Better late then never Ftoy 2008 rebuild

www.bigcountrycustoms.com has stepped up in a big way and sponsored Ftoy #32 for the 2008 Rock Crawling Season. We will be competing under the Team BCC banner in the We-rock US Western Series and in the Canada Offroad Expo/We-rock events. Thanks to Taran Toybug and I will be in a much better position to compete with the more established teams.

A few pics of the Ftoy prior to tear down.

So after weeks of trying to squeeze myself into my schedule, I booked today off. Woke up and figured I really should go work at a jobsite for a couple hours...bad idea. I worked all day. Finally got home and made room and got the truck into the shop.

The Plans for the 2008 rebuild.

-Shrinking wheelbase down to 106" (currently 112" perfect for trail wheeling IMHO but not so hot for cone dodging)

-Moving the motor back the full 8" and making sure its dropped the max 1" allowed in the Ftoy rules.

-New Warn Lay down winch (no more boat anchor upright)

-Whole new front end, grill, hood and skins for the whole rig.(need to look our best out there )

-Install New Diamond housings front and rear. (Thanks to Brian at Diamond Axles for helping make this possible, It'll be nice to not have to worry about bent axle housings ever again.)

Front is 5" wider than stock, Rear is IFS width, Disk brakes all around using a Sky diskbrake kit from Big Country Customs.

-Rear V6 third ARB, no more welded diff

-New Chromoly Rear Trail-Gear axle Shafts with 1/2" ARP wheels studs

-New Marlin Crawler Clocked Dual Case adapter.

-New and Improved Flatbelly skidplate.

-Trail-Gear's superduper Power steering pump and an upgrade to a 2" bore hydro assist ram.

-Relocating rear springs and making new shackle mounts to shorten the wheelbase 6" and to stop springs from kinking.

-As much as I like my carb I'm going EFI, picked up an 89 EFI setup

-Winches setup Front and rear to suck up the suspension.

-Bobby Longs latest Generation of 30 Spline birfs

And a bunch more stuff

I wanted to make some longer spring perches to help counter axle wrap.

and as an added bonus I got to use my dimple dies. Using a bolt got old fast so I did a 10minute, no cutting of steel, grab it all off the shorts rack and weld it dimple die press. I still need to add a backbone and some more bracing, but it did the job for my perches.

Measured the old diff angles, and tacked up the new perches.

Picked up some of my powder coated parts on Friday. Should look pretty good once its all together. :awesomework:

I like the perches,looks good

I like to see this.:awesomework: And Christ!.....it took you long enough.:fawkdancesmiley:

Now finish it up so I can "spot" you onto your lid again.:eeek: :haha:

Did some clean inside work today, while I was on kid duty. lumbed up my new mini ARB compressor that I got from Big Country Customs.

man great build looks like a great start, what are you using for knuckle studs and how many studs are you running? also what kind of springs are you going to be running? can't wait to watch the build progress:beer: :corn:

anything new with bobby's 30 splines? saw his rig at the swapmeet

Only allowed to run 4 studs in your knuckles in the ftoy class so I'm sticking with stock knuckles. I run the FROR ARP studs, putting in a fresh set for this season and keeping the old ones for spares. I have been running 48" rears upfront and 51" rears flipped backwards in the back both 6 leaf packs. Going to keep running them since they've worked well the last couple years.

Pook said:

Only allowed to run 4 studs in your knuckles in the ftoy class so I'm sticking with stock knuckles. I run the FROR ARP studs, putting in a fresh set for this season and keeping the old ones for spares. I have been running 48" rears upfront and 51" rears flipped backwards in the back both 6 leaf packs. Going to keep running them since they've worked well the last couple years.

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interesting spring set up yea ARP studs are beef:awesomework: are you running drive flanges or hubs? hub studs?

So after the kids went to bed I did some wrenching, no fabbing just parts stripping.

Old front diff is a few ubolts away from being scrap.

Should have the Diamond housing installed for mock up tomorrow.

Got a bit done tonight, broke out the solvent and cleaned up all my front knuckle parts, Installed ARP studs and new stock lower studs in my new knuckles, cleaned up my hubs, spindles etc.

Picked up a new electric fuel pump and filter for the efi, a couple fuel cut off valves.

Started planning out shock mounts for the front diff, I need to make sure I meet the minimum dimple die requirements for the class . its coming along. I'll have some new pics tomorrow.

Got a bit more done tonight.

Lower shock mounts...the mount still needed to be notched to fit over the knuckle gusset.

Got the diff in the truck. I was very happy to see it sitting there :masturbanana[1]:

Shock mounts notched over knuckle gusset and tacked in.

Knuckled bolted up for mock up of the hydro assist, and to get tie rod and drag link measurements.

Looks like I got perch angles right where I wanted them

A bit more work on the front diff and I can tear out the springs and everything for paint. :awesomework:

Sir.....please......listen to reason. Put the dimple dies down. :haha: :fawkdancesmiley:

ToyBug said:

Sir.....please......listen to reason. Put the dimple dies down. :haha: :fawkdancesmiley:

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I can't, I didn't believe them when they told me they were addicting, now I'm hooked. :booo:

Its nice working thinner material where you can.