Well I have started the new rig (August 09), so here is the progress so far:
New donor chassis just water blasted and ready to start on.
mocking up rear axle location:
Shaved off the rear pumpkin:
It gained a fair bit:
Cut out all bar 1 cross member, plated chassis rails and made up some new ones, then fabbed the brackets and made up new links. They are heim joints on axle end and bushed at the frame end:
Trussed up the rear axle housing and relocated the filler bung:
Good shot of the double triangulated 4 link rear end:
Mid mounted a 12000 pound winch which will sit under the rear seat recess. Put in another cross member and mounted the coils and shocks on it:
Fabbed another new cross member for the rear and mounted a new 60 series cruiser fuel tank:
Rear axle housing with all brackets and coil buckets on:
Mid mount winch needed a small fairlead to direct cable to the back. Winch cable is then mounted on a removable 10t snatch block and the cable runs back up the inside of the passengers side chassis rail to the front:
Front end stripped out and all the excess BS cut off:
Front axle housing also all stripped of excess crap:
Front end is 3 link with panhard and 15" coil over's. It took a bit of head scratching so not too many pics of the progress, but here it is all mounted at absolute full stuff waiting for all the bits to come together so I can fab up the coil overs:
Front axle housing has had similar trussing as the rear (a real PIA to do because you can only do small welds at a time to stop warping the housing. I also made a jig so I could check the housing movement while welding):
That's where it is at the moment. Hope to get coil overs sorted over the next few days and fit the 304 next week some time (fingers crossed)
I'll try to keep this thread updated.
2nd post
Ok, some more pics of progress.
This is how it all sat in the old rig.
One of the new front shocks with a stocko job beside it. Small height variation
One of the new coil overs I have made up. Still needs sliders and I will need to muck about with spring rates a fair bit. The towers are ugly as, but have over 150mm of built in adjustment. I eventually will hook hydro rams up to these to make forced articulation units.
Engine, auto, and duals all mounted. I kept the rear mount well up to allow for exhaust system to go in.
Rear mount
Steering box is all mounted
Steering geometry seems to be perfect, You can just make out the panhard bar behind the draglink. We will see when it is all driveable I guess.
3rd post
Okay small update.
New donor body truck stripped, front inner guards cut off, and ready for lift off:
Number two body has lift off:
It lined up just right in the shitty old garage so I can lift the front or back or both ends of the body up and down to work underneath. Makes life much easier for running fuel, brake, powersteer and auto trans cooler lines. Also makes it easier to sort the mid mount winch and battery box etc:
Just like a flip top head:
New alloy radiator and auto cooler mounted. Can't see it here, but I have made a power steer cooler line that runs across the bottom of the radiator. (changed this now, but you will see it later on)
There was a fair bit of plasma work on the factory front cowl to get the rad to mount in as far forward as I could get it. Also had to french the lower mounts into the front cross member. Heaps of pissing about, but the result seems to be worth it.
Almost finished the trademark "Mutt" exhaust exit:
Underside facing forward shot as it sits at the moment. Still have some work to do on spring rates, so I have substituted the coil overs for wooden blocks at the mo. Should make the road handling much better, but the ride will probably be a bit harsh
Post 4
Line of cut for new flared gaurds. The 39.5's need a fair bit of room. No shots of the finished gaurds yet, but they came out alright.
Body off again. You can just see the tunnel alterations where I have cut the tunnel and belt mounts out of the way so that the drive train can be mounted upwards.
12mm plate cross members for auto and transfer cases. Transfer case mount was made so exhaust could go underneath.
Brake lines have been run and all the annoying little clips and brackets have been fabbed and welded on.
60 series fuel tank mounted properly with tank straps etc.
Hole required for filler neck. Decided to move the rear body mounts up 50mm to make running the filler neck lines easier.
Auto cooler lines and powersteer lines fitted and bracketed.
A concession to blinging bits underneath. SNR steering drag link, tie rod and pitman arm adapter.
Bump stops fabbed on both sides.
Bare chassis hanging and waiting for primer. Was going to get it sandblasted, but the wait was too long.
And top coated waiting to be put back together.
Seats have also been mounted (using cut down original 'lux seat rails, and some bits), and new fuel filler cap has been fitted. Underside of body has also been painted, and once rolling chassis is back together, more work will be done on that end of things.
Post 5
Quick update of the putting it all back together.
Rear axle with subby calipers
Front axle with 30 spline longfields (one new cv to replace the one I buggered
), SNR highsteer arms and tie rod and rock rings, rebuilt calipers (as that was the main cause the last rig went nato )and still have the longfield hub gears to go on yet when I replace the broken bits on the free wheel hubs.
Sitting on its biggest boots.
From the front
And the rear
Post 6
Okay let the blinging begin :chucknorris :chucknorris :chucknorris
How sacrilegious is that? A holden that is painted Yellow :chucknorris :chucknorris
Post 7
time for a quick update as I'm not going to be any where near finished for xmas break
Rear axle all sorted with brake lines, coils, shocks and even handbrake cable. You can also see the winch cable looped before I have the rear snatch block mounted.
Hand brake cables run down lower arms and brake line runs along upper arm at the rear. had to #### with them a fair bit, I guess time will tell if it has worked
Centre mount winch and hawse fairlead where cable goes into chassis rail. Fairled is made up from 6mm plate and a chain link
Front brake lines run on top of lower arms.
Winch cable exit. There is another chain link fairlead mounted on the front bar that the wire will run in.
60 series tank is nice and slimline, and will be farking expensive to fill with petrol I guess
Splashed some paint around under the new body shell
Starting to come together as I imagined it (just as bloody well
)
New seats are mounted on butchered Surf rails. Mr Toyota certainly didn't want us to use his seat rails for any other seats. Once off the Toy seats, I had to slice thme down to a straight line then weld some flat bar on top at a right angle so it could mount to seat base.
This is how the winch sits with the body on. There is a cover that also goes over it and I will attempt to seal it up as good as I can to stop mud and shit giving it arseholes.
Tunnel chopped and new one fabbed. I put 6mm plate through to replace where I cut out the standard seat belt mounts, cert guy reckoned 3mm was heaps, so I doubled it.
Body sitting back on. The rear guards have been done, exhaust exit is done and rear fuel flap is in, but needs a bit more work, although it does work as is. I will use the original fuel flap for welding leads and compressor fittings access.
Post 8
Okay this work thing has been a real PIA (but after going down over $2m in the last 2 years, I will not complain that it is getting busy again
)So any way, here's an update of some progress
Got a radiator shroud made up and fitted, It now has some fans attached as well
Shot of front guard which has been reshaped at the front, The axle is so far forward now that I don't have to even flatten the seam in the wheel arch which you normally have to do just to fit 33"s
Rear guard reshaped with new fuel filler in and exhaust exit flushed off
Painted all the door shuts and inner guards, and interior etc. This is a major job
Transmission oil cooler lines for the auto
Holden air con pump for OBA in. It is a sanden but not an SD unit, so I have fitted an oiler etc and we shall see how it goes I guess
It is getting quite full in here now, I have also put a power steer cooler in the front
Made up a steering column out of an IFS surf, beam axle surf and 70 series cruiser
My new (2nd hand) 120a alternator
Have a guess what has started now!
Relocated main fuse box and new frenched in box for extra fuses and relays
This is what is swallowing heaps of time, making all the clips etc to keep all the wiring and plumbing tidy and out of the way
I have chopped out a fair old chunk from here to allow for the snorkel to fit in between the inner and outer guard
Snorkel on and attached to the inner guard. I didn't want the snorkel attached to the A pillar so I can get the front clip off in one piece, complete with air filter.
And with outer guard on. I reckon it looks way better than having a fark off ugly pipe hanging on the outside
Righto, that's where we are at at the mo (well with pics etc anyways). All updates will be posted here (at the beginning) with a note to get the page at the top of the treads viewed
. 
