Ugg is a lil less ugly ....

[OneFreakyMF]

So .... After a weekend of wheeling I spent another hour and a half cleaning the floor in my garage before I parked my lil truck. I then decided to clean Ugg before putting her to bed....

 

 

 

And now .... I'm not so sure i want to take her out in the woods anymore ....

 

 

 

There is something unnatural about painting over body damage!! Overall, five cans of primer, six cans of green, two cans of black, one can of grey(to pretty up the winch mount), and two rolls of masking tape. I so love my lil rig!!

[poopypants720]

Looks like a fun set up, like the new paint too...did you take care of any of that surface rust first?

[OneFreakyMF]

A lil bit.... I went over all the rust with a flapper disk to clean it up a bit. Trying to get down to bare metal started to create new little pin holes in the sheet metal in a few places. Obviously I am not to worried about a showroom paint job, I just wanted to pretty her up a lil. I did buy the really expencive primer that says you can apply it right over the rust. So between the nice primer and cleaning it up a lil I'm hoping it will stay nice for a lil while...

[Skulptr]

nice, the same baby shit green mine is getting covered up lol

 

 

i was amazed to see it was white, and i love your lift. what did you do?

[OneFreakyMF]

Oooooohhh.... the lift! That is a LONG story, half ton Chevy 12 bolt rear and Dana 44 front. Rear springs are a mix of stock Datsun and toyota leaves with an add-a-leaf. Along with homemade 2 1/2 inch lift blocks. The front springs I think were out of a Jeep but I'm not sure. They were in a pile at a buddies shop. Rear spring mounts are stock but the fronts are custom made. Basically, I bolted the springs to the 44, rolled the axle under the truck, and designed the mounts from there. Rear shocks are out of a Chevy pickup and the fronts were another pile find. I made adapters for the brake lines and a custom drag link for the steering .... Basically, I scavanged most of the parts or made them myself. All-n-all I am into this truck for less than three grand total!!

[poor-mans-720]

dude that lift looks killer... I am loving it. With my new welder i just bought, i am planning out my SAS... That is alot of bad ass in that thing...haha...

You didnt have many problems running the passenger side drop 44 up front? I know everyone does wangoneer dana cause of the oil pan, but yours doesn't look like that is going to be any sorts of issue.

[poor-mans-720]

Holy jesus and crackers?? what is that front bumper/destroyer made out of??? 3 ft steel tube??

[poopypants720]

ha! do you have a light under the front of your wheel well up front pointed at your tires???

 

Also... did you bob the bed on this guy?

[OneFreakyMF]

The oil pan was a bit of a concern.... I swapped in a pan from a two wheel drive motor which doesn't have that huge dogleg to the passenger side. Also, the full size axle pushes the diff over a lil more. The winch mount is actually four lengths of two inch square tube welded together. Rock lights are a must with the guys I wheel with!! They have come in handy on more the a few occasions! The front lights are mounted to the backside of where the horns use to be. Bobbing the bed was one of the first things I did to Ugg. 14.5 inches was taken out!

 

Either a rebuild on the motor or a bigger motor is next on the list!!

[ronnny]

Nice i was still thinking of what i want to do next to my truck. I still need to do the front bumper and want to try and bob the bed.

[nissanprerunnerdavid]

what seats do you have in there? i like them alot haha.

[OneFreakyMF]

Seats are from a cherokee.... I used the stock slides and with some 1 1/4 inch angle iron I welded the seat frame to the datsun slides. As with most seat swaps though, they sit a lil to tall. Anything is better than the extremely worn out stock seats! Yet again, the seats were free so I made them work the best I could....

[poor-mans-720]

did you have to change the pick up tube or anything to get the 2wd oil pan to fit, or was it a bolt up thing? did that pretty much solve the pass side drop issue? also transfer case, you dualed up?

okay, couple more questions, what year is it? I like the tail lights they pretty bawlin status...

you running the Z22? how does that go for ya? enough power to turn those monsters?

[poor-mans-720]

where do you wheel at? im in puyallup and done evans creek a couple times, havent found no where else to go though...

[OneFreakyMF]

I did swap the pick up tube as well and have had zero issues. I'm going to change my front shocks here soon to allow more up travel so I'll have to take a closer look but I don't think its going to be an issue. I'm just running the stock transfer case, not dubbled up.... The Z22 is still going strong but smokes something aweful unless I pour a jug a "no smoke" in her. 4.56 gears help with turning the 36" Iroks. A 38 Weber and damn near straight pipe exhaust helps as well. Its a 1981 ... I wanted a better departure angle so i removed the stock tail lights, pushed the bumper up tight to the tail gate, and cut the truck lights in.... I mostly run around Tahuya and some friends properties. Gonna be out in Tahuya this weekend for a cleanup day....

[nissanprerunnerdavid]

Z22 and running 36s? I'm impressed. Are you in low pretty much the whole time??

[OneFreakyMF]

Oh yeah, I'm in low range most the time. It still gets up and goes in high, but ya have to feather the clutch a lot to get her rolling. She is a trailer queen.... She never sees the road so that's why I registered it as an ORV....

[OneFreakyMF]

Oh yeah, I'm in low range most the time. It still gets up and goes in high, but ya have to feather the clutch a lot to get her rolling. She is a trailer queen.... She never sees the road so that's why I registered it as an ORV.... I don't have many action shots of her but I'll see what I can come up with... And if I do they will be of when I was running lil 33 inch boggers that were pretty bald.

[OneFreakyMF]

Grrr.... Damn "smart" phone ...

[poor-mans-720]

you taking the datsun out to tahuya for the clean up day?

damn, cant believe you aren't dubbed. I was thinking that the low wasn't low enough. And i am only running 31's. i would hate to try and crawl with just the stock trans case. I guess the 4.56s help... 4.11's are shitty out on the rocks, and more technical trails. cant slow it down enough. seems like i am just bouncing over everything. no control.

super jealous of the truck though. looks awesome.

you see about putting shock hoops on there to help with the limited up travel? seems like it could help, still give you the droop.

really interested in your experiance with the SAS... like how you did the drive shafts, bolting it up to the trans case, steering, etc.

if ya could do it again, would you do drivers side drop? or are you liking the pass drop?

Id like to double my transfer case, just havent figured out how I wanna do it yet. thinking a ford NP205

[OneFreakyMF]

Yeah, I plan on loading up the bikes and Ugg and heading out to Tahuya bright and early on saturday....

 

I've thought about getting my hands on a divorced 205 and I could probably make it work, but a 205 might be a lil too massive. I've seen pictures of two stock 720 cases bolted together and thought it looked kinda cool. With all the abuse I have put my single case through I'm sure a setup like that would work but if I am to go through all the work to fab that up I would rather have a set up that allows me to twin stick it. Maybe I could make a twin stick setup for the dual 720 cases, I just haven't looked into it. I've seen kits that allow you to take a Toyota case and make it a divorced case... I just don't want toyota parts on my rig!!

 

I'm still going back and forth on either rebuilding the Z22 or swapping in a 4.3L. Cheaper and easier would be to rebuild the Z22 but I'd still be stuck with a four popper... The LZ22 would be cool but still a four popper ... Kinda depends on if I get my hands on some stronger axles...

 

When I get my hands on some better shocks I'll look into making some loops for um but for now I am just gonna deal with it... My drivelines are made out of square tubing.... Tough as nails but noisy and unbalanced. Again, she never sees the road so its not that big of a deal. Even incorperated a CV in the front shaft...

 

The steering isn't the best setup but it hasn't failed yet. (fingers crossed) When I was finishing up the SAS I was running low on funds. I could have either bought some high steer arms and burn the rest of the cash and not complete the SAS or I could buy all the lil things that I needed to finish it. That just meant having to tie the steering in a lil hoakie.

 

If I was to do it again I would keep it lower ... A driver drop axle would have been easier since I wouldn't have had to swap out the oil pan but that is the only issue. Probably take the time and do a link setup.

[poor-mans-720]

cool, I might have to head out there... I dunno if i got to work though.

I havent run tahuya yet, are there any easy truck trails? The IFS on my 720 doesnt do so good on the rougher ones.

 

Yea, the 205 is pretty massive. but easy to find. I havent been able to find a 720 transfer case. I do like the stock one. Its pretty tough, and have heard of bolting them together. That is what i want to do, just having problems finding a case. They have those kits for alot of transfer case, slip yoke eliminator kits. They are just pricy. Id much rather just have two 720 cases.

 

Do you have much power with yours? I mean enough... mine feels like i can hardly turn 31's even out on the trail, and highway is out of the question. I aint a big chebby fan, so i was thinking about a different motor. something ford maybe.

 

I just need to make a front driveshaft. figure it should be easy enough, just dont know... I figured it would keep the cost of the SAS down...

 

A link setup... cool, I was thinking about putting in a front axle from a jeep. doing the 4 link. but then i would have to swap out the rear, keep it 5 lug. might look more into that myself.

 

What is a good height to keep it? I am a southern wheeler, so I am all about lifting it to the sky and running muddin tires. not used to all the rocks and stuff to climb over. whats a good size tire to run i guess?

[poopypants720]

If your feeling weak on your Z22 with 31's you should prob look into rebuilding the motor.. I run 32x11.5's and even before the rebuild could really move... now in the dirt it gets squirrely in 2wd easy and 4wd just smashes... It has plenty of torque to run these tires... But I would suspect with bigger, heavier tires this would start changing quickly.

[OneFreakyMF]

I believe that bigger is not always better ... Of course, if you are playing in the mud then you want the height but around here there isn't much for deep, deep mud. Tahuya is pretty easy. There are some harder trails but for the most part a stock rig could run through most of it. I had blown through TWO complete front ends before I did the SAS.

 

Yeah, Ugg gets up and goes alright but nothing like my buddy with an AMC 401 big block in a CJ7. I had a '98 F-150 with a 4.2L v6 and a five speed that absolutly hauled ass!! If i was to find one of those I'd jump on it!!

 

I made both of my drivelines for about $130-$140. Again, I wouldn't run them on a daily driver.

 

I know a guy out here that SAS'd his '85 720 with a set of cherokee axles. He never finished it but if he would have it probably wouldn't have lasted long. It was crazy tall with 38 inch meats. The dana 30 is at best on par strength wise with the 720 IFS gear and the R180 is much stronger than a dana 35. Of course you can beef up a dana 30 and 35 but in my opinion a polished turd is still a turd. Also, it depends on what you want to do with your truck.... If you want to DD the truck then the narrow jeep axles would be the way to go, preferably the waggy 44's. If you want something more wild then the sky is the limit... One tons, hydro steering, lockers, big horsepower, ect .... Then a trailer and two rig is most likely in order...

 

My rig has been a slow process to get it where it is today and there is still a lot I want to do.... A cage, better power, bigger axles, better Tcase, lockers.... Probably going to stick with the 36's though. Some parks are starting to limit tires sizes to 36-38 inch tires so maybe shoot for that size range...

[poor-mans-720]

I am thinking that 353-38's will be my goal. Yea, I might pull the head off or do a compression check, cause no part of my truck even says fast... or quick, hell even mild... That thing is just effin slow, and under powered. I guess after 260K miles on a completely stock motor that happens. PO had it from 80K miles and never did anything to it, but drive it and do small tune ups. I guess i should get a weber...

 

HHmm, well the GF doesnt work Tues-Thurs, I might just head out there next week... make a weekend out of it.

Yea, if this front end goes, Im SAS'in there is no way i would spend money to repair that. It just plain sucks. No flex, no aftermarket support, I might sell my front end diff for SAS money. Them R180's are pretty popular.

 

I just want to make my front drive shaft. That away when i do the SAS it'll keep the cost down, till i can get dual case, and what nots.

 

The 4.2 is what i would use. Might keep my ear to the ground see if i cant find one... that or a subaru motor, seeing that i have a GF, whos dad owns a subaru performance shop. that would be hella custom...

 

Yea, I guess the cherokee would be bad ju-ju... Gonna see what else came with a D44 up front. maybe another jeep or something. I know the broncos had em, but they are hard to find.