Weemsy's Escudo Build

[De-Ranged]

To those that knew about wingnuts (wheemsy) build and were curious about what was happening... after we started assembling the lift kit and discovered some of the shocking engineering that it contained we decided not to post up any thing more till it had passed cert ... well boys and girls he is legal

So here goes, quick rehash of whats been posted, Wingnut came in to get a bumper built for his truck, after wasting an afternoon chatting he's a good bastard to chat too... I warned him that he would get the bug and he was best to either sell the scud for a more cappible truck or start saving now for hilux axles and all the fruity bits and just do it once
"Na na it'll never happen just want a nice near standard play truck......" hmmmmm yea right I won't mention the cruiser he is now eyeing up for don'a axle for the scud
Right first off started off with a set of recovery hooks so he could join in on club runs the standard hook up front was gone been ripped out




(theres alot more pics to this they are on another thread onsite so didn't seem worth posting up again)
The intent was to set the hooks up so they would be left inplace when I built the bumpers thats why they are so far back and there is holes in the plastic bumpers
In the mean time Wingnut played round with the suspension trying different springs and shocks to he got it where he wanted it

Cheers Reece
De Ranged Engineering
O27 541 8794

[Weemsy]

as reece said, i only wanted a front bumper but somehow the front bumper is the last thing that we fitted (about a week ago). but the truck started off as a bog-standard 'scud bought from TM about 6 months ago..........


with 15x6 sats as my offroad tyres. but it was limited by the ground clearance and suspension travel where i could go with it. so the mods started...........

i fit rear springs from a nissan laurel to the rear, and front springs from a grand vitara v6 to the front. this gave a 2 inch suspension lift and i turned the front strut-tops upside-down to give the front the extra 'droop'. it was soon decided to make it go more as the arches were taking a real battering from the 30" BFG's. in the meantime i fit a pair of OME front struts (60mm more travel) and commodore rear air shocks (70mm more travel) to improve the ride and flex.

[GotFlex]

Lets just hope it doesnt turn into a truck like Steves Hilux hahaha

[De-Ranged]

Lets just hope it doesnt turn into a truck like Steves Hilux hahaha

No comment so when are you gona pull your finger out and do something fun with one of your toys


Right with all the lift from the suspension it left a couple of bits a bit stressed up front the CV's and out back the top balljoint on the "A" arm, the A arm balljoint was an easy fix with a spacer block


up front the diff had to be dropped to flatten out the CV angle
Before


And after


And the bits that did it old vs new



It was about now that Wingnut decided to try and get a bit more power out the truck and bolted a set of these on

Good bit of a laugh when we bolted it on and smoked out the shed burning the paint off it, while we were at it we pulled the cat as well, there was some power improvement but nothing worth the coin and nothing like some others commented on... it was a couple of days later that he comes charging into the shop, truck was going a hell of alot better, he'd found the problem the timing was slightly retarded... about 30deg's retarded good thing they arn't a tollerance motor!!

Hmmm might load these up in bits theres more than a few pics to come and I've had enough typing

Cheers Reece

[De-Ranged]

After all the playing round with the suspension this is the end result


By now he's done a few runs and discovered that 30" tires rub a bit hard in the back arch... to the piont where they are peeling the gard lip open and cutting his rear tyres and he wanted 32"s so we needed to lift the body after alot of stuffing around found out there is several issues with the body mounts... first off they have captive bolts (welded into the body) and are in really difficult to get to places that you'd have to cut the floor to remove second the bolts are a bastard length and are stepped in dia after alot of talking (brainstorming ) came to the conclusion that the shortest lift I could do at a resumble price wasn't going to be as cheap as the Calmini kit so we went with that ... what a mistake the kit has more than a few issues standard and in my opinion dangerous this is the reason no more pics were put up here
Heres why....
First off and worst of all the dangerous bit the main body mounts these are the bits that hold the body to the chassi... this is what holds everything together...

A washer isn't to bad till you consider its covering a hole in the chassi that is big enough that the head of the bolt drops through with room to spare then you consider its not even a HD washer its just a standard mild steel one!!! and isn't even big enough to stop this

And thats the bolt that is sposed to go there
Based on the fact we had it and he is a good enough bastard that he wouldn't sell it once we started finding the issues, we decided to fix it, this is what I came up with replaced there pithetic washer with a disk from the top of my spacer block (cut form 4mm plate ) oh and note even that has deformed some when tightened

Up front there was another issue that made us cringe the front cab mounts are these nice machined plastic ones, problem is if you follow there instructions your sposed to put the original rubber pad ontop of the plastic block with the block resting on the chassi the issue is the cheap bastards made it to small in dia and it only just and we are talking a couple of mm here sits ontop of the depression for the rubber any missalignment or a knock once its in will have it side loaded not good at all easy fix for this one thank fully ignore there instructions and put the rubber pad below

Next issue is the chassi spacer blocks, these ones

They were too short so I had to weld some extra flat on them so they touched the rubber pads oh and the final laugh to be had with this came the next day when we found one night out in the dew (no rain ) was enough to start rust showing on the edges of the galved spacer blocks
One other mod I did to the kit is the gear stick extension they recomend but welding it I drilled and pined it before I welded it, but thats just me


My impression of this kit

Cheap, Nasty and Dangerous !!
Do not buy it, the fact they are willing to put somebodys life at risk to save (or make a few bucks for themselves) is shocking !!

Right I've got to go to work

Cheers Reece

[De-Ranged]

At the same time we did the lift we also put an extension in the steering so there was no risk of pulling the splines to far


And since there was room now moved the fuel tank up
The tank needed the seams knocked up if your gental and take your time there should be no problems, we ran the tank well into the "E" just in case I had to weld it, but the seam on both sides folded up with out any leaks then I shortened and moved the tank mounts up

And this is the end result

Right here's the end result of suspension and lift


More tomorrow

[De-Ranged]

Right time for some more story time
One of the ideas wingnut picked up of the net was to setup the front axles so you use the same sub axle assembly for both sides... currently on the short side of the diff the sub axle slots into the diff which is a real PINA to remove and install this pic should give you an idea of the fun involved ( note the spring is still in there and under tension so remounting this requires alot of fun )

the idea he'd stumbled onto involves cutting the stub shaft that goes into the diff off and welding the bolt flange from the opposite side diff drive shaft

so you can just bolt on a long side sub axle assembly meaning all you need to do to change them is remove the wheel, the free wheeling hub, turn steering to lock and undo the 3 bolts and out it comes
Big difference

There was one problem the guys who had done this were also running with relocated swing arms that move the front wheels forward when I did the math space was gona be a real issue, but with a bit of crafty machining we got this

which is within the compression tollerance for the CV bells
While we were at it I clearanced the back front gard to fit the 31"s

And we got some child labour in to paint up a few bits

thats a slightly lifted spare wheel carrier so the 31" spare will clear the new bumper, oh and yes you've got to have some bright yellow on there lol

[cool__bananas]

are those lower front diff mounts calimini ones?

[De-Ranged]

Na according to the americans the calmini ones cause the alloy diffhousings to brake the rear mounts out, these came from the UK and have a far better rep...
If your interested I'm profiling a set that will have the extra clearance to run the bolt on sub axle setup above, change of anchor pionts on one arm to allow the bolt flange to fit

Cheers Reece

[cool__bananas]

no thanks, i was just curious, im tying to sell the zuki not improve it

[De-Ranged]

no thanks, i was just curious, im tying to sell the zuki not improve it

Was curious about that seen the add for it wouldn't be the first person to change there mind tho

[Heath]

I am pretty sure I cant do that but maybe I'll get a set made for later on. PM me a price if ya can (with some donor parts from me of course).

Just looked at the rules and the section under diffs (N) says diffs may be internally modified and axles changed so this mod may fit the rules.

So how did you get it to fit?

[cool__bananas]

i dont see why you wouldnt be allowed? your not getting any more performance out of it your just making it easier to change, but then if you did that and won a trial someone might protest you (but dont quote me on that, check it out)

and sorry for the thread jack

[Weemsy]

hey reece,

just to let you know, your welds on the modified stub shaft are holding out real well

i thought i would give the front a bit of stick to see how well the axles do hold out.




so far so good

[De-Ranged]

I am pretty sure I cant do that but maybe I'll get a set made for later on. PM me a price if ya can (with some donor parts from me of course).

Just looked at the rules and the section under diffs (N) says diffs may be internally modified and axles changed so this mod may fit the rules.

So how did you get it to fit?

I like cool-bannanas comment I was thinking the same thing as I read your comment as for fit have a close look you'll notice they have been welded both sides of the drive flange and there is a machined step in there thats how I did it... the UK boys are just butting them up and welding them, by steping the flange over the stub axle a bit I got it down to 3mm off standard, anything less and you will have to thin down the drive flange

Before I make up anymore of these I'd like to give Weemsy a chance to crash test his abit he tends to go hard on what I fit... an hr after I fitted his bumper I got a txt from him to say it worked after he crashed into a trailer I think the pic backs up his driving style you can see why I told him he would get the bug and he might as well start with hilux axles I'll be down the shed tomorrow Wingnut if you can make it I'll measure up for the slidders

Cheers Reece

[Heath]

Cheers Reece, I'll do somemore home work and let Weemsy trial the mod for a while.

[De-Ranged]

Right heres the bumpers ....
Started with the rear can't remember the reason but it was a good one at the time....

The bit through the guts is there to mount along the top with the main mounts being 4 bolts on the bottom ... this has been setup to allow the original tow bar to be bolted on as well that kinda hangs down a bit so I can't see it being used
The front was a bit of fun compound bends on the bottom one but I like the reasult its come up good

the main mounts are the hook mounts on both sides plus what ever else I could find , the factory mounts are all good for a plastic bumper but a waste of time for a serious impact oh and speaking of that have a look at the bottom edge of the licence plate that was the trip home the day we fitted them crashed it into a trailer... dinted the cheaker plate but the spot on the bumper where it hit there is only a scuff mark
You'll have to bring it over so we can sort the sliders mate

Cheers Reece

[cool__bananas]

looks cool

[Heath]

the idea he'd stumbled onto involves cutting the stub shaft that goes into the diff off and welding the bolt flange from the opposite side diff drive shaft

so you can just bolt on a long side sub axle assembly meaning all you need to do to change them is remove the wheel, the free wheeling hub, turn steering to lock and undo the 3 bolts and out it comes

which is within the compression tollerance for the CV bells

My donor axle has a machined groove/scollop in the thick shaft (the one in the pick is smooth) will that make any difference? Its from a 3 door where as I assume yours is a 5 door donor. I wonder if it is a machined weak spot?

Heath

[De-Ranged]

hmmm unless its a very deep grove the weak link is still gona be the splined end or the flange where I've welded it due to the change in the crystaline structure from heat.... this is why I've machined the step and welded both sides and also why I want Weemsy to thrash them told him today that I want him to bust a cv before I'll be happy... at the end of the day this is what i'm aiming for....

[Heath]

The groove is quite big, heres a picture.

[Weemsy]

not seen one like that before heath, and i had half a dozen shafts here at one point.

im sure the 3 and 5 door are exactly the same too

[Heath]

Maybe difference between 22 and 26 spline? Dont know I'm guessing.

[Weemsy]

yours should be 22 spline, ive not seen any 26 spline ones with that groove either though.................

[Heath]

With this mod (short axle on both sides) does the new flange contact anywhere? Will it foul the std diff mounts? Will the std mounts require a little trimming and countersinking also?

[Weemsy]

yep.

if you do the mod without that hagen widening mod thingy then shoves your cvs in too tight and they bind. ive heard of a guy in the uk whos diff broke up because of it

ive lopped the bottom mount hole off the bracket and am destruction testing the thing. its holding up real well.......................so far

we also countersunk the flange holes and use grade 12 cap screws.

weemsy

[De-Ranged]

Right we have a slight issue with the D/S mod i told weemsy to break something and show me that stub shaft I modified isn't the weak link well it isn't.... the diff housing is


Too fit the new drive flang in we had to trim off one of the mounts.... this has loaded up the remaining ones on that side and its snapped.... mind you he was trying hard to break something, we can't tie it down to wheither it was the jumps he was doing or a particually nasty hole/wall he hit at speed on that side
not all is lost I'm working on a idea that should clamp a steel gard to the diff housing and allow an extra super solid mount

oh and the bar work is finished now... just added a set of slidders and yes he's already had it hanging on them


love the yellow grill

Cheers Reece

[Weemsy]

also added front spots, on-board-air and a switchable electric fan this weekend.

just the sas, 35's and supercharged v8 now

[ONOescudo]

Good going guys. Question, Whers the place in the UK that the drop brackets come from? Im fitting a steel GV diff at the mo also with the drive shaft conversion. What are the new brackets made from? The set on my Escudo look like cast steel but the set that came with the GV diff are fabed up mild plate. I ask this because the right side one will need an extra bolt and corresponding lug welded to the diff. Didnt realise the the new CV flange had to have your mod, as i to have standard A arms and 2" spring lift. Cheers.

[Heath]

also added front spots, on-board-air and a switchable electric fan this weekend.

just the sas, 35's and supercharged v8 now

Is that all? Should be done by tea on Sunday then.

Looking good dude.