts has a "wherehouse sale" this weekend so i thought i could grab some shocks a little cheaper, but nothing good was there. but some pretty good deals on procomp rims

 

[R.J.]

for the rear of the truck i want to keep everything under the floor. but dang, the rangers with shocks through the bed are so impresive! http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=48102&highlight=64"+leaf&page=3

 

[R.J.]

got the Navajo back today. left the house at 7 this morning, headed straight to mexico, got home at 9 at night and then took the front end off.

here's a few pics of the cage, ill take some more tomorrow and post em. its 1-3/4" 120 wall chromoly tubing, welded to the frame, adn the body was solid mounty and the pillars cut open for the bars to fit inside them. it came out really clean and they tucked the bars in deep enough that most of the plastic was able to be put back on. but dang, can you say creeks and moans??? the truck makes alot of noise and you can hear everything goin on outside pretty well. and you can hear the suspension through the body of the car, so the rear suspension goes squeek squeek squeel all through the car. oh yeah we also had an engine cage installed for coilovers.

finishing the engine cage. to put the leg on to the frame they had to cut off my shock mounts, so i pulled a rockranger and drove home with only one shock on the car, the rear drivers side (the other rear shock broke in the navajos last outing, glamis)

a few minutes ago, almost everything off, just the steering left.

well nevermind, photobucket is being gay and pissing me off.

 

[R.J.]

ok a uploaded a pic directly to explorerforum so heres the truck as of right now

 

[Burns]

Man that is a lot of work. Looks Awesome for sure. Ready to see this build progress



Thanks for making me have to come back to CA haha

 

[mounty71]

Freakin badASS!! I love how close it all fits to teh body, and those oh-**** handles. Can't wait to see it.

 

[cybergasm]

but dang, can you say creeks and moans??? the truck makes alot of noise and you can hear everything goin on outside pretty well. and you can hear the suspension through the body of the car, so the rear suspension goes squeek squeek squeel all through the car. oh yeah we also had an engine cage installed for coilovers.

UH HUH did'nt i mention that the last time i was over there?
but anyways it coming along nicely can't wait to see the new front axle on it.

 

[R.J.]

good morning to everyone. time to move the diff from one set of beams to the other and put the stock axle pivot brackets on.



yeah i remember that, cayber. i was wondering about it when we were picking up hte car, and now when i drive it the words "solid mount and roll cage? that things gonne be laud. you'll hear everything coming through the frame" (cybergasm)

 

[R.J.]

oh yeah maybe photobucket is working so i can upload smore' pics.

the navajo last night

and while we were waiting for them to finish the engine cage i took some pics of trucks.

these trucks were there last time, but they're a little farther along now

the explorer has king pin beams with like 3.0 or 4.0 coilovers (don't know what they are, but they're huge)

the ranger is just equal length beams

here's a 4wd ranger with a d44 front end

i tried to take a pic of the d44 steering

and then the camera battery died.

 

[mounty71]

good morning to everyone. time to move the diff from one set of beams to the other and put the stock axle pivot brackets on.

So i've been wondering, do you need to have the gears set up again? Or is the ttb the same as a 9" 3rd member?

 

[carlover]

Damn man that purdy.....

 

[R.J.]

thediff in a ttb is like a 9" third member, it unbolts and you take the diff completly off the housing.

took some more pics of the cage, i also put the widened beams on and i'll put pics of that up in the "front end work" thread.

nice in tight. the bar next to the dash, didn't have to cut the door or mess up the glove box or anything

the bar arcoss the dash

just another shot of the visible stuff up front

from front to back

from back to front (sorry for the crappy pic, the flash didn't work on any shots i tried)

kinda tricky to do, but they got it so we can still fold the seats down with the angle bar

the rear corner

the rear tied into the frame

under the pass side

a solid mount

and here's a few pics of the engine cage

i hope i don't have to work on the brakes anytime soon

 

[Dannyboy]

wow, looks really good. Did he advise you to tie your seats into the cage? I always thought that was a rule of thumb, the seats and cage stay together.

We're going to enjoy looking at our trucks at the next event!!!

 

[R.J.]

aww yeah thats gonna be awesome. can't wait to see yours. when's it gonna be done and whats the first (big) trip its goin on?


he didn't say anything about tying the seats into the cage, he just said not to get 5 point harnesses without a cage