Carlovers Desert Beater Build

[carlover]

Rear seats and glass. Get some canvas windows like Rick has. Those glass sumbiches are heavy.

Yeah no rear seats, im going to race with no tailgate at all. No windshield, front/rear fiberglass fenders(which for the rear you have to cut a ton of sheet metal). They let you weigh it dry with no spares or anything. Im trying to keep it street legal/drivable to a point also so i dont always have to trailer it out. This is crazy snow balling the past few months LOL.

 

[Dannyboy]

hey danny are you talking about these??
http://www.chaosfab.com/toyaccess_rearsus.html

YUP!

can you run no windshield but be street legal??? Also do they weigh you or go from door sticker? I've read the BITD rule book and decided it would be cheaper to develop a heroine and hooker habit then start racing my truck. It's definitely time and $ consuming.

If you want to shed some weight I've got something that may interest you. No Turning back though!!!

 

[carlover]

BITD, SCORE, and the new socal series DRIVE all go by the same rules unfortunatly. I have a 2" die i can borrow so that saves $250 for that. The weight of the vehicle is determined at tech, so its basically the dry weight of the vehicle at that time.

Danny thanks for the offer, id like to keep the rear doors since this is bieng built around the fact i have 3 young kids. Although it would be intersting to see if i could hang regular glass and use the doors for tooling around, and maybe remove it all and hang glass like that for race purposes....hmmmmmmmm.

 

[Dannyboy]

That's not going to happen...I've already looked into it.

I've hung onto that glass and I've decided the only way it will ever be used is a serious date with the saw-zall and plenty of d-zeus tabs along with total elimination of the rear gate. Basically your roof would get welded to your cage and the fiberglass would bolt on to tabs.

I chose to have a 4 seater vs. some fiberglass I can't see out of. Keeping my truck and cargo inside secure is still a feature I like to have.

 

[carlover]

Yeah i figured it was next to impossible. Ohh well, only the A&B pillars have to be 2" so it shouldnt be too bad. I need to do some fitting to see how close my head will be to the bars which is another huge concern if im driving it on the street.

 

[Dannyboy]

ah, well being 6'4" I can tell you I still have mucho mucho room for my head, The key is to run a seat without any sliders for adjustment. I have a good 8" of clearance to the roof because the tubework for the seats is right on the floor and the tabs go forward and back instead of up.

 

[carlover]

Nice, i still need to find seats. But thatll wait till march when the offroad swap meet takes place. Brandon got himself 2 nice high backs for $100 last year. I did so tube fitment and measurements last night and 2" will fit in all the places i want it to. Its on for next month, even though its about $5 a foot

 

[DB_1]

Gonna use DOM or HREW and where do you get your tube? I just bought some 1.75" HREW for $3.25 a ft. at Patton steel in Ontario, they have another location in San Bernardino too.

This might interest you too, an off road swap meet put on by Gen-Right in Feb.

http://www.genright.com/custom.aspx?id=13

 

[carlover]

thanks for the info on the swap meet im gonna check it out for sure. we get our steel at pattons also. all tubing needs to be dom unfortunately. technically we could use hrew and paint it and theyd be none the wiser lol.

 

[carlover]

new setup was tested this weekend. i was very impressed and we pretty much nailed the valving the first time out. i picked up 10mph through the rough stuff. now the rear far out performs the front which will change shortly. stay tuned for a full on LT front end.....

 

[X~FACTOR]

Good looking build so far. If you don't mind me asking what tool did you use to make bends on that roll cage?

 

[carlover]

jd2 tubing bender.

 

[DB_1]

So how did the X perform out there in JV?

 

[carlover]

So how did the X perform out there in JV?

pretty good, the rear is awesome. we nailed the shock valving the first time out which is great. the rear soaks everything up now, the front has a very hard time keeping up through the rough stuff. The rear took some very very hard hits and didnt buck back up once which was key to me when setting up an explorer.

 

[Stic-o]

Just saw you behind me as I was pulling into work from lunch. Truck looks good!

 

[mounty71]

I've been curious but always forget to ask...is this your DD? Are you gonna race it and DD it?

 

[carlover]

Just saw you behind me as I was pulling into work from lunch. Truck looks good!

Yeah i saw you, waved as i passed by. Its no where near done but are projects ever really done?? LOL.

I've been curious but always forget to ask...is this your DD? Are you gonna race it and DD it?

Its my DD for now. I have my fun with it, i have a backup vehicle if needed but i drive the expo everyday. When the time comes to race it i will buy a DD/Tow rig, probably an 03+ silverado 1500 crew cab with the 5.3...

 

[carlover]

Going to order my front glass this week. Baker motorsports (as much as i hate to give them my money) 8" glass. Its a flat top design and looks the best and is the only one around that will fit with going 6" over per side.

 

[mounty71]

Going to order my front glass this week. Baker motorsports (as much as i hate to give them my money) 8" glass. Its a flat top design and looks the best and is the only one around that will fit with going 6" over per side.

I was thinking the same thing about buying those fenders sometime in the future (after reading that hack fab thread on DR). But those will look good.

 

[carlover]

I was thinking the same thing about buying those fenders sometime in the future (after reading that hack fab thread on DR). But those will look good.

They are only $400 which is good. Are you going to run LT? If not id stick with some 4.5" fiberwerx which would fit your truck perfectly. I can get you a set brand new for $295 if you are ever interested.