Offroad-Express

Today i went and brought a 1985 surf chassis. completely rust free and just been powder coated. also come with a solid front diff, no front driveshaft, but thats fine by me.
all for only $300.

How much effort will it take to put this under the surf??.
I would quite like to keep the power steering. how hard is this going to be?


thanks

shouldn't be to hard matt4u did it to his surf when he had it, just a matter of transfering everything over brake lines etc and dropping the body on it

86-surf wrote:I would quite like to keep the power steering. how hard is this going to be?

Use the IFS power steering box and do a cross over steer mod while you are at it. That C arm will break eventually with your big tyres on it anyway if you dont convert your steering. The south island surf boys have many threads on the cross over mod. Search is your friend.

p.s. May as well fit your rear diff onto the new chassis and do the IFS front brake rotor mod to to widen the track. It will help with tyre rub with your 35's on. Again plenty of threads for that mod.

i have to bran new ifs brake discs for the front to!. should be good:D

The rear diff is going strait to the new chassis any ways, because the chassis only came with a front diff.

but before i do anything i need a few pats..

Very cool Jase

This is the thread you want
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1340&hilit=matt4u

nice 1, good score, hope it all is blue skys for ya, bita fartin round transfering everything but fairly straight forward

ask chopper or matt4u about how hard it was to do a chassis swap. I think you might be better off putting the front diff under it unless you really want that powdercoated chassis (which would be nice though)

I recall Matt saying something to the effect of next time he would keep the IFS chassis and put the beam under it - something to do with steering - but I might be way off 'beam' but Matt will be around here soon to set you straight...

yes i do hope he comes thru this thread soon.

I hit the search button for cross over steering. not much came up?

86-surf wrote:yes i do hope he comes thru this thread soon.

I hit the search button for cross over steering. not much came up?

You can do it the cheap way (as I have done)

but you are better off buying stuff from jafa http://www.snr4x4.co.nz/steering-c-23_28.html as it is a much better system.

first of all, what was on the new chassie, was it the 2.4 diesel? if not you will need to change the mounts so dont swap it.
is your solid one not power steering????

in your situation jase I would probably do a chassie swap. its easy ad wont cost a thing. But If I was to do it again i would probably do a sas with crossover/high steering e.t.c
If you want to do crossover I may have a kit for sale


here is the drop crossmember you will need.



and the crossover kit.









I used a larger prado tierod for a draglink, flipped the joint in the new arm and used a prado pitman arm on the ifs steering box. Also had to make up a solid spacer for between the arms on the knuckle.




for the wide axel on the front you need 60 series front disks or disks off some hilux's, not ifs disks. there is a thread in the tech library on this way, you don't need the spacer then and use the larger ifs calapers.
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3543

the guy i got it off, said it was a 2.4 or 2.8 i can't remember..

Nope not power steering. .

Does the ifs steering box fit strait to the solid chassis?.

How much do you want for the cross over kit?.

And why will i need the drop crossmember?.

I'm going to go down and make a list of things i need..


thanks

jase

ya use the drop crossmember for extra clearence. to mount the isf steering box on the solid chassie ya need plates and stuff tomount it, you can see that in my pics. if your going crossover use your ifs chassie.

i have to check with the guy i have offered the kit to first weuihe he still wants it but the cost.....

say $300

this is a list of bits and peices i need.

2x 2'' maxitrac springs.(not a need just a want) $218 ea
2x bushing sets $45 ea set
4x longer u bolts $14 ea
2x front shackles. $26 ea
2x shackle pins $20 ea
2x new front shocks. $260 a set
1x steering stabilizer/dampener. $85
1x power steering mounting bracket. $78
1x drive shaft
.


Why use ifs chassis if im doing cross over?.

cause with the amount of work you do to do the crossover to the solid chassis plus the chassis swap its self.

thanks matt.

But i would rather just use the chassis, i think it would be easier for me. Ive already done chassis swaps so it's somthing i already know how to do...

MATT4U wrote:ya use the drop crossmember for extra clearence.

i have to check with the guy i have offered the kit to first weuihe he still wants it.....

Where did you get the drop crossmember from?.

and what bit's did you use for the cross over?

cheers again

seriously man you doubling upon work if you do a chassis swap. The drop crossmember I made up. 4wd accessories here in chch can supply them now though.

Just cut the ifs off, weld the drop front crossmember on, weld shackle hangers on (Cut the rear shackle hangers off the back of the solid chassis and weld them on to use for rear shackle hangers for the front springs on your ifs chassis) bolt ot all together and your done.

If your still confused call me

i know what you meen.... but its going to take just as long to cut the ifs off, and at the moment i have no way of cutting it off. because the old man is using the grinder at the moment, I might be able to use it for a few hours a day. but then i wont have a vehicle for a few days or even weeks.

So to me it's easier to just swap the chassis over. get it mobile. and then add bits to it as i go.

cheers

not really man. First of all. Go buy your self a grinder, cutting disks and grinding disks, You can weld the front drop hanger on before you remove the ifs. Cutting the ifs off is easy, throw the axel under and you mobile again. then grind the chassis smooth later.

if u need to get mobile in a hurry then i would do a chassis swap.
get x member and rear shakle mounts ready to go in.
sort out what u wanna do with ya steering and get ya bits ready.
it takes a day to remove the IFS and grind it up all purtty.
weld xmember and shackle mounts in
throw the axle underneath and your rolling.
you can drive around without shocks if you have too.

Jase, I have a drop front cross member for sale. PM me if you want

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =186189160

why not build up all the suspension and steering on the new chassis and mount the falcon springs then do body swap and put your rear diff under it and you are away. does your new chassis have all the break and fuel lines? you will need to sort these too..

Pete

noe it doesnt. i have to convert everything over...

86-surf wrote:noe it doesnt. i have to convert everything over...

so you might aswell do a SAS

Matt4u has been through the chassis swap (twice I think) and after the chassis swap he went and did about the same amount of work involved in the SAS to get to the next stage.

You have the opportunity to learn from what he did and skip over a stage in the development of your 4wd and save money there is a lot of stuff to swap between the chassis and a lot of time involved doing that, I would have thought the SAS would have been quicker to do to the point you are mobile again and tidying up and smoothing everything as matt suggested can be done later.

Cut the IFS off, add the new leaf spring mounts at the front, add the hanger mounts at the back sort out steering and you will be mobile, front driveshaft and cleanup is needed but running and mobile, you may want to sort out shock towers (lift them for more artic) and the engine mounts (a couple of plates) but Matt can fill you in, the one I helped SAS 3 guys and one weekend drove say 8am (all ifs gone in 8 hours and cleaned up) front hanger in place, next day started got the front springs in and axle under (Jaffa crossover) and all done in about 8 more hours, drive out all done and off to the certifier.

We had done the rear first and copied another truck for the setup so just copy stuff over

Here is what we followed we didn't use a TG kit but went through these steps to mount them you don't need all the stuff on here and if there was another grinder or more than 2 ppl working and one supervisor between this link and having an already done by someone else it was a piece of cake to get the holes right, look at the process it is well written up this is for the hard bit the front! The back was just easy moving the front spring mount forward and we made a long hanger for the back talk to matt and get the bits together first.

http://www.trail-gear.com/tech/sas-inst ... tions.html

solid axle trucks have a bigger wheel arch on the chassie in the front than an ifs, so u maybe able to get more flex out of a solid axle. But yeah if you end up putting in a new front spring hanger its pretty much the same work, just dont have to do the front shackles,

Philux

yea but you end up bump stopping it lower than the arch so in the end its 6 one half dozen the other

ok guys, i'm thinking about sas'ing it now.
Only problem is i have no idea how i'm going to mount the shackle side of the front springs... i'm not to keen about drilling holes in my chassis. and will i need to buy a front drop cross member, or can i cut the front off the old chassis of and use that?.

cheers

either make a drop front crossmember or buy one.
for the shackles cut the rear mounts for the rear spring shackle hangers off the doner chassis.